Psychic Unnatural
by amaven
Summary: The Winchesters meet a headstrong hyperactive psychic who uses her abilities to see the future to her every advantage, including when she hunts witches and wiggles into their lives. Link to sequel in my profile.
1. Blue Moon, May 1997

**Better Review** – Lady is a witch-hunter with moderate psychic abilities. Her only quest in life is to kill of the coven of witches that cursed her when she was a teenager, and get as many good times in as she can before she dies from her curse. This is her story.

_**Author's Note**__ – Skip this if you don't care, but I think there are a few important things you may want to know before we continue. This story will have no Wincest, but it will have gushy moments with Dean. As many as I can respectably put in. While Lady is psychic, she is NOT one of Azazel's psychic children. First few chapters are to introduce Lady to the Winchesters, stick around though and she'll find a couple of witches to introduce you to as well. If you read, even if you aren't into the story, drop a review or send me a message. Let me know what turned you off._

**May 22nd 1997, Las Vegas, Nevada**

John Winchester drove down the Las Vegas strip as his boy Dean looked with wide eyes at the neon boobies that were lit up even during the day and Sam looked down blushing. John snapped his fingers to get Dean's attention, "Hey, check that phone. See if Bobby called."

"It hasn't rang," Dean said, not averting his eyes.

"I don't trust the stupid thing," John muttered at the bulky car phone.

"Sam's the only one who knows how to work it," Dean said, craning his neck to keep the biggest and best sign he had seen so far in view as they drove past it.

At eighteen Dean's hormones were still off the chart and with their close knit family he had little to no embarrassment over looking where he could and when he could. John wasn't sure if he should be worried about Dean's obsession with the opposite sex or Sam's embarrassment over it. Sam was four years younger than Dean, and while too logical to consider girls 'icky' he wasn't really showing the same curiosity that Dean had at his age. When Dean was fourteen it was all John could do to keep the kid away from the Casa Erotica channel at the motels they often stayed at. Dean had settled down after finishing puberty and channeled that excess energy into chasing the real thing. It was surprising how charming his eldest son could be when it came to women at only age eighteen.

John pulled the car into a lot with empty spaces and got his mind on the job. He had worse things to worry about than Dean's hormones spiking with the ads for escorts and nude posters plastered to half of the buildings they walked past or Sam's red face at the same thing. "Watch for pick pockets," John warned as they reached the sidewalk. "And don't pick pocket anyone," he added, giving Dean a sharp gaze. Dean had gotten pretty good at it, but he hadn't taught Dean to do it as a way to get easy cash. It was, unfortunately, a skill that came along with picking locks and generally sneaking around. Necessary for some of the work they did, but he was trying hard to make sure his kids understood right from wrong. When the right time to do that was, and that when they wanted to binge on junk food it was not the right time. Las Vegas, the Sin City, was a tourist hub that had attracted all kinds of cons that were much better than his kids and himself. They were amateurs on a street of pros who suckered Midwest honeymooners out of thousands of dollars every day. They needed to stay sharp, keep their heads down, profiles low, and mind on the hunt. He'd trained his boys well, but he wasn't about to stop drilling the lessons in now.

"Wow," Dean lost his focus and his eyes nearly popped out of his head as a woman wearing very little walked towards and then past them on the sidewalk, giving Dean the slightest glance.

"Hey, pay attention," John nearly growled at him. "What was the address again?" John knew where they were going, what route they needed to take to get there, he just needed to test Dean to ensure he had his focus.

"I think we're here," Dean said, his head following another scantily clad woman that John was pretty sure was a working girl. He thumped Dean on the back of the head and Dean immediately looked at him. There was no guilt in his eyes, but the focus returned, "Sorry."

It was shortly before noon when John and his sons walked into a dumpy hotel with a small casino attached to it. Bobby met them in the lobby and they waited as John paid for a room for the rest of the week.

"I really appreciate you coming down to give me some back-up," Bobby said as they walked up the steep steps to the second floor.

"You are sure it's a black witch?" John asked, he was looking through a folder that Bobby had put together while he had been investigating strange things in the area. "Thunderstorms in May aren't that unheard of."

"I think the thunderstorms were just a fluke. Wait until you see the abandoned mine shaft that exploded," Bobby said. "In a ball of blue fire."

"Doesn't propane make fire burn blue?" Sam asked.

"That's right," Bobby said. "But this was different. It would have taken thousands of gallons of propane to keep the flame blue for as long as it burned. Of course they are saying some sort of natural gas leak, even when there was no source of it for miles all around."

"You are right, all the signs are here. And it's a full moon tonight," John said. "It's witchcraft. Find them yet?"

"Not sure. I've been racing this witch all week. I have a few ideas, I think we'll need to split up if we'll get them all checked out before sundown. Got a map marked out in my car, whenever you are ready."

"I'm ready now," John said. He had managed to sleep a few hours while Dean drove through the night. "You two stay here."

Sam plopped down on the bed farthest from the door, stretching out and yawning before closing his eyes. Dean looked at what the motel offered and some leaflets of local escorts before picking up the phone to order a pizza.

After eating Dean finally got some sleep. He had been awake most of the night driving so his father could sleep and be ready to help Bobby. It was after ten at night when he woke up, one of the neighbors at the hotel were going at it and banging the bed against the shared wall. Sam was awake and had turned the television volume up to block out the sounds while his face went red and he kept a large book on his lap.

Dean had books he should be reading, too. He was supposed to be studying for his GED so he didn't have to worry about the upcoming school year. He was sick of hopping from school to school, staying a few weeks or maybe a few months at a time. But Sam was only fourteen, when their father decided where they would be when fall arrived they'd be continuing that pattern with Sam. Dean almost wished the hunt Bobby and his father had found came a few months later, it may have meant he'd get a chance to join in while Sam was in school. But no, he was on Sam duty.

It wasn't like Sam was really a kid anymore. At fourteen and he was only a few inches shorter than his older brother. They both had been on hunts with their father over the years, even helped their father hunt down a werewolf. Dean thought a werewolf was a hell of a lot more dangerous than some black witch that the older men were handling. A lot of sacrificed animals, a few ominous satanic symbols spray painted on abandoned buildings. To be honest it sounded like a lame cult of stupid teenagers acting out, which was what the local police thought.

But Dean had been taught better than to believe what law enforcement usually determined to be causing strange things. Sure, there were several bogus jobs over the years since he took a more active role in helping his father. Sometimes a flickering light really was just bad wiring. Sometimes an upside down pentagram really was just a dickhead teenager trying to rebel against his parents. Sometimes, sure. But this case was serious. It was hard to tell just how nasty a black witch was until you got your hands on their cookbook of spells, and since witches were just human's tapping into unnatural forces it was damn hard to tell one apart from the rest of the herd. And Las Vegas was a great place for a witch to hide, strange things happened here on a daily basis.

The neighbors made one large racket before falling silent. As much as Dean wanted to pick on his little brother as he walked awkwardly into the bathroom he let it go. He was bummed out about not being able to assist on the hunt, even if he had been too tired to manage it. And bummed out that he was in the city where every possible vice a man could have was available for the right amount of money and he was stuck babysitting his brother in a cruddy hotel.

Sam went back to reading his book as Dean watched the television until they heard the jingle of keys work their way into the lock. Dean grabbed the pistol he had loaded on the nightstand and watched the door as John walked in. Dean checked to make sure the safety was on the pistol as he moved to sit on the edge of the bed he would again have to share with Sam now that their father had returned. A glance at the clock told Dean it was four in the morning, his father had been gone almost a whole day.

John Winchester looked at Dean first. Dean's eyebrows were up and curious, but he wouldn't ask how things went just yet. He'd let his father take a breath and have a drink. Sam barely looked up from the book he was reading. It was a large book, some textbook that hadn't been returned when they fled one of the previous towns they had stopped in for a hunt no doubt. He frowned a bit, all they had was the Impala and they really didn't have room to keep storing all that crap.

John shrugged out of his button down shirt and threw the bloody thing into the garbage before he looked into a pizza box. There was only one slice left, but it didn't look too old. Right then he wasn't hungry, in fact the pizza sauce oozing out of the sides made him feel like he could never eat again. He opened the cooler and grabbed a beer. Dean was good at making sure the cooler stayed stocked with ice when they didn't have a room with a fridge. There were sodas for the kids, but John always had a six-pack waiting for him. Only there was a beer missing. His eyes went to Dean again who was looking at the television intently. John shook his head and cracked open the beer on his way to the bathroom.

Dean wasn't stupid, far from it. There was no way he thought he could get away with stealing a beer. John just wondered if Dean was trying to get away with it, or if he thought he was entitled to it. On one hand John didn't tell him drinking was bad. How could he do that when after every hunt he needed the alcohol to calm him? And there were a few times when Dean had rightfully earned a cold brew.

John finished in the bathroom and said, "Think it's smart to be drinking when you are supposed to be watching your brother?" Dean looked at him with wide hazel, nearly green, eyes. Mary's eyes. That boy looked so much like his dead wife that it could break John's heart at times. This wasn't one of those times but he was too tired to get in a real good shout to attempt to discipline his eldest son. "When I'm not around you don't touch it, got it?"

"Yes, sir," Dean said immediately. Dean seemed to take in his father's mood and decided enough time had passed since he entered. His first question, "You get hurt?"

John shook his head, "No, not me. Bobby and I got the witch, she won't be causing any more problems."

John sat at the small table in the corner with his beer and wrote in his journal, still in the bloodstained clothes. Dean was finally off Sam duty but instead of testing his father to see if he could get the car for a few hours to check out the city he was at the coin-laundry across the street so they could all have some clean clothes. John had just finished his last entry when Dean came back into the motel room weighed down by two bags of fresh-smelling clothes. He let the bags drop between the beds before stretching out beside Sam on the bed they shared, looking as if he had just worked several long hours of manual labor. He put his hands behind his head and stared at the television.

John felt the fatigue begin to settle in hard but before he got some sleep he wanted to get the grime and gore washed off. He grabbed a clean set of clothes and before stepping into the bathroom he said, "Dean, the last one's for you. Good job, son."

Dean looked at his father with surprise, and the moment the bathroom door was closed he grabbed the last beer in the cooler and popped the top off. Dean had been ready to crash himself, even though all he had accomplished since his father had been away was catching up on watching TV and sleeping. Sam was already snoring on his half of the bed. To avoid waking his little brother he sat at the table under the only lamp that was still lit and opened his father's journal. He flipped through the cramped writing, not reading just glancing at pages and letting a sense of pride fill him as he took a longer drink of the beer. The pages started becoming blank and he went backwards to the last entry. There was a roughly drawn symbol at the top left before the chicken-scratch his father wrote with started. Dean knew most of it, the signs Bobby had pieced together and filled them in on earlier. The strange electrical storms, animal sacrifices, occult symbols and an arson where the flames were blue instead of orange. Dean skipped all of that to read how his father had killed the witch.

_We reached the sight, the epicenter of it all. It took me two seconds to realize we weren't prepared for what we were walking into. An important lesson to never underestimate the most disgusting monsters of all, humans. The witch was in the middle of a ceremony, sacrificing a girl. She was screaming and fighting hard, and when she saw Bobby and me she screamed for help twice as hard. I shot the witch, no hesitation. As powerful as they were they really are still human. But whatever the witch was up to didn't end by killing her. There was a shock-wave so rough that it knocked me down and left me deaf and blind for a few moments. For a moment I was afraid she had managed to get enough of the ritual off to unleash whatever it was she was doing, but Bobby is sure it was just a backlash of energy from interrupting her. The little Lady that had been the witch's sacrifice was in bad shape, her wrists were slashed to bleed her dry and she had been right in the middle of that backlash. We got her to the hospital and made sure she was going to be okay. Bobby found the witch's cookbook and is torching it now. He wants to stick around until the kid wakes up, see if she can talk about what happened and make sure she gets back to her parents okay._

Dean finished the last of the beer as his father stepped out of the bathroom. John gave him a once over before getting into his bed. "I want to leave around noon, got a call about something in Delaware while I was out," John said.

Dean closed his father's journal, "Is that girl going to be okay?"

John let out a heavy sigh, "She's going to survive," was all he could say and even that wasn't certain. She had lost a lot of blood and who knows what other damage the witch had done to her. Even if she recovered from her injuries there were going to be scars, mental and physical. "She was a tough little thing, a real fighter. She was so young, Dean," John said roughly. "Fifteen or sixteen, maybe. Just how many other girls did that bitch kill before we got her is what I want to know."

Dean saw the haunted look in his father's eyes that came out after a few beers and a rough hunt. "Good job, Dad," he said, getting into his half of the bed and settling in. Sam's legs were sprawled out under the covers and Dean had to kick them off of his side. He rolled onto his side so his back was to his brother and he was facing the wall, but sleep didn't come quickly.

He imagined what the witch may have looked like. He saw her as an ugly hag, but in reality he knew that evil things came in all shapes, sizes and levels of attractiveness. The woman probably looked average, a real Jane Doe, but in his mind he pretended she was easy to spot as a villain. Curly black hair and wicked dark eyes. Sacrificing children and cutting their wrists. He imagined Sam being sacrificed or even himself, but then he smiled to himself. Nothing like that would ever happen to them. Because they _knew_. Because they protected each other. When the things in the dark lurked in the shadows looking to pick off the weak they were there to stop them. They stalked other people's nightmares.

Dean had a comfortable warm feeling from the beer and bit of haze in his mind as he fell asleep. His dreams came vividly and mixed until he was the one stopping the evil witch with wild black hair. There was a girl about his age with pretty blonde hair and dark blue eyes, screaming for help. Without hesitation he killed the witch to rescue her. "I got you. You are safe," Dean told her in his dream as she held herself tight to him before the dream went from sadistic witches to something out of the Casa Erotica.

As the sun rose and the Winchesters slept in preparation to depart later in the day Bobby Singer was in a Las Vegas hospital room. There was a small teenage girl, her face and lips were deathly pale from blood loss but the machine she was hooked to kept beeping steadily. A dark fuzz of hair was on her head, Bobby wasn't sure if that was the style she liked or if cutting her hair had been part of the witch's ritual. "Sir, are you her father?" a nurse asked.

"No, uh, I'm one of the guys that brought her in. Just wanted to make sure she's okay," Bobby said roughly, giving the nurse a pleading look. "It's okay if I stay 'til she wakes up, right?"

The nurse frowned a bit as she said, "I'm sure she'd want to thank you for saving her from that madwoman, but..."

"I won't cause any problems," Bobby assured her.

"Okay, but just for a while," the nurse said as a beeping from the hall had her turning to leave. "I'll be back to check in."

Bobby watched the girl for a long time until finally her eyelids opened to reveal pale gray-blue irises. She looked around warily, obviously scared and skittish. "Hey, you're safe," Bobby said quietly, wanting to keep her calm and avoid the nurse from interrupting them. "You remember me?"

She took a few breaths and seemed to relax a bit, "Yeah. You were one of the guys that got me out of there."

"Yeah, that's right. My name is Bobby," he said. He had been the one to hold her, keeping her warm while trying to stop the bleeding as John drove like hell to get her to the hospital. He had tried to keep her talking and awake during the ride, had spoken to her in a soft voice to keep her calm as she threatened to die in his arms. "You said your name was Lady in the car, is that right?"

"Yeah, that's what everyone calls me," she said. "What day is it?"

"Friday," Bobby answered. They had spent most of Thursday rushing to find the witch and all of the early morning hours rescuing Lady from the witch.

"No, the date," Lady asked.

"Uh, twenty-third," Bobby answered.

Lady let out a shaky breath and closed her eyes, "Month?"

"May," Bobby said after a few moments.

A small noise squeaked in the back of her throat as tears slid out from the closed lids. "I was there since March." She sucked in a few shaky breaths as Bobby stared at her with wide shocked eyes. "I'm sorry," she said in a thick voice as she struggled to hold back the sobs.

"Jesus Christ," was all Bobby could gasp. Almost two months of being there.

She wiped the tears from her face and looked everywhere but at him, "They said they had to wait for the blue moon."

Bobby looked at her until her eyes finally landed on him, "They? The woman had...friends?"

Lady nodded. "A lot of them."

"Oh, you are awake," The nurse said, walking to Lady's side immediately and putting two fingers on her wrist and taking her pulse. "Sir, I need to ask you to wait outside."

"Uh...one minute," Bobby said, digging through his pocket. "Lady, I'm going to give you my phone number. Whenever you feel up for it I want you to give me a call."

Bobby was drained, physically and emotionally, as he stepped into the hot desert sun. He used the phone in his car to call John's motel room. After a few tries John answered sleepily, "Hello?"

"It's me. We got a problem," Bobby said. "The girl said the witch had friends. We have a whole coven, not just a lone witch but a whole damn coven."

"Here?" John asked, sounding more alert.

"Not sure, I couldn't stay in the hospital," Bobby said. "I'm going to come back and talk to her after she gets some rest. You still planning on checking into that haunting in Delaware?"

"Someone needs to," John said. "It doesn't sound too bad, maybe I can send Dean by himself."

"No," Bobby said quickly. Dean was a sharp kid, but he was just a kid. Maybe he was eighteen, but he was still a kid to Bobby. Dean could probably handle it, but a kid shouldn't have to deal with this sort of stuff. Kids Dean's age should be chasing girls and playing football, kids Sam's age should be playing video games and having their first kiss, and poor girls Lady's age sure as hell should spend months being tortured by a witch. "No, you head on over there. Lady's pretty messed up, I'll try to get some sense out of her and I'll let you know what I find out in a few days. Just try to hurry up in Delaware in case I find something."

"Yeah, I'll get the boys up and we'll leave soon," John said before hanging up.

When Bobby showed up later that afternoon Lady looked ten times better. Color had returned to her face and lips. "Hey," he said, sitting down. He suddenly wondered if he should have brought her something, like flowers or balloons. The room was horribly bare but it was probably better than what she had the past few months. "You look better."

She gave him a half smile, "Just about anything would be an improvement I bet."

Bobby looked anxiously out the door and back at her, "Listen, kid, I'm not really supposed to be here since I'm not your family, but I was hoping you could tell me a bit about what happened."

"You aren't a cop," she said. "They've been in and out of here a dozen times already."

"No, I'm not a cop," he admitted. "But I do help people. And chances are I'll believe everything you can tell me about what happened. Even the craziest parts."

Lady moved uncomfortably on the hospital bed, "The cops say it was some weird cult. Charles Manson stuff. But it wasn't. It...it was real. Real weird."

"Real witchcraft," Bobby added, and her eyes widened. "Yeah, I know. That woman was a witch."

Lady looked at her hands, "Not sure if I should be relieved that someone else said it before I did, or if I should just start screaming like I'm insane now."

"I'd really appreciate it if you didn't scream," Bobby said in a low voice.

Lady swallowed hard and tears threatened her eyes again, "I know a lot of magic tricks. I could pull a card out of someone's ass if you offered me enough money, but these weren't tricks." Lady held her right arm up and pulled at the bandage. Before Bobby could tell her she shouldn't do that she lifted it enough to show him a tattoo he hadn't seen under the blood that morning. "They put this on me. One of the first things they did to me." Just below the ugly red gash that was sewn shut was tattoo of the moon in three visible phases. The waxing and waning half-moons had their backs to the full moon in the center. The witch herself had the same mark. "Uh…at first they were real friendly. Me and a few of my friends used to hang out with them. They showed us things…things I couldn't figure out. And then one night they wouldn't let us leave. Anytime we got too far away from…that place…" Lady looked like she might choke on her own tongue for a moment before she could continue. "Anytime we tried to run, we just couldn't. There were three of us. I think I was the only one who lived after they did this. They did other things...at the same time...and..." Bobby braced himself for the tears to start, for the sobbing and crying that would probably draw a nurse in and force him to leave again. But Lady just took a few breaths and continued. "I counted eleven of them. They were never all together. They fought quite a bit. They kept saying things about territories and boundaries. Um, one they called Ian was from Oregon and he was arguing with a woman who was in Washington. That she was too close to him. The one you killed was Ananda, she said she'd been fighting to keep Las Vegas for years from someone named Gardner, I don't know if I ever saw him. Some of them acted like friends, but I just remember a lot of fighting."

Bobby pulled out a pocket-notebook and began to write what she said down. "You're doing real good, kid. Real good."

Lady gave names that she could remember, only a first or a last, never both. A few other states that she remembered being mentioned, and anything she could think of to say until Bobby had filled half a dozen small sheets of paper. Lady was still shaken up and went back and forth a few times but he had gotten less information from adults who hadn't been through a fraction of the trauma.

"I should go before the nurse catches me," he said. "Are your parents on their way?" Lady, for the first time since he had entered, became speechless. "They have called your parents for you, haven't they?"

"Uh..." Lady looked away and mumbled something he couldn't make out.

"What?" Bobby asked.

"I don't have parents," she mumbled slightly more coherently. "I am my own."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Bobby said, feeling even worse for the girl. "How old are you?"

"Eighteen," she lied. Bobby gave her a daring look and she admitted, "Sixteen."

"You have to have someone. Is there anyone I can call for you? If they can't make it here I'll go get them and bring them to you if I have to," he said. No one should be alone after going through what she had been through. If she was going to make any recovery that could lead her into becoming a fully functional human being again she'd need someone to help her.

She shook her head, "No. No one."

"You still have my phone number?" he asked, and she nodded. "You ever need anything, kid, you call that number and I'll do whatever I can."

"Hey, uh, Bobby?" Lady said as he neared the door. "I spent an hour talking to you and I don't...I don't know why I even told you any of this. Are you just fucking with me or do you really believe this?"

Bobby thought it was a fair question and after everything she seemed strong enough to hear the truth. "Yeah, I believe in it. And I'm not the only one. There are others like me, like my friend John who was there. We know it's real, and we do our damn best to keep it from hurting people. We try to protect them and save them from things like that. It ain't easy, but it has to be done." Lady looked at him, again speechless as she had to process the truth. Bobby heard the soft and fast footsteps that were no doubt the nurse making her runs, "Take care of yourself, kid," he said sincerely before slipping out of the room to avoid the nurse spotting him. He hoped she could take care of herself, since according to her that was all she had.


	2. John Runs, October 2005

**Late October, 2005**

**Louisiana**

Dean Winchester had barely escaped an apartment building. He laughed to himself that it wasn't a ghost or any type of monster he was escaping from, but a nude woman. Her name was Marcie, she was a college drop-out and had been at the bar earlier that evening looking for a good time and together they had enjoyed a good time. Being on the road so often meant that Dean didn't really have a chance at a steady girlfriend and that meant almost all of his sexual encounters were one-night stands or occasionally weekend flings, and he always tried to mention that before hooking up with women in the towns he ended up in. He lied to them about everything else, his job, his name, but he at least told the truth that he wasn't going to be sticking around. Not even for a pretty thing like Marcie.

Marcie had been pretty. Barely twenty-one, big brown eyes and short blonde hair. Her make-up had been a bit heavy and it felt like he still had some of it smeared on his face. She had blushed a lot while he was picking her up, apparently not accustomed to the flirtatious compliments he had given her at the bar. Rather cute, actually.

Dean got into his car, his baby, a '67 Chevy Impala in midnight black, and took a quick look at his face in the rear view mirror. Yup, smeared with lipstick. He wiped it off the best he could as he finished his escape onto the road. Marcie would have let him spend the night, maybe she even expected him to but he didn't ask. There were a few reasons he didn't spend the night. First, he already had a motel paid up for a few more nights, might as well get his money's worth...even if it really wasn't his money but charged to a stolen credit card. Second, he wasn't really tired. He had been up most of the night before which meant he had slept the afternoon away. Third, if he spent the night he'd probably have to wake-up and do the morning-breath kiss and Marcie had been a rather aggressive and sloppy kisser. Not that it was bad, but a tongue up his nose a few times during playtime had been a bit startling.

Once at his motel he took a shower, washing the rest of the transferred make-up off his face and other places he had forgotten had come in contact with her lips before falling into the bed and turning on the television. He'd try to get more sleep before dawn and then get on the road early, head west in preparation to meet up with his father. Unless, of course, another job presented itself along the way. But he was really just looking forward to having a partner again. Being able to run the show, handle the job on his own, was good. He liked the chance to take a day off that usually didn't happen when his father ran the show, and John Winchester always ran the show when they were together. But it was lonely. Marcie had helped quiet that lonely feeling for now, but it wasn't the same.

Family meant everything to Dean. While growing up he never had a home, all he had was his father and brother. His father had raised his sons to be soldiers for a very unusual war. A war against werewolves, demons and spirits. Monsters that most people weren't creative enough to even have nightmares of. And he loved it. But at the same time it was a very lonely existence. There were only a handful of people in the world that knew him. His name, what he did. Only a few people that he didn't have to lie to.

Dean shut off the TV, nothing was on but infomercials and the weather channel. The only thing interesting at that hour was porn and he was taken care of in that department. Years ago, when he was a kid, he had thought of his father as some sort of superhero. Before he knew the life, what it was really like, he imagined his father running into burning buildings and saving damsels in distress like Batman or something. Even as he got older and understood the job more and more it was nothing like a comic book or TV show he still considered his father, even himself, as heroes. Though the damsel in distress was just as likely to be a middle-aged chubby guy as it was a beautiful young woman since monsters typically didn't discriminate, saving people was his job and that was a good thing. And on the rare occasion that he did have a beautiful young woman to save too often they were scared out of their mind and wetting themselves.

Some days he wished he could remember those crazy things he used to imagine when he was younger. Picturing his father, like Superman, untying a woman and carrying her to safety. Imagining himself doing the same thing and being rewarded with a kiss instead of getting thrown up on. The only daydream he could even try to picture was something to do with witches, which was weird because witchcraft wasn't as popular as one would think. Some days he wished he could just be a dumb kid again, although that would be reversing a lot of time because he father hadn't allowed him many chances to be a dumb kid. Being a dumb kid could have gotten him and his brother killed. Maybe it would have been nice, having the Winchester Trio together again minus ten or fifteen, hell even twenty, years. But Dean wouldn't give up his talents or knowledge in return of anything. His more naive youth to repeat, a chance at a normal life, nothing. The job had it's issues, he was a freak, but in the end he did a good job and a job that needed doing. And tomorrow he'd check in with his father, be on the way to reuniting with him and on the search for the next hunt, new lives that needed saving. He'd rather be a freak hunting with his father than playing ignorant college boy like his brother.

And just like that, he thought about his little brother. His father was in California now and even though John was too proud and stubborn to pick up the phone to check in on the youngest of the clan Dean would bet his hard-earned poker winnings for the next year that his father had made a stop to see him. Not talk to him or be seen, of course. Spying would be a good word for it. Dean wouldn't mind seeing his little brother again himself, but there were still a lot of hurt feelings left over since Sam abandoned his family and the family business in preference for college and a 'normal' life.

Dean jerked awake at the beeping of his phone, surprised he had drifted off to a dreamless sleep so easily. He hadn't heard the phone ring but it was alerting him to a new voicemail. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he waited for the automated voice to get to the point so he could hear what he had missed, and he tensed slightly as he listened to his father's garbled voice message.

**Palo Alto, California**

Sam Winchester was working on his computer, a large textbook was beside the keyboard and he glanced at it every so often as he typed rapidly. "Sam? It's after midnight, come to bed," Jess said, giving him small smile.

"I will, I just have a real good flow going right now. I don't want to lose it," Sam gave her an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, it's just…"

"No, I get it," she said, walking into the room and putting her hands on his shoulders, rubbing gently. "You are anxious about your LSATs, aren't you?" Sam didn't have to admit it. "Sucking up in Professor Grimm's class by doing extra credit isn't going to help."

Sam laughed, "Yeah, I know."

"Not like you need the extra credit," she slid her hands across his shoulders and around his chest to hug him from behind. She kissed his cheek, "You better not pull this next week, we're going to that Halloween party."

Sam internally groaned, "Kicking and screaming if I have to, I know."

She gave him a bit of a squeeze before letting go, "Love you."

"Love you, too," he said, giving her a short kiss back. "I'll be there in a few, promise."

Sam shut down the computer and tidied up his desk before checking the doors and windows of his apartment. Even though he hadn't hunted for over two years there were old habits, paranoia drilled into him by his father, that couldn't be laid to rest. But he had a wonderful life. He was doing great in college, he had a girlfriend he loved so much he was nearly ready to propose to her, his future was bright. He had a home, he was working toward a good career, and had a woman he wanted to start a family with. Not even the freaky nightmares he'd been having were enough to squash his happy life.

Jess was stepping out of the bathroom when he reached their bedroom. He wrapped her up in his arms and happily kissed her. His only concerns were getting into law-school, planning the next step of his life. A safe and normal life.

If he had known as he tucked himself and Jess into bed that at that moment his brother, who he hadn't seen in two years, was driving toward California to see him he may have left town. If he had know his father, who he hadn't seen in two years, had just gone missing during a hunt he may have taken more time to think about his past a bit more. But Sam was blissfully happy, and nothing was going to change that. At least for a few week or two.

**On the Road**

John kept his head clear and focused as he drove, the speedometer of his truck always near or over a hundred unless his fuzz buster warned him to slow down. After he had chased the demon from California he had thought he'd been safe to hole up in a remote cabin in Idaho to get some rest, only to be served a beating by a few lesser demons before he had managed to excise them. Now he was on the chase again.

The hunt, the job, _the_ job. The big one. The thing that had killed his wife, was back. And if it hadn't been for the weaker demons it had sent after him he may have caught up to it and finished the whole thing. Unfortunately the chase he was on had him being chased right back, and he couldn't risk getting trapped again. He needed an edge, he needed help, and if he was lucky he knew where he could find some.

Years ago he would have called his good friend Bobby Singer, however they hadn't talked in years. It was a damn shame, too, because Bobby was damn clever. However he already had a plan, and while he didn't like it much he knew it was solid. He had already gotten a message to Dean, and his eldest son was probably on his way to California to look for him. There Dean would find his motel room, information on his previous hunt, and his journal. And from there Dean would continue their work, their job of hunting evil supernatural monsters. John had shut off his cell phones, the demon wouldn't be able to track him that way nor would his son. The most important thing was that no one and nothing could find him. And he had a plan to ensure that was the case.

John was on the way do something rather painful, ask for help from a witch. The witch wasn't evil, wicked enough, but not evil. But the little bitch owed him a few favors and now was the best time to cash them in.

**New Town, North Dakota**

"That was awesome," a man breathed heavily as he adjusted the sheets around his naked body. The woman he had just been with was moving from his reach and leaning over the side of the bed to pick up discarded clothes. "Hey, come here for a bit," he said, moving to wrap an arm around her waist to pull her next to him.

She slid off the bed just as his fingers grazed her bare back and gave him a smile that made her pale eyes almost glitter, "I don't do the cuddle thing." He looked surprised and almost offended. "We had a little fun, blew off some steam, now I have to get back to work."

"Can I get your number? Maybe we can see each other again?"

"I don't date, either," she said. "If I see you again maybe we can have another quick hook up." She looked at the clock and grimaced as she saw how much time had passed and quickly worked to get her pants right-side out. Thankfully he hadn't been very sweaty, not that there was anything wrong with working up a good sweat. She just didn't have time for a shower. "Thanks, buddy."

She was slipping a button-down shirt over a plain white tank top as she walked down the halls and was buttoning it as she ran down the stairs, finishing as she reached the hotel lobby. The hotel was on an Indian reservation and had a large casino connected to it, and she was trying to make a quiet entrance into the bar that was between them.

"Lady," Mason called. She had already stopped and was turning to face him. Mason had rich red skin, long black hair streaked with silver. He was in his early fifties and built like a tank. His height was just under seven feet tall and all three-hundred pounds of him was dense muscle that was just starting to soften with age. "Where have you been?"

She grinned, "Room 304 needs new sheets."

Mason rolled his dark eyes, "Get back to work, it's getting busy."

"You got it, Mace," she said with a quick salute.

She was already fixing the top button of her shirt when he called, "And hide the cleavage, no more breaks tonight or Maxine will have your ass."

Maxine was in her late twenties, dressed in faded blue jeans and a comfortable t-shirt, and hurriedly grabbing beers for the patrons. Maxine was Mason's eldest daughter and while she was definitely feminine she had her father's height advantage. She was over six feet tall with broad shoulders and strong arms and legs. She was physically intimidating and wickedly beautiful. Lady gave her a smile as she began to help serve customers.

"Your break was over half an hour ago," Maxine said, not returning the smile.

Lady couldn't help the grin, and Maxine let out a huff of breath to show her disapproval. "It's not like I get paid hourly," Lady said in her own defense. "The guy was a good tipper."

"I think that makes you a prostitute," Maxine said in a low voice.

"Are you sure?" Lady asked.

"You slept with him because he gave you money, which isn't much different than getting paid to have sex. So yes, you are a whore."

"Huh," Lady knelt below the counter to grab a box of beer and turned to fill the cooler. "What is it called when you steal their wallet after sex?"

"Oh god," Maxine groaned. "That would make you a thief."

"Are you sure? I mean, what if it they were really bad? I mean, I've had a few guys that you can't even call minute-men, just," Lady pointed her finger out and then let it droop.

Maxine put a hand over her eyes, "You are a slut."

Lady grinned widely, "I don't have long to live, got to get my kicks where I can, when I can."

"Can you try to get them when I'm not relying on you to cover a shift?" Maxine asked.

"I'll try," Lady said, reaching to hand Maxine a towel shortly before one of the patrons knocked over a full glass onto the counter. The sleeve of her blouse came up enough to reveal a tattoo on the inside of her right wrist and a faded scar above it. She worked happily behind the bar, chatting to the customers as she served drinks and took money. It wasn't hard for Lady to be in a good mood, she even danced a bit as the jukebox played Aerosmith's 'Devil's Got a New Disguise'.

Lady was keeping an eye out the window after last call, her eyes looking at the crowd that was riled up from a night of good fun. Some of them would settle down at the casino, others would go to their rooms if they were from out of town and many others would get into their cars and go home.

"You going to be around to help for Halloween?" Maxine asked as she moved chairs on top of tables.

"Hell if I know," Lady asked, looking at her beer and taking another sip.

"C'mon, if you are we can coordinate. I'll be Dorothy, you can be the Wicked Witch, and Freddie can be Toto," Maxine joked, and Lady smiled.

"Fuck that, I want to be Toto," Lady grinned.

"Well, you can be a bitch," Maxine laughed.

Lady finished her beer and grabbed the trash to take out back. "You good?"

"Yeah," Maxine said in a tired voice. "Thanks for helping out."

Lady took the cash Maxine offered her, her share of tips for the night, and left with a short wave. Lady didn't have the right identification to get legal employment, however she had managed to become close friends with Mason's family and was able to earn money in a somewhat honest way. She went out the back door and heaved the heavy trash into the dumpster. Next to the dumpster a large black dog was wagging his tail and panting. "Hey, Freddie," she said, rubbing his head and unhooking the chain from his collar. "Sorry about this, but you know you can't keep going after Laurie Johnson's golden retriever. I'm not offended that you prefer blondes, I just think you need to find a dog closer to your size." Freddie was about two-hundred pounds of loveable muscle and fur, a real gentle giant. "C'mon, let's go home."

Without the aid of a leash Freddie walked slowly by her side toward her car. Lady was looking at the pick-up truck parked next to her Volkswagen Beetle. The '77 Volkswagen Beetle was originally on loan from Bobby Singer. It had been drivable but dying when he had handed her the keys about three years ago, and it was still chugging along. Refusing to rollover and die, just like her. Between Bobby and Mason's son the car had received several repairs and tweaks until it not only ran but it ran real damn well. Although it needed more frequent maintenance than a newer car it was holding together. And to top it off Lady had paid for a new paint-job to make it shiny red with black dots. A lot of time, effort, and parts had been donated so the car could stay on the road and she could stay mobile. When she no longer had a use for the car Bobby could probably sell it, but she wasn't sure if it would even give him a profit after all the costs of fixing it up over the past few years.

Before she got halfway across the lot she stopped, noticing a man was sitting in the parked truck and he was getting out. She grabbed Freddie's collar as a precaution to keep the dog from darting forward.

Lady held onto the collar more tightly as she recognized the man taking limping steps towards her. Late forties to early fifties, in good physical shape but looking rather scuffed and worn out. Dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, a beard growing in with streaks of silver. "John Winchester. I don't even know where to begin. Happy to see you alive. Worried to see you here. Angry to see you at all. Not sure if I should hug you or kick you in the nuts."

John looked at her with a frown, "Yeah, I suppose I'd deserve that."

"How'd you find me?" she asked.

He shrugged, "This is where you were last time I saw you. Figured the sweet get-up you have here you couldn't be far. At least not for long."

She nodded, "Yeah, you got lucky. I'm not here living the dream as often as you might think. Why are you here?"

"I need your help, Lady," John said, and it looked like he was in physical pain from saying it.

Lady studied him more closely, blood on the sleeve of his jacket, slight swelling to his jaw and he seemed to be keeping his weight off of his right leg. "You need a place to stay?"

John thought about the offer for a moment and nodded, "Among other things."

"No problem. C'mon," she said, nodding back to the door she had just come out of. Lady helped herself to the computer in the lobby, finding an unoccupied room and checking it out for a week.

"Are we going to have trouble?" Mason asked her quietly as he looked over her shoulder and at John who was standing in the lobby next to Freddie.

"Of course not," Lady said brightly.

"None at all, Mason," John promised.

"Lady, that man is dangerous," Mason said, leaning down to whisper it in her ear.

"That man saved my life," Lady countered, offering Mason money for the room. He frowned, and gave the slightest shake of his head. Lady waited to look relieved until her back was to him and she was leading John down the hall. Like John said, she had a good thing going there. She didn't want to mess it up, and John was one of the few people she'd risk doing that for.

John wasn't the buddy type, he didn't call to chat. He was friendly enough, but far too serious about whatever job he was on. John Winchester hunted supernatural monsters, it was how they had met. He had killed the witch that was trying to sacrifice her. She knew John well enough to trust him, he had saved her life. But she had also heard enough stories of his recklessness from a mutual friend to wonder what lengths he would go through to get the job done. That didn't bother her, though, in fact she admired it. Someone who unselfishly risked their life to save others, saved her, he was a hero in her mind. Not a squeaky clean hero, of course.

Their mutual friend, Bobby Singer, had been best friends with John when they had rescued her. But a few years later they stopped talking. Bobby had been very bitter at first, warning Lady to steer clear of him. But there just weren't many people she trusted and she hadn't listened to Bobby's warning. But eventually she had lost touch with John. She no longer needed to call him for assistance, and he hadn't called her.

Lady knew the things that were out there, she had spent a good amount of time reading about them after she had been rescued her from a witch and on some topics knew more about witchcraft than John and Bobby put together. She had firsthand experience with witchcraft, though that was nothing compared to what she knew after over eight of studying and hunting it. It was a surprisingly easy transition to go from a near-victim to a predator of witches, the hardest part was convincing Bobby to help her get started in the right direction. Lady didn't consider it a calling or an act of vengeance for what had happened to her. Becoming a witch-hunter was more about survival than anything else. At least it was in her mind.

Getting started wasn't difficult, either. She had some skills from the get-go, being on her own in Las Vegas she had learned several tricks just to get by. But her stint as a black witch's plaything had left her with more than a few scars on her forearms and an arcane symbol tattooed on the inside of her right wrist. Whatever magical ritual the witch was trying to perform with Lady had backfired into Lady when John killed the witch. There wasn't enough left of the altar or ritual site to discover exactly what the witch had been trying to accomplish and since Bobby had torched the witch's book of spells shortly after there was nothing to read, but whatever they had started had warped Lady's mind. Since then she could see glimpses of the future, usually no more than a few seconds ahead, and occasionally strong visions. On her good days Lady played blackjack and slot machines at casinos or bars for cash. That wasn't even the strangest thing. The Latin language had been burned into her brain. She could read, write and speak Latin just as good, sometimes even better than, English. Before then she knew English and really bad English, but since then she was a walking translator for a number of books for both John and Bobby.

Whatever it was that John needed help with, if it was just a place to lay low for a while or something her particular talents or knowledge could assist with, she wouldn't say no. She owed him her life a few times over and if he ever asked her to she would give her own for his. It wasn't like she had much to live for.

Lady was cursed. Some time during her imprisonment in Vegas the witch had put a curse on her. The curse was slow and while she felt healthy and vibrant it was killing her. For nearly ten years she had seen a dozen people from psychics to cunning-folk to houdoo priests to find some sort of cure but the only thing they had managed to do was to suppress it temporarily and extend her time. But the time was growing very short. A source she considered reliable told her she had a few years if she was lucky.

John didn't say thanks as they stepped into the hotel room. One bed, a TV and an ice bucket. Lady grabbed the ice bucket and held onto the key, "Anything else you need right away?"

"No," John said, moving to take off his jacket.

"Freddie, stay here," she ordered, and left the room. Ten minutes later she returned with a bucket full of ice, a bottle of whiskey, a first-aid kit and a meal from the Casino's restaurant. John had already put salt around the door and on the windowsill.

"Lady…"

"You are welcome," she said shortly.

John was tending to an ugly wound on his forearm, it looked like all he had managed to do before he got to her was wrap it in a dirty towel. "That dog got pretty big," he muttered without looking at her.

"Yeah, I suppose he was still a puppy when you saw him last," Lady said.

"You mean when you nearly got yourself killed trying to save him?" John countered.

"Yeah, that's what I mean," Lady said.

John smiled a bit, "I checked him, he really is just a dog. You know I thought for sure when you grabbed him you wanted him as a familiar of your own. I'm glad I was wrong."

Lady let herself smile, "I didn't need a familiar. I just…I didn't even want a dog, to be honest. I just wanted to screw that witch out of a sacrifice."

John's lip twitched until he let out a laugh, "Guess you got a bit more than you bargained for then."

"Yeah, but it's worked out," Lady said, scratching Freddie's head. "So, you going to hold me in suspense all night or you going to get down to business?"

"I suppose we can get down to it," John said quietly. "I'm in some pretty big trouble, Lady. Believe me, this is the last place I wanted to end up asking for help, but I need you to perform a ritual for me." Lady watched him with wide eyes. John had a healthy respect for witchcraft. He knew enough about it to know how beneficial it could be, there were just as many rituals to protect as there were to curse. Her use of witchcraft, blending white and black to make gray, had made him look at her with suspicion in his eyes. If he wanted her to perform a ritual he was pretty desperate. "I found this ritual, but it requires something pretty rare. I don't know where else to get it. Cursed blood."

"Oh," she said. It hadn't been anything she expected John would ever need, let alone ask her. She smiled sadly, she had just been thinking how she would give her life for his if he needed it. "How much?"

"Not much, really. Half a pint?" John sounded unsure. "I hate to..."

"Relax, John, not the first time my veins have been opened up," she said. "I need to know what it is for, though."

"I can't..."

"You plan on using my blood to bind some sort of magic, I'm not letting that happen unless I know what it does and what it is for," she said firmly and added, "I'm not _that_ stupid."

"Protection," he said. "I'll let you look over everything."

She nodded, damn straight he would. Lady may be a few cackles short of being a witch but she wasn't going to find herself strapped to a pyre without knowing how she got there. If people wanted to get technical, and so many of the bastards did these days, then she already had stepped into the definition of a witch. However gray the things she did with magic may be, she never crossed the line. Her reasoning was simple, she had to know what the enemy could do and how to counter it. She never used witchcraft to harm people, not even black witches, and used it very sparingly.

"Okay, let me see it," Lady said, turning a lamp above the small table against the wall and sitting down. The book John offered her was much smaller than she anticipated, but she was used to the thousand-page fifty-pound books that Bobby often set in front of her. She opened it to the marked page, relieved it was written in Latin. "Your Latin must have gotten better," she muttered.

"I know enough, got another text to help me figure out the rest," he answered. "Listen, I..."

"Hiding from higher powers?" Lady looked up at him with wide eyes.

John clenched his jaw, "I need a way to stay off of a powerful demon's radar. This might do the trick. It's..."

"It isn't as repulsive as I thought it would be, considering it needs cursed blood," Lady said. "I don't really like doing it on a new moon, but I don't see any problems with it."

"What's wrong with the new moon?"

Lady shook her head. John wasn't stupid, if the ritual hadn't needed cursed blood he would have done it himself. It was easy to follow instructions, and he was careful enough that he could have pulled it off. However there was a difference to following a recipe for a spell and understanding how the components mixed together to work. "New moons are usually used as offerings. Using a spell that needs a specific phase of the moon can be dangerous but nothing for us to worry about."

"You sure?"

Lady cracked a smile, "You forget who you are talking to?"

John rolled his eyes, "Guess I did."

"New Moon is four days from now, plenty of time to get this set up," Lady said confidently.

"But it does mean four days that I can't guarantee this thing or its minions won't track me here," John said. He had covered his tracks well, not even his son Dean would be able to find him here, however demons had other methods of tracking.

"You'll be safe here," she said. "I don't keep coming back here for the scenery, this place is protected." John looked skeptical but that was all she could offer him. "How bad is this thing you're hunting?"

He met her eyes and she was ready for him to lie to her. But for some reason when he spoke she knew it was the truth, "It's the same thing that killed my wife." That explained his desperation. Lady knew that over twenty years ago John's wife had been murdered by a monster, this demon, and John had devoted his life to hunting evil monsters and in a constant search for vengeance since then.

The next few days wouldn't be in her favorite memories, but John didn't make it completely miserable. During the day she worked around the casino, helping out where she was needed. In the evening she sat in John's room to talk about the ritual or just catch up. She understood John's quest for vengeance, she had felt like that at one time herself, but her goals had changed to finding a way to survive to just living what little life she had left. Maybe she wasn't living rich and large, but she enjoyed her life. She'd never suggest giving that a try to John, he'd been holding a grudge against this demon almost as long as she had been alive.

"You been branching out at all? Or you still exclusive witch-hunter?" John asked. He was looking rested but anxious, she was willing to bet every dollar she had earned the past few days that he was itching to get the hell out of that hotel room and back to his hunt.

"Just the witchcraft," Lady said. "Occasionally I run into something else, whenever that happens I need to call Bobby."

"Yeah? When's the last time you saw him?" John asked, looking interested for the first time since he had showed up.

"A few weeks ago," she said. "He's doing good."

John seemed to appreciate that bit of information but quickly changed the topic. "That, uh, charm bracelet, I'm surprised you still have it."

Lady glanced at the silver charm bracelet on her left wrist, "You think I'd lose it?" John shrugged. "Maybe it isn't enchanted but the symbols themselves offer a bit of protection. I take what I can get. You want it back?"

"No," John muttered. "It's yours now. Guess I'm glad you didn't melt it down after I pissed you off."

Lady smirked, "Give me some credit."

"You changed your cell phone number," John said.

"I didn't try to shoot you when I saw you," she offered.

"Was it a good thing you weren't armed?" John asked.

Lady grinned, "C'mon, you were already injured. Just no sport in shooting a slow old man."

John managed a real laugh, and Lady grinned wider. John wouldn't put Lady on his list of confidants, but she was a good kid. He imagined if she hadn't been put through hell when she was a teenager she could have made a name for herself in Las Vegas. Maybe no more than a popular showgirl, but something. It was a shame that her life was her existing with a curse and forced to hunt the coven that had may hold the answer to saving her life, but no matter what, even when she was really struggling in the beginning, she could find a way to smile and even laugh. John didn't know her well enough to know if the grin was perfectly faked, or if she really was crazy enough to like her life through all the horrible things she'd been through. But there he was, laughing with the young woman.

In a remote area in the country Lady worked as John held a flashlight so she could see. "John, this cloaking spell works by binding an essence of you to this location," she said. "If a demon tries to find you through scrying, crystal ball or whatever, instead of finding where you really are they will be located here. This will last a good while, but not forever."

"Just how long do you think it'll last?"

"Depends," Lady said. "This location is pretty powerful, it might last six months. But I can only promise three months."

John nodded, "That might give me enough time."

Lady completed the ritual, and John spent the rest of the morning at the hotel getting some sleep before preparing to get back to tracking his demon.

"You need anything before you go?" she asked as he packed.

"No. I, uh…I owe you for this," he said seriously.

Lady shrugged it off, "Don't worry about it. Listen, if you need anything I have contacts here." John gave her a strange look. "What?"

"Just that you have contacts," he shook his head. "You still tap into some of my old contacts?"

"Don't need to, I have my own," Lady smiled. "I wrote down my cell phone number. Call me if you need more time, just remember we need a new moon."

He nodded, "I will." He shouldered his bag and looked at her seriously, "Actually, Lady, maybe you could do one more favor for me. Since you are in touch with Bobby, maybe keep me updated on some things going around. Just, uh…"

"Don't tell Bobby I'm talking to you? John, there are a lot of things I'll do but I won't lie to Bobby."

"Can't you do that thing where you just don't offer the information?"

"Maybe," she said. "If I hear anything I'll pass it along."

John handed her a piece of paper with a phone number on it, "Take care of yourself, Lady."

"You too, John."

Lady spent another week in North Dakota before driving south to see Bobby Singer before looking into a possible lead in Arizona. She did this, or some version of this, often. Occasionally something somewhere would catch her interest, but far too often it wasn't what she was looking for. Very often it was something not even supernatural, and often enough it was something she called Bobby for assistance on. Depending on what it was maybe she would take care of it herself, or if he could he'd come down and help her with it. Sometimes he just told her to get out of there and someone else, another hunter he knew, would be there to handle the job.

Over the next several months she was busy chasing false leads, checking old ritual spots of the coven she hunted to see if a new witch moved in to use it, and passing information from Bobby to John. Lady had studied demonology, briefly, but wasn't well versed in them. Most of the information she told John didn't seem to be of interest to him, but once every few weeks she made the call to let him know what was being said. John was saying he was making progress, but she could tell he was getting frustrated at the slow progress. He had held off on asking her to perform the ritual again, but in late March he asked if she could meet him so they could once again use the cloaking spell.

Lady removed her charm bracelet and hooked it on the metal link on Freddie's collar, "I'll be back in a few weeks, buddy. Be good for Mason, okay?" She wrapped her arms around him and scratched deep into his fur. Often when she traveled Freddie was with her, however she wasn't about to take her dog along when a demon may be waiting in the shadows. Freddie whimpered, he seemed to understand that his friend was leaving. He licked at her face as she pulled away from the hug and she pulled his head back to make it stop. "I'll miss you," she said, kissing his furry head.


	3. New Moon Ritual, Home, March 2006

**March 26****th**** 2006, Iowa**

Lady pulled into the motel parking lot, there were a few days until the new moon but neither of them had wanted to risk being rushed and unprepared for when it came and be forced to wait another month for a chance.

Lady settled into the motel room, salt on the windows and around the door. She didn't plan on leaving the safety of the motel, not if John was right and there were demons out there looking for him. From what she knew of demons guilt by association was more than enough reason for them to cause some mayhem that included disemboweling. Lady had long ago overcome her fear of a young death, but that didn't mean she was eager to get down to it, either.

"So where are your kids? School?" She asked, unable to sleep or concentrate with John meticulously checking and rechecking his armory of weapons.

John cracked a smile and chuckled, "Uh, no, uh, no they aren't in school. Dean hunts, he's pretty good on his own. Sam actually went to Stanford, but uh...well, he's not there anymore."

"Stanford? That's like a smart school, right?" Lady asked.

"It is," John said, loading a clip for his pistol with bullets. "Sam's always been smart as hell. Dean is sharp, but he was never book smart like Sam is. Dean is just too much like me, I guess."

"You said he isn't in Stanford now?" Lady asked, seeing that John enjoyed talking about his kids. She didn't care about Sam or Dean, had never even met them and hadn't remembered their names until John said them. But if it kept John from being moody for the next hour or so she'd put up with listening to him talk about his sons.

John lost his smile as he sighed, "His girlfriend was murdered by the demon, while I was in North Dakota with you, actually. He's with Dean now, hunting and looking for me." Lady felt the conversation grow tense and she decided to go quiet. "I'm doing everything I can to keep this thing away from them right now. I haven't talked to them in months."

John was quiet for the next hour and then picked up one of the phones. He turned it on and dialed a number. Lady turned to him with wide eyes before he spoke.

John Winchester closed his cell phone and stood up to say, "I have to go to Kansas."

"Okay, Dorothy, why do you want to go to Kansas and is Toto coming along?" John didn't show the faintest sign of amusement. Her eyebrows dropped and she frowned a bit. "What is it?"

John let out a slow breath and ran a hand over his graying beard. "I got a message from my son Dean. He's there right now."

She watched him for any sign that he was going to continue, but all he did was start moving to pack his things. "John, we have a ritual to perform in a few nights to keep this demon off your trail, the same demon you are trying to keep away from your sons while you figure out a way to get rid of it. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't running to them before we do this ritual and know the demon can't find you, and in turn them, borderline retarded? It's definitely counterproductive."

John paused in his packing and looked at her with wide brown eyes, "He said there is something in our old house. Where it all started. What if...what if it's there?"

She looked at him sadly, "Can I help in any way?"

John shook his head and resumed throwing his things in his bag. "No. You can't get involved. I, uh...thanks for your help. And, uh..."

"John, you saved my ass. A few times," she said flatly, handing him a canister of salt. When he grabbed it she held on tight until he looked at her. "Do you want me to come with? We can reach Lawrence before the new moon and still perform the ritual."

John stared into her pale eyes, his mind working faster now that the initial shock of the message had worn off. "Lady, when is the last time you spoke with Missouri Mosley?"

Lady had to think about that, it was quicker to recall the first time she had met Missouri. That had been the summer of 1997 when Lady started noticing problems with the visions. They came in short bursts, for several days she thought she was hallucinating. Eventually she caught on that she was seeing and hearing things happen before they actually happened, and after a few weeks she was freaked out enough that she called Bobby Singer. Bobby arranged for John, who had been working a hunt in California, to drive down and see her. That had been the first time she ever got to talk to John and while she liked him she had felt intimidated by him that day. He gave her a dozen possible explanations on why she might be seeing things, and finally decided to take her to Kansas to see a psychic he knew and trusted. Missouri Mosley.

The drive to Lawrence, Kansas had given her a chance to learn a bit about him and more about what she had been put through. He hid a lot of information from her at that time, she was still very much an ignorant teenager then and he didn't have any patience for her then, not that he ever showed much patience after that either. Sure, he felt sorry for what she had been put through and what she was going through then, but she was keeping him from his work. He dropped her off at Missouri's, and left her there.

Missouri took Lady in. At first it was only going to be a few nights stay so she could get some rest before taking the bus to wherever she wanted to go, but the few nights turned into a week as Missouri worked with Lady to try and understand her future sight, and a week turned into about three months. It may have lasted longer if Lady hadn't gotten sick, the first time the curse began to take affect.

Over the years Lady communicated with Missouri. The visions never faded, in fact they became more constant and clearer. She liked the older woman, but didn't like the intrusive feeling she had during their face-to-face conversations. It had been about a year since she had last spoken to the psychic, and it had been something she still had some bitter feelings about.

John admitted that the last time he had spoken to the psychic had been just as long. There were two things he had to make sure happened, though. First, find what was in his old house. Second, keep his sons from finding out what he was doing. He had confidence that his sons would eventually find their way to Missouri, and while Missouri could help them identify what was happening in the old home she also had plenty of information on what John was hunting. He didn't want them hunting it, with or without him. He was desperate to finish what he had started years ago and he was doing everything he could to keep his sons out of the line of fire.

He managed to get in contact with Missouri and asked her to do what she could to help his sons while keeping her mouth shut. But John didn't trust Missouri to not tell his sons more than he wanted them to know, and he wasn't sure how much she really knew herself. And he asked Lady to go there and keep an eye on things. See what Missouri said, if she gave any information that might be useful to him, and be there to tell him what they found in his old house.

The next morning Lady was parking her car in front of Missouri Mosely's house. Before she could get out of her car a large black Chevy Impala parked on the other side of the street. Even if John hadn't told her about the car, in fact telling her his son Dean drove a '67 Chevy Impala meant nothing to her, she would have recognized it. The same car John had years ago, she remembered it.

Two men got out of the car, looking with amusement at her car and then to Missouri's house as they walked across the street.

"Good morning," Lady said with a smile. The one that had been driving was tall, around six feet, with light brown hair cut short and spiked. He wore a leather jacket that was unzipped over a plain dark t-shirt that hugged his fit torso and comfortably worn-out jeans. He must have gotten his good looks from his mother because he didn't look that much like John. She was sure John had probably been a good looking man in his time, but that time was well before her time.

The other one was taller, definitely John's kid. His dark brown hair was shaggy, his brown eyes alert but had a kindness that she didn't associate with John. He smiled politely at her and returned her greeting, "Good morning."

Lady skipped behind them as they led the way to Missouri's house and the shorter of them stopped and turned. "Can we help you, lady?"

She grinned widely, being closer she could see his hazel eyes look over her more closely. "In ways I haven't even decided on, you have no idea," she said.

"Uh…" he looked surprised but not uninterested as a smile crossed his lips. His brother frowned at him disapprovingly. "Wow, where were you last night?" he let out a short laugh.

"On my way here to meet you," she said, extending her hand. "Nice to meet you. It's Dean, right? And that has to be Sam."

The two of them both looked surprised now, and Dean reached out to shake her hand. "Missouri?"

"For you, I would be," she said with a wink before shaking Sam's hand. "But no, I'm not."

"Who are you?" Sam asked.

"My name is Lady," she said. "I'm a friend of Missouri's, sort of. Well, I guess we'll see. Anyways, I come in peace and all that and it's like forty degrees outside so why don't we hop in and check on the old woman, shall we?"

The three of them didn't make it to the steps to Missouri's front door before it opened. Missouri was about Lady's height, around five and a half feet tall, but was round. Her dark skin was smooth and her hair was in tight curls pulled to the back of her head. A deep frown was settled on her face as she looked at Lady. "Good morning, boys, come on in. You, get the hell out of here."

"Would it help if I said I was sorry?" Lady asked hopefully. She really didn't think she had anything to apologize for, but people liked to hear it.

"No," Missouri said.

"Fine, I'll…whatever," Lady muttered.

"Uh, Ms. Mosely?" Sam asked hopefully.

"Yes, that's me," she answered. "Please, boys, come inside. Just make sure the trash doesn't follow you in."

Lady smiled and shrugged as the Winchesters looked at her curiously, and they went inside. Lady heard the lock snap on the front door, and she moved around to the side of the house.

Inside the house Missouri greeted the two men with a smile. "I'm glad you came to see me, if you hadn't I would have gone to find you soon."

"You know what's going on at our old house?" Dean asked.

"I'm not sure, yet," Missouri said. "I don't know the details, I'm hoping I can help, though."

"Uh, not to pry, but what was that outside?" Sam asked, his mind still confused with the young woman in the strange car who had known their names.

"That's nothing you need to concern yourselves about," Missouri said. "Please, come in and sit down." Missouri led them down the hall and slid the accordion style door to what she used as her office. The window was open and Lady was sitting comfortably in a chair with her legs crossed. "This is breaking and entering."

"You locked me out of the door," Lady said.

"That's what you do to thieves!" Missouri hissed.

"Going to call the cops on me again?" Lady raised her eyebrows. "Yeah, didn't think so. For a psychic, you really suck."

"I'm working," Missouri said. "These boys need help, I don't have time for whatever trouble you are in right now, Lady."

Lady grinned, her pale eyes lighting up, "You getting rusty, Missy? Can't you tell why I am here?" Missouri glared at her. "I got a message last night to meet Dean and Sam."

The two men exchanged a confused look. "Uh, no, you didn't. I don't even know who you are," Dean said.

"Not from you," Lady said, looking into Missouri's eyes as she thought about what John had told her. Missouri could actually hear thoughts of people, and right now the understanding crossed her face as Lady thought about John, how he looked and sounded, the importance he felt that his sons know as little as possible. That she was his little spy to make sure Missouri didn't betray his trust in her.

Missouri let out a breath, "Fine. Please, everyone have a seat. Get the hell out of my chair, Lady."

Lady let Missouri smack the back of her head as she moved to a wooden chair, "You know I love it rough," she winked at the older woman, but so far Missouri was still fairly pissed off at her. She turned to the Winchesters, focusing on Sam as he sat on the low couch. "Wow, check you out, Sam. You are like a jumbo-sized cutified John," she said.

"So you know our father?" Sam asked eagerly.

"Of course, he asked me to meet you guys here," she said.

Dean leaned forward, "You talked to him?"

"Well, not exactly," Lady lied smoothly as she pulled out her cell phone. "I got a message from him last night." It took a moment for her phone to connect to her voice mail and to play the message John had left there to prove she was sent by him.

There was a beep from the phone as it was turned to speaker and after an automated voice a man they instantly recognized as their father began to speak. "Lady, it's me. Listen, uh, I need to call in that favor. I need you to go to Lawrence and find my son Dean. Go to Missouri's, he'll probably find his way to her just like I did. If not make sure he does. I can't leave where I am, even if I could I'm too far out."

Dean and Sam both glared at the phone as Lady disconnected the call. "Why the hell did he call you?" Dean asked.

Lady shrugged, "Ask him, but he's a bitch to get a hold of these days."

"What do you know?" Sam asked urgently.

"That much," Lady said. "You tell me what's going on and we'll go from there."

Lady listened as Sam and Dean told Missouri about their old house, they wanted to hear from her what she knew of the night their mother died in the house. Lady kept her eyes on Missouri when she told the brothers that the thing that killed their mother hadn't returned, if it had she would have felt it. But she told them pure evil had visited their house the night their mother died. She decided that it was best if they visited the house so she could try and sense what was there.

"Think about it all you want, this isn't your type of thing, Lady," Missouri said. "In my opinion you are absolutely useless here."

"I'm useless a lot of places, but I'm always fun to have around." She briefly met Dean's eyes and smirked. "Sort of like a slinky. Really useless, but I'll topple down the stairs if it makes you laugh." Missouri managed her first smile since Lady had appeared on her doorstep.

"How do you even know our father? I mean, you don't seem like the type," Sam said, taking in her designer jeans, high heels and pretty face.

Lady shrugged, "Just do, I guess." Lady turned to glare at Missouri, "Don't be a bitch."

"Lady is a psychic," Missouri answered, appearing happy to share Lady's secret. "However she is very limited."

Lady tried to soften her glare but found it difficult. It wasn't common knowledge that she was a freak. "You say potato, I say go to hell," Lady said stiffly.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"I get glimpses of the future," Lady said, it was too late to deny it now.

"They aren't perfect," Missouri muttered.

"Better than that 'Ooo I sense some vague presence that may just be indigestion'," Lady replied with her nose in the air.

Missouri threw her a harsh look, "You are pretty good at pushing your luck right to the edge."

Lady grinned back at her, "I can't help that people keep extending that edge. Come on, Missouri, if you really hated me you have enough poison in your kitchen to get rid of me."

Missouri looked at her sadly, "Never hated you, darling, just worry about you."

Lady rolled her pale eyes, "And that's why you sent the cops after me?"

"You stole my neighbor's car and it was found in New Mexico totaled," Missouri hissed.

"I needed a car, I was broke, it was there with the keys in it. Hello, it was practically an invitation," Lady said. "I checked the insurance card, he was good. Better than you."

Missouri rubbed her forehead, "I can't believe you."

Lady grinned happily, "I am unbelievable and unforgettable, what can I say?"

"You know, it'd be nice if you'd tell us why you are here," Dean inserted himself into the conversation. It was clear Missouri and Lady had a lot to deal with from the last time they saw each other but while they were at it they had a job that needed to be finished.

Lady shrugged, "John wanted me to be here. I wasn't doing anything, I wasn't that far away. Only thing I'm missing is a party or two, maybe the chance to do a body-shot off of a good looking man, however," her eyes shifted to Dean and she grinned, "maybe I won't miss that."

Dean looked surprised at first but quickly chuckled and looked away to regain his composure. A dark look from Sam did the trick.

"I think what my brother meant is if Missouri thinks you are useless, why are you here?" Sam asked.

"I don't fucking know, man. Maybe I can't sense things like Missy, but when things get dirty I'm useful," Lady smirked.

"Whatever it is that we're dealing with it isn't anything you have experience handling," Missouri said, frowning at her.

"You never know," Lady said. She frowned at Missouri. "You mind not answering their thoughts? It's weird."

"I'll say," Dean muttered.

"Lady, can I ask what you have experience handling?" Sam asked.

"Of course you can," Lady said, smiling at him. "But it's really none of your business, so we'll just leave it at that." Lady stood up from her chair, "From what you guys have said it sounds like a spirit is holed up in the house. I may not be a ghostbuster but I'm not afraid of a Casper."

Lady followed the brothers and Missouri outside, fishing her keys out of her jacket pocket. "What the hell is that you are driving?" Missouri asked as they neared her car.

Lady grinned, "This is the Ladybug," she said. "Yeah, awesome, right?"

"Are you serious?" Dean asked, looking at the Beetle with scrutiny.

"Of course I am. The Batmobile was already taken," Lady grinned. "Missy, why don't you ride with me?"

"I've ridden with you before, I don't like it," Missouri said

"Get in the car," Lady said firmly. "I'll follow you, Dean." Lady let herself watch the brothers from behind as they walked to the black Impala, she turned back to Missouri as they got into her car. "My god, that is a gorgeous ass."

Missouri rolled her dark eyes, "Just drive," she said.

The house was on the other side of town. Lady parked behind the Impala on the street and followed them to the house. It was large, actually a rather nice home. She was surprised that John ever lived there, it seemed too domestic. Friendly neighborhood with shrubs and white picket fences, manicured lawns, bicycles on the driveway, mini-vans. She only knew John to live out of motel rooms and drink beer from a cooler filled with ice. Suddenly she understood John's quest for vengeance. He hadn't just lost a wife and the mother of his children. He had lost a home, a good home. A good life. He lost everything that most people ever wanted, suburban bliss.

The woman living there was a single mother to two children, and the house was experiencing classic haunting signs. Lady kept it to herself but demonic presence could sometimes cause some of the same signs.

The woman was appropriately freaked out, and it wasn't difficult for Missouri to talk her into allowing them entrance into the house to look around.

"Keep your hands to yourself," Missouri said in a low warning as they ascended the staircase, giving Lady a dark glare.

"I find that offensive," Lady hissed at her.

"No you don't," Missouri said. "Thief."

"Hag," Lady countered, putting her hand out to feel a cool draft that seemed to come from no where.

"Just shut up and stay close," Missouri said, leading the way to one of the bedrooms.

Dean pulled an EMF reader out of his pocket, and Missouri rolled her eyes at the sight of it. Missouri could sense the presence of spirits, among other things, without the use of technology. It didn't take long for her to sense what was in the house. A poltergeist, a nasty one that had been drawn there by the violent death of John's wife years ago, was there. It wasn't what John was after, it was all Lady needed to know. She was already thinking about finding somewhere to crash for a while as soon as she got the news to John.

"Don't be in such a hurry to leave," Missouri said as they walked down the stairs. "We'll need help to dispel it. You just may be useful after all."

"You aren't going to throw me down the stairs for a laugh, are you?" Lady asked.

"I could use a laugh," Missouri muttered. "But no. Wait until we get back home."

Missouri gathered everyone in her kitchen. "We're going to need twelve gris-gris bags. Have you ever heard of them?"

For a moment Dean thought Missouri was asking Lady, but her eyes were firmly on him and his brother. "Yeah, of course. Voodoo good luck charm, helps ward off evil."

"Or attract bad luck or evil, if you mix it right," Lady added. "Or wrong, depending on your original intentions."

"We'll need something pretty powerful, I was wondering if you might know of a good mix for this," Missouri turned to Lady.

"You practice voodoo?" Sam asked curiously. He was willing to bet Lady wasn't as adorable and sweet as she tried to play off, but she appeared a bit pale to be into voodoo.

"It's sort of my job to know it," Lady said.

"And what is your job?" Dean asked.

She glared at Missouri, there was no way to get out of revealing more about herself now. She looked back at Dean and gave him a slight smile, "I handle overzealous idiots on a quest for power."

Dean raised his eyebrows, "You are a secretary in a large corporation?"

"Oh, no, that is way too evil for me to handle," Lady joked. "I stick with the minor leagues. Witches."

Dean laughed and looked at his brother, wanting him to join in. "You're a witch-hunter?" Lady nodded. His laughter fell away. "Seriously?"

"Believe it or not, she knows more about this stuff than I do," Missouri said. "What do you say, Lady? I know a standard ritual to cleanse, but this is a pretty heavy-duty poltergeist."

Lady moved her eyes over to Missouri's pantry, and as the idea formed in her mind she looked back at Missouri. "What do you think?"

Missouri heard what Lady was considering and nodded, "If you are sure it will work that sounds like it'd do the trick."

"Why do people ask me if I'm sure?" Lady asked. "Yes, it will work. As long it isn't an actual spirit that is tied to this world, it will get rid of it."

"What if it is a spirit?" Sam asked.

"Well, then it's the normal burn the bones type of thing," Lady said as she moved to Missouri's pantry and began looking through the items. She pulled a few off the shelves. "Jasmine oil?"

"I know where I can get some," Missouri said.

"And..." Lady looked over the jars as she set them on the table. "Need to bind it with something fresh. What do you think?"

"Hm, I have some chives coming in already."

"Yeah. Then just need something to draw in the spirit."

"Crossroads dirt," Missouri plucked the thought of Lady's head. Missouri looked over what Lady had already pulled from the pantry. "I need to run across town to get the jasmine oil. Can one of you boys gather some crossroads dirt?"

"Yeah, no problem, I can do that," Sam said.

"Lady, get that started, we need it to be ready tonight. The window box has some chives sprouting, grab whatever you need," Missouri said as she pulled on her jacket. "I'll be back in half an hour."

"I'll be back soon," Sam said as he took the car keys from Dean.

And Lady found herself in the position of being alone with Dean. She had been having thoughts of getting him alone since she had seen him, however those thoughts didn't include creating gris-gris bags to dispel a wicked poltergeist. And she needed to get a moment alone to call John and let him know what was going on.

"I'm going to find some cloth for these," she said. "Missouri has a sewing kit in the living room, can you see if you can find some twine in there?"

"Yeah," Dean said in a low voice as he went into the front living room while she moved to the back bedrooms.

Lady called John's phone and he answered on the first ring, "Yeah?"

Quietly Lady said, "Not what you are after. Poltergeist, Missy and I have it handled."

John made a relieved noise, "The boys there?"

"Yup," Lady said.

"Right there?"

"Nope. Close enough, though," she said.

"I'm already on my way, should be there by night. Keep me posted," John said before hanging up.

Lady found a pile of scrap cloths in a closet and returned to the kitchen. Dean had found a ball of twine and was looking over the jars of ingredients. "So how do we do this?"

Lady put the clothes in the sink and ran the water until it was steaming hot, "You know, I have never made these in bulk like this before. Most important thing is all the bags get the same ingredients. We miss one thing in one bag and the whole protection will fall apart." Lady shrugged out of her jacket and at the same time out of the shoulder-holster she had been using for her pistol. Folding the jacket over the gun she set it on the counter so she could put her hands in the hot water. "Can you grab me the canister of salt? It's on top of the microwave," she said.

Dean handed it to her. The short-sleeved shirt she was wearing under the jacket was a pale pink and hugged her chest and showed off the smooth skin of the small of her back. Her hands and arms were red from the hot water, and several crisscrossing scars were shocking white on her forearms. Lady opened the salt and poured the entire thing into the water and continued sloshing the cloth. Dean looked away from the scars and leaned against the counter. "Beretta Cougar, right?" Lady glanced at him. "Caught a glimpse of it when you unbuttoned your jacket. Beretta, right?"

"Yeah," she said. She pulled the plug and the water began to be sucked down the drain and began to squeeze the water from the cloths.

"Nine mil?" Dean asked.

"Forty-five caliber, eight-round magazine," she said as she set the cloths out on the table.

"Nice," he said. "Police issue?"

Lady considered lying as she dried her hands and arms off. "Might be."

"May I?" He asked. Lady retrieved her pistol and ejected the clip, holding onto the ammunition she handed it grip-first to Dean. "Not bad. So you really kill witches with this?"

"Sure," she said.

Dean handed the weapon back, watching her reload it and ensure the safety was on before putting it back in it's holster and below her jacket. Together they set up an assembly line to get started on the bags. "So how do you know my father?"

"How do you think? I got in some trouble, he got me out of some trouble."

Dean searched his memory, for the tenth time since Lady had introduced herself, for anything his father may have said about her. "What's your last name?"

She chuckled, "I don't have one. Just Lady. Like Madonna, but with a better British accent."

"And how long did you say you knew him?"

"I didn't say. But I met him about eight years ago," she answered shortly. "He keeps out of my business, I keep out of his. That's how I prefer it."

"I'm just trying to find some sense in all of this, you aren't really someone I'd expect to be friends with my father, okay?"

"Okay," she said, handing him a bowl. "John and I aren't drinking buddies but I owe him big. Few times after I met him he checked on me. Taught me a few things, concerned that since I was psychic I'd attract more trouble. He introduced me to Missouri, and said I could call him anytime if something came up. I've given him a few leads into possible cases over the years, nothing in a while and I never heard back from him if they were legit or just paranoia. I like John, but we aren't close. He was always looking for that next job and if I didn't have any information for him he really didn't care to talk to me."

Dean nodded, that sounded about right for his father. "And you really hunt." He chuckled.

"Does it bother you that a woman is out there tracking down black witches and putting bullets in their heads?" Lady asked.

He shook his head, "Not at all. It's just you seem a bit young."

"Maybe," she accepted that, even though Dean couldn't be much older than her, and Sam appeared to be younger than she was. "But I know more about witchcraft than anyone I've ever met, and didn't have to kill. That includes John."

"Fair enough," Dean said. "So you know your stuff. I still don't get why he never introduced us, or at least mentioned you."

Lady shrugged, "I don't know, but I think I may have to kick him in the shins for that." She gave him a cute half-smile as she put the holy water away. "Maybe you should stick around after this is taken care of, I got a few more free days until I should head back home."

Dean looked more than slightly intrigued, but distracted as she began picking through a bucket of small bones. "Don't get me wrong, Lady, you seem like a lot of fun, but I really need to focus on this job right now."

She nodded, "Plenty of time for fun once Casper is gone, right?" She gave him a devilish smile while she stirred the contents of the bowl with a finger. "Three rib bones per bag should do it."

Dean took a look at the bones and guessed, "Chicken?"

"I think its goose, actually," she said, looking back into the bowl. "No, you're right. Definitely chicken."

Sam returned first and Lady instructed him to place a pinch of the dirt he retrieved onto each bag.

"How powerful is this thing?" Lady asked the brothers. "We talking free air conditioning type of spirit, or like suck you into a TV kind of powerful?"

"Well, uh, pretty powerful," Sam said. "And if Missouri doesn't get back soon we may be going in after dark, and that's usually when spirits are the strongest. And this one manifested enough mischief to chew off a plumbers arm during the day. It's evil and definitely intent on harming the people that live there."

Dean began placing a piece of green chive on each of the bags now. He let out an impatient breath as he glanced at the clock. "You did a good job, these are going to work," Lady said, making him look up to be sure she was looking at him. She smiled, "They'll work like a charm." Dean couldn't resist returning her smile and looked down as he let out a short laugh. Lady walked past him to retrieve her jacket, "I'll be right back."

Dean looked over his shoulder to watch her walk down the hall and into the bathroom, willing to bet she was going to get her shoulder holster on and check her gun more thoroughly after letting him handle it. She seemed to know her stuff. He had a grin on his face and fun thoughts in his head as he turned back, but they stopped at the frown Sam was giving him. "What?"

"I can't believe you are trying to get laid while we're investigating our own house being haunted," Sam said.

"To be fair, she started it," Dean said. "Hey, I'm focused. My head is where it needs to be."

"So, what did you find out about her?" Sam asked quietly.

Dean shrugged, "Not much, but she definitely knows Dad. Not well, but enough. Packing a Beretta semi-automatic pistol in a shoulder holster, arcane tattoo on the inside of her right wrist, forearms have a few scars from either failed suicide attempts or she's opened her veins a few times for some sort of witchcraft would be my guess. Wouldn't be surprised if the thing in her pocket is a knife or a pack of gum, but I've kept my hands to myself…for now." Dean chuckled at the frown on Sam's face. "Hey, the woman is sex on two legs, don't get mad she saw me first."

"Right," Sam shook his head. The last thing he was looking for was a hook up. Not after his girlfriend's tragic death and not while they were on a job involving their old house where their mother died over twenty years ago.

"Probably for the better, I think she'd hurt you," Dean said. "You check out her car?"

"Yeah," Sam said. "About a weeks worth of clothes and a few containers of herbs and some gemstones. The weirdest part is…well, there were five shoeboxes."

"What was in them?" Dean asked.

"Shoes," Sam said. "Just shoes."

"Huh," Dean frowned a bit. "Well, Dad trusted her enough to ask her to come. I mean, at least we know he's okay, and he's been getting our messages. Just…wish he would have called us."

Lady stepped out of the bathroom, her jacket back on and buttoned to keep her pistol hidden. Missouri returned shortly before sunset with the oil. Lady grabbed the ball of twine as Missouri placed a few drops of jasmine oil on each pile of ingredients. Out of her pocket she pulled out a dark steel butterfly knife. It fanned open silently and she used the sharp blade to cut pieces of the twine. "These are going to connect all of the bags so they work together," she said as she measured all the pieces to the same length. She counted out twelve before bunching them together in her palm.

"Shouldn't we use hair?" Missouri asked. "I thought it needed something from someone still living."

"Hair is too fragile," Lady said. "Just add something from someone living to the twine, works the same way. Probably be more powerful if we got something from someone who used to live at the house." Lady smiled hopefully between Sam and Dean while holding up her knife, "Just need a little bit."

Dean let out an unhappy breath as he understood what Lady was asking for, witchcraft often required a sacrifice of blood even when it wasn't for dark purposes. Before he could offer Sam was holding out his hand, "Go ahead," Sam offered. And before Dean could protest Lady slide the blade of her knife across the back of his hand. It was a shallow cut, probably not deep enough to cause a scar after it healed.

"A little bit goes a long way," Lady said as she ran the bundle of twine over the cut to pick up the blood and then rolled them together between her palms until each piece had a smear of blood soaked into it. They then worked together to tie the bags into satchels.

"These will need to be placed on each floor of the house at each one of the walls facing a direction. Inside the walls," Missouri instructed as they gathered everything and prepared to leave for the house.

Lady walked out of the house with the others, "We need to make this quick, I have to be somewhere in two hours."

"Where?" Missouri asked.

"Somewhere else," Lady said. She had spoken to John while she was in the bathroom and he had found a remote location for the ritual, and she needed to reach it before midnight. "I'll be coming back, I just need to take care of something."

"It shouldn't take more than an hour," Missouri said confidently. "We just have to be careful, once the spirits figures out what we're doing it may get angry.

"Joy," Lady said, getting into her Beetle. She followed the Impala back to the house. She took the time to change into worn out sneakers and put her pistol in the glove-box and lock it before joining them in the house.

Missouri talked the family living in the house to leave for the evening, at least a few hours while they placed the bags. Once the mother and her two children were gone they gathered in the living room to go over the final plan. "Sam will take the top floor," Dean said, handing his brother a hammer. "I'll take the basement."

"I think Lady and I should take the basement," Missouri said, taking the hammer from Dean. "It will go faster with two of us."

Lady took the hammer from Missouri and grinned at Dean, "Guess that means you'll be right on top of me, Dean." She balanced the hammer on her palm and spun it once as she walked to the basement door, her steps silent while she hummed to herself.

"We better hurry up," Missouri muttered, following Lady.

Sam looked at Dean who watched Lady until she became hidden behind a corner, "Seriously?"

"What?" Dean asked, his eyes wide and questioning as he adjusted his grip on a hatchet.

"Can we at least finish this job?" Sam asked seriously.

"Yes," Dean said. Sam shook his head and turned towards the stairs and a smug smirk tugged at Dean's lips. The adrenaline was lifting his mood and he was becoming very aware of all the small sounds the house made, the evil thing haunting this house was about to be banished and once it was over he had a motel room in the next town and he could imagine a Volkswagen Beetle that was painted like a ladybug parked next to his Impala while he was inside blowing off all the stream and frustration this job had caused him with Lady. Damn right they were going to finish this job.

"What does John have you doing?" Missouri asked Lady quietly as they reached the basement floor.

"Nothing you need to worry about," Lady said, kneeling against the first wall and hammering a hole into the finished wall. There wasn't much room between the drywall and the cement foundation of the basement and she had to flatten the bag to squeeze it into the space.

"I'm not sure he'd appreciate you..."

"John doesn't really appreciate me in general, if I score with his son and he doesn't like it he'll just have to handle it," Lady said and grinned as she considered the possibility of pulling Dean into the back of her Beetle for a quick release before she had to meet up with John. Missouri made a sound that let Lady know she had caught the thought in her head.

"Can you just focus on what we're doing here? This is dangerous," Missouri said as they moved to the next wall.

Lady had spent enough time with hunters over the years that she had picked up the classic signals of supernatural activity. The scratching over her head, like hundreds of rats scurrying. The chilly draft even when the heat was running. The crackle of electricity before the lights flickered. Goose bumps rose on her arms and the hairs on the back of her neck tickled as they rose. "Be careful, Missy," Lady said as they walked towards a wall that the light didn't completely penetrate. A few moments later Missouri let out a groan as she stubbed her toe. "I said be careful. You call yourself a psychic?" Lady moved almost silently in the dark basement, avoiding the boxes and junk that was spread out haphazardly.

Lady hammered through the wall and stuffed another bag into the hole. Then moved to the west wall to do the same. John didn't say anything about manual labor, she internally complained.

"Yeah, he usually leaves that sort of thing out, doesn't he?" Missouri chuckled.

Lady finished on the west wall as Missouri started on the south and final wall. "How do you think the guys are doing?"

"Your head is too busy, I can't tell," Missouri said as she worked on the wall, short hits with the hammer to avoid doing too much damage. "All I am sensing is this thing and you. It's getting angry, it knows what we're up to."

Lady looked around as the temperature had a sudden drop that caused her breath to come out in a puff of white steam. "You don't say," she muttered, watching the near-future intently to be aware of the first sign of danger.

And the first sign came as the fluorescent light above her shattering. Lady moved out of the way to avoid the fixture from dropping on her head but the dust and glass still showered her. "Don't move," Lady said as they fell into complete darkness. "I take that back, move!"

Missouri's breath came out labored and scared as she tried to get out of the way of the sound of something heavy coming at her. She let out a cry of pain and there was a heavy thud. "Missy!" Lady called anxiously as she worked her way to her friend. "Missy? Missy!"

"The bag, I dropped it," Missouri said weakly. "I can't move. Get it into the wall, Lady. You have to."

"I'm not..." Lady started, she wasn't about to leave Missouri in the highly dangerous position. Her hands fell on the older woman's shoulders and traveled down to feel a heavy wooden desk had her pinned against some boxes and the wall.

"Don't worry about me, just get it in there," Missouri ordered.

Lady dug a Bic lighter out of her pocket and flicked it on. A cool draft was circulating around them and the flame went out several times before Lady found the bag and then the hole Missouri had partially made in the wall. Lady hooked the clawed end of the hammer into the hole and tore it open farther before stuffing the bag inside.

"Check on the boys," Missouri said as Lady's hands found her again.

"I'm more worried about you," Lady said trying to shift the heavy desk. "Fuck, is this thing made out of lead?"

"I think they need help. They haven't finished yet," Missouri said, and above them was the sound of crashing. "Go help them! I'll be fine."

"No, you won't," Lady said quietly, trying to get her lighter back on so she could see at least a bit around them. If the poltergeist wanted to throw more things around it would find her a difficult target to hit. But the short glimpse she had of the future was confusing her. It took her a moment to realize that dodging something a spirit threw at you was easy, but when it decided to throw you it was very hard, "Shit," she hissed as the lighter slipped from her fingers while something ice cold wrapped around her and threw her back.

"Hold on, girl," Missouri called as Lady was pinned against the wall.

Lady covered her head as a tower of boxes fell over onto her, burying her under mildewed clothes and dusty newspapers.

Groaning she unburied herself, "That all you got, Casper?" She limped back across the basement.

"Don't taunt it!" Missouri hissed.

"Is it still here?" Lady asked, grabbing the edges of the desk and working with Missouri to slide it away.

"Hold on, I feel something," Missouri said, leaning against the desk. Lady shivered as the cold slipped away and the scratching noises ceased. "They did it," Missouri breathed. "Go check on them, make sure they are okay."

Lady was more worried about Missouri. Dean and Sam were stronger and healthier than the old psychic. Besides, she had certain loyalties to Missouri over them. She liked Sam and Dean, she very much liked Dean, but she didn't have any ties to them besides John. Missouri had helped her, probably saved her just as much as John did, and she would make damn sure Missouri got out of there alive.

"Can you walk?" Lady asked her.

"I think so," Missouri said, limping as Lady led her through the darkness.

"Missouri? Lady?" Dean called from up the stairs. "You two okay?"

"Yeah, we're okay," Missouri said.

In the kitchen Lady bent over to shake her hair clean of the glass and brush the dust off of her clothes. She felt a tear in her jeans by the back pockets, "My pants!" She complained as she felt the hole that was exposing her, only slightly relieved that she had worn full panties instead of a thong or commando. She looked over her shirt, dirty and stained. She let out a huff of breath, "And there goes my outfit."

"Can't you just enjoy that the family here will be safe?" Missouri asked her.

"I'm thrilled, ecstatic, that they will be safe. But I also just lost about three hundred dollars worth of clothes," Lady said. "I can be pissed and happy at the same time."

"Are we sure it's over?" Dean asked, looking at Missouri.

She nodded, "It's gone. It can't come back."

Lady grimaced at the three missed calls on her cell phone, "Well, it's been fun but I should be going," she said as she walked in her broken shoes to the front door. "Ta ta, ciao, adios, see ya."

"Hey, Lady," Dean said, following her to the living room. He gave her a smile that she slowly began to return, "Where are you staying tonight?"

"That's undecided," she said.

"Hang around for a bit and you can follow me out of town to a motel for the night," he said, not asking or demanding it. Just telling her the option she was being given if she wanted to follow through with her earlier flirting.

Her eyes widened and she laughed, "Are you serious?"

"Hell yeah," he said with a sly smile.

She shook her head, "Oh, I don't think so."

Dean raised his eyebrows, "What? You flirt and tease when I'm working until I can't take it and now you don't think so?"

"No offense, Dean," she said quickly. "You actually look like a lot of fun and in normal circumstances you'd be in more trouble than you could handle, however I do have to be somewhere soon. And it looks like you have a pretty big mess to clean up. Maybe later."

Dean was trying to stare her down, determine if she was teasingly leading him on for her own enjoyment or if she was genuine about her desire to follow through. He was looking forward to some physical contact after the whole ordeal and had his mind set on Lady most of the day. He leaned forward and lowered his head to at least get a kiss, not sure what Lady's intentions were but thinking he could figure out or persuade her with a little teasing of his own.

"Dean," Missouri snapped. "We need help getting this cleaned up, come in here."

"I'll see you later," Lady said, her tone had an edge that made it sound like a promise. Her body brushed past him as she went to the door and he watched her walk out. He caught a glimpse of pink lace through the hole in the back of her jeans and clenched his teeth as he turned around to hurry up with the last of the job.

Lady drove out of town to a large empty area that she almost didn't find. The lights on John's truck were the only visible thing for miles. She was relieved to find they weren't rushing the ritual, she had gotten there with several minutes to spare.

"Everyone okay?" John asked as she prepared the spot he had chosen.

Lady nodded, "A bit bruised but nothing long term. House got trashed, and I got thrown around like a rag doll."

"Any idea how long they plan to stay in Lawrence?" John asked.

"They didn't say," Lady said. "We're ready."

An hour later Lady returned to Missouri's with John in her passenger seat, he didn't want to have his truck in town in case the brothers showed up or drove past. Missouri was there waiting for them and sat with John while Lady took a shower.

"Where are you going?" John asked as she stepped out of the bathroom fully dressed in fresh clothes.

"She thinks she's going to meet Dean," Missouri said disapprovingly.

John frowned slightly, "Stay away from him, Lady."

Lady gave Missouri a dark look, "I'm not forcing the guy to do anything, John."

"He just met you today and you spent most of the time lying to him. Don't do that to him," John said, looking at her firmly. It wasn't a request.

"I'm not doing anything..." Lady rolled her eyes and shook her head. John was dead serious. There went her plans for entertainment. "Fine, I'll just go to sleep."

Lady stretched out on the sofa in the living room. Dean seemed to understand the fun of a casual hook-up, but she had only met him earlier that day. John seemed to think that a fun shag with Dean wasn't right because she just met him and lied to him, or maybe it was just because it was his son and she was the silly psychic who moonlighted as a witch-hunter and was going to die in a year. It didn't matter. Sure, Dean had all the qualities to spark her interest but guys like him were a dime a dozen. If she really wanted to she could stop at a bar and find a local to meet, lie to, and lie down with for a bit. But just getting some sleep seemed like a good idea, too.

John began to relax as the night went on. This town was where it had all started and even after the ritual Lady had performed with him he didn't feel quite right there. Safe, he was sure his tracks were covered and the added protection of the ritual was just to further hide him from the powerful demon. But since he had received Dean's message he had gone through a rollercoaster of emotions and thoughts, possibilities that ranged from plausible to completely outrageous. He felt like he was about to lose his mind, torn between keeping his boys away from what he was hunting and running to their side to help them. Thankfully they had remembered what he had taught them, they hadn't needed him at all. His boys weren't boys anymore...

Missouri huffed out a breath, "Between the crazy in her head and your sappy internal monologue I can't focus."

John let his lip twitch in an almost smile, "Sorry." John looked at Lady who was sprawled out and fast asleep on the couch. "How is she?" he asked Missouri quietly.

"Her head is pretty quiet now, can't really catch anything," Missouri said just as softly. "Still the same Lady, though. Older and wiser, maybe, but sharp as hell. With a good heart. But something is different with her and I can't put my finger on it. I'm worried about her. I know it's hard not to wonder about her...everything she went through, but she's resilient," Missouri said quietly, and John's eyes opened wider.

John let his shoulders slump down as his thoughts became centered on Lady. "You want to know what's different about her? She's accepted it. She's still looking for the coven, still trying to hunt them down, but she's accepted she's dying. I just don't know if she's going to try and go out in a blaze of glory or if she's just trying to do what she can until it happens." He rubbed his fingertips over his beard, "As young as she is...it just isn't right. Not natural in so many ways."

"It isn't your fault," Missouri said gently. "She knows that."

"I know," John nodded. "I just wish there was something more I could have done for her. Instead I'm asking her to perform a ritual that borders on black witchcraft and having her lie to my sons for me."

"I'll talk to her once you leave. She's still alive, she must still have some hope inside of her," Missouri said.

"Yeah, well, good luck with that," John muttered. "I think I'll try to get a few hours of sleep."

Missouri worked in her kitchen, not able to sleep when John's troubled thoughts continued in his sleep. She understood better than anyone why John wanted to protect his sons from the demon he was hunting, but at the same time she wanted to smack him across the face and tell him to go to his sons. Their own concern for their father had bothered her when she had met with them, and that they were only miles away at that moment was frustrating. She could easily call Dean or Sam, ask them to come over. Lie and say she sensed something and needed to talk to them. Or the truth, which would get them there the fastest. Just take the phone outside so John couldn't hear and tell one of them that if they hurried they would find their father asleep in her guest room. The only flaw was that if Lady woke up she'd have time to stop her or warn John.

But she wouldn't do that, because even though John was longing to see and talk to his sons he was in serious danger with the demon he was hunting. Getting those boys, especially Sam, close to that demon could be even more dangerous. And she respected John, maybe she didn't always like him but she respected him. He'd heard the truth from her over twenty years ago and faced it bravely, took the fight to the monsters in the shadows and had saved a lot of lives all in his quest to avenge his wife's murder. If he wanted to handle this on his own and leave his sons out of it she would let him do it his way.

Lady was in a dark and dreamless sleep before she jerked awake. For a moment she was confused, not sure what had pulled her out of her rest and then Missouri called, "Lady! Wake up!"

"What is it?" Lady asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she sat up. Bruises and stiff muscles that hadn't bothered her when she had went to sleep on the couch now protested. "Oh, god, it feels like I went on a date with Mike Tyson last night."

"Come on, we have to go back to the house," Missouri said.

Lady checked the time, it was shortly before six in the morning. She grabbed a pair of flat sandals and began to strap them on her feet, "What's going on?"

"We missed something at the house," Missouri said urgently. "Come on, we need to check it out."

John was standing and tense as Lady and Missouri got ready to leave. "How could you miss something? I thought those bags would dispel anything?"

"They do," Lady said. "There was nothing wrong with the bags."

"Don't worry about it now, come on," Missouri urged her to the door. Lady helped her limp outside to her car.

Lady looked around the residential street as she drove. The sky was lightening but the sun wasn't quite above the horizon yet. Traffic was almost nothing. She increased the pressure on the gas and the car jumped forward.

The car jerked to a stop on the other side of the street of the house. The family was outside, so were Sam and Dean. "They look fine to me," Lady said, but Missouri was getting out of the car and limping across the street.

Lady leaned against the door of her car as Missouri and the brothers went inside. They came out several minutes later and lingered on the front porch. The sun was just coming up over the horizon and the temperature began to rise with its presence.

Dean walked across the street and leaned against the Beetle beside Lady, "What happened to your arm?" he asked even as she lowered the sleeve of her shirt to hide the cut she had made during the ritual after she had left him. "Kitchen accident," she lied, pretty sure Dean didn't buy it but he didn't pry further. "Everyone okay?"

"Yeah," he said, sounding and looking tense as he watched Sam and Missouri say their goodbyes to the family. Everything about him showed fatigue and all of the flirty banter they had shared the previous day was gone from his eyes and tone. "We're getting the hell out of here, though, before they try to get us to clean up that house again."

Lady smirked, "Where are you guys going next?"

"Not sure," he said. "You?"

"Probably back home for a while," she said.

"Yeah? Where is that?"

"North Dakota," she answered after deciding it wasn't worth lying about.

Sam walked Missouri back to Lady's car, "Hey, Lady," Sam said. "Any idea why those bags didn't work?"

"The bags were good," Lady said firmly. "We all felt the difference when they took affect. Maybe a leaking pipe got one wet, a mouse chewed one open, I don't know."

"It's definitely gone this time," Missouri said. "That's all that matters."

"Yeah, I heard that before," Dean muttered.

"I should get Missy home. It was good to meet you guys. Take care of yourselves," Lady said.

"Yeah, you too," Sam said as he and Dean walked to the Impala.

Lady and Missouri said goodbye to John early that afternoon. "You can stay a few days if you want," Missouri said as she made herself busy cleaning up. "Tell me about Freddie a bit. Maybe Max, too?"

Lady put a lock down on her thoughts. "I can't stay."

"Okay, we don't have to talk just yet. But at least stay for supper, get a good meal. You look thin," Missouri said with concern.

"Missy, my life is short but I make the most of it, okay? I try and stay happy, I'm the eternal optimist," Lady said, hoping it would satisfy her but knowing it wouldn't.

"John doesn't think you have any hope left, but I think that's what you've been holding back. You are locking it all up out of fear." Lady looked at Missouri with wide eyes. "You are trying to hide it from yourself because you've been let down too many times, and I understand why. Lady, there is always a way to triumph. It isn't over yet. Let that hope shine through and guide you."

Lady shook her head, "A seer more powerful than ten of us told me when my number is going to be up. I've killed so many witches the past five years I've lost count and so far I haven't gotten my hands on anything that will help me. And I haven't heard anything from them in over six months. I'll let some of that hope out if I can find a new lead to grasp onto. Until then I only have so many months, so I'm going to head out."

"If you ever need anything, darling, you just call. Don't be a stranger, not to me," Missouri said, her eyes pleading. "Just remember that, okay?"

"Yeah. See you around," Lady said as she walked out the door, not bothering to hide the fact it was a lie. Missouri was a good woman and a good friend, but there wasn't much Missouri could help her with anymore.


	4. Scarecrow, April 2006

**A/N** - _Lady and Dean's playtime is brought to you buy Nickelback and their song 'S.E.X.'_

**April 12****th**** 2006, Nashville, Tennessee**

"Mason, I'm sorry I haven't made it back yet but everything is fine," Lady said as she heard Freddie barking anxiously in the background. She pressed her cellphone between her ear and her shoulder as she unfolded a map.

"What's keeping you?" Mason asked over the phone.

Lady exhaled sharply from her nostrils. Mason wouldn't understand how Missouri had got to her. That after she had left Lawrence she had every intention of driving straight north but instead followed a bum lead across several states until she landed in Nashville. "I don't know how I got so far off my route but I…I figured I'd check on a few sites I haven't been to recently. It is a full moon tonight but I haven't found any evidence that this place has anything more than a few hippies. I think I was just stretching for something, and there is nothing here."

"Don't ignore your intuition. If you think you sensed something dig around," Mason said.

"Right," Lady said with a frown. "Well, I did and all that happened was I spent a lot of money on gas."

"Its okay, Lady. Stay there a few days, see if you can pick up anything. If you do, I'll have Greta make you some cookies."

"Don't patronize me, Mason," Lady said. "I'll call you when I'm on my way back."

Lady had little patience for research. She had read through hundreds of books with Bobby and researched any significant lunar event the past twenty years to discover some sort of pattern to help detect the coven and she was still cursed. Sure, she knew more about them than anyone else, but they still eluded her. She'd give anything to catch a break, she longed for that spark of hope to burst into flames that could push her to some sort of victory. But she kept it locked tightly down. Hope wasn't going to save her, it would only crush her when the inevitable happened.

Lady was in the library scanning local newspapers on a computer, coming up empty handed. She began digging in her pocket before her cell phone rang and silenced the ringer before it could draw attention to her. She saw it was John and was contemplating letting it go to voicemail, seeing if he'd leave a message and what it said first. But she answered it before the third ring.

"Hey, John," Lady answered her phone quietly as she began to close out of the computer.

It took John a few seconds to answer with, "Hey, Lady. Where are you right now?"

"Nashville," she said, not hiding the bitterness in her voice. "You wouldn't have happened to hear of anything happening here, would you?"

"Uh, no," he said. "Are you busy?"

"No, I think I just ran into a dead end," she muttered.

"Listen, I could use a favor. I got some information and I'm worried something might be looking to target my kids to get me to make myself known or pull me away from this. I managed to get them east of me, but I need to keep them over there a bit longer. I was wondering if you can run a job with them so I can check this out further while you keep them away."

Lady looked at the scar of healing skin on her arm, "Yeah, I suppose so."

"I've got it pretty much figured out, it's some sort of Pagan fertility ritual. Every year within the second week of April a man and a woman go missing from this county in Indiana. May have a witch, right up your alley."

"Yay," Lady said unenthusiastically as she began to walk out of the library. She was all for blowing away a witch, however she knew the coven she hunted was not performing fertility rituals. But a witch was a witch.

"Good. Just, tell my kids that you tipped me off to this hunt, that way they'll believe you have a reason to be there. Act pissed at me for not coming myself, be a bit belligerent, but make them do all the work. If things get bad..."

"I got it, John .Work the job with them, don't tell them I'm there to spy on them for you, keep them there as long as possible and keep you updated as we go."

"Don't call me, I'll call you," he added. "Things are pretty...well, just be careful. If things get bad do what you have to. Just, keep the there as long as possible."

"We're already in the second week of April, John, it only gives us a few days as it is," she said.

"I'll...I'll try to find something else over that way if I need more time."

"Just tell me where I have to go," Lady said. She memorized the few towns that John gave her. "Talk to you later," she said, hanging up on him.

She stopped at a gas station, getting road maps and gas, then scratchcards for some quick cash. Her winding route from Lawrence had ate up her money and she was stretched thin for her drive back to North Dakota.

It was around noon the next day when she found the black boat of a car that Dean drove parked at a shabby motel. The small town didn't even have a Starbucks, but she stopped at the local convenience store to pick up breakfast and coffee before dropping in on the brothers. Lady had considered calling Dean, make her search quicker and easier or even warn him that she was going to show up like she had in Kansas, but she had discovered that if you told people you were coming they had an easier time of hiding from you. Taking them by surprise left them stunned like a bludgeoned cow, the coffee and breakfast was a peace offering before she shoved her foot in the door and tagged along to another dangerous adventure, whether they (or she) wanted to or not.

It wasn't that Lady didn't want to help John, if she didn't want to she would have told him where he could shove it. She was still in a bitter mood from how she had left Missouri and the dead end in Nashville, and while she didn't know Sam or Dean that well she wasn't sure she agreed with how John was handing them. What it came down to was she had nothing more important to do, and John did important work.

Managing three tall cups of coffee and a box of doughnuts she rapped sharply on the motel door. She heard nothing, present or future, of someone coming to open the door. She knocked again, "Rise and shine, guys," she said loudly through the door.

She put on a bright smile before Dean opened the door wearing slept in clothes and bed flattened hair. He squinted at the bright sun overhead, "Lady?"

"Good morning," she purred, rather enjoying the ruffled and surprised look he wore as she pushed her way in. "Thanks, I couldn't hold onto this for much longer."

Dean scratched the back of his head and shut the door. He clicked the safety on the pistol in his other hand, "What are you doing here?"

"I brought breakfast," she said happily as she set it on the small table. She looked around the motel, one queen-sized bed, the nightstand beside it with a clock radio, the small table and two hard chairs, the bathroom with the door open. "Where's Sam?"

"Not here," Dean said, looking between the table and the bed. He sighed and grabbed one cup of coffee and moved to sit on the edge of the bed. "Thanks."

"No problem, happy to serve," she grinned playfully. Dean didn't return her smile as he rubbed his eyes and worked on sipping the coffee. She worked in her mind the next question to ask. First she wanted to ask where Sam was, but Dean would tell her it was none of her damn business. Unable to see further she decided to wait for Dean to ask her what he wanted to.

"Not that I'm not thrilled with free breakfast after I've had two hours of sleep, but what the hell are you doing here?" Dean asked, looking up at her.

"I've been waiting for you guys for, like, a day," she lied, opening the box of donuts and taking the one with sprinkles. "I called John and asked him to come check the area out, been getting weird vibes. Is he here already?"

Dean shook his head, "He is in California, or so Sam thinks."

Lady had known John was to the west, she wasn't aware he was that far west. "Huh," she sounded disappointed. "That dick."

Dean raised his eyebrows, "What?"

"You know, I don't speak to the guy for years but one day out of the blue I get a message from John to come down to Kansas, and ever since then it's been hell. Again. Can't fucking believe it. I have done every damn thing he has ever asked of me, I ask him once to come help me look into something and he's across the damn country. And doesn't even have the fucking decency to call and tell me he's sending Tweedle Dum without the Dee instead." She let out a huff of breath, "No offense, Dean, but your father gets under my skin in the worst way." For a moment Dean looked like he was going to defend his father, but he shrugged and took another sip of coffee. "So, what do you know so far?"

Dean shrugged again, "Every year, second week of April, a couple goes missing in this area. I just got in a few hours ago after a long drive, I needed to recharge the batteries before checking anything out," he said.

Lady gave him an apologetic smile, "Sorry."

"No, probably a good thing. Don't have much time, just today and tomorrow, to figure this thing out."

Lady sat in a chair and frowned, "Sucks that Sam isn't here. I even got a Sam-sized doughnut. Check it out."

Dean looked up to see the monstrous doughnut Lady was showing him, and couldn't even smirk. "Yeah, well I left the stubborn bastard on the side of the road last night. Enjoy it." He stood up and tossed the empty cup of coffee in the trash. "Thanks for the coffee, Lady."

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"I'm going to take a shower and get to work," he said. "Sorry my dad wasn't here, but I am. I'll figure this out and call you when it's done. You can leave the doughnuts."

Lady looked at the closed bathroom door, and smirked. Did he really think she would just leave? She sat on the bed, propped up by pillows, and watched TV as the shower ran.

Lady looked up from the television with a smile as Dean walked out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist. "Why are you still here?" he asked, he didn't seem surprised.

"I wish I could say it was because I was waiting for this particular moment," she grinned. There was a rough looking bruise coupled with broken skin across his chest, but even the wound didn't take away of the appeal of defined muscles under skin that was still dripping wet from his shower. "But it's because I'm not going anywhere, Dean. Did you really think you could get rid of me that easily?"

Dean shoved his dirty clothes in a bag and began looking for cleaner ones. "You know what, make yourself comfortable. I'll give you a call on my way back, you can order a pizza. Have supper ready for when I get back."

She shook her head, "If your father couldn't get rid of me after ten years I don't think you are going to manage it. People are dying here, obviously something ritualistic, and I'm not leaving until whoever is doing it is done."

"Other than your weird psychic mojo you have going on the only thing you can do is get yourself hurt," Dean countered. Lady cocked an eyebrow, wondering what had changed Dean's mood from the flirty and fun to something similar to his father. "I don't need to be worrying about you while I'm trying to keep this from happening again."

"Aw, that's sweet," she said in a mocking tone. "Dean, I'm going to do something rare for me to do with people I don't know well, I'm going to be moderately honest." She got off the bed and stood toe to toe with him. "I'm a freak of freaks, I know this. I know how you will respond if I say a dozen different things a dozen different ways. To putting on the waterworks to laughing in your face, I know how you will react. I abuse it, I'm pretty good at getting my way, but I don't see you budging. So I am going to tell you flat out that I'm going to be tagging along, whether you like it or not. You won't be able to get rid of me, and considering my knowledge this is the type of thing you may actually want my help on." Before he could open his mouth to argue she said, "So we are at an impasse, I get that. Neither of us will back down, and all you are doing is wasting time. Now either I'm doing this alone which is the stupidest idea I've had in...well, about two weeks when I thought it was a good idea to taunt a poltergeist, or you'll be a good little soldier and take me along." She smirked as he silently glared at her, "Clothing optional, but there are public indecency laws around here. It's sort of cold, too, should at least wear a sock."

Dean clenched his jaw, then angrily grabbed his bag and hissed, "Bitch," as he went back into the bathroom to put his clothes on.

Lady smiled victoriously, he was a tough nut to crack. Harder than John, even. He came out a few minutes later dressed in jeans, a t-shirt and a long-sleeve flannel shirt.

"Want me to drive?" Lady offered as they left the motel room, already knowing his answer.

"No," he said, looking at her over the roof of the Impala. "If you had any sense in your warped head you'd get in your car and get out of here."

Lady thought about it and shrugged, "I guess I don't have any sense."

Dean nodded, "Sort of figured. Here are the rules, you stay quiet and out of the way. I tell you to do something, you do it. That includes running."

"Okay," she said.

Dean glared at her, knowing she was just saying that to placate him. He considered telling her to follow him in her own car, his Impala could lose the Beetle in no time. But chances were she knew more than she was letting on and would find him soon enough anyways. Or make good on her threat to do it on her own and get in trouble without someone there to save her ass. "Get in the car," he ordered.

"How can I be sure you won't leave me stranded on the side of the road like you did to your brother?" she asked.

"It's either get in my car, or see if yours can keep up with me," he said, and got into the driver's seat.

Lady did as she was told and got into the passenger seat. "What did you and Sam fight about?"

"You already agreed you would be quiet," Dean said.

"I had my fingers crossed," she said. "I'm more than happy to play by your rules, Dean, when it comes to this you have more experience than I do. You don't want me here, I get it and I'll make it as painless for you as possible. But I can tell that you are pissed, and it isn't at me. I am a neutral third party so if you want to talk, I will be quiet and listen."

"Lady?"

"Mmhm?" she smiled at him, and then frowned when she heard what was coming.

"Shut the hell up," he said, and slid a tape of loud Metallica and turned the radio up as loud as he could stand it. For several miles at a time he could forget that she was there, just the road and the music, but every now and then she would shift in her seat or look at her phone or tap her fingers on her knee.

They stopped in two towns, Dean showing local residents pictures of the couple that had gone missing the previous year. It was three in the afternoon when they stopped in Burkittsville.

Lady felt a chill run up her spine as they approached a man sitting on a bench in front of a diner He looked her over and barely met her eyes before looking at Dean who began to show him the photo and talk to him. As Dean spoke to the man she wandered into the diner, hoping if she paid for coffee and lunch that Dean would sit and relax for a minute. She took a few steps into the diner, meeting the eyes of the man and woman who were working behind the counter briefly before she walked out quickly.

"I'm going to wait in the car," she said to Dean, briskly walking back to the Impala.

"I'll be a minute," Dean said dismissively. His bad mood had lifted slightly once they started working the case but seemed to sour every time Lady said something. Whenever she spoke it reminded him how very quickly things could go bad and he'd have to be responsible for her. He hated babysitting.

Lady watched Dean from the car, he spoke to a few more people before returning. He got in the car and he was about to tell her he was going back to the motel for the night. "This is the town," she said.

He looked at her with surprise, "We've been here ten minutes, you spent eight of them in the damn car."

She locked eyes with him, "I knew the second I looked into that man's eyes. Something is going on here, he knows about it."

Dean started the car and began to drive outside of town. "The waitress at the diner recognized the couple, they were here about a year ago. They got directions to the interstate, this is the way they were told to go."

Lady laughed, "You were going to drop me off and then ditch me. You suck."

"I was honest with you, you be honest with me. How did you know?"

Lady thought about it for a while, it was a fair question. "I've seen people with those kind of eyes before. A mix of guilt and power. Not too far gone to get on the right track, but gone enough. Add in the hunger when they eyed us up, something is going on." Before he could ask her to elaborate she said, "Doesn't matter how I knew. We both agree this is the place." Lady tilted her head slightly. "What's wrong with your stereo?"

"Nothing, why are...?" Dean frowned and took his foot of the gas as static began to pour through the car speakers. "You mind not doing that?" he asked her seriously.

"Sorry," she said quietly.

"In the backseat is an EMF reader, it uh..."

"Looks like a walkman, I'll find it," Lady said, turning in her seat and sliding over the front seat to get into the back. "In your jacket, got it," she said. She handed it to him and he took it roughly. "You're welcome."

Dean shook his head and turned the EMF reader on, and it was spiking loudly. He slowed to a stop and shut the engine off. "Wait here," he said, but she got out of the car with him. "Lady! Wait in the car."

"Do you smell apples?" She asked, walking across the street and to a wooded area. "Holy crap, there is like a hundred apple trees here."

Dean cursed under his breath. "Great, pick some apples but stay by the car."

Lady rolled her eyes as he walked into the orchard. She looked up through the leaves of the tree, seeing large red apples just out of her reach and several rotting ones bleeding fragrance at the bottom. Rubbing her hands together and getting a running start she hopped onto the tree trunk and climbed up a few feet and began picking apples. It wasn't because Dean had told her to, in fact because he had spoken to her like a child she had considered leaving the apples untouched, but she liked apples. And free food was always a bonus when she was aiming to save cash. Not to mention she was hungry as hell.

She used her shirt to carry as many of the apples as possible before hopping down from the tree and venturing further into the orchard to see what Dean was doing. In the middle of the grove was a scarecrow, an old-fashioned one, and Dean was moving one of the ladders used to pick apples to its side.

"Going to check if he has some brains?" Lady asked, and giggled. "Oh, I haven't seen the Wizard of Oz in years. Great movie. Oh! A basket, think they'd mind if I took this? Do you like apples?"

"Do you have ADD?" Dean snapped as he climbed the first step of the ladder. Not ten minutes ago Lady had been solemn and even slightly disturbed and now she was lost in the excitement of apples. Apples!

Lady paused a moment, "Not exactly, no. Why?"

"Because this whole place is giving off a ton of EMF, which is bad, and you are skipping around grabbing apples!"

"I was not skipping," she said as he climbed further up the ladder to get a closer look at the scarecrow while she got a great view of his rear from below. She smiled, "This is skipping." She skipped through the leaves and abandoned fruit on the ground around the ladder, unable to help herself she began humming songs from the Wizard of Oz.

"Hey! Be useful and hold the ladder," Dean shouted as it wobbled.

"Got it," She said, emptying her shirt of apples into an empty basket. She grabbed one apple that looked clean and held it in her teeth as she held onto the ladder. "Wha' hoo' oochin' 'or?" She tried to say in a muffled voice.

Dean ignored her while he leaned towards the scarecrow and examined its arm while at the same time looking at the photo he had been showing people all day. "Nice ink," he said, looking at the scarecrow. He began to walk down the ladder.

Lady moved away and took the bite of the apple in her mouth and held it in her hand.

"I think you can stop singing Wizard of Oz, this is more like Jeepers Creepers," Dean said once he was on the ground. "That thing is wearing this guy's skin," he pointed at the picture of the man.

Lady chewed twice and paused. She put together what she knew from John and what she had just found out. Fertility ritual, probably pagan. A town known for its apple pie, a scarecrow wearing human flesh in a apple orchard on a stretch of road where the last couple was known to travel.

Lady violently spit the apple out of her mouth and gagged. She dropped the apple in her hand and kicked it. "Oh god!"

Dean nodded, "Glad to see you are on track. Come on, let's get out of here."

Dean patiently waited for Lady to wash her mouth out with half a bottle of whiskey, after the first several swishes she took a large gulp of it. "You okay?" he asked.

"I'm not going to be able to eat an apple again," she said.

"Fruit is overrated," Dean said, leaning against his car. "So, you have any insight in this?"

Lady shrugged, "Not as much as I hoped. It's definitely a fertility ritual, because every year it is a man and a woman. And that makes more sense now because of the orchard, they are...fertilizing it," Lady looked disgusted and turned her head to spit again. "But there are thousands of pagan gods, and a good chunk of them enjoy human sacrifices. Won't know much more until they lay out the red carpet and get this started."

Dean looked into the trees and could barely see the scarecrow from the road. "And you are sure the people in town are in on it?"

Lady nodded, "Yeah. They know something is up. What's the next move?"

"We go back into town, figure out what this is and how to kill it," Dean said.

Lady grabbed his arm before he could turn to get into the car, "May be a problem."

"What problem?"

"They won't tell you anything. And I'm thinking you ask them who dresses their scarecrow they may just decide to throw us in there next. I mean, we sort of fit what they look for."

"Point taken," he nodded. Dean felt the excitement of the hunt really set in. He had the location, and soon he'd know enough to finish it. But there was one problem. Lady still had the spooked look in her eyes. "I'll take you back to the motel."

"Like hell you are," Lady said, the fear fading from her eyes. She released his arm and moved to get into the car. "We'll try this your way first. If it doesn't work we're coming back here and setting the whole place on fire and then I'm going to knock a few heads in town until they tell me which one of them is the witch. Well, you can do the head knocking and I'll do the arson, I just had a manicure." She gave him a playful smile.

Dean smiled and got into the car, "Alright."

They turned around and went back into town and stopped at the diner. Lady looked around as Dean filled the Impala with fuel. There was a mechanic's garage next to the diner with a red jeep parked in front with the hood up, out of state plates. When she followed Dean into the diner there was a couple sitting in the diner.

Dean was looking at the young couple with interest. A young waitress was serving them both pie, apple pie that made Lady's appetite disappear and stomach church nervously. "On the house. Your car should hopefully be ready soon."

Lady studied the couple, smiling when the woman looked her way. She looked back at Dean, "I think they aren't from around here."

Dean nodded, his eyes wandering as he thought. He slid his chair slightly closer to the couple's table, "I'm sorry, did I just hear you were having car trouble?"

"Uh, yeah, something with the brake lines," the man said. "I didn't even know anything was wrong with it, I'm lucky we stopped here."

"Yeah, we may have been stranded in the middle of nowhere if they hadn't caught it," the woman added. "It's a great town, are you from here?"

"No, no just passing through," Dean said with a stiff smile. "You'll be leaving soon?"

"Hopefully. They said it probably wouldn't be ready until night," the man said.

Dean smiled forcefully, "You know I'm not that bad at cars. If you want I'll take a look for you."

"Uh, no thanks, it's being taken care of."

"It's just, really hate to see you have to drive at night. It really isn't safe, at night," Dean said.

"Excuse us, we're trying to eat," the man said.

Dean looked at Lady for help. She looked away as she tried to sort through different thoughts of how she may help him convince the couple without them believing they were crazy. She was unable to sort through much because Dean kept trying on his own. "You know, if my brother was here he'd feed you this great line, but I just don't have it."

Lady suddenly kicked Dean, and he glared at her. She leaned across the table and clenched his wrist, "A cop is coming, I cannot be arrested!" she hissed in his ear.

Dean turned as the chime above the door sounded and an officer walked in to make a beeline for them. Lady looked up at the officer with wide eyes, frozen in her seat until Dean yanked her out of it. The officer quickly ordered them to get in their car and to leave, that they were not welcome there.

"So…your warrant for this state, or is it bad enough to get you extradited somewhere else?"

"Doesn't matter. Us being in jail helps no one," she said as she pulled out the map. She folded it so she only saw the town and surrounding area. "I might have an idea."

Dean slowed the Impala and parked on the shoulder of the road. "Considering we just got banished from that town I don't think they'll let us pass through so we can torch a few acres of apple trees."

"That couple still has an hour or two. We know where they are going to be sent, we just need to be there to stop it." She traced the road they were on to the road the orchard was on. "Okay, we bypass the town entirely, come up this way. How many miles is that?"

Dean watched her finger and estimated the distance, "I can make it."

"This is a pretty big circle to avoid the locals from seeing us," Lady said.

"I can make it," Dean assured her.

As promised Dean made it around the town before nightfall. He parked the Impala off the road not far from the orchard and within sight of the road. He watched out his window for signs of headlights.

"I should have brought the doughnuts," Lady sighed as her stomach growled.

Dean smirked, "Want me to get you an apple?" he asked without looking at her.

"That's not funny yet," Lady said solemnly.

"You just bit an apple, you aren't the one causing this," Dean said more seriously. "So what's your story? This whole thing has gotten you worked up."

"I just don't think it's very nice to sacrifice ignorant people," Lady said quietly.

Dean finally looked over at her, "You don't think it's 'very nice'? How about it's sick, disgusting, twisted...?"

"That too," she agreed. "Think we should call Sam and ask for help?"

Dean shook his head, "Sammy's probably halfway to California right now. So I'm doing this alone, and you get to sit in the car." Lady snickered. "No, I'm serious."

"I know you are. Thing is, Dean, stopping these kinds of rituals is what I do. From what I've heard about you I trust your judgment, you know your stuff and I get that you know next to nothing about me. You want to take the lead, that's fine. I'll hang back to stay out of your crossfire, but you aren't going in there alone."

"You're right, I don't even know if you know how to use that gun," Dean said, glancing at the barely noticeable bulge under her arm. "And the thought of running into the dark with that in your hand makes me a bit nervous."

"Well if they wait much longer my stomach may digest me inside out and I will just be a pile of goo in your car so you won't have to worry," Lady said, the way she saw the conversation continuing neither of them would make much headway in convincing the other.

"Use your psychic mojo to keep from making a mess of my car, alright?" Dean joked with her. She smiled slightly and he went back to looking out the window. If he thought about it he could still be angry at Sam and his father, but right now he was enjoying himself. Caught up in the hunt and even enjoying Lady's company. Sure, he was tired, hungry, and his ass was going numb, but this was one of the things he lived for. Save a life, kill an evil son of a bitch, it was all in a days work.

"They sure are taking their sweet time," Lady muttered, leaning forward and putting her chin on the dashboard.

"I can think of a few ways to pass the time," Dean smirked and looked at her.

It took Lady a moment to catch the flirty look in his eye and she raised her eyebrows in shock, "Serious? We're waiting for a fertility ritual to start and you are trying to get laid? What ever happened to needing to focus on the job?"

He shrugged, "We could just make out for a bit. Just a suggestion."

"Alright," she said, and Dean's eyebrows lifted in surprise as she slid across the seat and turned easily to fit between him and the steering wheel. "Something like this, maybe?"

Dean's hands went to her hips and his eyes locked onto hers. He resisted the desire to pull her all the way down to his lap and settled for slowly moving his hands down her thighs. "More room in the back, but this could work," he said, and leaned forward to kiss her.

Lady dodged the kiss while leaning forward, their cheeks brushing until her lips were at his ear. She was thrilled to see this side of Dean return, however it wasn't a good time "As much fun as I could have with you, I will have to decline."

Dean let his hand slide back up her thigh and around to the small off her back, "Why is that?" He asked, her soft hair tickled his face and he moved to nuzzle her neck to get things started.

Without warning the door opened and Lady was outside. "Time to go to work, that's why," she said.

Lady had moved so quickly from his lap it left him suddenly cold, but he had little time to think about it as he saw headlights in the distance. It was the first car they had seen all night, while it may just as easily be the officer from earlier or a local on a cruise it was just as likely it could be the unknowing sacrifices being delivered. He quickly put the fresh memory of Lady's warm body hovering over his lap to the back of his mind and got outside of the car to open the trunk. He pulled out his shotgun and a flashlight. "Stay here."

"Okay," she said.

He handed her a flashlight, "If I'm not back in half an hour...call Sam." Suddenly he felt the time crunch and he saw down the road the headlights flickering on the car and it was close enough he could hear the engine begin to stall. He looked back at Lady and opened his mouth to ramble off more instructions if things went badly.

"I'm not inept. Go," she said and glared at the skeptical look he gave her.

He turned to run towards the orchard and abruptly stopped when Lady grabbed his ass. "Hey!"

"For luck," she smiled. "Go, lives at stake. Jeepers Creepers, all that." Lady let her smile fall once Dean was running through the apple trees. She put the flashlight in her pocket, the moon was bright enough that she wouldn't need it, and checked her pistol as she began to run silently down the road. Her cell phone had no reception, whether it was from EMF or just a bad area she didn't know and it didn't matter. She reached the vehicle, a red jeep. It was completely dead, not even the dome light inside would come on. It was the car the couple at the diner was getting repaired. The backseat was full of bags, no one had come with them. Not far into the orchard she heard the blast of a shotgun and a woman screaming.

Lady let out a curse as she ran into the orchard, maybe she shouldn't have trusted Dean on his own. As she was praying he hadn't accidentally peppered the innocent woman with buckshot she caught sight of his flashlight and heard him shouting for someone to run.

Lady saw the woman, running the wrong way. "Hey! Hey, this way!" Lady called, the woman looked at her with wide and terrified eyes, and then ran into her so hard Lady had trouble keeping them upright. She was stammering in fear. "Go!" Lady shouted, turning and making sure the woman was facing the way to the road as she began to run.

Lady stayed still as she saw the man running, closely followed by Dean, "Go! Go! Run!" Dean was urging him on.

The man tripped over his own feet before Lady could reach him. Dean was already helping him up. "Dean, where is the ritual?" she asked.

"Ritual? There is no ritual!" Dean shouted at her.

Lady's eyes grew wide as she saw a large lumbering figure, and put her flashlight on it. The scarecrow they had seen before was walking on its own. It was over eight feet tall but stick thin, and carrying a sharp sickle.

"Okay, we need to run," Lady said, grabbing the man's arm and shoving him forward. She winced as Dean shot the scarecrow with another load of buckshot. As the man was moving more easily on his own feet again she turned. Dean was running and the scarecrow wasn't lumbering anymore, it was moving swiftly and almost silently with the sickle being raised to slice at Dean's neck.

"Move your ass, Dean!" Lady shouted, pulling out her pistol and aiming above his head at the scarecrow's hand. There was a ring of metal on metal as she hit the sickle, slowing down the scarecrow.

Dean looked back, startled as the scarecrow let out a feral roar. "C'mon!" He grabbed her arm and pushed her in front of him as they ran out of the orchard. The couple was in their car, doors locked as they desperately tried to start it. Lady and Dean both stood in the middle of the road, weapons aimed for any movement. Deep in the orchard the scarecrow was retreating.

"I don't think it can leave," Lady said.

Dean bent over to catch his breath and rested his hands on his knees for a moment. He grimaced as he stood up straight, "I told you to wait by the car."

"You also said stay out of the orchard," Lady said.

He let out a huff of breath and let it go. "Good shot," he offered her before he turned to the trembling couple. "You two okay?"

They nodded weakly, too stunned to do anything else.

"Good," Lady said, smiling. "Do you guys have any food in your car?"

"Uh...uh, the diner gave us an apple pie...?" the man looked confused.

Lady grimaced, "Never mind."

Dean checked out their jeep for a few minutes to try and get it going, Lady held the flashlight on his hands. "Well, this isn't what I expected," Lady said quietly.

"You can say that again. Instead of a pagan ritual we have an actual pagan demi-god," Dean muttered. "How much do you know about them?"

"General knowledge? Plenty. Like I know an actual manifestation of a god is a crazy thing to try to do," Lady said. "What worries me is I didn't find anything that would be related to a summoning ritual. I mean…holy hell, an actual pagan god?"

"Demi-god," Dean said. "If it was a real Pagan god, we'd be dead," Dean said.

"Hey, I have a thought I want to run by you," she said quietly, glancing at the couple that were trembling inside their car. "They gave them an apple pie for the road and..."

Dean let out a frustrated breath and took the flashlight from her hand to position it where he needed it, "Damn it, Lady, just eat it. It isn't that big of a deal."

"I'm not whining about being hungry," she said. "I remember the waitress gave them a slice on the house while we were there. What if they were fattening them up for this thing?"

Dean paused in his work and then shrugged. "Disturbing, but doesn't sound half bad. Something like this can't be easy to set up. They have the diner feeding them, someone at the garage to fix the car, probably fix it so it breaks down at the right place and time." He stood up straight, "I think whatever they did was probably something with the computer. I don't know."

"They ever find the other couple's cars?" Lady asked.

"Nope. They probably come out here in the morning to get rid of the evidence. Well, let's get them away from here and worry about this piece of crap later."

After a few minutes in Dean's back seat the couple were getting over the shock and began asking questions, practically begging them to deny what they had nearly been killed by was real. Dean could only say he was sorry that it was and that they should have listened to him when he offered to look at their car earlier. If Sam had been in the passenger seat he would have been comforting them, assuring them, something.

Lady turned in her seat and looked at the couple. "Even if we explained it to you, you wouldn't believe it. And you saw it with your own eyes. So tonight, best thing I can recommend is get drunk, pass out, and when you wake up tomorrow call a tow truck to bring your car to a garage as far away from here as possible. After a while you can laugh at how you got stranded on a county road and got spooked by a scarecrow in an apple orchard at night and how two strangers gave you a ride as far away from there as possible."

"I don't think we can just...forget," the woman said.

Lady nodded, "I know. When that fails just be grateful that you are alive, and next time just stay on the damned interstate."

Lady turned back to face the front of the car. She sighed as her stomach growled again, but didn't vocalize her complaint. It was easy to feel good about saving two people, but having to talk them through the trauma was a pain in the ass. She felt for them, more than she'd admit to anyone, but all they had been through was a scary experience. They would have to overcome any emotional scars it left behind by themselves and with time, just like Lady had to do.

Dean made sure the couple got a hotel for the night in a town an hour away, and then stopped to refuel the Impala and pick up some food.

Lady ate three hot pockets and was crunching potato chips on the drive back to the motel. "I thought this was your area of expertise," Dean taunted when she still didn't have an idea of how to proceed.

"I study witchcraft. This sounded like pagan witchcraft. I wasn't too far off. Jesus, why couldn't it just be a few witches burning incense? At least they go down when you shoot them."

Dean nodded in agreement. "Well, what do you think? Needs darkness?"

Lady nodded, "Has to, you were groping the thing earlier today and it didn't touch you."

"I wasn't…" Dean rolled his eyes. "Okay, so the god possesses the scarecrow at night and takes the sacrifices. We just need to find out what flavor of pagan we're dealing with. Shouldn't be too hard, I bet we can wrap it up long before nightfall tomorrow." Lady sucked in a breath as she crumpled the empty bag of chips. Dean glared at her.

"What?" she asked. "I was hungry." She began to rub the oily salt onto her jeans before digging in the plastic sack that had more convenience store food and snacks.

"Just try not to mess up my car, okay?" Dean said.

The clock said it was one in the morning once Dean parked the Impala beside her Beetle at the motel, relieved it still had the vacancy sign up. She wasn't tired enough to go to sleep, too much pent up energy and excitement, but she knew once the adrenaline faded she'd need a few hours of sleep. At the very least a shower.

"Where are you going?" Dean asked as she walked away from her car toward the motel office.

"Going to get a room," she said.

She turned back to look at him as he fished the motel key out of his pocket, "I got one," he said with a smile. "C'mon."

Lady knew exactly what would happen if she went back into that motel room with Dean for the night. Both of them still hopped up on adrenaline, excited from flirting and the hunt. She nodded as she accepted his offer, grabbing her bag from her car and following him into the room.

Lady set her bag on the table and watched Dean out of the corner of her eye as he filled his cooler with ice and took a cold beer. "Thirsty?" he asked.

"Sure," she said, and he handed her a cold bottle.

Dean watched as she took off her jacket, checking the holster she wore to keep her pistol easily hidden and easily in reach. She took the gun out of the holster and ejected the clip and the bullets. From her bag she pulled out what looked like to be a make-up bag, but inside held equipment he immediately recognized as cleaning instruments for a weapon. He had to admire a woman who could not only shoot a weapon out of a monster's hand at twenty yards but even knew how to maintain her gun. He gave up on watching her and stretched out on the bed to watch TV.

When she moved again she was cleaning out her pockets. Two extra clips for her pistol, a butterfly knife, cash and her cell phone. Without a word she climbed onto the bed and folded her legs under her to watch Dean flip through channels on the television. He paused on an old black and white show. "I hate Lucy," she said, and he started changing the channel again.

He paused on a colorful program, the Wizard of Oz. "I don't think so," he muttered to himself and continued to flip through the channels.

"Give me the remote, I can find something," she said, holding out her hand even though she knew he wouldn't give it up.

"I drove you here, I paid for the room and I'm even letting you use half the bed…I get to watch what I want to watch," Dean said.

"You aren't going to find anything to watch if you only see two seconds of every channel. Let me have the remote."

"Nope," he said. "Maybe you'd like to do something other than watch TV?"

Lady was fighting the grin, she knew it had been coming. If he hadn't she wouldn't have been able to help herself. In the back of her mind she remembered John telling her not to, that he didn't want his son to be with her. But he really should have thought of that before he sent her on another hunt with him. "This might not be the best time for that," Lady said.

"Are you serious? You need to make up your mind."

"It's just if we do we'll miss Rocky and Bullwinkle," she said, reaching over and snatching the remote out of his hand before he could tighten his grip. She held it away from him as she changed the channel twice to the cartoon. She grinned victoriously at him as she put the remote on the nightstand next to her.

"You are a cocky little thing," Dean said, moving to reach across her to reclaim the remote.

Lady let him get closer before grabbing his wrist and pulling it back. He met her eyes, their faces close. Lady held his stare evenly for a moment before twisting his wrist and shoving him onto his back. "You really have no idea," she chuckled.

Dean laid on his back for a moment as if he accepted defeat, but he rolled to his stomach and got to his knees. He grabbed Lady's legs and pulled her under him with one tug. She didn't struggle as he gently held her down, and she met him halfway as he lowered his mouth to hers.

Lady was surprised at how soft his lips felt against the contrast of the rough stubble. He moved slowly at first, maybe waiting to see if she'd turn him down again. When she had she seen this happening she hadn't been fully prepared. While she could see and hear the future she couldn't feel it. She put one hand on the back of his neck and the other moved up his arm as she leaned into the kiss, licking his soft lips with her tongue before he opened his mouth to her. His hand moved to run through her silky hair, and she could feel his lips tug into a victorious smile as she let out a sigh.

She ran her fingers through his short hair as his mouth moved down her jaw and nudged him with her thigh in a brief warning before rolling him onto his back with her on top of him. He let out a soft breath as her thigh rubbed against the front of his jeans. His hands got another chance to rub her thighs before going of her firm butt as she kissed his mouth and rubbed against him. His fingers slid along the waistband of her jeans and under her shirt, touching smooth and warm skin.

Lady let her cheek slide against the rough stubble and kissed his ear before nibbling it gently while her hand rubbed against his firm chest and neck. Dean bowed his head to nuzzle her collarbone with a mix of lips, tongue, gentle teeth and rough stubble that made her breath hitch while his hands explored her torso. She could feel his excitement straining against his jeans and continued to gently rub her thigh against his front.

He slid his hands under her shirt to lift it up and she raised her arms so he could pull it off. The bra was quick to follow and then he wrapped her in his arms and gently moved her onto her back. His hand was at the small of her back, pressing himself to her through their jeans as he took advantage of her bare chest with his mouth, pausing only when he saw a tattoo on her ribs under her left breast. It was of a blue bird. Lady looked up at the ceiling waiting for the question or comment on it, but he only touched it with his fingers before kissing it and moving up to tease a firm nipple with his tongue.

Lady squirmed under his touch as the excitement grew and eagerly pulled at his shirt until he pulled it off. She hadn't expected Dean to be so playful, after a little kissing and a lot of teasing she was eager to get to business. Her hands ran up his bare torso and around the painful looking wound on his chest. Dean was quiet as he waited for her to ask about it, but she just pressed herself to him and pulled his face to hers for a long and passionate kiss. His hands moved to the front of her jeans and began to work on the button of her jeans. She helped him get them unzipped and arched her back as his hands ran down her legs, pushing her jeans down as he did so, and tugged her socks off. He paused again to look at a tattoo around her ankle he had unearthed, green vines with a few colorful flowers and a ladybug. He ran his hands back up her legs and gently rubbed his fingers over her panties, already moist and fragrant making his own desire pulse higher as he kissed up her naval to her neck. Once back at her lips her hands gripped the waistband of his jeans and tugged them without success until he unbuttoned them and carefully lowered the zipper.

Dean's heart was beating faster with excitement as she tugged his jeans down. He let out a low moan as he kissed her firmly and pushed her back down on the bed. His kiss deepened and broke only when she started giggling.

"What?" he asked, nearly breathless.

"Sorry. Rocky and Bullwinkle, funny as hell," she said, trying to hold back the laughter. "ADD isn't even close to what I have. I'm sorry."

Dean couldn't help but drop his head to her chest and join her laugh.

"Really, I'm paying attention," she said, running her hand up his spine and over his neck and through his hair.

"You sure? Want me to shut it off?" Dean asked, kissing her neck while still letting quiet chuckles shake his chest

"Might be a good idea, that way if I start laughing you'll know it's because of you," she said.

Dean looked up at her with a serious face, but couldn't keep it because of the wicked grin on her lips. "You are so asking for it," he said, letting a hand run over a soft breast as he got to his knees to look for the remote that had started this. He grabbed it from its spot on the nightstand, he moved to his knees so he could reach it and pointed it at the television to shut it off.

Lady went to her knees behind him, pressing herself against him while her hands moved in a teasingly slow trail down to his tented boxers. Dean stayed still and closed his eyes at the sensation. Her lips on the back of his shoulder blades, the firm nipples and soft pillows of her breasts on his back. Her hands were gentle over his nipples and careful around the bruise but once clear her hand glided firmly across his abdomen before rubbing him through his boxers. Before her warm hand could slide into his boxers Dean twisted so he could face her and take her in his arms again. They wrestled gently, each of them trying to pin the other until Dean got Lady's shoulders on the mattress and she succumbed. Playing was half the fun but she felt if she didn't get what she wanted soon she might explode into flames.

Dean reached off the side of the bed to grab his bag, dumping half the contents out on the floor until he found his box of condoms. He had been aching for this the moment Lady had started to kiss him back and she seemed more than ready to move forward from foreplay. She pulled her panties off and kicked them off the bed, rubbing his thigh as he tore open the wrapper and unrolled the condom onto his erection.

"How did I miss this one?" he asked nearly breathless, his hand touching a shamrock tattoo on her hip that her panties had hidden. "It's like a treasure hunt with you."

"I think you found them all," she giggled, hooking a leg around his back and pulling him down to her. "Since you found all the pieces maybe you want to take the real treasure?"

Dean grinned as he heard the lust in her voice, the need that he had created in her. "I think I want to take another look at them actually..." he began to tease, but she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a harsh kiss that ended in her nipping at his bottom lip. He began the kiss again, more gentle as he guided himself inside of her. A low moan started deep in his chest as she surrounded him, the feeling of relief after teasing was quickly replaced with aching need for release as he moved inside of her. He rotated his hips rhythmically until his whole length was consumed by her, her soft breaths escalated as her hands changed from running through his hair to gripping his shoulders. Sweat prickled up his back with the work as pleasure ran up his spine and filled his chest making him moan again. He felt her hand slide over the small of his back and move down to squeeze his ass, the added touch and sensation urged him to move faster. He dropped his head, aiming for a passionate kiss that was stopped when she rolled him over.

He let out a surprised grunt before gripping her hips in his hands. For several moments he laid back and enjoyed the sensation of her moving on him, letting his hands caress her thighs and feel the muscles flex. "Damn, for a little thing you are strong," he gasped, sitting up and wrapping his arms around her while burying his face in her neck and getting ready to take back control.

"Maybe you are just a wimp," she said, her voice trembling and it was followed by a pleasurable whimper. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, prepared for when he changed their position again.

Dean chuckled as he held her close, "Oh, Lady, you are in so much trouble."

Lady moved with him as he moved her onto her back, her legs rubbing against his as she let out gasps and soft moans. Her hands ran up and down his slick back, changing from a gentle caress to a firm grip to dragging fingernails. Their sounds and movements escalated as ecstasy grew until neither of them could hold onto it any longer, ending in moans and delightful shivers across their bodies.

Dean kissed her once more before rolling onto his back and working on catching his breath from the energetic session. He moved his arm up, ready for the post-coital cuddle before they fell asleep.

"That was great," Lady said with a lazy smirk. "Goodnight, Dean."

"Good morning," he corrected, and frowned a bit as she rolled onto her side on the other half of the bed. He laughed, "You have another one on your shoulder. I missed that one."

Lady didn't look back as she grabbed her t-shirt and underwear from the floor, "Oh yeah, I forget that one is there. It's the Eye of Horus. Egyptian."

"Mmhm," he murmured as he quickly cleaned up before taking his share of the blankets and settling into the pillow. He stretched a bit and watched as Lady pulled on her shirt and underwear, getting one last glimpse of nude body. Once she was dressed she settled under the blankets on her half of the bed with her back to him. She adjusted the pillow and let out a yawn before going still. Good sex and he didn't have to do the snuggle afterward, good deal. Not that he really minded, but it was so often a pain to find a comfortable position with someone attached to you in bed. Usually that problem was solved by not sleeping with the woman after sex, but he was sort of stuck with Lady until the job was done. There was the good kind of ache deep in his muscles that only came from hard work and good sex. Sleep came quickly.

Lady had her back to Dean so she could pretend he wasn't there. That wasn't easy because he kept making happy noises until the heavy rhythmic breaths of sleep started. There was a small smile on her lips as she finally managed to fall asleep among the noise of Dean's breathing and the occasional rumble of a car outside. Maybe she hadn't been needed to save the couple tonight, but being a part of it felt good. It was exciting and terrifying, the jolt of adrenaline that came with it was a high she hadn't felt in a while. Added bonus of good sex that didn't include batteries. All in all, it was a good day.

Lady woke up not long after dawn when a car horn honked. Dean was sleeping on his stomach and she grinned at the smooth skin of his back and lines of muscle. There was a bit of smugness that came with hitting a particularly good piece of ass, and Dean was a good piece. Her smile vanished quickly as she went to the bathroom, wondering the consequences of banging John's son would be. John wouldn't like it but he didn't have to know. She had no plans to tell him and since he wasn't talking to Dean that meant he wouldn't find out. But the memory of John asking, no telling her, not to do that to him was starting to repeat in her mind. Lady still wasn't sure what John meant by that. Dean seemed perfectly capable of understanding the difference between a casual stress-relieving fun hook-up from something emotional. She'd been doing this for a while, she'd gotten pretty good at finding the guys who wanted the one-night stand or occasional booty call. She was fairly confident that Dean's intentions were the same as hers. Mutual attraction, why fight it? Enjoy each other, and move on. Maybe once or twice again before moving on, but he was the type she usually looked for. Casual and flirty, easy to pick up, not shy, oozing self-confidence.

She stepped out of the bathroom after a shower and Dean jerked awake, reaching under his pillow for where he normally hid a knife but hadn't thought to put it in place before he had fallen asleep. "It's only seven," she said before he asked.

"Crap," he muttered, getting out of bed and walking to the bathroom. She glanced, disappointed he had at some point put his boxers back on.

"Is that bad?" she asked, grabbing one of the remaining doughnuts and turning on the television. The doughnut was beginning to stale already and difficult to chew.

"We only have so much daylight to kill that scarecrow," he said through the bathroom. A moment later she heard the shower start.

Lady looked at her bag on the floor and was reaching for it before her phone rang. She saw who it was and quickly slipped her jeans on while answering it, "Hold on," she said into the phone and waited until she was outside of the motel room to say, "Go ahead."

"Safe to talk?" John asked.

"Yeah," she said.

"How are things going up there?"

"Good," she looked at the motel door. She couldn't hear the shower from there but was sure Dean needed more than two minuets to get clean but she didn't want to destroy any bit of trust she may have earned from him, it would make helping John harder. "Dean plans on doing research today and hopefully take it out tonight. If not we'll stick around to make sure it doesn't get a sacrifice before its deadline and figure it out then. And it's an actual pagan demi-god, John. Not some pagans doing a ritual, an actual god!"

"Nothing he can't handle. Good work," John said. "I was afraid Sam may have figured it out already and you'd have to keep them busy over there."

"Well, funny thing," Lady said. "Sam is on his way to California."

"Crap," John muttered. "Why didn't you call to tell me?"

"You specifically said not to call you," she said.

"Listen…you have to get Sam back there," John said. "If…if he comes here he'll be in danger."

"How am I supposed to do that?" she asked in a hiss.

"I can't… You'll be protecting them if you do this."

"Aside from telling the truth which is a guarantee that Dean will join him shortly, I don't know what to do, John," Lady said in a soft voice.

"Just tell Dean he needs to protect his brother and he needs to get him back there," John ordered.

"Have you seen Sam recently? He's a big boy, he can handle himself," Lady countered.

"Not against this," John said angrily. "Damn it! Just...I get it, okay? Do what you can, try to get them back together if you can. And thanks for the warning, I think I can wrap things up and be out of here before he reaches the west coast."

"Okay. I'll...I don't know, I'll try," Lady said.

"I'll call tomorrow, same time," John said.

Lady ended the call and shoved the phone in her pocket. She ran across the street for coffee and fresh doughnuts at the convenience store and when she entered the motel Dean was dressed and on his cell phone. He turned his back to her and said quietly, "When you find him give me a call, okay? Bye."

Dean faced her as he closed his cell phone and Lady smiled happily, "I brought coffee."

"Thanks," he said, taking the cup she offered. "This is good. I was about to drink the cold one from yesterday morning. What's in the bag?"

"More doughnuts," she said.

"No apple turnovers?" he asked with a smirk.

She shook her head, "Still not funny. It might get there, but definitely not while this thing still exists."

"Hopefully it won't exist by noon today. While you were gone I checked into a few things. I talked to a local college and found out most of this area was settled by Scandinavians, I'm pretty sure we're dealing with something from Norse mythology." Lady gave him a blank look but he continued. "I checked and the local college has a mythology professor who specializes in Norse mythology. I set up an appointment with him. Whenever you are ready we'll go."

"Let me get dressed," she said, grabbing her bag and pulling out a fresh shirt. As she changed she asked, "Was that Sam?"

"Mmhm," Dean said through a mouthful of doughnut.

She sat on the edge of the bed to pull on her socks and shoes. Her tennis shoes were dirty from walking in the orchard the previous day but it seemed important to have reliable shoes instead of cute shoes. "You know, Dean, I have to admit something," she said as she slipped her foot into her shoe, tightening the laces. "When you showed up without Sam I was pretty worried. No offense, but you two just seemed like a good team, I wasn't sure if you'd be up for handling something on your own. But you totally have this down."

Dean chewed through his mouthful of doughnut and nodded a thanks.

"Maybe this will even turn out to be a good thing," Lady added. "Is it really that bad that he went to find John? After all, that's what the two of you started out to do, right?"

"Yeah, maybe," Dean muttered, taking another bite to avoid having to talk.

"So when this is done are you going to go help him? Or you have another job lined up?" she asked as she got the second shoe on her foot. He just shrugged as he chewed. "Well, focus at the task at hand I guess. Sam is what, twenty? He's old enough to be on his own."

"Almost twenty-three," Dean corrected. "And yeah, he is fine on his own. And I don't know, maybe he can find Dad."

"Alright, let's go," she said, smiling cheerily as she led the way out. Dean had a thoughtful look on his face and was mostly quiet as he drove. Lady kept a calm smile on her face as she tried to think of ways to fulfill John's request. Dean would only tolerate so much conversation surrounding his family and their drama, he was still a bit bitter. Both at his brother ditching the job to find their father and their father completely ditching them.

Dean parked the Impala at the college campus and they walked to the large building. It was a small campus, only a few buildings scattered around. Dean stopped one of the students and asked for directions to the professor he was looking for.

Lady reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, "One sec." It rang and she answered it. "Yeah?"

"Safe to talk?" John asked quietly.

"Not really. Sort of busy, will this take long?" Lady said as she followed Dean up a set of stairs.

She stopped suddenly, almost angrily before John said quietly, "I need you to ditch Indiana, come meet me in Montana."

"Holy shit, are you serious?" Lady snapped.

Dean looked at her curiously, "What is it?"

Lady let out a swear, "I got to take this. I'll meet you back at the car."

"Okay," Dean said.

Lady stomped back down the stairs, occasionally swearing into the phone at John. "You can't be serious," she hissed at him once she was outside.

"I found something I need translated, and translated quick."

"Fine. I'll leave when I can but I need to finish this up here."

"Dean hasn't figured it out yet?"

"You called me just a few hours ago, we barely got started for the day," Lady countered.

"The job isn't that damn hard, for crying out loud. I taught him better than that," John said angrily.

Lady had often been angered by John, but usually let it go because deep down she knew he had more experience than her. This anger was new. He was talking poorly of Dean, Dean who had pretty much figured out what his father already knew while she was intentionally holding back information on him and unintentionally giving him bad information. "He has it handled he just needs to find out how to kill it. We'll be done in a few hours, max."

"He should have spent time last night figuring this out. What the hell was he doing that was too damn important to finish the job?"

And only because she knew it would cause silence on the other end of the phone Lady said, "He was doing me." She smiled victoriously as the silence stretched on.

"Jesus Christ, Lady," John finally said in a low voice. "I told you to keep him busy not..."

Lady laughed, "Ah, he loved it. Want me to send you the pictures?"

"Just get to Montana."

Lady had a hard time wiping the grin off her face after he hung up, making John speechless was a hard task. Her grin only vanished when she saw the officer that had escorted them out of Burkittsville the previous day walking up the sidewalk at her, he had already seen her. No chance to hide. She went to call Dean first, then considered running. And then she decided that they were far from Burkittsville and the officer had no power or reason to arrest her, she stood her ground. "Good morning," she said brightly.

"Miss, I need you to come with me," he said, his hand on his pistol on his hip.

"Why is that?" Lady asked.

"I'll explain in the car. Come on," he said, reaching to take her arm.

Lady backed away and looked at her surroundings. There were a few students walking around, but not many. The ones that were there would assume the officer was escorting her for a good reason, shouting and screaming for help would only confirm that in their minds.

"You can't hold me for anything," Lady said. The officer was about to make another sudden grab for her and Lady did the best thing she could do.

She ran.

Lady had always been quick, even when she was a kid. However the police officer caught her hair flying behind her and pulled her back with a painful yank. She grunted as he pushed her to the ground and struggled in vain against his heavy weight as cuffs were slapped on her wrists. "Get your hands off of me!" She screamed as he began to pat her down, taking her butterfly knife and cash out of her pockets before taking her cell phone and pistol.

Lady couldn't break his hold as he dragged her to the police car. Going to jail was the last of her concerns, she knew what the police officer was protecting in Burkittsville. Going to jail in this circumstance would actually benefit her, but she didn't think she'd be that fortunate.

She sat with a grimace in the back of the police car, seeing her butterfly knife on the passenger seat beside her phone. The only thing separating her from them was a thick panel of bulletproof glass.

Fifteen minutes later Dean was shoved into the backseat with her. His possessions, his wallet, fake badge, a hunting knife, a couple of razors, lock picking tools, a lighter, a box cutter, his cell phone and of course his pistol.

Dean looked dazed and had a cut on the bridge of his nose that was swelling and bruised. He glared at Lady briefly and uttered, "Shit," in a low voice as he adjusted himself in the small back seat. "You okay?" He asked as the car started.

"Don Knotts here pulled my hair," Lady snapped.

"Shut up," the officer barked at her.

"Fuckhead," Lady snapped.

"Shut up, Lady," Dean mumbled.

She exhaled angrily out of her nostrils as her cuffs jangled behind her. They were secure and her hands weren't small enough to slip through.

They were uncuffed before being put into a cellar in the orchard. Dean tried unsuccessfully to break them out but the cellar door was locked from the outside.

"Save it for when they unlock it," Lady said quietly, she would need his help if they wanted to get out alive and they'd have a better chance if he didn't shatter his shoulder trying to break open the cellar door.

Dean turned on her, "Psychic, huh? Didn't see this coming?"

"I'm far from infallible. I even have the scars to prove it," she muttered. "Sorry, Dean. If I had been paying attention..."

"No, it's not your fault," he said. "Don't worry, we'll get out of this. I found out what it is, and I know how to kill it."

"Yeah? How?"

"This thing is attached to some sort of sacred tree. Burning it should get rid of it," he said.

"Oh. You have a lighter?"

"Yeah," Dean said, patting his pockets and realizing his lighter was gone. "Shit. No, I don't. Damn it, they took everything."

"Same here," Lady said. "So what is this thing?"

"A Vanir," Dean answered.

"Oh," Lady said thoughtfully.

"You've heard of them?" Dean sounded surprised.

"No!" Lady snapped. "And knowing what is going to slice me up doesn't help morale, now that I think about it."

"Don't worry, I'll figure a way out," Dean said. "Someone brought it back from the old country and as long as it is fed every year it protects the town. These people may not like what it does, but they are more worried about their own asses than anyone else."

"Well, optimistic side...at least after we're dead Sam and John will have a year to figure out how to take this thing down."

"Right, like Dad can be bothered with this," Dean muttered.

"I might not be drinking buddies with your father but I know he's determined to avenge and get justice and payback, all that," she said. "If he's been after what took your mother for over twenty years he damn well better take a year out of his busy schedule to handle a damned scarecrow."

"Vanir," Dean corrected lazily. He was trying to imagine his father avenging his death...and he couldn't. But he could see Sam coming back to this Podunk town to give it a shot. He sat on the floor and looked in Lady's direction. It was too dark to see her properly and the slivers of sunlight that came through the cellar door barely touched her. "I told Sam what was here, he knows more than I did when I came here. He'll come back and make sure it is taken care of."

"At least it's us and not that couple from last night," Lady said softly.

"Yeah, we have a shot of getting out alive," Dean muttered.

Lady had to smile and tried to see him through the darkness, but he was in the shadow where no sunlight touched. "Does that mean you have a bright idea?"

"Working on it," Dean muttered.

They sat in companionable silence for a long time, both of them searching for possible ways to survive. Lady wasn't nearly as scared as she should be, it was hard to be afraid of something she wasn't yet being faced with. The only thing that bothered her was that Dean was stuck with her, after John had sent her there to watch over him. It was the intention to keep him off of John's trail, but she could have avoided this somehow.

"How did you get into this?" Dean asked after a long silence. Lady was concerned for a moment that maybe Dean had figured out she was there under John's orders but he added, "Witch-hunting, that is."

"Just did, I guess," Lady said.

"No one just gets into this by accident," Dean said. "I know enough about you to make some guesses on why."

Lady chuckled, "You don't know much about me at all, Dean."

Lady went very quiet as Dean talked, "Las Vegas, '97. My father killed a witch that was sacrificing a teenage girl. The witch marked her altar with the same symbol you have on the inside of your wrist. My father wrote about it in his journal, only referred to the girl as little lady. I didn't make the connection until after we left Lawrence. And then the car, I remember an old Beetle like that being in Bobby Singer's lot rusting years ago. Most people get into hunting because they lost someone they cared about, they do it for revenge. Or they were raised into it by their parents. You don't fit either of those groups. So I'm curious. I'm thinking it's some sort of grudge against them, if it is that's fine."

Lady was still and quiet, with the dim light that filtered through the cracks in the cellar he couldn't tell if she was looking at him or not. He couldn't see the frown etched into every line of her face. After a while of silence he heard a soft clapping. "Good work, Dean," she finally said stiffly. "But no, it isn't about a grudge."

"I have a hard time believing that," Dean said, and she heard him moving around. "Like I said, nothing wrong with holding a grudge. They nearly killed you, after all."

"I hope you can see the irony that your father saved me from being a sacrifice, and now I'm being held to be sacrificed again with you."

Dean did see it and didn't appreciate the humorous tone her voice had. "I don't think it's funny."

"Sorry," she said quietly. "Guess I have an unusual approach towards certain death and an inappropriate sense of humor. Thing is, Dean, I don't think your father wrote all the details down in his journal, or maybe you missed them. At the time no one knew, it wasn't until several months afterward that we found out I had been cursed. I didn't start hunting out of a grudge against witches, I would have been happy to go on living my life. But whatever they did to me warped my mind so thoroughly I can see the future and cursed me so I wouldn't survive long on my own. I started hunting witches in an effort to find a way to lift the curse. However I've been living on borrowed time for years now, and when it comes to dying now instead of a year from now, doesn't make much difference."

"You are saying you are dying in a year?" Dean asked softly.

"Well, probably tonight from the looks of it," she corrected. "I don't share this information very easily, Dean. I don't need the pity, I came to terms that I'll be leaving a good looking corpse. I enjoy whatever time I have left, hunt witches when I catch their scent, help out people if I can." She let out a breath and shifted in the darkness, "Since you know if you get a chance to run without me, do it."

Dean didn't even hesitate, "No way I'm leaving you behind, Lady."

"Suit yourself," she said quietly. It had been a long time since she had told anyone of her impending death, she felt naked with the truth exposed. But if the truth helped Dean survive by using her to distract the scarecrow she was willing to live with that feeling for the next few hours they had left.

Lady cracked a smile as Dean said, "And if we don't make it I'm afraid you won't have much of a corpse left, won't be that good looking." Lady let a chuckle bubble out before he said, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that happened to you."

"Don't be," she replied. "It was a long time ago, I've dealt with it."

"So you know Bobby Singer?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," she said softly. "I know John and him don't get along anymore but Bobby's been a good friend to me. I wouldn't have turned eighteen without him. Any issues you and your father have with him do me a favor and leave me out of it."

Dean was quiet for a long time as he thought about Bobby Singer. He had been a close friend, like family, when Dean was growing up. He had no issues with Bobby, it was because of his father that he hadn't heard from or spoken to Bobby in nearly seven years. He wasn't sure what had happened between the two older men, his father had never told him. Dean had always liked Bobby, staying at Bobby's house had been the closest thing to a home he and his brother had growing up.

"You have family?" Dean asked quietly, wondering if Lady would be leaving anyone behind.

Lady shrugged, "Not really, but I have a few people who will wonder why I stopped answering my phone. They'll figure it out soon enough why." Lady saw him digging deeper into the topic and she interrupted with, "So Sam is what, six years younger than you?"

"Four," Dean answered. "He was just a baby when our mom was killed. That started this whole thing, you know? Dad is off hunting this demon right now, it's almost over and...this is how it ends. You have any siblings?"

"No," Lady answered. "Orphan, only child as far as I know, never knew my parents. Raised in foster care, few detention centers, until I finally decided I was tired of having strangers screw me up and ran away so I could just screw up myself." She quickly added, "Don't apologize. I work with the hand I was dealt, I didn't know any different and it never bothered me."

"You are an optimist," he muttered.

"No time to dwell on the past," she said, and shifted slightly. "Get ready, they are coming. Five, all armed. Don't do anything stupid."

Dean stood up and moved in front of Lady, but she moved to his side. The officer was the first one seen and held a rifle aimed at them as he motioned for them to climb the steps out of the cellar. Both of them winced at the bright sun.

"Doesn't matter if you succeed with us," Lady finally said. "We already made a call to others like us. People that stop these things from happening. They'll torch this whole orchid and..."

Lady braced herself as the middle-aged man from the diner struck her across the face. "Get your hands off of her!" Dean shouted, struggling against his own binds.

The group left them and Lady continuously struggled with the ropes. "You okay?" Dean asked.

"As good as can be expected. Think you can slip your ropes?"

"Nah, it's secure. Bet they have practice," Dean grunted. "You?"

"Trying, wrists too small, hands too fucking big," she relaxed and rested. "I know this isn't a good time but I have to pee."

Dean laughed, "Yeah, me too."

Lady sighed, "If your dad or brother were here what would they do?"

"Well, if I was with them instead we wouldn't be in this situation, they aren't women," Dean said. "Not that having you around isn't fun, but for this particular job it really backfired. Have to say the perks really didn't outweigh the benefits."

"Agreed," Lady said. She pulled herself up with her upper arms and attempted to hook her leg on a branch to pull it down. She managed to catch it with both feet but her weight wasn't enough to bring it down. She let out another huff of breath, "This blows." She looked at Dean who was watching her. "What?"

"You are very flexible."

"Get your last jollies in while you can, that's what I always say," Lady said, craning her neck to try and see the scarecrow. "Got what, hour until sundown? Think it needs full dark or just no sun?"

"Considering when I found out how to kill it we had all day I didn't wait to find out," Dean said. "Darkness, give or take half an hour."

"I'm sorry, Dean," Lady said quietly, and he looked at her.

"It isn't over," he said. "C'mon, don't lose your pep just yet, okay?"

She nodded and looked away. She wasn't apologizing for him being tied to the tree, although that was part of it. Dean was, in his own way, a good guy. If she thought about it long enough she could come up with a list of reasons he was even better than his old man. He deserved better than to be tricked into going on this hunt only to die.

As the sun set they both fell quiet, listening and craning their necks occasionally to see if the scarecrow was still there.

Lady heard the rustle of leaves before it happened let out a hiss of air to warn Dean. Moments later it happened and Dean tensed, restarting his useless attempt to untie himself.

And then Lady let her head fall back as she started laughing. "What? What?" Dean hissed urgently.

"Dean?" Sam called, hearing his brothers voice and beginning to run.

"Sammy?" Dean called back, and Sam came into view and fell to his knees by his brother. "Oh, I take everything back. I am so happy to see you! Come on, get me loose. How'd you get here?"

"I, uh, stole a car," Sam said, getting the last knot undone and moving quickly to Lady.

"That's my boy," Dean said, getting to his feet and flexing his hands to try and get circulation moving again. "Keep an eye on the scarecrow, it might come alive any moment."

"What scarecrow?" Sam asked, helping Lady to her feet.

"The one that isn't there," Lady said. "Which way is the fastest out of here?"

Dean put a hand on her back and gave her a shove in a direction before the three of them started running.

Lady skid to a sudden stop, "This way," she said, trying to turn and then stopping again. "Ah, fuck me," she groaned, looking around warily as she heard leaves rustling all around them.

"No time, come on," Dean said, grabbing her arm and pulling her forward again. He stopped when they reached a clearing filled with moonlight and people from the town armed with rifles. "Oh, now I get it," he softly, moving himself in front of Lady.

"Dean, behind us," Sam said.

"Listen to me, you guys don't understand what this thing is," Lady said. "Maybe it gives you some bitchin' apple harvests, but it isn't good or good for you. You are playing with an ancient power and it is only a matter of time before it backfires on you."

"You are staying right there until it takes you," the man from the diner said.

"I'm trying to save your lives," Lady said softly, looking at the woman with wide eyes. She swallowed hard as she glanced around the clearing they were in, seeing bad outcomes at the slightest twitch of her hand. "There isn't much time. We all need to get out of here."

"We're sorry, but this has to happen. If it doesn't..." the woman from the diner was saying but the man next to her, her husband, let out a short startled grunt as the sickle punched through his stomach from his back.

Sam and Dean both jumped and the rest of the people with guns turned and ran from their scarecrow as it hooked the woman with its sickle and began to drag them away. They were its sacrifice for the year.

Dean put a hand on the back of Lady's head and gently held her to his chest during the attack, but it didn't matter that he tried to hide the gory sight from her. She had already seen it in her head.

Sam ditched his stolen car after dropping Dean and Lady off at the motel. Lady followed the Impala back into town as the sky began to lighten, stopping in front of a house that had a police car in front of it.

"Why are we stopping here?" Sam asked anxiously.

"Bastard stole my things," Dean muttered angrily.

"Mine too," Lady said, stopping at the patrol car and seeing their things still on the front passenger seat. "Where are you going?" She asked as Dean walked up to the house.

"Payback," Dean said, kicking the door in and going inside.

"You going to help him?" Lady asked as she used a slim-jim to unlock the patrol car, Sam was standing nearby glancing around anxiously.

"Nah, I think he has this," Sam said as they heard a crash from inside. The lock popped up on the car as Dean stepped out of the house, shaking his hand and rubbing sore knuckles.

Lady grabbed her pistol, examining it to make sure no harm had come to it before putting it back in the holster. She took the rest of her things and left the rest for Dean. "I should head out, you guys have that tree handled?"

"You don't want to stick around for some roasted apples?" Dean joked as he put his pistol in the waistband of his jeans.

"Still not funny," she said. "I had plans to be out of here yesterday afternoon, a friend of mine needs some help."

"You were nearly sacrificed and haven't slept for a day, I think they'll forgive you if you are a bit late," Dean said and gave her a handsome smile, "Besides, now that this is taken care of..."

"Dean, I'd love to but I was just nearly sacrificed and I haven't slept for a day," Lady countered with a grin. "You two take care. Sam, watch out for him."

Sam smiled and nodded, "Yeah, sure."

Dean watched her walk to her Beetle with a lazy smirk for a moment until he gave Sam a smug smile. Sam rolled his eyes away but was unable to help the laughter that bubbled in his chest, "Yeah, I get it and I don't need to know."

"Lady is fantastic," Dean said with a grin. "And damn she knows how to blow off steam."

"Dean! C'mon!" Sam shook his head and led the way to the Impala.


	5. Lady's Tricks, April 2006

**A/N** - _A few songs that helped inspire the last half of this chapter. Weezer's 'Troublemaker' and Papa Roach's '...to be Loved'_

_For those that have been following the story so far I really appreciate it and I've gone back to re-edit the chapters already posted to fix a few grammar errors. And I've gotten up to chapter 22 edited and ready to post. Any feedback you can give and if you have any song inspirations please drop a reply or send me a message. Thank you.  
_

**April 16, 2006 - After Leaving Indiana  
**

Lady drove on the interstate going west until she could switch northbound. She had half a dozen messages from John on her phone. "Need a status update. When will you be at the rendezvous point?" "Lady, update. Call me back." "Listen, I get that you are upset and if you don't want to help that is fine. I'll find someone else." "Okay, I'm getting a bit worried. Just call me and let me know what happened." "WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?"

John answered his phone on the first ring, "Lady?"

"You listen to me," Lady said, fighting back a yawn. "I don't doubt that you know what you are doing when it comes to hunting these things. But I severely doubt that you know everything. In fact I know you don't, otherwise I wouldn't still have a curse in my blood and you wouldn't still be hunting the same damn thing for over twenty years. Now I spent most of yesterday tied up with Dean, not in the fun way either, and nearly got a Colombian necktie by a damn scarecrow. Now I am many things, John Winchester, but I am not petty enough to not return someone's call when they are relying on me even when I am upset with them. If I do not return your first message after a few hours, it is probably because I am about to die if not dead already. So instead of filling up my fucking voicemail box with your shit maybe you should start either, A, looking for a new translator or, B, try to call the person you know I am with to see if they know what is going on and when they don't answer their phone decide if you care enough to step outside of your own little world you've created for yourself to see if they need a hand. I don't care what happens to me, John, you know I don't and you know why. I am still alive at this current moment, plan on sticking it out as long as I can, but I nearly saw your son get killed last night, I saw two people get dragged off for sacrifice, I saw a couple traumatized. I'm honestly a little shaken up myself and I don't need to deal with your bull right now and I sure as hell will not tolerate you yelling at me." She let out a huff of breath, "Any questions?"

"Just when you think you can be here."

"I'll let you know when I'm across state lines," she said. "See you."

A few days later she was in Montana translating a small book. She read the words aloud in English and John feverishly wrote down what he believed was important and tapped his pen as she recited parts he didn't care about.

"I need a break," he muttered, rubbing his eyes. "You aren't the only one missing out on sleep."

"Yeah, I know," she said quietly. "You doing okay?"

John nodded, "Yeah, as good as can be expected. That ritual really helped, got them chasing their tails again. Thanks."

"You know I don't have a problem with blood loss, so anytime," she smirked.

John sighed and Lady raised her eyebrows as he asked, "So you and Dean?"

She shrugged, "Sorry, I only said that to get a rise out of you. You were getting on my nerves. I was just a bit stressed."

John chuckled, "So you didn't."

"Oh no, I totally hit that," Lady grinned.

John rolled his eyes and shook his head, "Jeez. Guess I shouldn't be surprised, knowing Dean's track record and yours. I suppose I deserved having to hear about it."

"I'll save the details for next time you get under my skin," Lady joked.

John laughed, "I saw that kid through puberty. I don't think you can shock me too much...but please don't try."

Lady nodded and then said, "He has a spectacular ass. You should be proud."

John laughed again and shook his head, "Okay, get back to reading."

Two days later John had what he needed from the book, although Lady hadn't understood any of it. It seemed to be a version of the bible, and she only knew that because the few times she had been stuck in motels she paged through their copy a few times. Otherwise the closest she got to religion was throwing a few dollars in a Salvation Army bucket during the holidays. She knew there was something out there, she had just witnessed a demi-god after all, but the bible was full of crap in her mind. There wasn't just one god, there were several. Some weren't bad, some were wicked, some were downright scary, and thankfully a lot of those old pagan gods had died long ago. If people wanted to fill their heads with faith in one God that was all holy and whatever, good for them. But Lady was more worried about the witches trying to become gods themselves.

"I know I don't say it, but I do appreciate your help," John said, and it sounded forced through his throat. "I know this doesn't make sense, but this is huge. I can't risk my sons being involved. I was trying to keep as many people out of it as possible but..."

Lady shook her head, "John, cut the sappy crap. You suck at it. Thing is I don't have much going on these days, the coven has been quiet and...well if you need me for anything you can always call."

"You really are okay with it, aren't you?" John asked her, talking about her short life span.

She nodded, "Yeah. I mean, it's still scary, you know? Some days are easier than others, when I think about all the things I'll miss out on. Then I look at your ugly face and decide middle-age is overrated."

John smiled a bit, "You aren't just going to..."

"John, don't start dwelling on my mortality now. Really, most of the time I'm fine."

He nodded, "Well, I need to get out of here. Uh, thanks, Lady. Take care of yourself."

Lady hung around Montana for only a few hours before driving again. The Beetle had added a lot of miles since she left North Dakota almost a month ago and was starting to sound a little rough. Her place in North Dakota was less than a days drive, but she turned south. Mason had assured her that her dog was doing well, enjoying chasing prairie dogs while eating him out of house and home and fertilizing his lawn with dinosaur sized loads. They'd be fine for a few more days. She pulled out her phone and brought up her contact list.

Her phone had a long list of names that she had long forgotten whose face went to which name, but there were a few that were always easy to remember. She found Bobby Singer's number and listened to it ring.

"Singer Auto Salvage," Bobby answered, sounding breathless and busy. She grinned.

"I vant to order pizza," Lady said in a thick eastern European accent.

"What?" Bobby snapped.

"Pizza! I vant PIZZA! And hot pockets."

Bobby was quiet for a moment before he started chuckling, "Is that you, Lady?"

"How's it hanging, Bobby?" she asked.

"I was about ready to reach through his phone and strangle you, other than that not so bad," he said. "Whatchya need?"

"Nothing, just wondering if I could stop in and have you check out my car. It probably needs one of those things. You know, where you go under the car and yell at me for forgetting and when you come out you are all dirty and..."

"Oil change?" Bobby sighed. "Every two thousand miles, kid, why is that so hard to remember?"

"Sure, whatever. So is that okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, of course. Hey, I was actually going to give you a call in a day or so. Found a new text. I've been looking through it but you could probably read it faster than me."

Lady had read so much the past few days that whenever she closed her eyes she saw Latin and wasn't looking forward to doing any more of it but Bobby would give her one of those concerned looks if she didn't at least try. "I'll have a look. Be there by nightfall."

Lady had always liked Bobby's place. It was quiet, not far out of town but far enough out of the way to avoid sirens and honking cars. It always had felt safe to her, too. If she didn't have a place in North Dakota to go to she may have stayed there more often, and Bobby didn't seem to mind the company too much.

"Where's the dog?" Bobby asked as Lady walked up to the house.

"I left him with a friend," Lady said.

"Come on in, I'll get you something to eat. Car will have to wait until morning."

"Sounds good," she said.

Lady dropped her bag on the sofa and met Bobby at the table. Normally Bobby ate his meals standing, walking, or at his desk. But tonight there were plates on the table. Nothing fancy, meatloaf and macaroni and cheese. Bobby wasn't known for his cooking but Lady wasn't known for her delicate palate, either. She'd eat just about anything as long as it wasn't moving, and she would eat anything if there was ranch on it.

"You going to tell me what you've been up to?" he asked, noticing the bruises that hadn't quite faded from being tied to the tree in Indiana.

Lady didn't argue, in fact she had come to Sioux Falls just for the chance to talk. There were few people she could talk to about what she had been doing for John. She could talk to Mason, an uninterested third party, but Mason didn't need to know. There was Missouri, but Missouri would want to talk face-to-face to see into her head as much as hear her words. At least with Bobby she could keep what she needed to hidden, and Bobby would listen with a hunters brain instead of a psychic's brain. John wouldn't appreciate her flapping her mouth, but she liked Bobby better than him and never hid that fact.

"Spare me why you were tied up, just let me know that...you know what, let me get drunk first."

Lady smirked, "Prude."

"I've known you a long time, kid, since you were a kid. Let's just start with how you've been."

"Doing well," she said. "Freddie and I looked into a bunch of false leads on the coven, went to Mardi Gras."

Bobby smiled a bit, "How is the monster?"

Lady smiled wider. Bobby may worry that Freddie was more supernatural than a regular dog considering what Lady had in her, but he gave Lady the benefit of the doubt. Even if Freddie was meant to be a witch's familiar he was Lady's, and Lady was no witch. Well, not a black witch, at least. "He's just a big happy giant. He sort of makes my life feel a bit more normal."

"Why isn't he with you?" Bobby asked, looking a bit concerned.

"It was easier to leave him behind...uh, about a month ago I got a message."

Bobby looked at her for a long time and finally said, "And?"

Lady finished her beer, "You aren't going to like it. It was from John."

Bobby tensed and grabbed a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. "Not liking it, but go on."

Several years ago John and Bobby had been close friends. Both of them had been there when she was being held by the witch, and with their joint effort they had saved her life. A few years afterward was when they had stopped speaking. Bobby was more upset with John than John was with Bobby, but since then as far as Lady knew they hadn't spoken or seen each other.

"You know John is a good guy," Lady said quietly. "Saying he's rough around the edges is an understatement, and I can't count the amount of times I wanted to scratch his eyes out in frustration but...you know I can't just ignore him."

Bobby nodded, "I get it, Lady. And I would never ask you to. Just...you need to be careful. John deals in heavy things and he's not always safe about it." Bobby narrowed his eyes on her, "You doing suicide runs for him, or something?"

"No," Lady said firmly. "He said he got wind of the thing that killed his wife. He stopped contacting his kids, he's doing this alone. Well, mostly, at least."

Bobby felt a chill settle in, "That ain't good. Makes sense, though. Demon activity is off the charts the past few months. It's bad out there. Answers my question as to why you have been suddenly interested in that stuff the past few months."

Lady shrugged, so she hadn't been as smooth as she thought she was when digging Bobby for information. Lady told him short version of what she had helped John with so far. Bobby nodded and commented a few times, asked a few questions but mostly let her talk.

Finally he asked, "So how are those boys? I haven't seen them since, been about six or seven years I guess."

Lady smirked, "I got to spend enough time with Dean to say I like him. Not sure about Sam, but Dean thinks the world of him."

Bobby filled both of their glasses with whiskey and tossed the empty bottle in the garbage, "John really thinks they are safer without him?"

"I'd have to say John knows that better than I do," Lady said. "But, uh, I've been doing a lot of thinking. I sort of needed someone to run this by, see if it makes more sense than it does in my head. I'm torn up here, Bobby. On one hand, I don't have much going on. I'm living on borrowed time as it is and it really doesn't bother me. On the other..."

"I haven't given up on you, kid. Never have, never will," Bobby said. "Just got to do what you think is right. Not for John, but for you. Do what you can live with. That's all any of us can do."

"Yeah, I know," she muttered. "And I do that, or at least I think I do. But I've found out over the past few years I can live with a lot."

"Kid, we have time left," Bobby said firmly.

"We've tried, what, a thousand counter curses?"

"And there are a lot more out there," he said. "Maybe a thousand-and-one does it."

Lady let out a breath, "I know how much work you've put into this. And I know without some of the remedies you found I wouldn't have lived long. But it just might be time to give up and say the witch won."

"That what you want? Just put your feet up and give up?" Bobby asked her.

"It isn't fair for you to do all of this."

"And it wasn't fair that we destroyed the only thing that could save you," he said, referring to the witch's spell book he had torched after rescuing her. "I can write a novel on everything that isn't fair in this world, and still have enough for a few sequels."

Lady looked at him with wide eyes, "I think I'm done, Bobby. I was ready to die a few nights ago. I knew it was coming and I was scared, but more for Dean than I was for myself. I mean, after talking to Missouri I went out on a limb and just started searching blindly for something, wondering if some miracle would hit me. Then I went to Indiana and that happened...I just don't think I care anymore. I've accepted it."

"You idgit. No you haven't!" Bobby snapped at her. "You just had a traumatic experience and you're being drunk and stupid. Now what you are going to do is pass out, sleep off the whiskey, and tomorrow once I'm doing looking at your car you'll take a gander at that book I told you about. And after that you are going back home, take a few weeks to remind yourself what you want to be alive for."

Lady nodded, "Yes, sir."

Drunk and tired Lady crashed on Bobby's couch. There were a few cots folded up in a spare room but neither of them were coordinated enough to attempt to pull them out. She spent the rest of the next day watching him look over her car and listen to him complain in what horrible shape it was in, both of them experiencing convenient amnesia of their conversation of the night before. She appreciated that about Bobby.

Lady went inside and spent most of the day reading over the book Bobby had told her about. Unlike John's small hundred page journal this was a thousand page ten-pound ancient text with several pages missing and a lot of the words faded. Bobby worked on his own things, a few research projects he had going on and returning calls. There were several hunters in the country and Bobby seemed to know them all. Because of his business he didn't leave South Dakota often to do his own hunts, but he did a lot of work just helping his friends and contacts.

Lady fell asleep with the book in her lap, not very far into it. Bobby smirked and gently took it from her lap and set it on the table before throwing a blanket over her. Her chin was in her chest and her feet on his coffee table, if he ever fell asleep like that he'd be stuck in that position for hours with stiff muscles. Lady, still young, would probably bounce out of that position in the morning without any issues.

He went back to his computer, not done looking into a situation in Houston that may or may not be a supernatural disturbance. He rotated his stiff neck and sipped on cold coffee as he clicked through local newspapers.

Lady shifted suddenly and he glanced over at her. Lady wasn't necessarily skittish, he had seen her dodge a knife without blinking, but she was easily startled from sleep. He once thought it was from trauma or nightmares but she had told him that her future sight often came through when she was sleeping and it was hard to ignore. Something as harmless as a phone ringing or a squeaky floorboard could wake her up. He waited for a noise that would eventually be coming and he watched her to see if it was something to ignore or not.

Lady sat straight on the couch, staring blankly ahead. Bobby stood up, he had seen her do this before, too.

Lady was staring at the wall, but she couldn't see it right then. She was in a crowded area, strip mall. There were several women waiting for a store to open, talking over each other as they all chatted happily. Something shifted and they began arguing, shoving. Then doors opened and they ran through. Someone began screaming, people were shouting. The vision adjusted and she saw a man getting pulled down to the ground, trampled by high heels. Chaos continued and the man didn't move from the ground, blood leaking out of his nostrils and mouth, dying as he choked on his own blood.

Lady blinked furiously and shook her head in an attempt to clear it, but the vision continued to play in the background of her head. "Everything okay?" Bobby was about to ask.

"Got to go," Lady said, standing up and nearly tripping over the blanket he had put over her. Her hands trembled slightly as she tried to disentangle herself. "Uh, sorry. You know...yeah."

"What was it?" he asked curiously.

"It was weird," she said, rubbing her eyes. "Looks like an accidental death, painful one, too."

"Need help?"

She shook her head. Her random visions were not anything Bobby ever dealt with and since she had learned to drive she hadn't needed anyone's help. "No, I can take care of it easily. Just...I don't get it, you know? Why I get them. The point, purpose...whatever."

"When was the last one?"

"About three or four months ago," she answered. "Um, I'll give you a call when I can come back and look at that book a bit more. Thanks for everything, Bobby."

"Drive carefully," he said firmly.

Lady always felt different when she saw a distant vision, in a good way. Any fatigue she had was gone. There was a heightened sense of alertness, and time seemed to move smoothly between the present and the future. The location of the vision wasn't exactly known, but she was driving south. She knew she would get there in time, there was no sense of great urgency with the vision that made her go faster than she was already driving. While she didn't know where she was going, she knew her sudden sense of direction would get her to the right place.

There was no known reason on why she received these visions. They were random, different times and places, but they all had one thing the same. The person that was the focus of the vision was dying. By the time she reached them she worked out a way to keep them from that death. There had been a few dozen over the past ten years. Murders, suicides and accidents from tragic to Darwin Award worthy. Men, women, old and young. There was speculation that a higher power was sending her to save them, but knowing where she got her visions from she doubted that. There was some connection between the deaths and where her abilities came from that she had never discovered, never even got close to uncovering to make a good guess.

The only thing she knew was that until she prevented the person from dying the vision would keep playing in her head like a movie. And since the visions had first started she had never allowed a person to die.

She reached the strip mall in a small town in Nebraska shortly before it opened and saw banners and balloons identifying a big sale. Lady held back her excitement as she saw the store was named Shoe Barn. Several people were already waiting outside.

"Excuse me," Lady said as she nudged her way through the group. "I'm not cutting, I work here. Excuse me, employee coming through."

Lady reached the doors as they were unlocked and swung open. She grabbed the man as he began to stumble from the flow of people rushing to beat each other to the best deals and moved him to the side.

"Get off of me!" He growled, shoving her away from him. "Crazy nut job."

Lady let the insult roll off of her as the vision vanished from her head. There was little that could kill her good mood after rescuing someone, even if they didn't show gratitude afterward. Riding the remaining high she ventured into the store to see what the big deal had been.

Lady adored shoes. Shoes were not as important to her as saving a man's life, however a few new shoes never hurt anyone. She had been all around the Midwest the past month with nothing to show for it but a few bruises. While material things were fun she had to be reasonable considering the only living space she had was the Beetle until she made it back to North Dakota and that her cash supply was running low again. There were a few shoes that weren't on sale that she would have bought in an instant if her cash situation was different, but she still found a few pairs that were a good deal and wouldn't keep her from putting gas in the Beetle or from getting a motel room for the day.

Lady found a motel near the edge of town that seemed quiet and checked in. It was clean and the bed wasn't too hard or too soft. And didn't smell like unwashed ass. The last bit of energy she had after the vision was fading quickly and she was ready to cover her head with a pillow and get enough sleep so that she could make it back to North Dakota after being away for so long.

Lady slept a few hours into the late morning when she woke up without reason. Her body was numb, an almost disconnected feeling she associated with an upcoming vision. Next all the sounds muted as new sounds filtered in, and the vision blinded her to the present temporarily.

A man, average height and a built a bit small with narrow shoulders. Plain and average, walking in the rain. There were cars around him, but no people. A parking lot, but she didn't see to where. And then bright white light flooded her sight as a bolt of lightening struck the man and at the same time a crack of thunder hit that made her wince and curl up.

Lady sucked in a breath as the vision went to the back of her mind, playing over and over. It wasn't the first time she had experienced visions back to back, but someone being struck by lightening...

Lady gathered her things quickly as she prepared to leave. Lightening was a natural thing, a tragic accident. Nothing more. And all she had to do was get the poor guy indoors or in a car before it hit.

That evening she was in Armstead Nebraska, a few hours from the last vision she had. She could tell the storm was on its way, the heart of the storm distant from the space between the lightening flashes and thunder. Whatever gave her the vision also directed her to the person the vision was about, just like she found the man who was nearly trampled to death she found the man who was about to be struck by lightening. She found a spot for her Beetle in the parking lot that was supposed to be where he died and saw what the parking was for.

A rodeo.

Lady kept herself from gagging. She'd smelled things far worse than animals and manure, but the stench was thick around the building. Lady had been given the opportunity to see a rodeo several times in North Dakota but had never attended one.

The first drops of rain were falling and distant thunder rumbled as Lady entered the arena. Signs on the doors and ticket booths declared the rodeo sold out, and she easily picked the pocket of a man waiting in line to score a pair of tickets before going to the back of the line. She may have few moral qualms of swiping a couple of tickets to save a man's life, but cutting in line was just rude and unnecessary...at least so far it was. She still had a good fifteen to twenty minutes to find her job in the crowd and keep him safe.

Lady thought about the vision, focusing on it as she moved with the line to see a way to keep it from happening. The job was just walking through the parking lot and it was empty because of the foul weather. More often than not there was an external source that Lady could manipulate if she couldn't manipulate the victim but tampering with the weather was out of her league.

She frowned a bit as she estimated the crowd, the arena could easily sit several thousand. With that many people once the event was done the parking lot should have been full regardless of crap weather or not. This was her first rodeo and didn't know how long it would last but it had to be more than twenty minutes long.

Once inside Lady never took her seat, staying by the nearest exit that would lead to the area of the parking lot the accident happened. She knew the victim was somewhere near, but the crowd was too large to find him easily, but while a woman was forcing a horse to speed between barrels she found him getting in line at the beer vendor, less than ten minutes until the deadly strike. She stepped into line behind him and patted her pocket to make sure she hadn't lost her cash. She hadn't, she would put good money that she was the only skilled pick pocket in the trusting small town.

The man was rather plain looking. Shaggy brown hair, dull blue eyes, average height and a bit of a slight frame. If she hadn't been looking for him she would have ignored him completely.

As if he could feel her studying him he glanced behind his shoulder and gave her a once-over. Lady smiled politely and shifted on her feet impatiently as she waited for the line to move.

"I'm sorry, have we met before?" The man asked, turning to her again.

Lady's eyes widened in surprise, and looked over the man more carefully. "I…I can't put my finger on it, but you do look familiar," she lied, giving her voice an east coast accent to make it obvious she wasn't from the area. The urgency was beginning to weigh on her and if it was just simple enough to get him talking until the worst of the storm passed then she could live with that. Her rescues didn't have to be heroic, in fact she preferred that they remain as low key as possible.

A smirk appeared on his face, "Yeah…yeah, same here. What's your name?"

"I'm Lady," she said, holding out her hand.

He took her hand in hers and shook it, "Nathan."

Lady took her hand back and shook her head, "Yeah, still not ringing any bells, but it's nice to meet you. The, uh…the line is moving."

Nathan chuckled and took a few steps forward before turning to her again, "Where do you work, Lady?"

"I just got into town, I haven't found a job yet," she answered. Being unemployed usually kept the job questions at a minimum, which helped. She didn't have the energy to make up an occupation.

Nathan took a few more steps and turned to her again, "Yeah…I'm still trying to place it."

Lady smiled at him, "The weather lately has been strange, hasn't it? Thunderstorms this early?"

Nathan shrugged, "We've had stranger. Your accent, New Jersey?"

"That is right," Lady nodded. "I've only been here about a week. It's the farthest west I've ever been."

"Than we must never have met each other," Nathan said. "Which is a relief because if I had forgotten someone as beautiful as you I would have deserved to die."

Lady's eyes widened at the compliment and his choice of words, "Well, aren't you the charmer?"

"C'mon! The line's movin'!" Someone behind her snapped.

"Can I buy you a beer?" he asked, getting to the front.

"Sure," Lady said, happy to save the money.

Nathan ordered two beers and dug in his pocket. "Damn, I must have left my wallet in my car. If you save a spot in line I'll run and get it."

"You know what, I got this round," she said, pulling out a twenty and taking the measly eight dollars back in change. If the idiot had forgotten his wallet in his car that would explain why he had to venture into the storm to his car.

"No, no," Nathan countered.

"Yes," she said eagerly. "Would you like to come sit with me? I'm here alone."

Lady wasn't surprised how easy it was to get Nathan off his deadly path, the vision had already stopped playing in her head as he helped her find her assigned seat. She'd use the last bit of energy she had to see if the rodeo was something she could find interesting without a graphic death playing in her head and hopefully by the time she was ready to go back to her motel the rain would have stopped.

Nathan was immediately flirty, and Lady returned it easily. Maybe she wouldn't be alone tonight. Lady was smiling and flirting as Nathan put his arm around her waist and drew her closer to him, he was much bolder and confident than his appearance would have made her assume. That in itself was more of a turn on than general appearance. Someone who could skip half the bull that relationships and hook-ups had to go through was her type. Lady didn't have time to handle long-term relationships and didn't want any strong emotional connections. She had her dog and a few friends to help her when she needed emotional support, when she wanted sex it was easier to find someone who was available for a night or two and then be done with it. Normally she went after guys like Dean, physically appealing and emotionally distant, shallow and self-centered. Or at least the ones that are obvious that they are just looking for a hook-up.

Between their flirting neither of them were paying attention to the rodeo. A man riding a bucking horse and trying to keep from being thrown off was right in front of them, close enough to smell if she hadn't grown accustomed to the large animal's reek long ago. The man got thrown from the bucking horse and the horse charged into the metal guardrail that was set up. Normally it should have been strong enough hold the animal at bay, but a previous hit by a bull earlier in the night had knocked one of the pins that held the gate in place loose enough to knock it down onto the crowd. The crowd scattered immediately as the horse bucked towards them. It landed on Lady and Nathan. One massive hoof threw Lady back and rolling, while another landed squarely on Nathan's chest and crushed his ribs and organs, killing him almost instantly.

Lady let out a breath as she came back to the present, her skin prickling from the sudden vision that had come without warning and had taken her breath away. Now she ignored Nathan and was very interested in the bucking horse in the arena and the vision nearly vibrating in the back of her mind. "I love the rodeo, don't you?" Nathan asked, smiling widely.

Before he could go into the majestic animals that were being abused for the entertainment of people Lady moved like she was going to kiss him and spilled the remainder of her beer on his lap. She pulled away, looking horrified…which was easy, the vision had spooked the hell out of her. "Oh! I'm so sorry!"

Nathan just looked stunned as she patted at the wet spot in the middle of his pants, "Uh…yeah…that's okay."

"I…uh…I…I am really sorry," Lady said, more earnestly now. "Let me check if someone has a towel."

Nathan looked up as Lady nearly jumped out of her seat and climbed down two rows of people and stood next to the gate. "Excuse me, do you work here?"

The man was wearing tight jeans, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat. He seemed like a perfect candidate to work at the rodeo, however the majority of the men and women were wearing the same type of clothing. But he did have the advantage of wearing heavy gloves as well. "Yeah, something wrong, miss?"

Lady glanced at the fence and pointed, "Isn't that supposed to be all the way in?"

The man squinted at the pin that looked like a slight shake would make it drop out completely. He wrapped a gloved hand around it and slid it back into place securely, "Thanks…" he started to say, but Lady was already climbing back up to her seat next to Nathan.

"It's no big deal, really," Nathan said as she took her seat back.

Lady wiped at the sweat on her forehead. The heat in the building and moving made her feel warm enough that she might steam once she went back outside. "I'm sorry, they didn't have anything."

Nathan smiled, "Lady, it's…" Lady flinched and everyone around her jumped in their seats as the horse hit the metal guard. "Whoa! Did you see that?" Nathan said, standing in his seat so he could get a better view of the horse trying to get some sense back after nearly knocking itself out. "Check out that beast!"

Lady didn't look at the horse, she had already seen more than enough of the animal. Seen how small she was compared to it. It was a blessing that she couldn't feel pain from future events, but she could imagine how painful that would have been for her. Not nearly as bad as Nathan, considering he would have been completely crushed.

After saving the man's life twice within half an hour the fatigue that followed her visions became heavier, and he quickly noticed her change. "Do you want to get out of here?" he asked, giving her a sly smile. "Maybe grab a bite to eat?" Lady was preparing to decline when he said, "You bought me a beer, let me buy you dinner."

As easy as it was to get money it was hard to turn down a free meal. "Yeah, sure."

The storm had settled down but it was still raining heavily. She followed his car out of the parking lot, and nearly rear-ended him when another vision of a semi plowing into him hit her. Her hands were shaking now as she turned on her hazard lights and honked her horn while she pulled her car to the side of the road. Nathan had been watching her headlights behind him like a hawk, afraid she may ditch their date once they were separated, and quickly pulled over. The intersection ahead of them a semi sped through a changing light and several cars honked at it.

"I'm glad you noticed!" Lady said breathlessly as she met Nathan outside of their cars. "My brakes aren't working! I nearly hit you!"

"Oh no! That's horrible!" Nathan said, taking her hands and pulling her into what he considered a comforting hug. She looked terrified, like most women who were inept about cars were when theirs suddenly stopped working. Lady would have been able to fake that fear easily, but she was freaking out with the newest vision.

She gave up a good chunk of her remaining cash to have a tow-truck take her car to a local repair shop near her motel. There wasn't anything wrong with the car, it ran fine. But without her car Nathan gladly agreed to give her a ride to the diner he had set out to take her to.

"Look at you, you are still trembling," he said, shrugging out of his jacket and putting it over her shoulders as they waited for their dinner.

"Sorry," Lady said weakly. What could she tell him? Saving his life was draining her energy? She was so freaked out that she possibly peed herself and it was a good thing that they were both drenched from the rain so no one could tell the difference. She hugged his jacket to her, it was at least warm.

"Don't worry about it," Nathan said. "I'll make sure you get home safely. Where do you live?"

"I'm staying at a motel on the other side of town," she answered. "I haven't gotten around to looking for an apartment yet."

"You know, you can stay at my place tonight. I'll take you to the mechanic tomorrow morning to check on your car, it's no problem," he said, his eyes giving her a special glint she knew too well.

Lady gave him a sincere apologetic look, "I really want to, believe me I'm a sucker for chivalry, but after all that's happened tonight I'm just so tired."

Nathan smiled at her and began to lean over the table for a kiss when the waitress set plates in front of them. As tired as she was Lady was starving and began to dip her fries in ranch and devour them.

"Wow, you can eat," Nathan commented.

"This is delicious," she said between bites. She coughed gently as the odd numbing feeling came and clamped her mouth shut as she saw Nathan's future turned to him choking on a chunk of syrup-drenched waffle.

Lady swallowed her barely chewed food and nearly choked herself. Four times? It hadn't even been an hour. Twice she could accept, three times was pushing it, but she was officially aware that something was out to get Nathan. "You know what, this really hit the spot," Lady said, a new burst of energy and adrenaline she knew wouldn't last came into her. "Not feeling so tired anymore."

Nathan's eyes lit up, "So...does that mean...?"

Lady would have used anything to get Nathan out of the diner, and men were very easily persuaded by the promise of sex. "We should get out of here," she said quickly.

"You don't want to finish?" he asked, going to take the fatal bite.

She gave him her best flirty grin, "We should go, now," and got out of her seat. Nathan quickly dropped his food and followed her out, barely pausing to throw a twenty on the counter.

Lady fought hard against the new wave of fatigue once his fourth near-death happened, she kept herself as chipper as possible as he drove them down residential streets to his home.

"Sorry it's a mess," Nathan said as he unlocked the door.

"No worries," Lady said.

Nathan turned to her and gave her a cocky smile, "If you get out of those wet clothes I'll throw them in the dryer for you."

She returned the grin as best as she could, "I am such a sucker for chivalry," as she shrugged out of his jacket and then her own.

Her jaw clenched down as she saw a vision of him stumbling in his own hurry to disrobe, tripping over his feet and hitting his temple on the side of his counter. She avoided it by grabbing onto him and kissing him so fiercely he could do nothing else but hold onto her until the vision passed.

"Clothes will dry on their own," he said breathlessly, reaching for her mouth again.

"Where's the bedroom?" Lady asked, the urgency in her voice wasn't from excitement, she just wanted to get him somewhere without sharp corners and hard surfaces.

Once in the softer safety of the bedroom she hurried to give him what he wanted so she could roll over and fall asleep. The smart thing may have been to run as far away from him as possible, but she doubted that whatever was after this man would stop after five tries. Plus it was rude to lead someone on most of the night just to pull out at the last second. And she knew whatever energy she had left was going to be gone after her final performance of the night and she needed a bed to sleep in that wasn't a twenty minute ride away.

As tired as she was she woke up in the middle of the night. Nathan had snorted a loud snore that had startled her awake. Finally rested after so long of running on fumes she laid next to him and thought about what was going on.

Either this guy had the worst luck in the world, or someone wanted him dead. Considering how varied the deaths were, and that she was seeing them, the first thing that came into her head was a witch, but that was what Lady knew best. Most of her own research was about witchcraft she knew how powerful it could be in the right hands, and how destructive those hands could be if they wanted to. And witchcraft that could send lightening to strike a man down was scary powerful. Out of her league powerful. There was no doubt in her head that she would need help, and she got out of bed and went into the bathroom once she retrieved her phone from her pocket.

John didn't answer his phone and she left a quiet message, "Got a situation, need some help. Call me back," she left a quiet message.

Nathan was still asleep when she slipped back into the bed, her mind going over her visions again to see if there was anything she had ignored when they first came into her mind. Another visible person with Nathan, a certain item, anything. But always it was just him.

"Mm, good morning," Nathan said a few hours later, rolling over and wrapping his arms around her. "Last night was fantastic," he said sleepily.

"Oh yeah, it was," Lady said, running her hand through his hair and avoiding the morning-breath kiss he almost attempted by saying, "I wonder if our clothes dried."

He chuckled, "We don't have to find out for a few more hours," he said, nuzzling her neck. "Oh, crap, I nearly forgot about your car. We should probably head down to check it out."

Lady thought about it for a few moments, keeping him safe in bed wasn't a long-term solution. She needed her things in her car and needed time to call John again. "Yeah, I guess," she said. "I suppose you have to go to work, too."

"Nah, I have the next few days off," he said, getting out of bed and walking to the bathroom. "Give me a few minutes and we'll get out of here."

Lady happily made breakfast plans with Nathan as he dropped her off at the mechanic. He waited for her in his car as she went inside to speak to the mechanics. For them to just let her keep the car parked in their lot for the day was going to take the rest of her cash. But they did let her use their customer lounge to make a phone call.

"Thanks for answering," Lady said when John answered his phone.

"What's going on?" John asked, and was given an earful of Lady's high and panicked voice as she described what had happened the previous day.

"I'm freaking out, man. Visions never come like this, and I think its witchcraft, but not the kind I'm used to."

"It's not witchcraft," John said flatly. "Come on, you probably know more about that stuff than I do. Hex bags, curse marks, you find or see any of them?"

"No, but..."

"Lady, I hate to say it, but I think you are up against a Reaper," John said.

"Like, Grim Reaper?"

"Sort of," John said. "They aren't evil monsters, okay? Their purpose is to shepherd souls or spirits. When it is someone's time to die they are there."

"No," Lady said sharply. "No, no. I have seen this guy die in my head five times now. Maybe I don't know what the hell a Reaper is, but it is not his time to die. Because I am not letting him die. I am saving his goddamned life. Now can you give me some information to help, or not?"

John sighed, "I'm telling you..."

"Oh fuck, six times. I got to go," Lady hung up her phone and ran outside. Nathan was standing at the crosswalk, looking both ways. "Nathan!" She called, running outside. "Hey! Let's go!"

He smiled and instead of walking into the street to get hit by a car running a red light he turned to reach her. "Hey, I was just going to walk over and get a newspaper. It was taking you a while. Everything okay?"

Lady shook her head, "They can't get my car in today, they are busy. I feel so bad, we just met and you are being so nice and..."

He put his hands on her waist and kissed her briefly, "Believe me, I am having the time of my life. Come on, let's go to iHOP."

By the time they were seated in the restaurant it had been eight times. She was anxiously thinking of ways to put his car out of commission so he couldn't get hit by a garbage truck or go flying through his windshield when hitting a fire hydrant after swerving to avoid a suicidal squirrel.

His French toast was covered in powdered sugar and then doused in syrup. Lady stuck with buttered pancakes and fresh fruit, needing as many carbs to keep her energy up as she dealt with what was happening.

Lady had her phone in her hand before it rang, seeing it was John. "Hey," she answered, chewing on a grape that wasn't quite ripe. "Change your mind?"

"Lady, I've thought about it and it's a Reaper, no other explanation. Now if you forgot I'm working something pretty big here." John said.

"After everything, that's it?" she asked.

"Okay, where are you?"

"Armstead. Nebraska," she said.

"I don't think I can make it, but I'll try," John said. "But I'm telling you it's..."

"No, it isn't," Lady argued before he could tell her it was a Reaper again.

"If you keep fighting this thing, it will kill you," John warned before hanging up.

"Everything okay?" Nathan asked.

Lady nodded, "Yeah, it will be. That was my Uncle John, I asked him to come down and help me out getting settled in. Sounds like he is trying to flake out on me. I helped the guy quite a bit and...well I know I probably still owe him, but he's really good at, uh..." Saving lives? Fighting monsters? "At getting good deals on apartments."

Nathan nodded, "Sounds like you have a good family."

Lady shrugged, "It's good and small." She smiled at him, "You, uh, want some toast with that syrup?"

Nathan just grinned and mopped up more syrup onto his French toast before shoveling it into his mouth.

After avoiding a random piece of trash falling from a tall building Lady convinced Nathan to spend the afternoon at her motel to watch television. John texted her a message that he couldn't leave where he was.

Lady was so frustrated at this point that she was ready to let Nathan get electrocuted as he tried to turn on a lamp, but stopped him by smothering his body with hers. Working him to the point where he fell into an exhausted sleep.

"Bobby, I got a bad situation," Lady said over the phone. Bobby always answered, and normally she would start the call off with a joke or prank. When she didn't he knew how serious it was.

"Where are you?" Was all he asked.

"Nebraska. Shit town called Armstead," Lady answered and explained what happened since her first vision of Nathan.

"Sounds like a Reaper, and if it is..."

"So help me God if you say I have to let this guy die I will kidnap him and bring him to you in bubble wrap until I figure this out," she said.

"Okay," Bobby said in a calm voice. "Next thought is witchcraft. If a witch wants him dead and won't stop they'll eventually get sick of you getting in the way."

"I haven't seen anything to prove that," Lady said in a hopeless tone, glancing through the motel window to make sure Nathan was still naked and passed out.

"I'll be there by morning," Bobby said. "Call me if anything changes."

Lady had been unable to secure an invitation to spend the night at his apartment, and he declined her frequent requests to stay at her motel. She spent most of the night in the lobby of his apartment building, but the night was much quieter than the day. A few times she caught visions of him having a random accident in his apartment and she sent him a dirty text message to delay him a few moments. It had been a long time, more like never, since she had been in an actual relationship but she was pretty sure Nathan thought she was a clingy girlfriend and from what she knew about relationships, most of what she knew of them was from watching television, that was a bad thing.

The next morning Lady ran across town to manage to make a world record for shortest shower to be ready in time for Nathan to pick her up for breakfast and to save him from getting hit by the third semi-truck since the whole thing started.

While watching him soak pancakes, bacon and eggs in syrup she got a call from Bobby and she eagerly told him where to meet her. "Sorry, my friend just got into town. It's a big relief to have him here," she said, shoveling scrambled eggs in her mouth so the moment Bobby was with her they could get to work.

"I'm happy! You've been looking a bit bummed out, I was worried something was wrong," Nathan said. "You have plans with your friend?"

"Nothing official but I'll need to spend some time with him. You should really hang out with us," Lady chewed the inside of her bottom lip. It wouldn't be easy to protect Nathan from the million random dangers he almost always encountered while she was working with Bobby, and it wouldn't be easy to work with Bobby if Nathan was around.

"No, I have a lot of things I need to get taken care of. You've been keeping me pretty busy lately, and as much as I'd love to spend every minute with you I really need to work a bit."

"But I thought you had these days off?" Lady gave him a cute pout.

"Yeah, I do, but other things. Hobbies, things that have been neglected..."

Lady rubbed her leg against his, "I feel a little neglected."

Nathan barely got to grin at her when she looked out the restaurant window at the loud car. Bobby's old car was loud as hell, the outside was fairly ugly and patched over but she knew it ran better than most cars on the road. "That's him!" She jumped out of the booth and outside.

Lady threw her arms around Bobby in a grateful hug, "Thank you so much for getting here!"

He hugged her back, "Of course, kid. Anytime, anywhere," he said. "A guy followed you out, that him?"

Lady nodded as she let the hug go. Nathan was walking up to them. "You must be John," Nathan said joyfully, shaking Bobby's hand. "Glad to meet you."

"Uh, no, I'm Bobby," Bobby corrected, smiling at Nathan and giving the slightest glare to Lady.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Are you another uncle?"

"Something like that," Bobby played along.

"I should probably get home. I'll call you later," Nathan said, giving her a sweet kiss on the cheek before getting into his car.

Lady stood stiff as Bobby turned on her. "You called John? Before me?"

"I figured he owed me a few favors after all I did," Lady muttered.

"After all he's done to you?" Bobby shouted. "Using you to hide from his kids? Sending you to lead them away from him and nearly getting you killed? And while you were off risking your life he didn't give two thoughts to come and try to help you? Kid, what is wrong with you? He's..."

"He's quick," Lady countered. "Sometimes it's messy, it often ends in me being psychically punished one way or another, but the job gets done! I call you and its research this, translate that, analyze this! I don't have time to read a hundred books, Bobby! If I don't figure out what is doing this either I'm going to run out of energy and fail, or I'll have to marry the guy to have an excuse to hang on his every move! And John understands. Okay?"

"Understand what?" Bobby asked heatedly.

Lady looked away, "I know you want to find a way to save me. But I know it's useless, okay? Not that I wouldn't jump for joy if a cure fell into my lap, but I can't sit around hoping for that to happen anymore. This is how my life has turned out, I know how it will most likely end and that it will end soon. I don't like it, okay? I'm not trying to go out in a blaze of glory, but I'd rather do that than eventually waste away like I'm going to. John gets it. He doesn't remind me to be safe and careful all the time. And he doesn't look sad every time he sees me leave. He doesn't care about me, Bobby. Okay? And that is probably all the reasons I shouldn't call him first, but I did."

"You idgit," Bobby uttered.

"You care, Bobby. And, I'm sorry but eventually I'm going to die. And I try to tell you don't worry about me, don't feel guilty about it, but I know you do. And I don't blame you. I just...I want you to know that I'm okay with it, now. And right now I just need help, I need to save Nathan. Because if I don't...well, I'm not marrying the guy. He's a cupcake away from diabetes. Eventually someone is just going to take out a gun and shoot him and I'll have to step in the way of the bullet. And to be honest I may take a bullet to avoid having to sleep with him again."

Bobby glared at her, "You're sleeping with the guy?"

"How else am I supposed to keep him close by? Having him want to be around in case it leads to a quick bump is easier than stalking him against his will," she snapped. "But it's already getting boring and he isn't very creative."

Bobby had to look away and made a noise, "Lady, please stop."

"Yeah, okay, sorry," she muttered. "You know just because I'm not a nun does not make me a bad person."

"I'm not saying it does, I'm just saying I don't want to hear about it," Bobby said. He shook his head, "How long have you known this guy?"

"I met him two nights ago. C'mon, I'm constantly working against the clock, I have to work fast."

"Lady!" Bobby snapped.

"Sorry," she said quickly.

"Let me go inside and get some coffee and breakfast. I drove through the night to get here, y'know," Bobby grumbled.

"Yeah," Lady said, following him. "Oh, fucking hell. I need to go. Give me your car keys!"

Bobby looked at her with wide eyes, "No. Hell no."

"Bobby! I have like two minutes here!" she shrieked.

"Damn it," Bobby gasped, grudgingly holding his keys out to her and running to get into the passenger side. "Be gentle with it, okay?"

The engine roared to life and Lady shifted quickly as the tires squawked against the pavement. She saw Nathan's car, he was bobbing his head listening to music. A bird flies into his windshield, making him throw his hands up in shock. The car loses control and hits a sign post. The sign post bends sharply and tears at the undercarriage of the car, splitting open the gas tank and causing sparks to ignite it.

Lady navigated the streets at high speeds with accuracy that only extreme focus and the ability to see when the jackass in front of you decides to pull a break check seconds before their taillights lit up or the exact time to hit the gas for an extra push to get between cars when running a red light.

"Don't hold on, you aren't going to fall out!" Lady snapped at Bobby as she took a hard right turn, horns honking at her as she did so.

Bobby grabbed onto his door handle to keep himself from falling into Lady with the force of the turn. He kept his jaw locked as he slipped on his seat-belt.

Nathan's car was ahead of them and Lady passed him quickly and then finally slowed down. Bobby jumped in his seat as a bird hit their windshield, but she didn't even flinch.

"We done?" Bobby asked as she turned and Nathan's car kept going.

"Yeah," Lady breathed as the vision faded.

"Pull. Over." Bobby ordered as calmly as he could.

Bobby had been the one to take on the task of teaching Lady to drive when she was still in her teens. Her sight then had been more sporadic but even then she admitted that there was difficulty in managing her sight when working at speeds over fifty miles an hour. Then all he had to worry about were her denting up the wrecked cars in his lot. He knew over the years she had gotten her sight down and used it to an advantage at driving and everything else she did. However he couldn't see the future like she did, he only saw that several times they were in near wrecks and once almost on two wheels.

"You are a lunatic!" Bobby snapped in frustration as they got out of the car.

She looked at him with wide eyes, "We didn't crash, okay?

"You killed a bird!"

"I saved Nathan's life! Bird or human, hm, hard choice!"

Bobby grabbed some napkins from the glove compartment and began wiping away the smear of blood from the bird they had struck. "You need to be focusing on what is trying to kill him!"

"I can't save him and study this at the same time."

"And I can't do this without your help. I don't know what you see," Bobby said. "Apparently you see crazy! Because you nearly got us killed!"

Lady threw her hands up, seeing nothing she could say would calm Bobby down. "I'm sorry! Okay? I'm sorry I called John first, I'm sorry I'm a burden right now, and I'm sorry I've been freaked out! Okay? I don't want to fight with you, Bobby. We never fight like this, what is going on?"

Bobby glared at her, and then his muscles finally unclenched. "Get in the car, I think I know what we're dealing with."

Lady looked anxious as they drove out of town. The farther away she was from Nathan the longer it would take to interfere with another vision of his death. "What are we dealing with?"

Bobby was looking intently out the windows as he drove slowly, "Pagan god. Pretty sure, at least. A Trickster," he said in a low voice.

"Pagans? I fucking hate Pagans!" Lady said in a high voice.

"Take a breath, kid, we can handle this," Bobby said calmly.

She let out a soft moan as Bobby parked his car in a deserted lot outside of town. There was an abandoned garage and several no trespassing signs. The highway was half a mile away, it was secluded. "Perk up, I need some quick information." Lady nodded. "Any other strange deaths?" She shook her head. "Did you piss anyone off when you got into town?"

"I don't think so," she said. "Well, the guy I came to save first gave me the stink eye after I saved him because I...well, sort of tackled him to keep him from..." Lady's face fell. "A guy being trampled by a few dozen women considered a strange death?"

"Yeah," Bobby said in an obvious tone. "But it didn't happen? You stopped it?"

Lady nodded, "Yeah, of course. I am damn good at handling these visions, no one I see dying has ever actually died. If there was a psychic of the year award I'd be winning it."

"Call your boyfriend and have him meet us here. We need to call this thing out," Bobby said.

"Whoa, wait. Summoning a Pagan god is bad. In fact it is one of the few things I will not do," Lady said.

"We need to kill it," Bobby said, opening his trunk and pulling out a sharpened wooden stake. "We have to stab it with this. But first we need to dip it in the blood of one of his victims."

Lady felt a chill run up her spine, "Victim?"

Bobby pointed at her, "This thing isn't after Nathan. I'm pretty sure it's after you. You caught its attention when you prevented one of his pranks from going through, and I bet that cocky attitude of yours is thrilling him to no end. This is what Trickster's do, they find people that are jerks or too smug for their own good and set them down a peg or two. Usually killing them in an ironic fashion, but sometimes just messing with them."

Lady leaned against his car and pulled her knife out of her pocket to get ready to bleed for the sake of saving lives. This time her own. "Why do we even need Nathan, then? If you are positive on this..."

"Because, I just remembered something you said. He's a cupcake away from diabetes, he eats a lot of sweets?"

"Yeah, he has a serious sweet tooth," she said.

"Tricksters crave high-calorie junk like that. Think about it, the only constant in your visions is him. You'd know the signs of witchcraft, and if it was a witch powerful enough not to leave signs they would have gotten rid of you and finished this already."

Lady opened her phone and dialed Nathan's number. "Hey, you aren't going to believe this, but Bobby and I got a flat tire while driving around. I hate to keep doing this, but you are the only person I know in town, think you can come pick us up and take me to my motel?"

Bobby frowned at the sincerity and sweetness in her voice. As she hung up he said, "Good job."

Lady looked at him, "Bobby, if you are right, I slept with this thing. I hope when he gets here, you are wrong. I'd rather have him turn into a...a frog. A toad, even. Ugh, I need another shower."

A slow drizzle of rain started and distant thunder rumbled not long before Nathan pulled into the lot. He sat in the car a few moments before stepping out, "Hey! Get in, you are both getting soaked."

"Think you can help me out? I might be able to get this changed, that way we won't have to tow it," Bobby said.

"Yeah, of course!" Nathan offered happily. Lady glared at the box of candy sticking out of his pocket as he walked forward. "Well...it doesn't look flat at all."

"It isn't," Bobby said, shoving Nathan against the car.

Lady clenched her fists as she saw the vision play, Nathan being murdered by Bobby. The sharp and bloodied point of the wooden stake driving into his chest in a gory way. "Wait! No!" Lady said, grabbing Bobby's wrist and pressing into the soft tissue to make him lose his grip on the stake. "It isn't him! He's human!"

"How can you be sure?"

"Lady, what is going on?" Nathan gasped.

Lady picked up the sharp wood and held the stake at her side while she stared into his eyes. She didn't love him, and after saving his life so many times she had lost count she didn't even really like him, but she wouldn't see him die. The one good thing that came from her hellish experience being a play thing for a witch was that she was able to save lives with her rare visions, and she wasn't going to ignore this. "Nathan, this is going to sound really weird, but something is trying to kill you."

"Yeah! Your friend!" he said, sliding across the car to get distance between himself and Bobby.

"He's messing with your head, kid. He's the one doin' this to you," Bobby said, but he didn't make a move to get his weapon back.

"Just listen, Nathan," Lady said. "This is weird and crazy, but true. I'm a psychic. The only reason I've been spending time with you is because I keep having visions of you dying. This is my friend Bobby. He thinks a...well, a pagan god is trying to kill you to get back at me. Now for you to be safe, for you to live, you need to trust me. If you don't it will kill you. We have to find it, and stab it."

"He nearly stabbed me!" Nathan cried in fear.

"But I saved you!" Lady said. "Please, Nathan, I know it is a lot to take in..."

"Just stay away from me, you crazy bitch!" he shouted, and quickly ran to his car.

Lady turned to Bobby, "Does a god nearly piss his pants when you threaten them?" she asked before he could tell her she had made a mistake.

Lady was still holding the stake when the newest vision came through, nearly the same as the first one she had of Nathan. Lightening striking him dead as he tried to reach his car, but she only had seconds. Her legs surged with motion as she ran to Nathan, "No!" she cried out, dropping the stake as she shoved his back with both hands as the lightening came down.

"LADY!" Bobby hollered as a bright flash struck down on them. He felt the electricity in the air long after it left. Once his vision adjusted from the brightness he saw Nathan on his hands and knees in the mud and Lady on her back. "Oh god, no," he gasped, running to her side. "Lady, Lady, please, no," he muttered as he pressed his fingers to her neck to try and find a pulse.

Before he could find it she coughed and sucked in air. Her ears were ringing and she could taste blood in the back of her throat. Her lungs felt raw and burnt and her skin tingled as her hair stood on end from the electricity. "Did I just get hit by lightening?" she asked in a hoarse voice.

Bobby blinked, amazed that she was even alive let alone talking, "I think you were just real close when it hit," he said, helping her sit up.

"Resilient little thing, isn't she?" Nathan asked.

Lady looked up at him, her eyes wide as he stood calmly over them chewing on the candy he had in his pocket. Everything about him had changed. He still looked the same, looked human, but there was a new sort of confidence he hadn't had before. A cool and relaxed posture that a human who had nearly been staked and then nearly struck by lightening would not have.

And he smiled at her. "That, right there, that look on your face is priceless. The all knowing psychic was wrong, wasn't she? How does it feel, Lady?"

"Painful in a physical way," Lady said through gritted teeth. "What are you?"

He winked and pointed at Bobby, "Shoulda let your friend take the shot, Lady. He knows exactly what I am, only took him a few minutes to figure it all out, too. Sharp fellow."

"And you are about to be a dead one," Bobby threatened as he reached for the stake.

Nathan raised his hand and Bobby hung helplessly in the air. Lady grimaced as she reached for the stake and got to her feet. "Now, sweetheart, you aren't really going to do anything with that, are you? C'mon, I'm Loki for crying out loud. Do you have any idea how old I am?"

"Don't care," Lady said hoarsely, but didn't move to strike.

Loki's lips twitched in a smile, "That's right, if you stab me with that there is no one to let your friend down nicely. He'll fall with a splat. Not usually how I get things done, but effective nonetheless. I'm going to make you a deal, Lady."

"No deal! Kill it!" Bobby growled at her from his spot high in the air.

Loki ignored him and continued, "You are the first person in hundreds of years to interrupt my fun. You set yourself up for disaster when you rescued that little punk from the shoe store. But I can admire your spunk. You took everything I threw at you and if I hadn't been orchestrating the whole thing I wouldn't have known the difference. Not to mention that dynamite thing you do under the sheets," he winked at her as her grip tightened on the stake. "You stay out of my way, and you both get to live. Or you can try to kill me, and I'll just kill you both."

"Take it down! Don't listen to it!" Bobby was shouting at her.

Lady saw her strike in her head, two long steps and thrusting the stake as hard as she could in the center of its chest, but it would vanish before it hit. "Put him down, don't hurt him," Lady said quietly.

"I'm sorry, what was that? Can't hear you over my thunder," he leaned towards her and cupped a hand around his ear.

"Put him down!" Lady said as loudly as her raw throat would allow her.

Loki raised his hand and Bobby landed with a grunt on the wet ground. "Word to the wise, Lady, don't play with the gods if you aren't willing to take on the full brunt of their power. You'll find that most of them aren't as generous as I am."

"Word to the wise, Loki, go fuck yourself."

"Why would I have to do that? I have your phone number now." He gave her a smile that looked human, and with a quick wave he vanished.

Lady got into Bobby's car and let out a groan of pain as they started moving. "You gonna make it?" Bobby asked quietly.

"I don't know," Lady said in a moan, and silently added that she didn't care at that moment. "I'm sorry, Bobby."

"You thought you were doing the right thing," Bobby said in a low voice. "Don't worry about it."

Lady shook her head, "I nearly got you killed."

"You saved my life back there," Bobby said.

"After I screwed up and stopped you from killing the thing," she said.

Bobby let out a breath, "Yeah, you screwed up. But we survived and you've learned a few important lessons. Like maybe you should listen to the guy who's read a few hundred books and has a few decades of experience on you."

Lady nodded and rested her forehead on the rain covered window of the car, "Yeah."

Bobby stood outside in the rain with her as she retrieved her car. "So, think you want to stop back and finish looking at that book?"

Lady had been unnaturally quiet the ride back to her car and he was worried about a half a dozen things that could be physically wrong with her after being so close to a strike of lightening. He'd had the discussion with her before on hospital visits, it just wasn't an option she'd discuss. "I really just need to, uh...I need to check on Freddie and my friend. I'll try to stop back in soon, though."

Bobby nodded, "You do that." Lady paused at her car and looked at him as he said, "Hey, Kid...uh...don't beat yourself up over this. There was no way you could know. Important thing is no one got hurt."

Lady appreciated his attempt to lift her mood but said, "This time. But wherever he will go next..." She shook her head. "See you," she said quietly and got into her Beetle.


	6. Lady's Home and Work, to May '06

**April 27th 2006, New Town, North Dakota**

Lady and Freddie were lying in the wet grass as the sun shined overhead. It was only fifty degrees out and she was wearing a few pairs of sweatpants and her denim jacket while cuddling with her dog to stay warm. There were more useful things than napping in the afternoon with her dog she could be doing. Looking for signs of Loki seemed high on her list even though she knew it was way outside of her experience level. Looking for signs of witchcraft should have been up there, but right now she just needed time to rest. She was still a bit soar from the lightening strike and emotionally screwed up. More than normal. Most of the time she could ignore it, pretend everything was good and sometimes even fool herself into believing it. Since stopping at Bobby's she hadn't been able to get back into that mode.

"Greta told me you picked up Freddie," Mason said, his massive frame stepping into the sun and casting a shadow over her. "I'm glad to see you, too. I was worried when you were gone so long. So...how did everything go?"

"Good," Lady said shortly.

Mason pressed his lips together, "We've been friends for a long time, you don't lie to me often. When you do I don't like it."

"Ask me again in a few days," Lady said. "Not sure if I can help out at the casino today, Mace, I'm just worn out."

"That's fine," he said in a low voice. "Max says she wanted to talk to you, have you been there yet?"

"No. I'll go tomorrow," Lady said.

Mason didn't look impressed. People rarely left Max waiting when they were called, and Lady made a habit to do so. "Okay," he said. "Make sure you do."

Max was the tribe matriarch, Mason's grandmother and a medicine woman. She was more like Mason's great-great-great-great-great grandmother, or something like it. Lady had never been able to get a definite answer to just how old Max was but she was pretty sure it was pre-Civil War.

Lady spent the next few days in a trailer that was on Mason's property. It wasn't entirely secure but no one who went there invaded her privacy. There wasn't much inside beside a few dozen shoes and clothes. When she decided Max had waited long enough her and Freddie started the walk to Max's home.

"Who's a good boy? You's a good boy!" Lady cooed to Freddie as they both jumped around in the high grass. He barked happily, glad she was back after being gone so long and more happy that after dragging her ass for several days she was looking better and acting normal.

Freddie's tail wagged and thumped hard against her leg as he prepared to chase the little tennis ball she was preparing to throw. He didn't really like the little ball, he'd accidentally swallowed one before and it hadn't agreed with him, but he liked the game. He liked running, and chewing on things, and running. Lady would throw it, he'd run for it, she'd run the opposite direction, and then he'd run after her, and then she'd wrestle with him until she got the ball out of his throat, and then she'd rub his stomach, and then dance a bit, and then they started over. He liked it, it was fun.

Getting impatient to get to the part where she rubbed his belly he barked eagerly for her to throw the ball, but she wasn't going for it. The truck was coming and Lady was slowly walking to it.

Freddie liked Mason. Freddie liked most people. Except the little furry people. Or medium-sized furry people. Most of their chirps annoyed him and they often bit his nose as he tried to sniff them out of their underground dens. But Mason was big and not furry. And Mason had taught him a new game called 'NO!' that was fun. Whenever Freddie tried to eat food Mason tugged on his collar and shouted 'NO!', and kept doing that until Freddie found the right food to eat. Which ended up being a big pile of everything he had already licked. He liked games that included food.

"I came to check in on you."

"Freddie and I were going to make our way to Max's," Lady said.

"It's a long walk, c'mon, I'll give you a ride," Mason said.

Lady tossed the tennis ball into the bed of the truck and Freddie burst into action to retrieve it.

Freddie had the ball clasped in his teeth as he hung his head over the side of the truck as it bounced. The wind blew his ears and loose lips back. He dropped the ball over the side at some point so he could hang his tongue out, enjoying the feeling of it flying back. He barked roughly at a few of the nasty little furry creatures, swearing that he would be back for them later.

And then Freddie pulled his face out of the wind and put his head down, recognizing where they were going. They were going to see the bone woman. When Lady called he obediently jumped out of the truck. "Aw! Freddie, did you swallow another tennis ball? Damn it," Lady groaned. She scratched his head and motioned for him to walk by her side to the large circular tent erected in an empty field.

Freddie didn't like Max, the old woman never fed him. Never let him chew on the old bones she had in a bag. Even hit him in the nose a few times. And she smelled funny.

"White whore," Max said in a low voice.

"Crone," Lady replied with a slight smile as she rubbed Freddie's head. He was sitting beside her, fidgeting slightly.

"The power inside of you has grown," Max said, not looking at Lady. "Significant...or not."

"I'm getting ready to go into town. You need anything?" Lady offered. Max didn't live in the tent, there was a house not far from where they were, but spent most of her time inside of the tent meditating or working on one thing or another. Lady had long ago given up on understanding the old hag and what she did, and had settled for doing the odd chore for her and running errands for her with Mason. Separating Max's bull from insight was a lot of work and Lady found it worked faster if she was as casual as possible.

"I don't see you returning," Max muttered, running a gnarled hand in the loose dirt around her.

"Want to elaborate?" Lady asked, knowing Max wouldn't.

"Your destiny has crossed paths with another great destiny," Max said, taking a handful of dirt and pressing it to her face to inhale before letting it sift through her fingers. "I see this world nearing a long and dark depression, Lady. I have felt more people drawing on power than ever before, it is getting dangerous. Once this magic was sacred, passed down by bloodlines. But now every whore who wants a piece of it is finding out how to access it. There is no way to stop them, not all of them. It is a task that you will fail. A task you don't even know you are on."

Lady rolled her eyes, "Max, I just came to see if you needed toilet paper. Can we save the cryptic stuff for when I get back? And after I've had a few beers? You make more sense when I'm drunk."

Max let out a dry laugh and got to her feet. She took Lady's hands in hers, "If you weren't so pale and stupid, you could have been my daughter. But you are pale, and you are stupid. Leave, go to Texas."

"What am I looking for in Texas?" Lady asked, holding in her excitement. The reason she put up with Max was that when the old bitch felt it suited her she would give Lady help. Lady knew what Max wanted from her, and as long as she didn't give into the old woman's demands she had a chance to get the old woman's help in finding a way to lift the curse and find witches. It was a slim chance, Lady didn't doubt that Max would let her die at her feet. But the longer Max kept her alive the more chance she would have to get Lady on board for her own plans.

"I need you to find this flower," Max said, shuffling slowly across the tent and picking up a dried herb.

"That's a twig," Lady said flatly.

"It is," Max said, picking through the jumbled things. "This," Max said, picking up a pressed flower. It was a bluebonnet. "It must be from Texas. Picked around the edges of a crossroad during a full moon. The real full moon, not the night before or night after. And every day after being picked they must see the noon sun. Not the noon by the clock, but when the sun is at the highest point. Five minutes a day, for one week."

"Got it," Lady said. "Guess I'll be back in a few weeks."

"Pay attention to the moon cycles, Lady. The full moon is in three nights. You will not make your destination this cycle. It will be over a month before we see each other again."

"Yeah...well, whenever," Lady muttered. "C'mon Freddie." Freddie quickly led the way out, sniffing along the edges of the tent to see if he could find a spare bone to chew on.

Lady spent the next few days working for Mason. She did anything from bartending to housekeeping to snow removal after a sudden spring snowstorm dropped five inches. She'd need the money to keep the Beetle fueled up and herself and Freddie fed.

With the Beetle packed she was on the road a week later. There was no hurry to get to Texas, but there was no reason to stay in North Dakota.

She stopped in Sioux Falls, meeting Bobby for supper at a diner in town to show him that she was okay while they both avoided talking about everything that happened in Nebraska. Taking a long and scenic route she made it to Texas a few days before the full moon.

The time of year was perfect to find the flowers, they were popping up all over. The full moon peaked on May twelfth, and even in the complete dark it was still very warm. Unlike in North Dakota where the temperature still neared freezing when the sun dropped out of the sky. She picked over a hundred and bagged them. Once done she joined Freddie in his new favorite game of trying to catch fireflies until she heard her phone about to ring.

Lady dug into her pocket to retrieve the phone, seeing it was Dean. She answered it when the phone finally rang in her hand, "Yeah?"

"Hey, Lady, it's Dean," he said. "Got a situation here, Sam and I are having trouble figuring it out and thought you might know something."

"I'll try," she said as she swatted Freddie on the head to let the fireflies out of his mouth.

"Found an abandoned house painted with a lot of arcane symbols. We've figured out what some of them mean, but not all of them. They are different regions and cultures completely, not sure if it's witchcraft but getting a bit anxious here, y'know?"

"Tell her I'll text her the picture," Sam said in the background.

"Poindexter is texting you a picture of them," Dean said. "So, how have you been?"

"Not bad," Lady said as she watched Freddie leap into the air to bite at a flicker of light. "You guys doing okay?"

"Not bad," Dean said.

"Hold on, let me look at this picture," Lady said before her phone beeped. She waited as it slowly downloaded onto her phone. It was a variation of a hook and cross symbol. It sort of appeared as an upside down question mark with three exclamation points around the dot. "Serious?" Lady said into the phone.

"Put her on speaker," Sam said in the background. "Did you get it, Lady?"

"Yeah, is this a prank?"

"Why would you think that?" Dean asked.

"Because she's talking to you," Sam snapped.

"Lady, do you recognize it or not?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, it's on the tip of my tongue but I can't remember the name," Lady said. "Uh...I just remember the song, but barely. What's the song with the cowbell?"

"Cowbell?" Dean sounded confused.

"Yeah, you know! More cowbell!" Lady said quickly.

"Oh! I remember that," Sam said, snapping his fingers as he searched his mind. "Something Reaper?"

"Don't bring up Reapers," Dean snapped at him.

"Please don't," Lady agreed bitterly.

"The song, Dean," Sam said. "Fearing the Reaper?"

"Don't Fear the Reaper," Dean corrected, sounding like he had been personally insulted by Sam saying the incorrect title. "Oh, holy crap, you are right. I know this symbol, it isn't arcane. It's the symbol the Blue Oyster Cult uses."

"Yeah, that sounds right," Lady said. "So, uh...does that even help you guys?"

"You know what, I think it does," Dean said. "Thanks, Lady. I'll, uh, we'll call you later to let you know how it goes."

The next week Lady stayed in Texas, religiously setting the flowers on the hood of her car before noon and packing them all up ten minutes later to Max's specifications. She was waiting for the time to be up when Dean called her again. She hadn't expected him to tell her how things went after they talked, his father never had. "Yeah?" she answered.

"Hey, thought I'd let you know that helped us out. Helped us find who had set this thing in motion," Dean said. "But I would have figured it out on my own eventually."

"Of course you would have," Lady said, not doubting him. She had gotten a chance to look through his tape collection in Indiana, Dean was a classic rock junkie.

"Where are you at right now?" Dean asked.

"Northern Texas," she answered.

Dean was quiet for a few moments and she heard a rustling paper, "How far from Dallas?"

"Other side of the state," she said. "Near Lubbock, why?"

"Uh, listen I was hoping I could talk to you about something face-to-face. We just finished this job in Richardson so I'm thinking I'm pretty lucky you are in the same state, let alone the same part of the country."

"Can't talk over the phone?" Lady asked.

"No," Dean answered. "To be honest I think you are a pretty good liar, and I have a better chance at knowing when you are lying if I'm looking at you."

"Fair enough," Lady said as she began packing her flowers. "I'll start driving east, you start driving west. We'll meet somewhere in the middle."

"Sounds good," Dean said.

Late in the afternoon Lady was in Archer City. On the edge of town was a large park that stretched into countryside and farmland, and the black Impala was already parked there. Sam and Dean were both leaning against the trunk of the car when she pulled in.

"Hey guys," Lady said as they stepped towards her. She shook Sam's hand when he offered it, and then Dean's. Dean's hand, while they had always been manly rough, was completely raw. "Been busy, Dean?" she asked once they released hands.

Dean clenched his right hand in a fist and glared at his brother, "He super-glued a beer bottle to my hand."

Sam smirked, "Maybe you'll think next time you put itching powder in my pants."

Lady grinned, "Nice one." Dean opened his mouth to talk but was interrupted by Freddie's barking. "Ah, sorry, thought he'd stay asleep."

"What the hell is that?" Dean asked as Lady opened the door of her car and folded the passenger seat down so Freddie could squeeze out.

Freddie jumped out, nearly standing at Lady's waist while on his four paws. He stretched and yawned, then looked around wagging his tail. "This is Freddie," Lady said, rubbing the dog's neck. "He's real friendly, don't worry," Lady said.

To prove Lady right Freddie sniffed around the brothers before jabbing his nose in Sam's crotch. Sam grunted and backed away, "A little too friendly."

Lady grabbed Freddie's collar and used her whole weight to haul the dog back. "Sorry, he learns his habits from me," Lady grinned.

Dean snickered as Sam looked away and flushed.

"Sam, think you can give us a few minutes?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, sure," Sam said.

"Take Cujo," Dean said.

"He knows how to fetch," Lady said brightly.

"Yeah, but I don't think I can manage to throw a whole tree," Sam said as he took hold of Freddie's collar.

Dean and Lady watched Sam and Freddie go into the park. Sam picked up a large branch and showed it to Freddie, then threw it. The dog ran off after it, and Sam looked back at them. "What's wrong?" Lady asked, turning back to Dean.

Dean got to the point quickly, "Sam's been having visions."

"And?" Lady asked.

"You have visions. Help me out here."

Lady walked around her car to lean against the back and Dean followed her and stood to face her. "I'm not trying to sound ignorant here, especially about something I should obviously know about, but...why are you talking to me about this?"

"How do I make them stop?" Dean asked.

"If I knew that little secret I would have done it years ago," Lady said. "Actually...well, hm, maybe not."

"Can you focus?"

"Sorry," she muttered. "Okay, uh, how long has he had visions?"

Dean glanced to make sure Sam was still far into the park. "Started back in October, at least. Maybe earlier than that. First they started as dreams, like his girlfriend dying. Then the dream came true. And then a dream about our house, which came true. Not long ago he had one while he was awake, hit him so hard his nose bled. And that vision led him to another kid his age who could move things with his mind, and that kid's mother died the same way ours did. And, uh...Sam thinks he may have..."

"Used telekinesis?" Lady's eyes were wide as she finished Dean's sentence. "Did he?"

"I don't know," Dean muttered.

Lady rubbed her hands together as she thought about it. "This isn't something I know a lot about, I'm sorry."

"What do you mean? You are a psychic," Dean snapped.

"Not all psychics are the same, Dean. Missouri is from a long line of psychics, it's something in her blood. I got my brain fried and rewired by a witch. The only thing I can even assume about your brother is...well, something connected with how your mother died and the demon your father is hunting is connected to him, and probably the telekinetic you found."

"Yeah, I know," Dean let out a breath. "How do I break that connection?"

Lady tapped her fingers on her bumper, "I don't know if there is a way, but I'll make some inquiries. I think you should probably tell John that Sam is seeing things, though."

Dean shook his head, "You kidding me? This…" Dean couldn't even finish. His mind had gone over this a thousand times trying to find something, but he failed. Psychics weren't evil, but they sure as hell weren't normal. And the telekinetic they had to kill was a complete nutcase. "No one can know about this. Not until I figure it out. Guess I just hoped you'd have some insight into it."

"Sorry," she said softly.

"Serious, you breathe a word to this, even to Sam…" Dean looked away, leaving the empty threat open for her own imagination.

"Don't worry, I won't say anything. But I'll check into a few things, see if I can dig anything up," she said.

"So if you knew anything, would you tell me?"

Lady smirked, "C'mon, Dean, I lie for my own benefit. Nothing about this benefits me in any way."

"Yeah, I suppose not," he muttered. He relaxed a bit and gave her a smile, "Why don't we gather the kid and dog? Go somewhere to eat?"

She saw the look in his eyes that told her he had more suggestions of what they could do while in the same town together, and she smiled knowingly. "Ah, why not," she said, pushing herself away from her car and turning to see where Freddie and Sam were. She saw them far in the park, Sam and Freddie were playing tug-of-war with a stick, and Freddie seemed to be winning.

"Okay, serious, that is a giant dog. Is it part buffalo?" Dean asked.

"I don't know," Lady admitted. She put two fingers in her mouth and let out a sharp whistle. Normally Freddie came running immediately at the sound, but he kept on with his game. "I think he likes playing with someone his own size," Lady said with a smile.

"Yeah, I bet the dog does, too," Dean chuckled.

Lady rubbed at an ache in her wrist as she watched Freddie finally release the stick, causing Sam to fall backwards. Sam sat up and tossed the stick again, looking their way to see that their conversation was done. Dean motioned for him to come in.

Lady frowned at an upcoming noise, a sharp hiss. Moments later the ache in her wrist turned into a near-crippling pain and the hiss slipped through her teeth. Dean looked at her in confusion for a moment, then stepped towards her, "You okay?"

Lady looked around, "Freddie!" She shouted urgently. On the other side of the park, partially hidden behind trees and shrubs, was another car. Dean followed her eyes and caught a quick glimpse of someone hurrying into a car. "Freddie! C'mon!" Lady shouted, running to get into her car. Freddie's ears were perked up but he was too far away to reach her fast enough. "Damn it," she snarled.

"Lady?" Dean looked at her as she opened her car door. "Wait! What's going on?"

"Get out of my way," she said quickly.

Dean moved from the back of the car and without thinking jumped into the passenger seat as the engine started.

"Get out," Lady said, shifting the car into reverse.

"What's going on? Who was that?"

"A witch," she said. "Get out."

"No," Dean said firmly.

Lady grit her teeth against the pain in her wrist coming from the cursed tattoo. She didn't have time to argue with Dean. She slammed on the gas and steered with her left hand as she held the stick shift with a cramped right hand. She stopped hard and shifted into drive before punching the gas again to get around the park.

Dean tensed as Lady took a hard right, seeing the car pulling onto a busy street. "Maybe I should..."

"No," Lady said. "No time. I can't let him get away."

"What's wrong with..."

"Shut up! I'm driving!" Lady shouted at him.

Dean grabbed the dashboard as Lady moved into traffic. Nervously he grabbed the seat-belt and clicked it. In his pocket his cell phone rang. "Dude, what's going on?" Sam asked.

"Grab the Impala and follow us," Dean said.

"Yeah, I'm on that."

"Lady thinks she's following a witch," Dean said. "OH GOD!"

"What?" Sam said urgently.

"Watch the road!" Dean shouted as his cell phone fell to the floor.

"I AM!" Lady shouted back. "SHUT UP! I'M TRYING TO FOCUS!"

"I'M TRYING NOT TO DIE!" Dean shouted back. "CAR! CAR!"

"I SAW IT A MINTUE AGO!"

"WATCH OUT FOR..." there was a heavy thunk as Lady clipped a parked car. "Jesus Christ!"

Lady corrected the swerve easily and accelerated more as traffic thinned and they moved out of town. She caught sight of the car turning into a grove of trees. She followed it onto a muddy dirt path that was so bumpy it threatened to tear her car apart at the high speeds. She screamed a curse as bright light came into her vision. She slammed on the brakes and shifted into reverse. The car jerked as she hit the gas again.

Before Dean could ask her what she was doing a burst of blue flames erupted in the middle of the dirt road. Lady shifted hard back into drive and let the car slide into the ditch as she went around the fire. Back on the dirt road the mud got softer and the car slid and fishtailed under them. Far ahead of them, escaping the grove of trees was the other car. Without warning Lady slammed on the brakes and shouted another curse as the car slid in the mud. Dean, trying to keep them from sliding into the ditch again, grabbed the wheel against Lady's protest. The car slid the opposite direction Dean tried to steer it and right into a deep mud hole. Lady slapped his hand away as she tried in vain to get the car moving again, but the tires only spun.

"Why did you do that!" Lady screeched.

"Stop! Just. STOP!" Dean shouted.

Lady looked at him with wide eyes, "You IDIOT! I had the car in control!"

"Control?" Dean shouted as he got out of the car. Lady got out with him. "Look at the tracks, Lady! Does that look like the car was in control?"

Lady looked back at the fresh tracks and skids in the mud, and saw that the Impala was quickly coming down the road.

She turned back on Dean, "Now my car is stuck! The road is blocked! And they are getting away!"

Sam was stopping the Impala a safe distance from the Beetle. He got out of the car and opened the backdoor to let Freddie out. "What's going on?"

"Asshole here just FUCKED UP!" Lady shouted.

"Psycho bitch here nearly got us killed!" Dean shouted back. "Speaking of assholes, mine tried to crawl up into itself while you were driving you lunatic!"

"In case the spontaneous fireball back there didn't tip you off, I'm dealing with a few people who have a good deal of power," Lady said.

Dean took a step towards her and stopped when Freddie got in front of him. The dog's teeth were bared and a deep snarl was bubbling from its throat. Dean took a step back from the dog and closer to his car, "Then let's go get them."

Lady shook her right hand as the feeling began to return in the form of pins and needles, "It's too late. They are gone. Thanks to you," she said, grabbing Freddie's collar and tugging him back. "Shut up," she said before he could open his mouth. She pointed at him, "You never, and I mean never interfere with this."

Dean looked down at her and snorted, "Are you threatening me?"

Lady shook her head, "No. It's no threat, Dean," she said, opening the door of her car so Freddie could get in. "This is about survival." She got into the driver's seat and turned the engine on. The tires spun for several moments before gaining traction in the mud and jerking the car forward and out of the hole. She looked back and saw the Impala, though parked several feet away, was now covered in the brown mud.

Dean and Sam looked at each other for a moment before Dean angrily got into his car. "We going to follow her?" Sam asked as he got into the passenger's seat.

Dean drummed his thumbs on the steering wheel before putting the car in drive, "Yeah, we are."

Dean followed the Beetle out of the grove of trees and back into town. He wasn't trying to hide the fact he was following her, getting right in line behind her as she entered an automatic car wash. "I should make the bitch pay for this," Dean grumbled as he fed a few dollar bills into the machine.

Sam rolled up his window as they waited to take the car through. "How much do you know about this?"

Dean shrugged. "Lady has a history with witches. I guess they are still after her."

"How did you know?"

"We had a lot of time to talk while we were waiting to be sacrificed," Dean muttered. He kept his foot on the brake as he slowly let the Impala go through the wash. Powerful jets of water hit it and made it difficult to keep talking. Foam covered the windows and he automatically hit the wipers so he could keep sight of Lady's car.

The foam was cut away by the wiper blades, and Lady's car was gone. Dean muttered a curse and accelerated his car out before the rinse was complete. "Where is she? You see her?"

Sam looked around, the wet tire marks were several and ended before reaching the road. He chuckled, "I think she gave you the slip, bro."

"Damn it!" Dean shouted, hitting the dash. He turned in his seat to see if he could reverse back into the car wash but another car had already taken his spot. "Damn it," he growled. And that was when he noticed the pile of drool left behind by Freddie in the backseat. "Damn it!"

Sam pulled out his phone and dialed Lady's number. As expected it went to voicemail, "Lady, its Sam. I get you are pissed at us right now, and I'm so sorry. Listen, we're your friends and anything we can do to help you we want to. Just give me a call back when you can, at least let us know you are alright."

Dean glared at Sam, "Seriously?"

Sam smiled at him, "She calls us back then we can trace the GPS in her phone."

Dean returned the smile, "Good thinking, Sammy."

"Think we should get a motel until then?" Sam asked.

Dean shook his head, "Nope. We're going to Florida."

"Why?" Sam asked.

"I didn't get close enough to get the full plates on the car, but they were from Florida. Junked late 80's Thunderbird, blue-gray." Dean said, and Sam didn't question his brother. If there was one thing Dean knew it was cars.

"Florida it is," Sam said. "But what if the car is from Florida and the witch just decides to ditch it since they were spotted? I mean, that's what I would do."

Dean glared at his brother briefly, "Well we know she isn't going to stay here, so we start driving east. Once she calls back we'll find out where she landed."

Lady didn't return the call for a few days. The brothers had made it as far as Louisiana, taking their time to stop and look into a possible zombie but turned out to be grave-robbers. "Hey, Lady," Sam answered, Dean sat up in his bed. "Is everything okay?"

"Honestly, I still sort of want to stab your brother through the eye," Lady said. "Am I on speakerphone?"

"Yeah," Dean answered. "Hi, Lady."

"Well, I would have told you to your face anyways," she muttered.

"Any luck on finding those witches?" Dean asked.

"Maybe," Lady said. "Listen, sorry about having murderous thoughts about you and all, but this is important to me and believe it or not I know how to handle this type of job. This isn't the first time they've tried to kill me. It really is safer if you guys just sit back and let me deal with it. I know you are more than capable of handling yourselves, but...well, to be honest I don't know either of you that well. And this is just too personal to include you."

"I get it, Lady," Sam said, giving his brother a warning glance to let him talk. "Believe me, we get it. Listen, is there anything we can do for you? Even if it's just...reading newspapers or searching stuff online. We aren't busy right now."

"Thanks, but no. I have a few contacts that are smart enough not to stick their nose in too far," Lady said. In the background they heard Freddie barking anxiously. "I have to go," she said urgently and disconnected the call.

"Well?" Dean looked up at his brother.

Sam began working on his computer, "I should be able to find out what tower she made that call from." After a few minutes on his computer and several minutes speaking with the phone company pretending he was an officer he had coordinates.

"I told you, Florida," Dean said as he began packing his bag.

"It is a few days drive," Sam said. "We just show up she's going to be pissed, you know that, right?"

"You saying you don't want to kill a witch?" Dean countered.

"I want to help her out, we sort of owe her..."

"We don't owe her anything," Dean said. "She was in Kansas, and she was in Indiana. She didn't really help us all that much, we would have been fine without her. In fact it would have been better if she wasn't in Indiana at all. Thing is she needs help. Not just psychiatric help, because she is nuts, but help with this. She's going to get herself killed going after this on her own. What it comes down to, Sammy, is she's trouble." Dean smirked, "A fun bundle of trouble, but trouble."

"You know, can you even admit to yourself that you have a thing for Lady?" Sam asked. He saw the deer-in-the-headlights look from his brother, "I guess you can't."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"I mean since she gave us the slip in Archer City you haven't stopped obsessing over this."

"We're on a witch-hunt, Sam. How awesome is this?" Dean shouldered his bag. "Stop dragging your ass and let's go!"

Sam shrugged and grabbed his bag. He wasn't sure if his brother was just putting up a front or if he really was that oblivious to his own feelings. But not too long ago he had seen a different side of his brother when they met up with Dean's ex-girlfriend Cassie. As far as Sam knew Cassie was the only woman Dean even tried to explain his secret life to, and she had kicked him out over it. She had thought he was lying so he could break up with her, or perhaps thought he was insane, until she came across a haunting and called for their help. That sort of honesty rarely came from Dean. Dean was programmed by their father to be a very efficient liar. Lying was practically their first language.

Sam liked to think his brother wasn't completely shallow when it came to women, but it was hard when Dean proved over and over again that he was. It wasn't his place to judge, but Sam couldn't see the appeal of a one-night stand. He had loved his girlfriend, Jessica, before she died. Still loved her, still mourned the loss. His brother didn't have anyone like that, and Dean said he didn't want anyone like that.

But then Sam had met Cassie and there was a glimmer of hope that Dean wasn't completely lost to this life. Sam had every intention of going back to school and returning to his normal life once getting revenge against the demon that had killed their mother and Jessica, maybe once this great hunt was done his father and brother would try to do the same.

They drove as far as they could. By the time they reached Georgia the Impala was too small and the needed a break from each other and some sleep. They stopped at a motel in a small town, a chance for a shower and to wash some laundry and sleep in a bed. A chance for Dean to restock the cooler of beer and have a few at the local watering hole, and for Sam to get connected to wi-fi and look up a few things on his computer.

He checked the town where he knew Lady had been in a few days before. The local newspaper had a strange death that even if he hadn't been looking for something supernatural he would have considered it something he and his brother dealt with. A body, a Jane Doe, had been found completely immolated, and then dumped in a public park. Police had been unable to keep it quiet from the press and with the pressure of the news coverage were asking for help in identifying the woman. The only thing they released was a unique tattoo on the inside of her wrist, Lady's tattoo.

Dean returned to the motel earlier than expected, "Dude, this town sucks."

Sam had his chin in his hands and his fingertips in his mouth, "You said when Lady was taking you on that joyride fire erupted in the middle of the road?"

"Yeah," Dean said. "Bright blue flames. You find something?"

Sam nodded, "Unfortunately."

Dean gave him a questioning look, "Well?"

Sam turned his computer to Dean so he could read the article himself as he said, "Lady's dead."


	7. The Coven Part 1, May 2006

**May 22nd 2006, Orlando, Florida**

The brothers had left Georgia immediately to head to Florida. When one drove the other slept so they could stay on the road. From what Sam had got from the news article her death had happened the night before. Even if they hadn't stopped in Georgia they wouldn't have gotten there in time. The only way they would have gotten there in time was if she had asked them for help and let them go with her.

Dean's mood had taken a bad turn, but not nearly as bad as Sam had expected. Dean hated losing people to supernatural forces, especially when he already considered himself on the case. Dean was definitely upset, but it was a quiet sort of anger that was worse than yelling.

As if Dean knew what Sam was thinking he said, "We should have went straight to Florida." Dean rubbed the rough stubble on his face. "Like I said, she was going to get herself killed."

"That's it? That's all you have to say?"

"What am I supposed to say? A prayer? I don't think she was religious, Sam," Dean said.

"No, it's just...a little surprised. I mean, that's cold, even for you," Sam said.

Dean stared at his brother, "I'm not being heartless, man. This sucks, and it bothers me more than it should. But all I know to do is go down there and kill those witches so they can't sacrifice anyone else."

"What do you mean it bothers you more than it should?" Sam asked, confused.

Dean clenched his jaw. Lady was dead, there was no harm in sharing her secret. "Lady was dying anyways. She told me she probably only had a year or two to live."

"Dying? Like...from what, cancer or something?" Sam asked.

"From a curse," Dean answered. "Not sure if you remember Las Vegas about ten years ago, we weren't there long and we weren't involved in the hunt." Dean gave Sam the short version of what he knew about Lady's curse. "All I really know is that this is a coven, they are damn powerful, and I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't still performing sacrifices on teenage girls. So, yeah, this bothers me a lot. Maybe Lady wasn't going to survive much longer anyways, but if Dad had done his job right the first time around she could have had a normal life. And if I hadn't screwed up maybe we could have taken out that witch in Texas."

The next morning they were checking into a motel in Orlando where Lady's body was being held. Sam checked the local news for anything new, seeing if her car had been impounded or found and if her dog had been seen running around.

"I asked them to keep an eye out for her car," Sam said. "A ladybug painted Beetle shouldn't be too hard to spot and I'm willing to bet it's around here somewhere."

"Probably. I wouldn't get in a car she was operating if my life depended on it, but if she had wheels I don't think she would have been caught. She managed to give us the slip, remember?"

Sam nodded, he remembered well. He had to sit in the car with Dean the rest of the day listening to him bitch about it. Lady had been given several new names after that, but Dean hadn't used one of them since they discovered she was dead. It was too bad she didn't get a chance to hear them, she probably would have enjoyed a few of them.

Sam was still working on his tie when Dean began to walk out without him. The first stop was the morgue. While the newspaper had given them enough information to believe it was Lady they knew police always left out a good amount of details. Some just because it was too disgusting for the general public, and others because it may lead to who or what had caused the death, and others again just because they made no sense to the police.

Sam was quiet as Dean bullied his way into getting the medical examiner away from his lunch break. The man was middle-aged and had the tired look of a man who had nothing to look forward to but examining dead bodies for the rest of his life and enjoyed it.

"I'm Agent Roeser, this is Agent Bloom, we're with the FBI," Dean said, flashing his badge quickly. The counterfeit was hard to detect, even with a trained eye, but it was always best to give them the shortest glimpse possible. "We're here to get some information on the Jane Doe that was in the papers."

"Well, hopefully she won't be a Jane Doe anymore," the medical examiner said. "We're waiting to get records from Ohio to confirm, probably be a few days."

Dean looked stunned, "What's the name?"

"Uh, not really my strong suit, but Tammy something. Tammy Lockwood, Greenwood, something like that. Got it in one of the files."

"We need to see the body," Dean said. "And any personal items recovered."

The medical examiner shifted uncomfortably, "I...am afraid that is impossible, gentlemen."

Dean was already on edge and Sam was seeing the signs that he was about to leap down the man's throat. Sam quickly said, "We're investigating a federal case, the Jane Doe, uh, Tammy, may have been a person of interest. We aren't trying to take jurisdiction, we just want to see if she is possibly the woman we are looking for."

"I...I'd let you see her, but...well, she isn't here anymore," the man said.

"What do you mean not here? Where is she?" Dean asked harshly.

"We had a break in. Someone...someone stole the body. I already notified the local police."

Dean turned around with his fists clenched, and Sam took a step between his brother and the medical examiner. Losing this lead was a justifiable reason for Dean to lose his temper, but Sam still hoped to get information and that wouldn't happen if Dean clocked the doctor. "Were you able to examine the body at all?"

The man nodded, "Yeah, full autopsy. Since it hit the front pages we sped everything up. I've had everyone in the county down my throat about this since the body came in...guess now I got feds, too. Normally things are pretty quiet. Something like this happens it...well, I'll just go get you copies of my report so far."

Sam turned to Dean as soon as the medical examiner went into his office, "You need to get it together."

"I have it together," Dean lied.

"No, you don't," Sam said firmly. "I get it, this is something personal. It is for me, too."

"No it isn't," Dean snapped.

Sam stared at his brother and finally agreed, "You are right. I didn't know Lady as well as you did. But you need to separate that, and focus on what we are dealing with. Witches, at least one, probably two, maybe even more. Obviously powerful, very dangerous and very deadly. I need you focused on this. We find out what the medical examiner found on the body, see if it leads anywhere else. We comb the town for signs of witchcraft, find the witches, deal with them, and get the hell out of here before the cops catch us. Got it?"

Dean clenched his jaw and nodded before adding, "We have to find her body and cremate it."

Sam held his tongue as he thought that would be easier said than done. Finding the body after they found the witch shouldn't be too hard, assuming it was the witch who took it from the morgue in the first place, but depending on what they took the body for, well there was no certainty that any of it would be left. He agreed with the idea of cremating it, Lady was a prime candidate of someone to come back as a vengeful spirit. "Of course."

"Here you go," the medical examiner said, handing a file to Sam.

"Thank you," Sam said earnestly. "We really appreciate…"

"Let's move," Dean said, grabbing the file from Sam's hand and turning to leave.

"Thank you," Sam said again before chasing after his brother. He put up with a lot from Dean but acting like a complete dick during their interview with the medical examiner should have warranted at minimum a kick to the shins. If they weren't investigating a friends death Sam probably would have done it to keep his older brother in line, but there were some things you just had to let slide.

Sam tried to convince his brother to get a few hours of sleep while he looked over the medical examiner's preliminary reports, but Dean took half of the file to look over for himself.

"Anything?" Dean asked.

Sam was tense as he looked over the cause of death. Normally victims of fires died from smoke inhalation long before fire touched them, however evidence suggested that Lady's brain had actually poached itself inside of her skull. She had been alive and possibly conscious the whole time. Scars on her lungs as they breathed super-hot air and flames, eyes melted into goo. "Nothing yet," Sam said, going to the next page. "I need a beer," Sam sighed, setting the files aside and grabbing the cooler between their beds.

Dean looked at photos of charred flesh, glancing at the worst of them and focusing on the one part of the body that was not burned. The wrist. "What do you think kept her wrist from being burned?" Dean asked.

"That symbol has been used for protection before," Sam said. "I'm doubting it was that simple, though. Maybe whatever they do that formed the mark was immune to whatever caused the fire?"

Dean flipped the photos over so he didn't have to look at them and continued leafing through the pages. "I know how they found out Lady's real name," Dean said, holding up a piece of paper and grinning like he was holding a winning lottery ticket. "Someone came in to identify the body."

Sam's eyes widened, almost scared. It was the first time Dean had smiled since they got serious about the hunt and it was creepy. "Yeah? Who?"

"A guy named Troy Derkwood, claimed to be her brother. He wasn't allowed to see the body for identification, not like anything was left to be identified. He gave them her information so they could check dental records before they would release the body to him." Dean grinned wider at his brother, "Phone number, local address, birthday and even this guy's social security number is right here. We need to sit down with this guy and see what he can tell us."

"Lady's real name is Tammy Derkwood?" Sam said, lowering his eyebrows.

"I guess," Dean said. "You know, she really didn't look like a Tammy to me."

Sam nodded. "And she has a brother?" Dean shrugged. He didn't expect half of what Lady told him about her life to be true other than what he knew from reading in his father's journal. She had said she was an orphan with no siblings, what did it matter if she had a brother? "Let's give him a call and set up an interview."

"I don't think we should give him a heads up that we're looking for him. I say we drop by uninvited. If he's half as sketchy as Lady is we don't want to give him a heads up."

"Uh, sure, okay," Sam said.

Half an hour later Dean parked the Impala in front of an apartment building in a part of town he didn't feel comfortable leaving his car in. There were already people watching them closely. With their cheap suits they could pull off being feds, but sometimes his beloved car caused questions. It wasn't the type of car the government would have their agents drive, it didn't have government plates and was so old it really should have been retired. But Sam kept these thoughts to himself, they would just serve to distract him and put Dean into a new level of pissed off. Sam would never suggest trading in the Impala for something with better gas mileage or even something less conspicuous, an old muscle car wasn't the norm on the highways these days. Sam had grown up in the Impala and while there were a lot of crap memories, there were a lot of good ones, too.

"This is it," Dean said, stopping in front of 5E, the last apartment on the top floor of the building. He rapped his knuckles on the door and reached into his jacket pocket for his fake FBI badge.

Sam got his fingers on his badge as he heard deadbolts unsnap. The door cracked open and a man in his early thirties looked over the chain that was still latched, "Can I help you?"

"I'm Agent Roeser, this is Agent Bloom, we're with the FBI," Dean said for the second time that day, they both gave the man a brief look at their badges. "Are you Troy?"

"Yeah. You're here about Tammy, right?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," Sam said. "May we come in?"

Troy frowned slightly and closed the door in their faces. Dean's frustration showed in his face for a moment before they heard the chain rattle. The door opened again, "Yeah, of course."

"Thank you," Sam said, following his brother in. The apartment was in better condition than the neighborhood and the rest of the building would suggest. Troy led them to a small card table with a few chairs, a woman was sitting at the table reading a worn book.

"Um, this is my girlfriend, Angie," Troy muttered. "These men are from the FBI, they are looking into..." Troy turned to them, "Uh, well, are you looking into her death or the, uh...her missing, now?"

"Both," Dean said.

Angie stood up and offered her chair to whichever of them wanted it, "I guess I'll leave you guys alone to talk. Um, would you like some coffee?"

"That would nice, thank you," Sam said.

Troy sat in Angie's empty chair, and the brothers took the remaining chairs. Angie set a mug of coffee in front of all of them and then retreated into the bedroom of the apartment. "Angie never really approved of Tammy, the few times they met they got into it pretty bad. She feels pretty bad over what happened, how she treated her, I think," Troy said quietly, looking into the coffee cup. His shoulders sunk in a bit, "Having this happen just...I don't even know what to feel yet. What do you want to know?"

"What can you tell us about the tattoo on her wrist?" Sam asked.

Troy looked up with wide eyes, then looked down, "I don't know. Tammy was always a bit weird. A real outcast. She was homeless, half the time I saw her she was on drugs, trying to get money from me."

"When is the last time you saw her?" Sam asked.

Troy shook his head, "I avoided her. The night before her body was found she called, but I wasn't home so Angie answered the phone and, well...Angie told her where to shove it." Hard lines of anger appeared on Troy's face.

"The tattoo that uh, Tammy had. Did she ever tell you want it meant? What it was for?" Dean asked.

"No," Troy shook his head.

"Did she ever mention it being a curse, or anything about the arcane?" Dean pressed, earning a warning glance from Sam.

"She was really into some New Age crap," Troy muttered. "Always was, like horoscopes and astrology. She had a ton of that stuff scarred into her skin, but half of them she didn't know what they meant."

They all went quiet as a phone rang and they heard Angie answer it. "Babe, can you come here a minute?" Angie called from the bedroom.

"I'll be right back," Troy said.

Dean was watching Sam taste the coffee, and finally picked up his mug to do the same. He'd had better, but he'd had a whole lot worse. "This doesn't sound right," Dean said between sips. "Lady didn't even have marijuana on her."

Sam shrugged, "Maybe she cleaned up, or maybe she had a hiding spot you didn't find."

"None of this makes sense," Dean muttered, and Sam saw the telltale signs of Dean about to crash from lack of sleep as he took another drink of the coffee.

Sam pursed his lips and ignored it, once they were done talking to Troy they would be out of leads for the day and Dean would have nothing to do but catch up on some sleep. He just had to hold it together for another ten minutes.

"Sorry, Troy is on the phone, it sounds important," Angie said, walking into the room. "Would you guys like a refill?"

"That'd be great," Sam said, watching Angie turn to the coffee maker and pick up the carafe to fill with fresh water. Dean's eyes were practically glazed over with the need for sleep and he was leaning his chin on his hand with his elbow on the table. "We've been working really hard," Sam said, trying to give his brother an excuse.

"I really appreciate that," Angie said, pressing a button on the coffee maker.

"Troy said you spoke to Tammy before she died. Do you remember what she said?"

Angie nodded, her shoulders tense as a fresh pot of coffee filled the glass carafe. "She was asking for help and forgiveness, mercy even," Angie said quietly. She took the carafe off the hot plate and moved to the table. Sam leaned back as she filled his mug. "She was begging me to ask Troy to forgive her. Pleading with him to take her in. Keep her safe." Angie sighed.

Sam frowned as Angie's long sleeve slipped up as she reached across the table to pour more coffee into Dean's cup. There was a tattoo identical to Lady's on the inside of her right wrist. It was right in front of Dean and he didn't seem to see it.

"Angie, did you and Tammy get that tattoo from the same person?" Sam asked, looking up at her.

"No," Angie said. "The same people, but not the same person."

Sam blinked furiously as his vision began to blur. "Dean?" he said, and his brother slumped over onto the table unconscious. "Dean!" Sam stood up, knocking over his chair and stumbling to keep his balance. He put a hand on the nearby wall to keep himself upright and Angie moved out of his long reach. She had a cruel smile on her lips as he tried to grab at her. "What did you do to us?"

"Nothing too terribly permanent, yet," Angie said, moving to get the table between herself and Sam.

Sam went to reach over the small table at her, and fell on top of it. The table collapsed under his weight, Dean toppling over with it. Sam fought to stay awake, rolling onto his back and trying to get heavy limbs to cooperate. The last thing he saw was Angie's face drifting out of focus, the smug smirk growing as he lost the battle.

Sam groaned as he began to come to. "You okay, Sammy?" Dean said roughly.

Sam tried to move and found his wrists were tied behind his back. He worked on clearing the fog from his brain. He was outside, and a look around told him he was on a roof. Probably the same roof of the apartment building they had been in. It was twilight, they had only been out maybe an hour. He was in a chair, plain folding chair, with his ankles tied to the legs. Tape had been wrapped around his torso and arms around the back of the chair, preventing him from getting any leverage to move. "No, not really," Sam said, testing the restraints.

"Roped and duct taped," Dean said. While he definitely sounded pissed, he also sounded more alert than he had been all day. This hadn't been how Sam wanted him to achieve a few hours of sleep. He craned his neck to see his brother was in a similar position not far behind him.

"I have a feeling that Angie is a witch, Dean," Sam said.

"Is that so? You think she may have drugged the coffee, too?" Dean snapped at him. "I'm secure, any chance you can get free?"

Sam struggled again and said, "I'm doubting it. We'll find a way out, we always do."

"You know what? I'm sick of getting tied up!" Dean barked. "Why can't people just do the normal things and shoot us in the back of the head."

"Well, that's just a waste of perfectly good pieces of meat," Angie said as she walked into their view with a sweet smile. "Guns are noisy and lack the personal touch of a blade." Angie stepped up to a low altar and began to light a few candles. She picked up a dagger and carefully ran her finger over the edge. "I called the FBI, they never heard of you. You aren't one of Garrett's pawns, you don't have the mark. I did a little exploring and I don't see any mark from any coven."

Sam suddenly noticed his shirt was untucked.

"Hope you enjoyed yourself, sweetheart," Dean said sharply.

"Oh, I did," she grinned. "I almost erupted with joy when I found Sam Winchester's wallet. Could you really be John Winchester's son? And then I went to your car parked outside, and found Dean Winchester's wallet. You have to be brothers, you must be hunters. And sons of the hunter John Winchester." Sam clenched his jaw as she ran the point of the dagger harmlessly across his cheek. "The John Winchester that destroyed the Vegas coven all those years ago? I had trouble deciding if I should give you a nice big kiss of thanks or a knife to the heart in revenge. I finally decided on both." Sam locked his jaw and pressed his lips together in disgust as Angie forced her mouth on his, licking at his lips before giving his chin a nibble and walking away.

"So the Vegas coven and the Orlando coven didn't get along? Some weird west-side east-side witch rivalry?" Dean asked.

"We're all working towards the same thing, we just all want to get the big prize at the end," Angie said. "When John destroyed that coven we lost some competition, but we also lost support." Angie sat on Dean's leg and put her hand on his face, "Hm, stronger than you look." Dean tried to move from her hand and had his face pressed between both hands of the witch. "Defiant, you'll die hard. Die fighting. Oh, it's a shame I can't hold you until the new moon."

"Don't. Fucking. Touch. Me." Dean growled.

She patted Dean's face and stepped away to the altar. "No need to be rude. I just thought you could use a gentle touch before Troy came for you. You and him are about to have a very intimate relationship."

"Oh God, just stab me through the eye and get it over with!" Dean snapped.

"Not that intimate," the witch laughed. "But he will see your insides spill out of you while you are begging to die."

"Why did you kill her?" Dean asked. "Why did you kill Tammy?"

Angie giggled in delight, "Tammy was bait. Didn't draw in who I wanted her to, but I still have a few days to the new moon to wait. Little Tammy came here begging for us to take her in, to help her. She really should have known better."

"So Tammy was a friend of yours?" Sam asked.

"She thought so," Angie had a smug smirk. "But all of us know our only real friend is the power."

"You are a slave to this power and it will kill you," Dean finally said. "If it doesn't, we will."

"Say whatever you want if it makes you feel brave. But I promise that when we start the only thing you'll be doing is begging for mercy," Angie said.

"You talk a lot, bitch, but I don't think you have the guts to do anything. I bet this whole time you are just waiting for your boyfriend to come up here to do this himself," Dean taunted. "What's wrong? Afraid to break a nail?"

Angie's lip twitched, "You don't want to upset me."

"I bet you close your eyes," Dean said confidently. "I'm not scared of you, witch."

"Dean, maybe you should…" Sam began.

"What? I don't want to make her angry? I wouldn't like her when she's angry, is that it?" Dean taunted.

Angie turned her eyes to Sam and stepped to him. He glared up into her dark eyes as she tugged the plain black tie from his neck. As it slipped away he began to feel terror deep in his chest. _We're going to die. I'm going to hear my brother's last breaths. There is no way out of this. They are going to skin us alive. I don't want to die!_ His mind began to race and his breathing picked up.

Angie used Sam's tie to gag Dean, but he continued with muffled comments that couldn't be made out. "The only thing I like more than the sound of muffled contempt, is the sound of muffled screams," Angie said, tweaking his nose briefly.

"Leave him alone!" Sam shouted. "Please, don't hurt him!"

"Its okay, Sam, he's going to be first. You'll hear every anguishing cry of pain as we take the good bits out of him while he's still breathing." Angie taunted with a sick smile.

Sam could hear his blood pounding in his ears and the terror was gripping his chest even harder. There was a cool wind on the rooftop, but he was sweating with fear. He barely heard the door to the rooftop fly open, but saw the light coming from it. He looked, expecting to see Troy there, ready to do whatever sick things they wanted to do.

Lady appeared in the lit doorway, breathing heavily, "Whew! So glad I'm not late. You know your elevator is out of order?"

Angie's face fell in shock, "You can't be up here!"

Lady was carrying a pair of high heels and slipped them on, hopping towards the center of the roof as she did so. "Nah, it's cool. I'm in the club, see?" Lady showed Angie her wrist. She let out a huff of breath, "Damn, I think that is a record for running those steps. I thought I was in good shape but I'm a little winded. Just give me one second." Lady took a few deep breaths and shook her trembling hands. "Angie, right?"

Angie looked terrified, "This is my territory. These are my sacrifices, you cannot claim them! Coming here allows me to defend my territory with any means I see fit. Go now, or I'll kill you."

Lady laughed, "Careful, sweetheart, you look like you might pee yourself."

Angie bared her teeth, "I demand that you leave." Angie uttered a few words under her breath, Sam had no doubt in his mind that it she was invoking a spell of some sort towards Lady or themselves but he couldn't get his mouth to work to warn Lady. But soon Angie just look more horrified, "Who are you?"

"Hi, I'm Lady!" She said, as energetically as she had when she first introduced herself to them a few months ago. "Just Lady. Like Cher, only younger, cuter, and with real boobs."

Angie's face began to show some recognition, "So you do exist. I thought you were just some urban legend. But here you are, the sacrifice that went wrong."

"No, see that witch you torched beyond Freddy Krueger scarring was a sacrifice gone wrong," Lady said without humor. "You must be fishing for some big game if you killed her before the new moon." Lady looked over Sam who was facing her, his eyes were watering and he was sweating profusely. "What'd you do to him?"

Dean craned his neck, his back partially to his brother and Lady and he was gagged, but he tried to give a muffled, "Haammy? Hady! Heh uh ow uh here!"

Lady pulled out her pistol and casually dug in her pocket to pull out a silencer. She began twisting it on, "Here is what will happen. Whatever you did to Sam, undo it."

"You're going to kill me anyway," Angie said.

"It means the difference between slowly choking on your own blood or going quick," Lady said, her eyes on Sam as she watched him take in deep breaths that were nearly sobs now.

"I suppose that would be fair," Angie said, moving slightly toward the altar. "If you are in the bargaining mood, however, I have a few other things I want to discuss."

"I don't bargain with witches," Lady said flatly.

"But that symbol on your wrist means we're practically family," Angie said in a sing-song voice.

"Yeah, the kind of family that enjoys stabbing people in the back," Lady said.

Troy was stepping out of the door nearly silently, a knife he had taken from Dean in his hand as he crept forward. Angie could see him stalking behind Lady and she was keeping her talking. He couldn't risk getting any closer, and he raised his arm. With a fluid motion he threw the knife, it flew end over point in the air aiming right to hit Lady in the back and through the chest. Before it hit Lady spun and dodged out of the way, the knife kept going and Angie didn't have time to see it before it hit her deep in her ribcage.

Troy was shocked, his eyes wide as he partner fell by his own hand.

Lady turned to him, pistol aimed, "Thanks. Troy, right?"

Troy looked at her, "You…no…how did…"

There were two muffled gunshots and Troy went down.

Lady dropped her pistol and quickly cut through the ropes on Dean's wrists, letting him work his way loose from there. "Hurry up, I need help with Sam."

"What's wrong with him?" Dean asked as he tore himself free of the tape.

"I'm not sure," she said, cutting Sam loose. He didn't move to help her even once his arms and wrists were free. With Dean's help she got him flat on the ground. "Sam, can you hear me?"

"We're going to die," he breathed heavily. "Dean, we're going to die."

"What?" Dean snapped at him.

Lady pulled his eyelids open wide, checked his fingernails and looked into his mouth. "Did she touch him?"

"Not while we were conscious," Dean muttered.

"Good," Lady said. "Sam, I'm sorry," she said, and struck him hard across the face with an open palm.

"HEY!" Dean grabbed her wrist as she went to hit his brother again.

Sam took in a shuddering breath and blinked several times, "What…what's happening?"

"Sammy? You okay?" Dean asked.

He shook his head, "I don't know what's wrong with me."

Lady tugged her wrist free from Dean and put a hand to Sam's forehead, "Look at me," she commanded, and he did. "Slow down your breathing. If you don't the best cure I have is castration."

"What?" Sam gasped.

Lady grinned widely and got to her feet, "I'm just messing with you, you'll be fine."

"That isn't funny," Dean said seriously as he helped Sam up. Sam drew his shoulders inward protectively and wrapped his arms around his torso.

"It's actually hilarious," Lady said, but the humor was gone from her face as she nudged Angie with the toe of her pointy shoe. "Sam, you got hit by the evil eye."

"What?" he looked at her, still obviously in pain.

"Yeah, the curse that typically only affects women and children," she looked him over, unable to hide the concern in her eyes. "I can do a full body search to make sure they didn't do anything else."

"No, I…I'm feeling better," Sam let out a breath. His heart rate was returning to normal but his limbs still felt shaky and his chest still felt tight. "Thanks, Lady."

Dean let out a breath and finished tearing the tape off of his chest and shoulders. "Where the hell have you been? We thought you were dead!" Dean barked.

"I've been here," she said. "I told you to stay out of this! Do you guys like being alive?"

"We were just supposed to ignore a body popping up with your tattoo on it? You never returned our calls, you were dead!"

Lady's eyes widened, "I have a message from you and your brother asking to call you back right away, no reason why. I was getting around to it, but I've been busy. I'm happy to help you guys out when I can but I have my own shit to deal with right now." Lady let out a huff as she knelt down to pull the blade out of Angie's chest. She wiped it off on Angie's shirt and offered it to Dean handle first.

Dean took it, eager to have some sort of weapon on him again. "This is great, you know. Two dead bodies in the middle of the city, we need to get out of here."

"Yeah, go," Lady said as she checked Angie's wrists and neck for charms.

Dean pinched the bridge of his nose, "What…"

Lady turned to glare at him, but her eyes moved back to the doorway without stopping on Dean. Dean turned and saw a shadow begin to block the light, and then a massive man filled the doorway. Nearly seven feet tall and built like a house, and he was standing between two dead witches with one of the murder weapons in his hand.

Before Dean could pin down if the man was a threat or not Lady snapped, "I told you to stay in the truck."

"You were gone a long time," the man said in a deep voice.

Lady stood up, "Is my dog the only damn person who listens to me?" She glared at Dean before he could say anything and looked back at the man. "Mason, get out of here."

The large man nodded and turned his back to the bloody scene. "Do the young men need any assistance?"

"They might need help getting a size seven stiletto out of their asses, when they do I'll give them your phone number," Lady said. "Go!"

As Mason went back down the stairs Sam knelt beside Troy and checked his wrist, as he suspected there was the symbol tattooed. Same as Lady and Angie. "Lady, we need to talk," he said, slowly getting back up.

"Talk all you want," Lady said angrily as she dug in her pocket for a gemstone. It was attached to a long black cord and she held it over Angie's head. "But if you'll excuse me I'm working."

"We spent the past few days thinking you were dead, after everything we've heard I think we deserve an explanation," Sam said firmly.

Lady looked at him, "You think you deserve an explanation? Okay, here it is. I saved your life. I saved you from becoming a blubbering mess full of terror while they opened your chest and took out a few choice pieces to use in a ritual on Saturday. And I thought you were the smart one, Sam."

"Be a bitch all you want, Lady," Dean said. "We still have two dead people, witch or not, and we need to get out of here."

"No? Really? I thought you liked this place, considering you walked right into their god damned home! I was even going to offer to help you buy it so you can live out the rest of your days here! Which considering how off the handle you handled this isn't going to be much longer!" Lady snapped at him angrily. "You know what, I am actually cursed, but normally I do pretty damn well on my own. But whenever I see you two something usually unpleasantly painful happens to me!"

"You think you are a joy to have around?" Dean countered.

"I'm a goddamned ray of sunshine," she said, holding the gem over Troy.

"Yeah, yeah you are," Dean said shortly. "At least tell me what the hell you are doing?"

Lady's jaw was tight as she watched the gemstone hovering over Troy's still chest. "This reacts to residual magic. If it reacts to their bodies it means they have to be burned. And no, it isn't reacting."

"What do we do with them?" Sam asked.

She glared at him, "We? There is no we. You two hop downstairs, and leave."

"Lady, remember that really annoying thing you did in Indiana?" Dean asked, and she was glaring harshly at him. "How about we just skip that part, and you just give in. We're here, we aren't leaving. And if you ditch us, we'll just keep digging around on our own."

"I should have left you tied to the chair and gagged," she said, walking to the door.

Dean gave Sam a confident smirk and followed Lady downstairs.

Lady began rummaging through Troy and Angie's apartment, Sam found a laptop and leaned against the counter to look through it.

"What are _we_ looking for?" Dean asked.

"_I_ am looking for signs of what they practiced while you are making it look like a burglary."

Dean took a step back, and Sam could see the tension in his shoulders. "You know, I learned it was wrong to hit a lady but I know my dad hadn't met you before he taught me that and let me tell you..."

Lady turned, giving him a daring look. "Think I'm afraid of you, Dean?"

"No," he said. "And I'm not trying to scare you, I'm just trying to get information out of you and it is like having a root canal without Novocain!"

"Good!" she snapped.

"Hey! Can…can you guys save it until we're somewhere with thinner walls? I don't think the neighbors all the way down the hall can hear you," Sam said.

Lady and Dean both glared at him, but went silent. Quietly Lady said, "I know you guys are sharp and you aren't going to let this go, even if I threaten to shoot you. I get it. I don't like it, but we'll get out of here and I'll go over some things with you so you don't get yourselves killed. If something happens it might be nice to have a heavy-lifter around."

Dean studied her face, "That was almost painful for you, wasn't it?"

"I'd rather get thrown out a window, yes."

"I can still make that happen," he offered.

"I'll keep it in mind," she muttered. "Let's go."

"Where are we going?" Dean asked.

"I have a house I'm staying in. Just follow me," Lady said, sounding tired. Halfway down the stairs she had to take her heels off again to move at the speed she wanted to. In the lobby she made an anonymous call to 911 so the police could deal with the dead bodies. Outside was a large pick-up truck idling with country music playing out the open windows. "I'm riding with Mason, just follow the truck."

Sam and Dean got into the Impala and the truck stayed still until they were in and ready. "Think she's going to try and ditch us?" Sam asked, still holding the laptop he had found in their apartment.

Dean thought about it and finally decided, "No."

They followed them half an hour, going into a nice and quiet residential suburb. The truck parked on the side of the road and Lady motioned for Dean to park in the driveway beside her Beetle. She got out of the truck, Freddie following her, and the truck left again. "Your friend not staying?" Dean asked as she went to the front door.

"Mason has to get home," she said, opening the unlocked door. "His son is staying here, though." She turned to the Winchesters as they stepped in, "Be nice to him."

"I don't plan on being rude to Paul Bunyan's son," Dean assured her as she led them into the house toward the kitchen. There was a young man there, if Dean had to guess he was about Sam's age, but the man was shorter than Lady while she wore her heels. He was wearing a tight wife-beater tank top that showed off boney shoulders, and big baggy shorts that made his skinny legs look like toothpicks. He had long black hair in a braid that went to the middle of his back. "That's Mason's son?" Dean tried to hold back a laugh, wondering how a man so large had produced offspring so small.

He looked at them with small dark eyes and to Lady, "Who're they?"

"You know I like to pick up random men, tonight was a twofer," she said.

"Funny," he said. "Hey, I'm Derek."

"Hi, I'm Sam. This is my brother Dean," Sam said, reaching forward to shake the man's hand.

"Nice to meet you," Derek said.

"Likewise," Dean said, still trying to hold back the chuckle.

"Hey, why don't you go out for while?" Lady said, handing Derek some cash.

"Sure. But I want a twenty for every time someone calls me Puerto Rican, and fifty every time they say I'm Cuban," he said. He gave Lady a flashy grin, "Chicks dig Latinos, I need the extra cash to buy them drinks."

"Stop talking like a yankee and maybe you'd even manage to nail one. Get out of here," Lady said with a smile.

They waited until the front door closed and Lady motioned for them to have a seat at the small kitchen table. "Whose house is this?" Dean asked, wondering if they were going to get busted for squatting. He wouldn't be surprised.

"Mason's brother owns it," she said. "Derek stays here, he goes to college in the city. You want to talk real estate?"

"We're ready to hear everything you'll tell us so we can help you," Sam said.

"Well, let me give you a tip. First rule of cults and covens is you never drink anything they offer you. Including coffee, especially the kool-aid." Dean and Sam both frowned. "You guys want a beer?"

"Funny," Dean snapped, but quickly twisted the cap off the beer she set in front of him.

"This is a bit hard to explain, you are coming into the game even later than I did. But you both have the right to know what nearly killed you. And if you come across it again you need to know what will protect you."

"You going to tell the truth?" Dean asked.

"Nothing but," Lady lied. "Angie and Troy aren't the strongest I've come across, but weren't half bad. They are part of a coven, but the coven has different cells all over the country, even a few in Canada and Mexico, maybe across the ocean. Some are solo witches, others are paired up with a stronger coven of three or seven. Leader of the coven goes by Garrett." Dean nodded, he remembered hearing Angie mention that name. "Tammy, the one they torched, was the witch who spotted me in Texas. I managed to follow her back here and she led me to Troy and Angie last week."

"If that's the case why were they still alive?" Dean asked.

"I was watching them," Lady said. "I wanted to find their ritual spot. Their real one, the altar on the roof was just a spot for preparation and small rituals. I was going to wait until the new moon, but keeping them from killing two idiots was more important. You are welcome, by the way."

Sam gave his brother a warning glance. "Angie did mention Garrett to us." Lady's eyes lit up.

"What'd she say about him?" Lady had a hungry look.

Sam shook his head, "Nothing, really. She thought when we showed up we might be one of his?"

Lady let disappointment show for a brief moment, "Well, that's to be expected. The coven fights within their own ranks for resources. Some form allies to take out other sects, and then backstab them. From what I've found out Garrett is the most powerful, everyone wants to kiss his ass and everyone wants to bleed him dry."

"What resources are they fighting for? Sacrifices?"

Lady looked at him like he was stupid, "Is there a shortage of people? No. Not sacrifices. All witches have to draw power from something. There is demonic, pansy Wicca, Pagan rituals, spiritual, blah blah blah. There are a ton of simple rituals that even you two couldn't screw up."

"I'm getting really sick of..." Dean started.

"Oh, you better get used to it. Either let me talk or you can get the fuck out," Lady snapped at Dean. "When you get into certain levels of magic, it becomes addictive. The power is addictive. What I can figure is Garrett has all his minions drawing from the same source of power. I know it isn't demonic, but it isn't good. Every full moon they draw in whatever power they can get. And every new moon they offer sacrifices. Human, animal, whole things or pieces. Tonight they would have carved the useful bits out of you two. Maybe they would have frozen them, keep them fresh for the full moon, but I'm willing to bet they want something heavy for this new moon. I'm willing to bet they let Tammy's body be found to draw in other witches."

"Why?"

"The best sacrifice on a new moon is another witch," Lady said. "I've killed a lot of these people, but the biggest threat against this coven is itself. Half the time they are fighting among themselves, trying to underhand each other to gain more power and favor with the leader, cutting out their own competition. Not to say they aren't still a danger to the general public and morons like you two." Lady smiled as Dean scowled at her. "There are bigger threats than this coven out there. I think its best you guys take care of what you can find easily, instead of searching for a needle in a haystack. If you come across them give me a call and I'll help you with them, but...if you devote your time to this more lives would be lost than if you just kept doing what you do."

"I don't..." Sam began to protest.

"I barely know you. I believe you are good guys, and I admire that quality, but trying to help me has actually set me back."

"We stopped at the morgue, Tammy's body was stolen," Sam said. "It wasn't on the rooftop or in the apartment, do you think they were trying to still use her?"

"No. Mason and I stole the body out of the morgue last night. We disposed of it earlier today," she said quietly.

"Why dispose of it at all?" Sam asked, confused.

"What they use leaves..." Lady rubbed her hands together and frowned. "I don't know if there is a term, but residue gets left over. The energy of the magic coats things it's used on and it lingers. Tammy was radiating it when we took her."

"Is that what you were doing instead of watching the witches?" Dean asked.

Lady looked thoughtful for a moment, contemplating a lie or truth, "No, it wasn't. That was taken care of last night."

Dean narrowed his eyes at her, "If you were keeping a close eye on those two you would have seen us show up at that apartment building."

"You are right," Lady nodded.

"So where were you?"

She fought back a smile, "I went to Disney World."

Dean studied her face, trying to determine if she was lying. She wasn't. "You were at Disney World while Sam and I thought you were dead?"

"Mmhm," she said. "I even got a pair of Mickey Ears. And a picture of Derek with Snow White."

"I can't…you know what, I can believe it," Dean finally said.

"Hey, Lady, that magical residue, does it give off any EMF?" Sam asked as Dean's hands were clenching into fists.

"No," she said.

"You're sure? Sounds like something that would," Sam said.

Lady smirked, "Oh, I'm positive. I have an unhealthy dose of this crap burned into me and I don't give off any EMF."

Sam looked down, "Oh...yeah, uh, sorry."

"What is the next part of the plan? Where do you go from here?" Dean asked.

"Hang around for a while, any of the others may be coming to check on the coven. They all try to keep a low profile, they won't be happy that their symbol was in the newspapers. If they show up I might be able to track them down and take care of them before or during the new moon. Won't be as easy without Angie or Troy to ambush them for me, but I'll make do. You guys feel free to hang around, but after the new moon you two can move on to the next gig."

"Yeah, I suppose we will," Sam said, glancing at his brother who looked ready to argue. "She knows what she's dealing with, Dean. We'll hang around for a few days until the new moon or we find another job. Like she said, there are better things we can do than sit around waiting."

"What? You want to go to Disney World or something?" Dean snapped.

"It really is worth the long lines," Lady said happily.

"Lady, just call us." Sam said, glancing at Freddie who was curled up like a monstrous cat in front of the stove taking a nap.

"Sure," she said, walking them out.

Lady went to the only bedroom that was on the first floor. There were a few more upstairs along with a master bathroom, but she didn't like being on a second floor where the best escape route was jumping out of a window. Freddie followed shortly, stretching out next to her on the bed. She draped an arm across him while burying her face in his fur. He needed a bath, badly, but she needed a bit of physical comfort after all that had happened. It had been a bad day, a worse week. It seemed whenever she was at an emotional level where death did not scare her she came too close to the actual death, and she wasn't sure what to do. If finding a way to extend her life was going to get her killed, why try? But she was one of the few people that had any understanding of the coven, and they were still killing people. She remembered what Bobby said, just doing what she could live with. She could live with knowing her life would end soon, she couldn't live with knowing she ignored the opportunity to save lives. Getting rid of Troy and Angie meant dozens of people would be spared over the next several years. That was a victory. If she missed any other witches that came into the area because she had to kill them prematurely that was a big loss.


	8. The Coven Part 2, May 2006

**A/N** - _Dean and Lady's fling is inspired by the song 'Sexual Abuse'. The original is by St. Madness, but the cover by Guttermouth is good, too._

**May 25****, ****2006. Orlando, Florida**

Lady fell into her normal dreamless sleep, and woke up hours later with the first chirps of the birds and the heavy rain that was beginning to come down. She showered and dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. The humidity was ridiculous because of the rain and the heat never seemed to completely dry it up. After giving Freddie a bath in the backyard she had to change into her remaining set of clean clothes, denim cutoffs and a tank-top.

Feeding Freddie while on the road was as easy as opening the trunk of her car and taking the lid off of the large rubber bin full of dog food. She had, at one time, tried to fill bowls for him and make him eat off the ground to keep the food from getting soggy with his drool but standing between a two-hundred pound dog and his food was a battle that Lady have given up on. She was letting Freddie eat his fill from the trunk of her Beetle while examining a dent in her front fender. She straightened when she saw the Impala coming down the road.

"Why are you two back?"

"Your years of searching and studying this coven is no match for a few hours of Sam on the computer," Dean said, sounding rather proud of his brother.

"I finally cracked Troy's password for his email. Twenty-first century, even witches are connected. They cover their tracks pretty well but I did find something. First, Troy wasn't Troy Derkwood. He's a spook, no identity. Angie was..."

"Get to the good part," Lady said.

"A few good parts," Sam said eagerly. "They have been renting a storage locker in downtown Orlando for the past few months, not far from where Tammy was found. Since we didn't find many witchcraft items at their apartment I think it's worth checking out. Not to mention Troy was planning, with someone else online, to get rid of Angie after she let Tammy's body get discovered. Planning it for the new moon, you were right about that. The other person set up a meeting with Troy somewhere out in the swamps. From what I read these people don't even trust each other."

"Would you trust them?" Lady questioned, before they could answer she continued, "Pretty clever plan. Either Troy and his new partner killed Angie, or Angie and Troy killed the new guy, or the new guy gets one over on both of them and kills them. Good job, Tweedle Dee, I'll take care of it."

"See we might not know much about this coven, but it is definitely our kind of job," Dean said. "And we're just too gentlemen-like to let a nice little thing like you go out into the swamp alone. We'll go together to the storage locker, all take a look around. Then we'll make plans to take out the other witch when they show up."

Lady narrowed her eyes on Dean. She was surprised that they actually came to her with the information instead of acting on it by themselves. She had given them no concrete reason to trust her, and she hadn't shown them much trust either. "You guys didn't check out the storage locker yet?"

"Dean wanted to," Sam said. "But this is your gig, Lady. We want to help you with it, and if there is anything in there that can help you we know you'll recognize it before we can."

"You are holding out a lot of information, which is stupid," Dean added. "But we're willing to work with you on this. It'll go faster with you along for the ride since you already have done a lot of the legwork."

Lady replaced the lid on the bin as Freddie dropped down to all fours and slammed the trunk down. "Let me grab my stuff," she said. "Come on in, I'll only be a few minutes."

"You going to tell us what you are holding back?" Dean asked as he followed her in.

"I'll wait until I see what we have at the locker," Lady said. She knew she wouldn't get the address from them, they would hold onto that to make sure she kept them in the loop. It may be nothing more than furniture and junk, or it may be a treasure chest of dangerous arcane objects.

The brothers waited in the kitchen as Lady grabbed a few things. She put her silver charm bracelet on and slid her butterfly knife into a front pocket. She had to dig deep into her bag to pull out a baseball cap, plain and a faded red, and pulled her hair out of the hole in the back and knotted it behind her head before setting her sunglasses on the bill of the cap for when she went outside.

She worked on putting on some strappy sandals as Dean began shifting impatiently. "Ready yet?"

"These shoes are more complex than a safe, give me a minute," she said as she crossed the straps across her ankle and tied them securely. "If you want to start bitching you can wait outside," Lady said as she worked on the second shoe.

Lady put Freddie into the backyard before leaving in the Winchester's car, watching out the back windows as she memorized the path they were taking.

"What's the deal with your car?" Dean asked he drove, he hadn't forgotten the fact that the car hadn't been spotted or the box of tools that had been sitting in the driveway when they stopped to get her.

"It's been a bit wobbly since you steered it into a giant mud pool," she said. "It's taken care of."

"You know, Dean is great with cars," Sam said helpfully.

"Good for him, but Derek is handling it," she said. "Are we there yet?"

"Almost," Sam said.

Dean pulled the car into a lot that had several rows of storage units. He went slowly as they counted off the numbers and stopped the car in front of storage unit fourteen.

"This looks promising," Lady said, pulling off her sunglasses and putting them on top of her cap again.

"Don't judge until we get it open," Dean said, on his knees as he worked to pick the lock. After a few moments the padlock clicked open. The door slid upwards and Sam pulled out his flashlight.

"Witch's altar, candles and I'm pretty sure I'm smelling incense," Dean said.

"Dean," Lady said urgently through clenched teeth, and he looked at her confused. "Never, ever, just strut into a witch's playroom."

Dean took a step back and Sam shined the flashlight at the ground to reveal a shimmering substance. "What is that?" Sam asked, kneeling down to get a closer look.

"How did you know that would be there?" Dean asked.

"I didn't. I saw you burst into flames the second you almost stepped over it," Lady said, getting on her knees and looking across the dark floor. She wished they had been there later in the day when the sun would have been on the other side of them. "Give me the flashlight."

Sam handed it over and she shined it across the floor, a few times she reached her hand towards the substance but always took it back.

"That back there, is that blood?" Dean asked.

"Can't tell," Lady said as she got to her feet. A deep frown settled on her face. She pulled her knife out of her pocket and knelt down, carefully sliding it across the threshold and scraping some of the shimmering substance. Slowly she took it back, watching everything carefully to make sure nothing decided to magically blow up. She sniffed at the tip of the knife, "Ah, Van-van oil," she said. "Mixed with some kind of fuel. Propane or kerosene, maybe," she said. "And fish scales."

"Break line on the threshold and we can pass?" Dean asked.

Lady shook her head, "No, way too dangerous. Give me a second," she said, closing her knife and drumming her fingers on her thighs as she walked back to the car. The brothers had come through, they had found a legitimate lead and had waited for her. A good thing, too, considering they would have been killed by the magical landmine Troy and Angie had protected their haven with. Now to gain access she had to figure out how to counter that magic.

She worked the type of curse backwards, trying to think of ways to get it activated and keep it ready for days at a time. Black magic with blood was most powerful during the midnight hours.

She remembered being eighteen, sitting in Bobby's house recovering from a counter-curse he had tried on her that had made her violently sick for days while leaving her hair shiny and breakage-free. She had been fully devoted at that time, too young to really understand death but old enough to know she didn't want to die. Anything Bobby suggested to her she tried fearlessly, dealing with the consequences later. It sucked.

Bobby was telling her of another counter-curse he wanted to try when she felt better. He was explaining to her how it worked. "See, kid, the blackest magic is done during the witching hour, midnight typically. To counter midnight magic you use the lightest magic, something done during noon. Of course magic that doesn't involve the moon isn't as powerful, but you get the right things together during the noon hour and things just might be light enough to counter that black."

Lady's lip curled into a smile as she turned to the Impala and reached in to grab her bag. "I have an idea," she said as she dumped the bluebonnets she had picked in Texas onto the ground. There were in several plastic bags, dried and brittle and broken. "Give me a beer," Lady said as she began opening the bags. "And a pair of socks."

"Are you kidding me?" Dean asked.

"Do you have a bowl, too?" Lady asked, her eyes wide and hopeful. "And salt."

"I'll grab the cooler in the back," Sam said.

"Wait a second. How do we even know if she's telling the truth?" Dean finally asked, he had been dying to ask it all damn day and what she was requesting was just too ridiculous.

Lady pulled her cap off and shook her hair loose from the knot, she ran her fingers through her hairs to grab several loose strands to put inside. She threw the cap into the storage locker and as soon as it touched the ground it burst into blue flames with a soft pop. "I knew that hat a lot longer than I knew you. I can get us in, I just need a few things to counter the curse."

Sam dumped ice out of the cooler and dried the inside with a dirty shirt before setting it beside Lady. She stripped the petals from the blue bonnets into the cooler and then poured a beer into it. The foam mixing with the flowers created an unpleasant odor. She poured half a canister of salt into it and sloshed the contents around counter clockwise. Then she soaked a pair of socks that Sam gave her in the mix before going to the threshold.

She used the soggy sock, that now smelled like a mix of beer, bluebonnets and dirty feet, and began wiping away at the curse on the floor using counter-clockwise motions as she worked her way inside. Unable to help herself she grinned as it worked, countering curses was something she knew a lot about. Not enough to save herself, but at least enough to get rid of the piece of nasty that was in there. There was a great sense of pride, and a bit bitterly she admitted arrogance, to being able to accomplish something like this with so little. Of course if Max hadn't told her to get the stupid flowers to begin with she wasn't sure what else she would have been able to do.

Once the whole floor had been mopped by the dirty sock she stood up in the back of the storage unit and faced the brothers. Both of them, who had been given five minutes of her on her hands and knees as she worked on cleansing the curse, looked up at her quickly and adjusted themselves. She could have told them that it was too dangerous for them to go inside with her, but she nodded to them that it was safe.

The three of them all went up to the altar, and Lady examined the set-up. "Long term altar, probably did animal sacrifices here. It's small enough to drag outside if they needed open air," she said. "The one on the roof last night wasn't set up as well but not that different. Really no earth-shattering information."

"What about this?" Sam asked as he opened a box full of jars with various things inside.

"Might be able to determine what they were practicing," she said, walking over and picking up a jar. "Careful, don't open or break any of these."

"I thought you knew what they were practicing," Dean said. "You've been studying them for nearly ten years."

"Each cell of the coven is different. Some focus on ancient Egyptian rituals, others mix pussy Wicca with demonology, and the one your father killed was into Greek rituals." Lady rubbed her forehead. "Just let me look through this for a few minutes."

"So this coven doesn't even stick with one cultures mythology or rituals?" Sam asked quietly as he glanced at jars and making a face when one turned out to be a few eyeballs in some sort of gel. "That makes no sense."

"Look through all the mythology. A lot of it is all parallel to one another."

"Pagan worship," Dean said flatly. "They are drawing on power of pagans?"

"As far as I know," Lady said and let out a breath as Dean was about to call out her lie. "Yeah, they are. America was immigrated by all countries, all of them brought a little of their religion here. It's a prime place to capitalize on a dozen different pagan deities that are too weak to stop anyone from drawing on their power."

"Huh," Dean said, and Lady had to fight a smirk. "That situation with the Vanir suddenly got more ironic."

Lady set down a jar and went back to the altar. She grabbed the corners of the altar cloth and tied them together. She hefted the make-shift bag of the altar's atrocities, candles, herbs, and partially used parts and moved it to the floor. The table it the altar had been erected on was an old antique desk, blood had soaked through the cloth several times and stained it. She looked through the drawers, finding spare candles, silver daggers, ceremonial bowls and a small Playboy calendar. Before finishing she walked back over to Sam and caught a jar that slipped through his fingers before it could crash to the ground. "Careful, please."

"Sorry," Sam said, taking the jar back. "Is any of this useful to you?"

"I wouldn't use any of it. I don't know where they got it, how they got it, or what they did to it before they put it in jars." Lady muttered. "But seems this pair was into some African craft watered down with Middle East."

"You can tell just by looking at what they used?" Sam asked.

She met his eyes, "Yes. I've been researching witchcraft for a long time, longer than some of the witches I've killed. I know what I'm talking about and dealing with." Lady pulled the same gem from her pocket and it was swinging back and forth while beginning to turn black. "Everything in here needs to be torched. If no one is around to keep it in check it might cause problems. Blow up, cause the dead to rise, something bad."

"Can't torch the unit, cameras everywhere," Dean said. "Loading it up in the car and take it somewhere abandoned would be safe. What about that curse in here?"

"It's too broken up to cause damage anymore. If I missed a spot someone might get some hair singed, but nothing too bad," Lady said. She began pointing out the items that were too dangerous to leave and helped them fill the trunk and backseat of the Impala.

It was early afternoon when they returned to the house, smelling of smoke and gasoline. Derek was in the driveway working on Beetle's engine. "Was wondering where you went," he said as they got out of the Impala.

"I was wondering if you were ever going to wake up," Lady said. "You almost done?"

"Yeah. Took her to my pal's shop and got her realigned, just tuning you up now."

"Good. I'm buying you a plane ticket, where do you want to go?"

Derek looked like a small child who had been refused dessert, "What? No!"

"One-way to North Dakota it is," she said. "Sorry, but you mom will have my ass otherwise."

"What's going on?" he asked.

She gave him a smile, "I think you know. Hey, ease my mind and just listen, okay?" Lady gave Derek an adorable look of pleading, and he melted. "Thanks, bro."

"I want to go to Atlantic City, though," he said.

"Fargo it is," she said as she went into the house.

"Nice kid," Dean chuckled as they stepped into the air-conditioned house.

"Derek is sweet," she said, going to open the back door and let Freddie back inside.

"You got him wrapped around your little finger," Dean commented.

Lady frowned at him, "Mason and his family are good friends." She could imagine what Dean thought, that she was using them for her own benefit. What else could she tell him? The rest was none of his damn business. "What do you know about the area Troy was supposed to meet the other witch?"

"Few square miles of swamp land in the wildlife preserve," Sam said.

"We'll make sure you get there. With us." Dean said.

"No trust?" Lady arched an eyebrow.

"You are a cocky bitch that tries to handle this on her own and doesn't seem to really care if she lives or goes out in a blaze of glory. This isn't about trust, this is about trying to help you do what you say you want to do, lift that curse and destroy this coven." Dean said.

Lady stared at him thoughtfully, not shocked or angry at what he had said. Well, she had known she had problems with being too sure of herself, and she had barely gotten over dealing with Loki in Nebraska and she had noticed signs of it happening again. She could tell herself that she was trying to prevent Sam and Dean from getting caught in the crossfire, that she'd rather be the only casualty than have to worry about them, but they knew what they were doing. "You know what would happen to me if I had to call your father to tell him one or both of you got killed helping me on this?"

"Yeah, you'd get his voicemail," Dean answered.

"You guys are already in on this hunt. I can't get rid of you, and the best way I can make sure you don't get killed is to be honest with you and go in this with you," Lady said. "You guys can stay here, next few days we'll work together to get ready. It would help us if I can get a map of the area to narrow down places where they would be meeting."

"You need to follow our lead on this," Dean said.

"You get to tag along or I'll make your life living hell until the new moon," Lady countered. "I don't want to resort to fighting dirty, but I will."

"We work as partners," Sam negotiated between the two of them. "We all have something to bring to the table on this."

Lady smiled at Sam. "I like you, Sam, you know when to get out of a pissing match. There is an empty room upstairs, one of you will have to take the couch until I can get Derek out of here tomorrow."

"You mean you two don't share the bed?" Dean asked.

"The only man I enjoy sleeping with is in this room," she said, giving him a sly smile before putting her hand on Freddie's head. "And it isn't you."

Sam couldn't help the chuckle but quickly bit it off at the dark look Dean gave him.

Lady examined a map of the swampland that was their area of interest. She circled spots she thought were the best options for the witches to meet before Dean secured the map in his back pocket for safe keeping.

The night wound down and Dean was trying to get comfortable on the couch. The air conditioning kept the house comfortably cool but the humidity leaked in making him stick to the blankets. There were several reasons Dean couldn't sleep and the humidity was the last on the list. He was used to motels, one door, maybe a window in the back. The living room he was in seemed too open and unsecured. Upstairs Sam had a smaller bedroom with a real bed, the jerk had won the rock-paper-scissors match when deciding. Across the hall from Sam was Derek who was in the master bedroom. And down the hall from the living room was Lady and her giant mutt. All of those small irritations combined to make sleep impossible.

Instead of fighting it he got off the couch and went into the kitchen with his father's journal in his hand. Surely his father must have had more information on this coven, something to give them a better advantage when the new moon rose on Saturday. He grabbed a cold beer and sat under the light as he flipped through the pages.

Dean looked up when Freddie trotted into the living room. The dog sniffed around a bit and then into the kitchen before sitting next to Dean and looking up at him with large brown eyes. Dean went back to his journal but now he couldn't even sit and decipher his father's chicken scratch with the strange dog's eyes on him. "Go away," Dean said quietly, trying to shove Freddie's head in a nudge to get the dog to move but Freddie was solid muscle and took Dean's rough shove as a pet and licked his hand eagerly. "Ugh, damn it," Dean brought his drool covered hand back in disgust. He went to the sink to wash his hand off and smirked when he saw a bowl. "Ya thirsty, boy?" Dean asked as he set the bowl on the ground. Freddie's claws clicked on the linoleum as Dean poured his beer into the bowl. Before Dean had emptied the beer Freddie was lapping up the amber liquid. Dean chuckled, "Maybe you aren't so bad after all," he said. "Still a cock-block, though."

Now that the dog was occupied with a full bowl of beer Dean grabbed himself a fresh one and sat back down. He found the page he had read a few times since he had realized it was about the day his father had saved Lady and held it with his fingers as he flipped through the rest of the pages. He found a reference to his father taking the little Lady to Missouri after a few pages. Dean flipped through the last few empty pages of the journal, not finding anything else. When he closed his eyes from the strain of scanning through hundreds of pages he could still see his father's handwriting as if it was burned into his eyelids. He had finished his second beer and Freddie was looking up at him hopefully. Dean finally gave into rubbing the dog's ears.

"I was wondering where he went," Lady muttered as she walked sleepily into the kitchen wearing a t-shirt that went down to her thighs. Freddie abandoned Dean's knee and whimpered until Lady scratched his back for a few moments. "Sorry if he woke you up."

"Nah, I was working on something," Dean said.

Lady opened the fridge. Dean tilted his head as she bent over reaching for something in the back. The t-shirt rode up almost enough for him to see if anything else was under there before she straightened. She sniffed a take-out container of Chinese food and dropped it on the floor. "There you go, buddy." Freddie's nose wasn't small enough to fit into the cardboard container but he tried, busting it open and quickly eating the contents and half the box. Lady then opened a cupboard and stretched up to take down a box of crackers. "What are you working on?"

Dean looked away from the smooth thighs she exposed and back at the journal, "Just seeing if my dad wrote about this coven," he said, closing the journal. "Didn't find anything."

Lady went to fill a glass with water and saw the bowl on the floor. She picked it up and sniffed it, "Serious? You gave my dog beer?"

Dean shrugged, "He seemed to like it. He had three."

Freddie made a noise and rolled onto his back looking at the two of them hopefully for a belly rub. Lady nudged him with her foot and he flopped onto his side. She just shook her head and sat across from Dean at the table and worked on opening the box of Ritz. "John was pretty straightforward in how to handle witches. Shoot them in the head, twice if you can spare the ammo, and burn them along with everything they had."

"What's your approach?" Dean asked.

"Find out as much as I can before I shoot them in the head, twice if I can spare the ammo," she smirked.

Dean opened his mouth to remind her that she had shot Troy in the chest but Freddie was curled up by his side while licking himself noisily. "Well now you are just showing off," Lady said, glancing under the table. "Don't mind him, just like any guy after a few beers he gets a little frisky."

"He learn that habit from you, too?" Dean asked, looking away and trying to contain the laughter that wanted to bubble up.

"Even I'm not that flexible," Lady said, getting up to open the backdoor in the kitchen. Freddie got up quickly and ran outside. Dean let his eyes wander up her ankles to her thighs until he reached her face. "You've been a royal prick since I saved your ass, don't even think about it. Or I'll toss you out like a dog."

"I'd almost like to see you try," Dean said as she put away her snack.

"I'm going back to sleep," she said.

"Sure you don't want some company?" He offered. "I bet I'm just as cuddly as Freddie and I love to be pet." Lady fought back her grin. "I don't hear you saying no."

Lady took a few steps toward him, "You understand that this is only because you are an extremely easy lay."

"You think it's any different for me?" Dean asked her.

"Just making sure," she said, swinging a leg over his lap and running her hands through his hair. Dean let out a slow breath as his hands moved up her thighs and around her back to see if there was anything under that extra large t-shirt, and found silky underwear. Lady tilted her head and touched her mouth to his and he quickly slipped his tongue into her mouth, tasting the sweet crackers she had been eating.

He lifted her onto the table, knocking the chair he had been sitting on over, leaning into her while pulling at his shirt. She ran her hands over his chest as her mouth moved across his jaw and down his neck. She wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him closer to her.

"Sam," she breathed.

Dean leaned back from her, "What the hell?"

"No, Sam," she said.

The living room light came on and Sam appeared on the steps with his pistol in his hand. "Everything okay?" Sam asked urgently, and Lady started giggling. "Oh, oh god, uh...sorry, uh...oh god!" Sam ran back up the steps.

"I think we need to go into the bedroom," Lady said, her hands were already working on the button of his jeans.

Dean grabbed her in his arms and she wrapped her legs around his waist tightly as he hurried to the bedroom, trying not to knock her into a wall or a door frame as he tried to return her kisses. The bedroom door shut with a bang and he dropped her onto the mattress so he could pull the shirt off of her. Freeing himself from his jeans he joined her on the bed, teasing her breasts with his tongue while her hands ran down his back and her legs rubbed against his own.

Her fingers bit into his shoulders as he entered her, she buried her mouth in his neck and moaned as he thrust into her. Her hips lifted to reach him as her legs wrapped around his to pull him farther into her. They moved with each other in aching desire while trying to stifle their sounds of passion. Their anger at each other was still there in their movements and harder than necessary kisses.

Both of them were gasping for breath when it was over and Dean settled into the pillow next to her, letting his hand run over her ribs and feeling her heart pounding under his hand. "I wasn't going to say anything, but you smell like a dog."

She laughed as she tossed part of a blanket over him, he took it and wrapped it around the both of them. "You aren't exactly a flower yourself, pal." She moved to the edge of the bed to give him room and rolled to put her back to him.

Dean slid across and put the length of his body against hers, and she leaned against him as he draped an arm around her waist. "What is the deal with the dog?"

"You never had a dog growing up?" she asked, her voice sounding tired.

"No," Dean said.

"I never did, either," she admitted. "But I have one now."

Dean nuzzled the back of her neck to move the hair so he could rest his face against the soft skin there, kissing it briefly as he felt the sleep that escaped him earlier begin to fall on him. His breaths matching Lady's and her warm body secure against his. "Okay, you need to pick half the bed and stay there," she said, making his eyes open and pulling him away from sleep.

"You don't want to spoon?"

"The humidity is over a hundred percent," she said.

Dean moved over on the bed and put his hands behind his head. "Works for me," he said, settling into the cool pillow and letting the sleep pull at him again. But before the sleep could grab him his eyes opened as the memory of something his brother said was so clear in his head it seemed like Sam was in the room, 'Can you even admit to yourself that you have a thing for Lady?' Thinking about Sam or even his voice was the last thing Dean wanted to do after having sex and while laying naked with a woman, it was just wrong, but now it was stuck in his head. But he knew that there was nothing between him and Lady except an occasional working relationship and some fun in the sack. She was officially the best expert they had on witchcraft and probably not too shabby in her Pagan worship, that was useful. She would be just as useful if she was a guy named Leland with a beer gut, just without the benefit of sex.

Lady woke up when half the blankets got torn off of her as Dean rolled in his sleep. Sunlight was filtering in through the curtains and there was the dull sound of an early-morning rainstorm. She slid out of the bed and quietly went to the bathroom to take a shower. When she was done she exited the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her body and one around her head and went back into her room to find some clothes that were moderately clean, she'd have to work on laundry soon.

Freddie had made his way back into the house and was stretched out on the bed next to Dean. "Hungry, buddy?" She asked quietly as she pulled on her shorts from the previous day and searched her bag for a shirt.

"What time is it?" Dean asked sleepily, his face buried in a pillow.

"Half-past six," Lady answered as she pulled her shirt on.

Dean made a noise and Lady held back a laugh as she saw Freddie was licking his back and nuzzling his head. Dean began to turn over to wrap Freddie in his arms and he jerked when he found fur, "Jesus Christ," he groaned.

"I think he likes you," Lady chuckled as she gathered up her dirty clothes. "Try to keep it down, you two."

"That's just wrong!" Dean called as she left the room.

Lady found Sam sitting in the living room working on his laptop. He glanced up to see who it was and quickly looked down with a red face when he saw it was her. "Good morning," she said.

"Hi," he said tensely.

The laundry room was between the living room and the kitchen, Lady kept the door open so she could see Sam as she began to fill the washer. "Did you sleep okay?" She asked, hiding her smirk.

"Yeah," Sam answered shortly. "Fine." Lady waited until he said, "I'm really sorry about..."

"Sam, no worries," she laughed. "You didn't see anything."

The washer started and Lady fell into the empty couch that Dean had been using as a bed before he got invited into hers. She turned the television on and not long afterward Derek shuffled down the stairs. "You guys are noisy," he complained as he walked into the kitchen.

"Ordered your plane ticket," Lady said. "Leaves at noon so get ready and get out of here."

"Yeah, fine," he mumbled.

The morning went by quickly after Derek left, Lady and the Winchesters freely discussed their plans for the next day. Checking their weapons, sharpening knives and cleaning guns.

As the night wound down Sam and Lady lounged in the living room while waiting for Dean to return with a pizza for supper. "Hey, Lady, can I ask about your mark?" Sam asked.

"What do you want to know about it?" She asked tensely.

"It's just…it is the mark of the coven. I get that you were nearly sacrificed by them, why do you have it?"

Lady had been unusually honest with the Winchesters, not that she didn't still have a lot of information she hadn't given away, but she hadn't been refusing to answer their questions, either. "They brand just about anything they have with the symbol," she said. "Special sacrifices, too."

"Special?"

Lady shrugged, "Unfortunately I don't know much about what they did to me. Sort of one of the big questions I've been looking for an answer to. All the time I've been doing this I haven't heard of anyone else going through what I remember happening."

Sam frowned in thought and looked back at the television.

Lady was satisfied that she hadn't flat-out lied, but there was a lot of missing information. She was surprised though that it bothered her, like she maybe should have told him more. She fidgeted with her charm bracelet and focused on looking at the dangling charms. There was a cross, pentacle, unicursal hexagram, Buddha, star of David and a Hindu charm. There were a few empty rings where charms in the past had fallen off and never been retrieved, but they hadn't been lost by her.

"That's a pretty nice bracelet," Sam said.

"Yeah, I like it," she said.

"Real silver?" he asked.

"If I say yes are you going to melt it down?" she asked.

Sam cracked a smile and shook his head, "No, just, those charms in silver gives it pretty powerful protection. Why don't you wear it all the time?"

"I leave it with Freddie when I leave him," she said. Sam looked confused as to why she'd leave a valuable piece of jewelry with her dog. "I don't have any particular reason, I mean the best I can come up with sounds corny as hell. Freddie is a dog, I know, but he's my best friend. Considering how I live if I keep him at home I may not come back, at least if he has this he has something of mine."

"Sounds sweet," Sam offered, but she could tell he didn't get it. "You know it's pretty surprising, for how out of the norm everything is for you, you actually have it pretty normal. House, dog, all that."

"You have no idea what my life is like," she said. "Far from normal. Not my house, and the dog is no Lassie."

"You don't seem to have it too bad. Even if you do you keep a pretty good attitude," Sam said.

"I don't have much going for me but attitude and a bitchin' shoe collection," Lady smirked. "Your lot isn't so bad, Sam. You got family."

Sam shrugged, "I know, but sometimes I...I don't know. Before all this started up again for me I was real happy, you know? I mean, I love my brother and my father, but I don't want the same life as them. If your situation was different would you want to do this?"

"Not sure."

"Not sure? Come on, do you like doing this? Hunting for witches?"

"I don't know what I would do instead, to be honest." Lady laughed a bit, "You know what I did before this started for me?" Sam smiled a bit and shook his head. Lady had to bite back the nervous laughter, she wasn't sure why she was offering this information but before she could come up with a lie she told the truth, "I hustled. I was fifteen and I hustled tourists in Las Vegas. I wasn't half bad, either. Shell game, magic tricks, pick-pocketing, all that. And, uh…I knew it was wrong, of course. I wasn't stupid, but I was fifteen, my next choice was hooking. Hell, maybe if I hadn't gotten picked up by the witch I would have ended up doing that, too, I don't know. It's been nine years and some of this stuff still scares the crap out of me, but I would rather be doing this than what I was working my way up to. And I do enjoy knowing that when I've taken a few of them off the map that more people will never be hurt by them again. And sometimes things I know helps others out. Maybe I don't know as much as I should after being at it for so long, but I feel like this is something I should do. Someone has to, right?"

Sam nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, you're right."

Dean hurried inside as rain poured down, "I hope this crap doesn't keep on through tomorrow," he said as he shook water out of his hair. "Soggy pizza, anyone?"

The excitement before a hunt was surging that night. They were ready to go out in the morning and begin a hike to find the witch's ritual sight and hopefully find it in time to set up an ambush for them. It was difficult to sleep as their minds all worked over the plan, back-up plan, and the 'oh shit' plan to see if there were any holes that could be filled. Sam took Dean's advice to take Freddie on a long run around the neighborhood and Dean worked on filling one particular hole until he and Lady were so physically exhausted that they had no choice but sleep.


	9. The Coven Part 3, May 2006

**May 27, 2006. Everglades, Florida**

The day was already muggy and humid, it had already rained and stopped and rained some more, if it kept up they only had a few hours until it rained again. Lady was dressed in long jeans and rubber boots that went up to her knees, she had already sweat off three applications of bug-spray and was getting one last application on before they started the day. The Beetle and the Impala were parked on a muddy gravel road that was beginning to become overgrown with weeds and tall grass.

"Got everything?" Sam asked as he handed Dean a map.

"Yup," Dean answered. "Any reception on your phone?"

"Nothing," Sam said. "Bring the flare guns?"

"Yeah, but only use them if we come up on trouble," Dean said. "Me and Lady will work our way north checking out these two spots," Dean pointed at parts of the map Lady had circled. "When you are done come back to the car, shouldn't take more than three hours."

"Freddie'll hear a snake or an alligator if they get too close for comfort," Lady said as she strapped a thick spiked collar on Freddie. "You sure you don't want to go with your brother?"

"Just trying to keep you honest, Lady," Dean said. "Best way to do that is watch you to make sure you don't lie."

Lady rubbed Freddie's ears and back after hooking her silver charm bracelet on his collar. "Be good, Freddie. Listen to Sam."

Sam and Freddie went south into the thick vegetation, soon the sound of Sam hacking away at overgrown shrubs and leaves faded.

"Locked and loaded?" Dean asked as he checked his pistol one last time before grabbing his machete to lead the way.

"Yes," Lady said, staying a safe distance behind him as he hacked a path for them.

The only dangerous thing they came across for a long time were mosquitoes the size of birds, but at the first clearing there was a coiled up rattlesnake that Lady helped them avoid. "Anything else here?" Dean asked.

"Could be used as a spot, but if it is they haven't used it before," Lady answered. "We're looking for obvious signs that a person has been here, I'm not seeing any. Off to the next one."

Dean checked his compass to make sure they were heading in the right direction constantly, being one of the idiots who got lost was not going to happen to him. A lot of the time the trees were so thick they kept out all but the faintest rays of sunlight.

"How much longer?" Lady asked.

"Can't be much farther," Dean said. "Sam is probably on his way back to the car by now. Wish the phones worked, we'd know if he found anything or not." Dean hacked away a dense shrub and the light grew brighter. "There it is," he said, a new surge of adrenaline made him move faster over the uneven ground. He stopped and looked around with a slack mouth. "Here it is."

Lady nodded as she looked around the clearing, about fifty feet wide. The trees hung over it but enough of the sky was open and the sun was shining down. In the center was a stone altar, stained with blood. It was dryer than most of the marsh they had just hiked through but the ground was still soggy from the frequent rains. "Figures, had to be the one farthest from the damn road," she said.

Dean walked around the edge of the clearing, examining places where they could hide and wait for nightfall. "There is a lot of cover, we shouldn't have a problem ambushing the witch. I just hope after all of this they don't decide to ditch."

"Yeah, I hear that," Lady said, slapping at a bug that had landed on her neck. "Want to take a breather before we head back?"

Dean shook his head. It was noon, it would take them at least an hour and a half to get back to the car and another hour and a half to get back. Maybe less considering he had cut a good path through the area. "We'll take a break at the car." Lady nodded in agreement. Dean appreciated that the whole walk hadn't been full of complaints from her, she was holding her own on the rough hike well.

"Hey, hold up," Lady said softly, looking at the ground. "What is...AH!" Lady covered her head as a loud explosion, amplified by her future hearing, deafened her, and screamed louder as a flash of light blinded her.

"Lady, what..." Dean went to her as what had caused her to stop landed a few feet away from him. It took him one second to recognize it as a stun grenade but even before he recognized it he was turning to get some distance and protect himself. Too late, though, the flash of light blinded him and the bang that came with it deafened and disorientated him.

Lady coughed on thick plumes of smoke and crawled low, "Dean?" She coughed. Her hands fell on a pair of boots and she grabbed the ankles and pulled, trying to get him down below the smoke. And then she noticed she wasn't pulling on Dean's jeans, but someone else's light khaki's. Between the smoke and the disorientating light and bang of the grenade she didn't see a heavy club coming down to strike her in the temple.

Sam and Freddie were having an easy time getting through the swamp. The south seemed much dryer for the most part, but seemed to have a considerable amount of wildlife. Several times Freddie came across sunbathing alligators and poisonous snakes, barking in warning to alert Sam and to scare off the animals.

Sam was on his way back to the car later than expected, they had to make a wide detour around a pond that hadn't been on the map and was infested with at least one ten-foot alligator that Freddie had seemed to want to challenge to a growling match and they were making their way around the pond again when Sam heard a distant bang to the north. Freddie whimpered as if he was afraid, a strange sound coming from something so large with a spiked collar around its neck. "Dean," Sam gasped. He pulled out his map and looked at the area between him and his brother, most of it was dark blue indicating water. "Freddie, wait!" Sam shouted as Freddie disappeared into the trees. Sam took a few steps to let the dog lead him to his brother and Lady, but Freddie was already gone. Sam let out a curse and began to make his way quickly through the swamps, consulting his compass and the map. The fastest way he could find to reach them was to follow his previous path out, and then theirs. If he could follow their path he would either meet them on their way back or find where they ended up.

Sam's mind raced as he went swiftly through the swampland. It sounded like a gunshot, but with all the trees to muffle the sound he shouldn't have been able to hear it from so far away. It could be someone else, a local illegally hunting. Or his brother could be in trouble.

Sam's hair was matted to his head as he worked his way through the path Dean and Lady had made earlier. He found the first clearing, empty, and found their path continue farther north and west. Since he hadn't found them on their way back his mind went to scary places. What if they came across a hungry animal, one of them got a shot off but it had been too late?

Sam wasn't so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't notice the changes in his surroundings. The gentle sounds of animals hiding in the bushes had all but faded as he neared the second clearing, even the bugs had seemed to thin out. When he stepped into the clearing the smell of smoke was still there but it had faded. In the middle was a large stone, unusually flat on the top and stained red. There were a few engravings on the side he couldn't make out. And on the ground was his brother's pistol and machete. "Dean?" Sam called, looking around. To the west of the clearing he saw his brother tied to the base of a tree, his hands back around the trunk and rope wrapped around his torso. "Dean!"

Sam ran forward and paused when he heard a snapping branch and felt a rope tug around his ankle. "Oh, no," Sam muttered an instant before he was lifted off his feet to dangle by one leg above the ground. His machete slipped out of his hand but he still had plenty of weapons.

Sam paused in unstrapping the knife from his forearm when his eyes landed on blood-spattered khakis, the next instant his vision blurred as he was struck in the head.

The hit was hard enough to disorient him and he fought the feeling as he fumbled for his pistol in his waistband. It slipped out and through his fingers to land out of his reach on the ground. Without his gun he went back to retrieving his knife only to have his capture fight him for it and win.

"Another one, how exciting," a man said.

Sam swung a punch and hit the man in the middle, making him stumble back and fall on the ground. He turned slightly on his string but glared at the man. He appeared to be in his late fifties, with pale skin and sharp cheekbones. His hair was pale blonde, almost white, and his eyes were dark blue and bloodshot. Slowly the man got up and took out a length of rope, "Give me your hands so I can put you upright. Don't want you to die from all the blood gushing to that pretty head of yours." Sam's jaw went slack and he offered the man his hands with little resistance.

After some time Sam was upright and hanging from his wrists from a sturdy branch of the tree his brother was tied to and he felt a fog lift as the witch's temporary control released. "What did you do to me? What did you do to my brother?"

"Simply the power of persuasion," the witch said as he walked to the edge of the clearing and disappeared into the bushes.

Sam looked at his brother, Dean's chin was in his chest and there was sticky blood that had leaked from under his hair. "Dean, c'mon man, wake up!" Sam urged.

He stopped trying to wake his brother up when he heard the witch returning, dragging a tied-up body into the clearing. "Don't worry, she isn't dead...yet," the witch chuckled as he placed Lady's body on the altar. Her wrists and ankles were both bound and he nailed the end of each rope into the ground securely. "Stun grenades are very effective against little brats that can see the future." Sam clenched his jaw, that explained the noise that had sent him running into the trap. The grenade explosion was probably ten times louder than a gun shot. "She went down much easier than anticipated. Even the other one, your brother, I had to bash several times just to keep him down." The witch let out an exerted sigh, "I'm afraid I left a few more things in the car, feel free to hang about as you are. And just so you don't have any false hope I'll leave my pet here to keep you company." The witch called out, "Yaomo!"

Leaves rattled until a large dog, a Great Dane, burst through the shrubs. Sleek black fur shivered over massive muscles and it reared back its teeth and growled menacingly at Sam. Every slight movement Sam made the dog inched closer, aching for a reason to tear him apart. The witch disappeared into the bushes.

Lady's head was throbbing and she coughed as her lungs burned. She tried to move but found herself tied, "Ah, damn it."

"Lady, you okay?" Sam asked.

Lady moved her head enough to see Sam hanging from a tree, "Uh, not really. Dean?"

"He's breathing. Tied up on the ground." Sam said. "We, uh, we're in serious trouble."

"How many of them?" Lady asked as she tugged on her ropes. She paused at the fierce growl. She craned her neck to see the massive dog behind her. "Sam, we're in trouble."

"I said that," Sam said.

"That's a black dog," Lady said, staring into Yaomo's pitch black eyes.

"I saw that," Sam said. "But you mean, like..."

"Like magical black dog," she said. "Where's Freddie?"

"He ran off, I thought towards you after we heard the bang," Sam said.

Lady lay still on the altar, "So how many?"

"Just saw one, older man," Sam answered.

Lady took calming breaths, this had been a possibility in their plan. The witch that had got one over on them was powerful enough to command a familiar, if it wasn't Garrett there weren't many others capable of doing so. Without a sufficient amount of power a familiar would turn on their masters, tearing them apart. Or run away. Or vanish. There were a lot of possibilities, but the black dog snarling had her convinced it was properly bound.

"Don't look into his eyes," Lady warned. "Just keep your head down, and, uh...well, it was really nice seeing you again, Sam."

"That's it?" he asked.

"That's a just in case comment," she said. "Damn it, when will this ringing in my ears stop?" Lady shifted uncomfortably and snarled back at the dog. "Try it, bitch, your master won't be too happy if you rip my throat out before he gets a chance to!"

"Lady, please don't taunt it," Sam said uncomfortably.

"Sshh, he's coming," Lady hissed.

Soon the dog stopped growling and became more submissive, and then its master returned to the clearing with a black leather bag in his hand. "Aw, you are awake," he said gently.

"Ian," Lady grinned as she lifted her head. "Oh, this just keeps getting better."

"Comfortable, I hope?" Ian smiled down at her as he set his bag on the ground next to the altar.

"I think you dragged me through poison ivy, dickweed," she said.

"Still not living up to your adorable alias, are you?" he asked. "I always wondered why you called yourself Lady when you act so far from one."

"Irony makes me giggle," Lady said flatly as she slowly tested her ropes. "You are pretty far from your area, Ian."

"Afraid I had to abandon it due to your incessant search for me," Ian said, opening a black bag. "Since you are here I must assume the idiotic duo that were here are now dead, which is a shame. I rather wanted to kill them both myself."

"I thought you and Troy were going to partner up?" Lady asked as she looked at scalpel Ian showed her. She averted her eyes to the sky, the sun was hidden behind the trees now and all she could see was blue sky.

"I never cared for babysitting the young scamps Garrett picks up," Ian said. "Yaomo is worth ten of them, and she doesn't talk back. Youth these days are far too rebellious, women in particular. In my day a woman knew her place."

"Oh, save me the bullshit," Lady said. "Ananda used you as her little puppet years ago and..."

Lady's air was cut off as Ian wrapped long boney fingers around her throat. "Ananda should have put you down and found someone else. You've been one headache after another."

Lady's throat wasn't released until Dean started coughing and groaning as he came to. Lady sucked in a few breaths.

"Gah, I feel like I got bashed in the head with a sledgehammer," Dean groaned. "I'm tied up, aren't I?"

"Yeah," Sam said.

"I was afraid I may have had to hit you one too many times," Ian said.

"Maybe two too many times," Dean groaned.

"Don't look into his eyes," Sam said urgently as Dean squinted at Ian.

"Bro, you sure that's a dude?" Dean asked, and was promptly struck across the face. Dean made a pained noise and then said, "Hits like a girl."

The next second Dean was nose-to-nose with Yaomo. "I only need two this evening, whoever I don't use is hers," Ian said gently. "Having a bit of manners goes a long way."

"Got it," Dean said tensely, trying to lean away from the savage dog.

"We have a few hours until nightfall, we get a snack break?" Lady called. "At least let me go to the bathroom, dying after pissing myself is just insult to injury."

"No one will be able to tell soon, the weather is shifting," Ian said as he walked back to Lady. "The weather isn't all that is shifting. With this, killing you, I'll finally take my rightful place."

"You are already Garrett's butt-monkey, what else do you want?"

Ian chuckled, "Haven't you heard? Garrett is losing clout among the other elders. Mostly because of you."

Lady stared fearlessly into Ian's eyes, "Me?"

"Garrett doesn't want you to die," Ian taunted. "You help him every time you kill one of those pathetic brats. One less person to share power with, and one more spirit to feed his own."

Lady looked away, "So he's into necromancy? Funny, I would have figured the top-dog to be into something that packed a bigger punch."

"That's it? No mournful howl at discovering that you've been assisting your arch-nemesis? And here I thought you were an arrogant little brat with a hero-complex."

"Garrett isn't my arch-nemesis," Lady scoffed. "That would be Payless Shoes Corporation."

Ian chuckled. "Did you ever suspect that Garrett likes you? He thinks you are adorable. The devil of a man has lived for hundreds of years and I think he has a little crush on you." Lady stayed still and laid there quietly. "He wants to see how long you can last. Ananda's Little Lady, the only survivor of the Blue Moon. Every time you almost die you find something else to keep you going. You must tell me, what naughty little magic have you been up to yourself?"

"Contrary to what you believe, there is more out there in this world than you and your coven. And there are ways around that sweet little curse Ananda twisted into me that are more powerful than you could ever access and pure to boot. And those secrets die with me and their owners."

"We'll see how talkative you feel once it gets dark. We'll have all night," Ian said. "Now, if you'll excuse me I'd rather not get rained upon."

Lady listened to the soft rustle of grass and snapping of leaves as he left, once again leaving his dog on guard. After a few minutes rain began to fall, first light drops that turned into a drizzle and then a pounding downpour.

"Fucking Florida!" Lady shouted as the rain didn't let up after half an hour. The rain helped clean scratches and bug bites, but soon she felt cold as the sun began to set.

The rain began to settle while there was still a glow from the sun, finally quiet enough to try and talk. "Anyone have a plan?" Sam asked, he'd been hanging so long he couldn't feel his hands and his shoulders were strained. His brother and himself were fortunate to be shielded from the worst of the rain by the tree.

"I do, actually," Lady said. "Not a good one, though."

"No such thing as a bad plan at this moment," Dean said.

"One of you guys keeps the dog occupied I might be able to get my arms free. Might end up with someone getting their face chewed off."

"That's a horrible plan!" Dean snapped.

"Chances are it will be my face if I'm not fast enough," Lady said. "I didn't see him take his bag, so there is at least a scalpel in there somewhere."

"Our pistols and knives are to your right on the ground," Sam said.

"Let's do it," Dean said, and began struggling. Immediately the dog began making warning snarls at him and stalked towards him.

Lady gripped the rope and tugged, she felt more give than she had before because of the muddy ground. She grit her teeth as she pulled and stopped when the dog snapped at her face.

"Sorry," Dean said.

"It isn't easy to fool Yaomo," Ian said as he came back into the clearing. The rain had settled to light droplets and seemed ready to stop entirely. "She understands English better than half this state." Lady frowned as Ian set up torches at each corner of the altar. With a whispered word they all burst into bright blue flames and illuminated the entire clearing. He brought out a few tools in his bag. A silver dagger, a bowl, several jars of herbs and his scalpel. "Don't worry, this is just to gather the bits I want to use for later," Ian said. "I'll use the duller one when we get started."

"Let her go," Dean said. "You said your boss doesn't want her dead, just let her go. You have two perfectly good bodies right here."

"Shut up, Dean," Lady said.

"Ah, chivalry, it's so hard to find these days," Ian said appreciatively.

"Speak for yourself, I'm not being sacrificed," Sam said angrily. "Kill her, let us go."

"Sam!" Lady looked up, shocked.

"No offense, Lady, but I am not dying like this," Sam said. "And I'm not hanging around to watch this, either. We're getting the hell out of here."

Yaomo began to snarl and snap at Sam's feet as he struggled.

"Son, you don't want to do that. She will tear you apart," Ian said, slightly amused.

Sam grit his teeth and swung his leg, his heavy boot connecting with Yaomo's jaw and knocking the dog back several feet. He pulled himself up a few feet on the rope before his shoulders gave out and made him slide back down painfully. Yaomo shook her head and got her senses back and was two seconds from lunging at Sam before Ian shouted a command. She shivered angrily and bared her teeth at Sam. "Congratulations, young man, you are dog food," Ian said softly. "But you will have to wait. The first phase is beginning."

Lady tensed as Ian pulled her shirt up, exposing her stomach and bra. His fingers caressed the tattoo under her breast before moving up. "I'm sure it's been a while since you hit second base but you damn well better keep your hands to yourself," Lady said through clenched teeth.

"I should sew your lips shut," Ian muttered as his hand went to unbutton her jeans. "But I rather want to hear you scream."

"You sick fuck! I'm going to kill you!" Dean snarled as Lady struggled against Ian as he tried to pull down her soaking wet jeans. She knocked over several of the items he had set on the altar.

Ian sighed, "Your squirming is surprising. You know there is no way out." Ian knelt down to pick up the fallen items.

"I have to ask, Ian, how big is that dog?" Lady said. "One-seventy?"

Ian looked at her curiously, "One-eighty. Why?"

Lady began giggling, and Ian frowned at her. "You know, size really does matter, Ian. And mine is bigger."

Ian stiffened as Yaomo began to shift anxiously and snarl. Around them came the sound of rustling grass and snapping branches. "You think there is anything in this swamp that can harm a black dog?" Ian asked, but he was still tense.

"I'm betting my life on it," Lady said, grunting as she pulled her arms forward. The spike that had held the ropes to the ground and kept her stretched out upon the altar finally slid from the mud and swung up. Ian's eyes were surprised, and she swung the rope with the heavy spike. It wrapped around his neck and she pulled him onto the altar as she tightened it.

"Yaomo!" Ian gasped. But the rustling outside of the clearing turned into a snarl as Freddie burst through the leaves, moving quickly between Lady and Yaomo.

"That's just a dog," Ian choked on his words as she tightened the rope. "It isn't bound to you or anyone."

"True, but he fights dirty like I do," Lady said, trying to squeeze the soggy rope as tight as she could with her fatigued arms. "Now, you crusty son of a bitch, what else can you tell me about Garrett? You said you were about to take over, is he losing his power? His followers?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"You hate him. Know before I kill you that I will kill him, too."

"It won't matter, you'll still be dead long before he is weak enough. Unless you use me to kill him for you," Ian said.

Lady shifted as Ian threw himself backwards and sent them both toppling over the altar onto the ground. The movement sent Yaomo in a frenzy which in turn sent Freddie into a frenzy. The dogs met in a crash of fury, Freddie taking the first advantage because of his heavier bulk.

Lady struggled to keep the rope around Ian's neck but the fall had caused her grip to slip enough so he could free himself, but her ankles were still bound together and leashed to the ground. Lady rolled as far as her bound ankles allowed her, the stake in the ground was still secure and she didn't have much room to move. Ian went after her with a knife and she watched carefully, putting her wrists up in time so the knife cut through a few coils of rope around her wrists and only cut her thumb. With more movement she grabbed his wrist and worked her own arms free as she struggled for the blade.

"Dogs!" Sam warned.

Lady and Ian were hit by nearly four-hundred pounds of snarling dog-fight and both were sent rolling. Lady scrambled to grab the knife on the ground and cut her ankles loose. "Dean!" she called as she threw the knife at him

Dean shouted a curse as the knife hit the ropes wrapped around his torso, close enough to him that he could feel the cold metal. He began shifting to slice through the ropes and get himself free.

Lady howled out in pain and clutched at her tattoo on her right wrist. Ian was standing over her, disheveled and pissed. "You are better than I gave you credit for," he said. "But you underestimated me. I am more merciful than Ananda ever was, but I did learn many techniques from her."

"But you never did learn how to tell when a woman was faking it," Lady said as he stood over her, releasing her wrist and throwing a hunting knife that had been left on the ground from one of the brothers. It struck him under the chin and stuck. The surprise never registered on his face as he crumpled to the ground.

Dean was free and was working on cutting Sam free. "Good job," Sam offered as he dropped to the ground.

"Freddie?" Lady called, hearing the dogs fighting in the leaves outside of the clearing but unable to see. "C'mon, boy, take that bitch down," she said, following the noises with her eyes while the brothers retrieved their things, wincing every time a whimper indicated one of the dogs had experienced pain.

"Lady, don't!" Sam called as Lady darted to the edge of the clearing. Seconds later a painful howl was heard and she was calling for her dog with panic in her voice.

Lady dropped to all fours as Yaomo leaped from the leaves at her, narrowly avoiding the snapping jaws as the dog leapt over her. Yaomo skidded on the wet grass and went for another attack while Lady was on the ground. Lady covered her head as three shots rang out, a moment later the Great Dane skidded to a halt beside her. She looked up at Dean who was holding the smoking gun. "You shot at me!" she accused him.

"You threw a knife at me," he countered.

She shook her head angrily and went into the pitch black leaves, following the sounds of whimpers. She found Freddie on his side and felt her chest squeeze. "Oh, no, no, buddy, you have to get up," she said, putting her hand on his side and feeling wet fur. She refused to believe it was blood. "Freddie?"

She let out a shaky breath of relief when Freddie began licking her hand and trying to move. "Good boy, you are such a good boy," she cooed, leading him back into the clearing where the torches still gave off light. Freddie let out soft whimpers and tried to avoid stepping on his front right paw. "Sit. Let me look at you," she said, running her hand over him. His left ear was hanging and bleeding, a few bite marks on his shoulders and what she hoped wasn't a broken leg. "You are going to be okay," she said, rubbing his back and throwing her arms around him in a tight hug that he leaned into.

"We're okay, too, thanks for asking," Dean said, rubbing Freddie's head. "Where the hell were you, mutt?"

Lady pulled back and stared at Freddie, "That is a good question. Couldn't have shown up when we still had sunlight?" Lady smiled, "Ah, can't be made at that face," she said, hugging him again and burying her face in his neck.

Dean nudged his brother, "Good timing with the 'kill her not us' thing, by the way."

"Told you guys, get a witch talking and you have all the time in the world. They are like James Bond villains, just they usually don't give any good information up. They just like to hear themselves talk," Lady said as she used a length of rope from her binds to create a leash for Freddie.

Dean and Sam went to work purifying the sight, using a mix of things Ian had brought along with things Lady had in her bag. In a ring around the altar they used the torch that burned blue to set it on fire, the flames turned orange as it canceled out the magic the coven used and the torches began to burn normally.

"What about them? We don't have any fuel to burn them, and any wood we can pick up is too wet," Sam said, looking at the dead dog and Ian. The gem Lady had changed colors and swayed wildly over them, sensing the dark magic still in them.

"I have an idea," Dean said.

Sam dragged the black dog Yaomo and Dean dragged Ian as Freddie and Lady led them. "Step up in two feet," she said, she was the only one who carried a torch but it was already dimming.

"This isn't the way we came, you sure your dog knows the way?" Dean asked.

"He might take the occasional detour that nearly costs us our lives, but he's hurt I think he wants to get out of here as soon as possible. Getting into some really mushy stuff now."

Soon the sound of wildlife returned and there were splashes of water. With the new moon there was no light and the murky water would not even reflect the stars bright in the sky. "I bet there are a few gators in there," Lady said.

"This works just as well as burning them, right?" Sam asked as he shoved Yaomo's corpse into the water.

"Oh yeah," Lady said. "Anything that takes the corpse down to waste will work. Normally I think ashes, but Dean had a good idea here." Dean grunted as Ian's body splashed. "And alligators will eat about anything."

"If not?" Sam asked.

"Lots of other scavengers in the swamps," Lady said. "And it's remote enough that if they spontaneously combust no one will get hurt."

They continued, using a length of rope to make sure they didn't get separated. After a half hour the torch went out completely and all they had was Freddie's nose and Lady's future-sight to warn them what was coming. They all expected at least another hour of hiking in pitch black but after fifteen minutes they stepped out of the thick trees and onto a muddy back road.

"This isn't right," Dean said. "There aren't any other roads this close. If there were I would have used them."

"Prairie trail," Lady said. The road was only one-lane and each side was covered by thick trees. "Well, swamp trail?"

"I don't care, I'm just glad to be out of there," Sam said. "But how far to the car?"

"Depends," Lady said, letting Freddie guide her as she saw something shiny reflecting the stars above them. "Does it have to be your car?"

Lady put her hands on a black Cadillac Escalade. "Think this is Ian's?" Sam asked.

"I don't car if it was Hitler's, get in," Dean said, testing the driver's door and finding it unlocked.

Lady got into the back seat after helping Freddie inside. "This is definitely Ian's." The rear seat had several jars of various things. "Another burning project," she sighed as she began to look through them.

Dean started the car and let the air conditioning hit them while he examined the map and looked at his compass. He and Sam discussed the best route back to where their car was parked and after a few minutes the SUV shifted into gear and began smoothly rolling over the muddy road.

"What are you doing back there?" Dean asked, seeing Lady with her butt up as she looked through things in the back seat.

"Seeing what he has. Looks like he lived in this thing," Lady said, searching through a bag of clothes. "Oh gross."

"Do I want to know?" Dean asked.

"I found his tightie-whities," Lady said.

Lady grinned as the brother's both laughed. She shoved the bag aside and opened a large rubber bin, similar to what she used to carry Freddie's food in. Inside were a few black tablecloths, good for setting up temporary altars, an interesting short sword that Lady wondered if it wasn't pure silver, a jar filled with human teeth and a leather-bound book.

Lady let out a scream that made Dean slam on the brakes. She flew backwards and nearly into the front of the SUV. "What?" Dean shouted.

Lady couldn't talk, she could barely breathe with excitement. She struggled to get back to the rear of the SUV, jumping over the middle seat and into the back. She opened the book and let out an excited shriek. "I found one!" She climbed back over the seat to show the brothers. "The only other one I ever saw was burned years ago, this is a book of spells."

"Then we have to burn it," Dean said.

She shook her head, "Everything I need is in here. To take down the coven, to figure out how to track them, find them, why they do what they do when they do, find Garrett, maybe even lift my curse." Lady fell into a fit of giggles. A few days ago she had been sure there was no hope, that Missouri was an idiot for inspiring it in her again, but in her hands she held everything she ever wanted.

"You are kind of scaring me with the maniacal laughter," Sam said as Dean began to drive again.

Lady was laughing so hard tears fell down her face, "This is the best night of my life. I am so happy I think I just had an orgasm."

"Ugh," Sam looked away.

They left the Escalade burning on the side of the road once they reached their cars. Lady handed the book to Dean for safe keeping and took Freddie in her car to the nearest animal hospital. The sun was coming up when she returned to the house. Sam had fallen asleep on the couch, his bare feet hung over the end. He had taken the time to get cleaned up and in clean clothes. Down the hall she could hear the dryer running so him or his brother hadn't been asleep for long.

Lady went into the bathroom and stripped down. Her clothes were so dirty and stained that it didn't even seem worth it to clean them. She stepped into the shower and for a long time just stood under the stream while searching herself for ticks and other parasites. When satisfied Lady washed her hair twice, the first time to get rid of the bugs and the second time to make the feeling of bugs crawling in her hair to go away. Her skin around her wrists was raw, she itched all over and she hurt everywhere, but nothing could kill the good mood.

Finding the book wasn't a cure-all. It meant a lot of work and she knew results wouldn't come quickly. The book would need to be translated and probably deciphered from any code they may have been using.

Wrapped in a towel she went to her bedroom. Dean was sprawled out managing to take almost the whole queen-sized bed. She pulled on a t-shirt and underwear letting herself collapse onto the bed, she tried to nudge Dean's limbs to his side of the bed but gave up and just fell asleep on top of them.

That afternoon all of them were walking stiffly, blisters on their feet, bruised and itchy all over, but there wasn't a complaint. "How's Freddie?" Sam asked.

"He's going to be fine. The vet wants to keep him for the day, maybe until tomorrow. Leg isn't broken, they sewed his ear back together."

Sam set the leather book on the table, "We stopped and made copies of it. Almost the whole thing is in Latin, going to take a long time to translate it."

Lady held back a smirk, "I think I'll manage. Why do you guys want a copy?"

Sam itched at the back of his neck and then down his arms, "We're still in this with you."

"Even with copies, make sure you keep it safe," Lady said. "It's normal practice to torch a spell book. Keeping one and making copies...well, it's stupid."

"Yeah, we know," Sam said. "And once the coven is dead and your curse is gone we'll torch it. Until then we're going to do what we can to help you out."

"Okay, keep your copy. I'm going to take some time to get it translated, and once I've done that I'll fill you guys in."

"You have someone to translate?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," she said. She didn't need to tell him she could translate it herself. They already knew too many of her quirks.

Dean examined the leather cover, it was pale and had a strange texture. "This isn't what I think it is, is it?"

"Mm, depends on what you are thinking," Lady frowned.

Dean grimaced as he took his hands from the book, "Is this leather made out of human skin?"

"Then yes," she said.

"That's disgusting," Sam frowned.

"Yes it is," Lady said. "But gaining access to one of these books is what ninety percent of the coven aims to achieve. Being awarded one by an elder member or stealing one after killing the owner. This has everything they want in here."

"And you are only going to use it to find a way to remove your curse, right?" Dean asked firmly.

"That, along with learning more ways to counter other black rituals," Lady said.

"Just you seem way too excited about this, and it's giving me the creeps," Dean said.

"I don't blame you," Lady laughed. "Ask your dad, though, he's the one that told me if I ever got my hands on another one of these books I needed to keep it." Lady smiled sadly, "Sort of poetic that you two helped me get one. If you hear from him you'll have to let him know."

Sam and Dean fell quiet, the best trick she had to get them to shut up was bring up their estranged father.

The next morning Lady went to retrieve Freddie, he was still avoiding putting weight on his injured leg but he seemed to be doing well. Lady was letting Sam page through the evil book of spells bound in human leather while she applied itching-cream to her whole body before she managed to scratch off all of her skin. In the early afternoon Dean got a message on his cell phone.

"It's Dad," he announced, reading it. "Sam, we got a job. We need to go to Wisconsin."

"Are you sure?" Sam asked. "Lady and I have been making some real progress."

"Dad sent it to me," Dean said. "We got to go."

Sam nodded, "Let me grab my stuff."

Lady smiled as Dean rubbed Freddie's head, "Sorry we can't stick around."

"I am pretty sure I can handle this from here," Lady said.

"Sure, sure. Just remember you would have been sitting on your thumbs if Sam hadn't cracked Troy's email," Dean said.

"And just remember you and your brother would be in pieces if I hadn't already been on the case," Lady countered. "All showmanship aside, I'm glad you guys were here. For the first time in a long time this is...well, it's more than a chore."

"A chore? You can't tell me that part of you doesn't enjoy sticking it to those evil bastards."

"Part of me does," she said. "But I am, by nature, a selfish bitch so now that it feels that I might get something out of this again makes it all the sweeter."

"You hanging around here for a while?"

"No, I think I should head home. Get to work on the book, check some sources to see if there is more activity after all of this."

"You have sources?" Dean chuckled. "Hey, what we talked about in Texas..."

"I haven't forgotten," she said as Sam walked out. "Sorry this sort of took precedent, but I did make a few calls."

"Anything?" Dean asked.

She shook her head, "No, I'm sorry. Knowing for sure it is a demon…well…" Lady listened to Sam coming down the stairs.

"Sam, go check the trunk," Dean said, throwing the keys to his brother.

"Yeah, sure," Sam said, taking his bag and exiting the house.

"Okay, here is what I know," Lady said quickly, relaying what she knew from what Bobby had told her to keep her in the loop. "A friend I have said demon activity is on a big rise. I tried to dig more information from him without mentioning names, but if there was anything else he knew he didn't talk. Just, uh…you going to give me a sour look if I give you some personal advice?"

"Depends," Dean said.

"When he gets a vision, let him roll with it," Lady said. "I can't explain it to someone who hasn't experienced them, but I know how hard it is to explain to someone how seeing the future is."

"Roll with it?" Dean frowned.

"Yeah, there is the sour face," Lady winced.

Sam came back inside, "We're all packed up. Ready to go?"

"Yeah," Dean said. "We'll let you know if we hear anything about your coven. Talk to you later, Lady," Dean said with a wave as he went to the door.

"See you around, Lady," Sam said, giving her a hug and rubbing Freddie's head as he followed Dean out.


	10. Dakotas, June 2006

**June 1, 2006, The Dakotas**

Lady was eager to show Bobby what she had in her trunk and honked energetically as she rolled into his lot. He was stepping out of his house as she came to a stop and nearly jumped out of her car to meet him and give him a hug.

"You roll around in poison ivy or something?" Bobby asked as he took in her appearance. Almost every visible part of her skin was red and still itchy even with copious amounts of anti-itching cream.

"Dragged, actually, fun story," she said brightly. "Bobby, I found one."

"One what?" he asked.

Lady opened her trunk and unwrapped the leather book from its protective covering. Bobby's lips parted. She smiled, "You don't have to feel guilty anymore, because I have one now. If everything they do is in here. The curse should be, too."

"Kid, you can't have that," Bobby said.

Lady's smile became forced, "Bobby, for years you've been blaming yourself for torching Ananda's book."

"Do you know how dangerous this thing is?"

Lady's smile was gone now, "Yeah," she said as she began to wrap it again. "I've seen enough in the first few pages to make what happened to me seem like a luxury cruise."

"They'll hunt you down if they find out you have it," Bobby said.

"If they don't know already they never will," Lady said. "I thought you'd be happy or relieved."

"Sorry to disappoint," Bobby muttered. "Just...over the past five years you've changed. You know more about this stuff than I do, and seeing you so happy to hold that book is troubling."

Lady closed the trunk of her car and put a hand on Bobby's shoulder as they walked to his house. "Bobby, there are a lot of things I shouldn't be trusted with. Ovens, tinfoil and microwaves, and a cell phone after a six-pack of beer. But this is something you don't have to look over my shoulder with. And I am a lot of things. Moderately insane, occasionally annoying, itchy, very hungry, collector of cute shoes and an overall bundle of fun, but I have a pretty solid set of morals."

"Yeah, I know," Bobby said as he led her to the kitchen.

Lady opened the fridge and began to search for something to eat. "If you did, you wouldn't be troubled by this." She held up a wrapped burrito, "Is this still good?"

"I dunno," Bobby muttered as she sniffed at it. "Lady, a lot of people know right from wrong. Only thing is they try to do the right thing the wrong way. How far are you willing to take this? You told me once you could live with a lot, just how much is that."

Lady grabbed a plate to set the burrito on, "I promise that before I do anything I'll come to you. Even if I think it is something you wouldn't want me to do. Not saying I won't do it anyway, but if it is really so bad you'll find a way to stop me."

Bobby shook his head, "I guess that will have to work for now." Bobby rubbed under the brim of his hat and quickly snapped, "Take the foil off of that!"

Lady pulled the plate back out of the microwave and removed the foil off of the rest of the burrito. "Oops."

"How can you forget that when you just mentioned it five minutes ago?" Bobby grumbled, and Lady smirked.

After helping herself to some dinner she was on the road again. There was a lot that needed to be done, and there had been something she'd been waiting to do before the Winchesters invited themselves to Florida. She reached North Dakota in the middle of the night. Lady stopped at her trailer to secure the book in a safe hidden behind a wall before going to see Max.

Mason was standing outside of Max's tent, "Lady, I understand you may be upset..."

"Upset? Use big boy words, Mace, I'm pissed. What has she been up to?"

"Trying to help you," Mason said. "Max told me…"

"Save it," Lady said, moving around his large frame and slipping through the opening in the tent. Max had rearranged since Lady had last visited and in the middle was the charred corpse of Tammy. "Too much to hope Mason got caught with this driving back," Lady muttered.

"It is no longer fresh, you waited too long," Max said. "The magic has faded from her, but I think we can still harness something."

"I don't use spells that include human parts," Lady said hotly. Blood, hair and fingernails were okay, but anything more reached too far into black magic for her liking. When Mason had showed up in Florida the day after Tammy's corpse became local news and told Lady he was there to retrieve the body by Max's order Lady had nearly thrown a tantrum. The only reason she had accepted his help in stealing the body was because she wouldn't have been able to do it on her own, and after it was loaded in the back of his truck she hadn't had the time to get rid of it properly.

"Neither do I," Max said. "You know this."

"Then why send Mason to retrieve her? What are you doing with her?"

"We must free her," Max said. "You learned much since we last spoke, I can feel it weighing heavily on you. You know my magic, and now you are closer to knowing the truth strength of theirs. But you must see what awaits you if you fail on your quest."

"Nothing awaits me but an early grave," Lady said. "More likely an urn so you can't have my pieces, too!"

"Lady, you know I am not wicked like those you hunt," Max said with more gentleness than was common for her. "Sit, and we will speak to the girl."

Lady grimaced but sat in the dirt. Summoning spirits was an iffy practice, a lot of spirits just didn't give a damn about the living to answer and even more were just inaccessible. Which was too bad because she wouldn't have minded sitting down and having a chat with Elvis or Kurt Cobain.

Max performed a quiet ritual, chanting in her native tongue and dusting the corpse with a mix of herbs. The temperature dropped and a painful howl began to grow until Tammy's spirit appeared. Tammy continued to scream for a while and then quieted, looking around in terror.

"Tammy Derkwood, you are dead," Max said firmly. "You have been summoned away from your torment for answers."

"I can't be dead...I..." Tammy trembled and shook. Her form wasn't entirely solid but it was better than some spirits Lady had seen. Strong for one that hadn't been dead very long. "Angie…" Tammy became still as she snarled her killer's name.

"Should have known better than to trust a witch," Lady said.

Tammy glared at the mark on Lady's wrist, even in her spirit form she held the same mark. "I am not bound by servitude to you and I refuse to be."

"Speak to us, spirit, unless you wish to return where you were. Tell us what you know," Max said in a commanding voice.

"Eat me, crone!" Tammy snarled.

"Yeah, this is working beautifully," Lady said flatly. "We have the spirit of a witch and I can't even shoot her to make her shut up."

"Shut up, Lady," Max said. "Speak your questions."

"Tammy, what can you tell me about Garrett?" Lady asked.

Tammy cackled, and Lady had to appreciate that. She had killed a lot of witches but Tammy had a class-A cackle. "I'm not telling you anything. He'd kill me."

"You are already dead," Lady reminded her.

"He'd make me worse than dead," Tammy said.

"We now know for sure that Garrett uses necromancy," Max said quietly to Lady. "And spirits of those he once commanded go to him as servants after their death. Maybe she will not give us information, but we can prevent him from using her spirit to strengthen himself."

"You do that and you are no better than Garrett," Lady said hotly. "Intentions pure or not, no."

"You want me as a spirit guardian?" Tammy asked, looking intently at Max. "Deal."

"And why would you willingly accept this?" Max asked her.

"Because if I don't….I don't want to go back to where I was," Tammy answered shakily.

"Max, I said no," Lady snapped.

"Unless you would like to trade, allow me to bind you and I will set her free from this world and onto somewhere else. Free to go wherever it is she is meant to be."

Lady glared at Max, it always came down to wanting her spirit. Max practiced necromancy in a non-evil way. Many members of her tribe have gladly accepted to stay in her service as spirits to protect her and her family, and that was acceptable. Lady didn't wholeheartedly approve on the subject of keeping spirits as slave guard-dogs, but when under Max's care they were treated as heroes and were very well respected. Max's bloodline was thinning out, becoming extinct, soon all those spirits would be free to go where they were meant to go. However that didn't stop Max from attempting to hook Lady into her service.

"She's useless, and holding a witch even as a spirit is dangerous. This bitch nearly killed me with a targeted spell a week after a full moon," Lady said. "And she isn't even cooperative."

Tammy looked slightly frightened, "I don't know anything about Garrett. I never even saw what he looked like," she said. "But I've heard the things he does. He's more powerful than anyone, I think he's actually a warlock."

Lady and Max exchanged a look, Max's face was unreadable but Lady's tensed in concern. "Get rid of her. I don't care if she goes to hell or Garrett, you don't bind her." Lady said bitterly and left the tent in a hurry, trying to swallow the bile that was rising in the back of her throat. She wondered at times why Max allowed her to negotiate when she always knew what the result would be, but Lady knew that if she hadn't seen what she had seen or heard what she had heard she would have never agreed to anything. Lady's sight was too short to manipulate that thoroughly.

"Lady?" Mason called her gently.

"Yeah?"

Lady let Mason's giant arms wrap around her and rested her face in his iron-like chest, "I know it is difficult, but Max has a plan."

Lady nodded as he released her from the hug, "Yeah, I know. I have one, too. It involves me killing Garrett. And I have to get to work on that."

"Come over for supper tonight. Greta will make frybread for you," Mason promised.

"Not sure if I'll want to be around people...but thanks," Lady said, getting into her car.

The trailer Lady lived in had two bedrooms, the one she actually used for its purpose and another that was the only place Freddie was not allowed inside. The walls were plastered with maps and sticky notes, boxes of copied notes from Bobby and things that had been given to her by people over the years. Everything she had encountered while searching for a way to save herself was in that room.

Lady sat at a desk and began thoroughly looking through the book. The book was written in a mix of Latin and English, and much of it was written in code. Some things were obvious, but the most important parts used phrases that only the coven knew what they meant. It would take a long time to decipher it all, time she didn't have. She settled for gathering the obvious information, if she had time to get into the bigger things she would then. Lady had handled enough disappointments that she did not expect a magical cure for herself. What she wanted were locations of other covens, how they decided to do their rituals, how they picked their victims, and a way to track Garrett.

A few days later Mason stopped by with groceries.

"How is it going?" Mason asked.

"Do you know how useful blood from a lion is? How the hell does someone get blood from a lion here?" Lady asked in a frustrated tone. Mason looked thoughtful for a moment, and then Lady cracked a smile.

"Zoo?" Mason asked. "You want me to get you one?"

Lady let out a breath and shook her head, "I don't want to do it. I don't want to know how this shit works! I don't want to have this knowledge in my head!"

"You need to know these things," Mason said quietly and quickly decided to change the subject. "Freddie looks miserable. Lonely. You've been locked up in here a long time." Mason nudged the overflowing garbage of beer bottles.

"Reading this makes me feel dirty," Lady muttered. "And Freddie needs to rest, his leg isn't healed yet."

"You need a break. Take a shower, a nap, and then come over for supper. Clean your body and your soul."

Lady nodded, "Yeah, sure."

Lady waited for Mason to leave before going to the wall and sliding it open. The opening was a small crawl space to get access to wires and plumbing, but inside she had set a safe in the floor. While there was no place safer for her to keep her most valuable things than where she was on Max's territory there was only so much trust she could extend to anyone. No one would steal the book, but coming into contact with it was not a good thing. Lady knew what she was handling and the book was affecting her. It was subtle, at first. Weariness but unable to sleep, stomach cramps, jittery, a feeling of unease. She wasn't sure what it would do to someone with less experience, such as Mason or one of his children who sometimes came to visit. The book went into the safe and got locked in.

Sometimes there was nothing more healing than an evening of crazy normalcy. Lady had no doubt that she was in the craziest part of the country in the world, had to be because they accepted her visions and all. A community and a large family that believed in old magic while fighting over who broke whose iPod. It was just an evening to stop and see what life was. What life could have been for her if things had been different.

Lady got into the pattern of working on the book during the day and helping Mason and Maxine at the Casino at night.

A few times Dean or Sam called to check her progress, and she admitted it was slower than she wanted it to go. Translating Latin was no issue for her, but the darkness of the book as she read it bothered her. The first few days she had worked on it non-stop she had felt sick and drained, but now that she was taking it in smaller doses she felt better.

Lady was at the local veterinarian, Mason's brother Thomas, having Freddie checked out nearly a month after they had left Florida. "The vet in Florida said a few weeks and he'd be fine but he's still limping."

Thomas usually handled farm animals but it wasn't his first time checking out Freddie. "I'll take him to get an x-ray to see if they missed anything. His ear seems good, though."

"I like it, makes him look tough," she said, rubbing his scarred ear. "Men with scars are so sexy, isn't that right, boy?"

Freddie panted and wagged his tail while Thomas held his injured leg. Thomas led Freddie out and Lady sat to wait. She frowned at her cell phone before it rang and patiently waited for the call to be available to answer.

"What's up, John?" she asked, trying to sound upbeat. They'd been keeping in touch less frequently since Montana, the only information she'd been able to give him was that Bobby told her that demonic possession was on the rise all over the country. He hadn't seemed surprised or concerned with that fact, only disappointed that other things hadn't been mentioned.

"Need some assistance, how far are you from Colorado?"

Normally Lady would internally complain, but she welcomed the distraction. Causing a stir within the coven by killing three of their witches probably meant she should stay within the safety of the reservation and Max's protection, but if she stayed it also meant she had to read the book that made her skin crawl and stomach churn. There just wasn't much else to do at the trailer except read or get drunk, and she had been doing both the past few days.

"What's in Colorado?"

"You remember Daniel Elkins?"

"Yeah, old guy that nearly killed me. Hard to forget."

John was quiet for a moment at the bitter sound in her voice. In Daniel's defense he had been trying to save her, he had an old recipe to protect against a witch's curse that John thought might help her. It probably worked great to prevent a curse from taking hold, but when a curse was already running through ones blood all it did was burn through the veins. After that Lady hadn't let John try to help her anymore, sticking with Bobby and his larger knowledge base.

"Yeah, well, if it makes you feel any better him and I haven't really talked since that happened," John said quietly. "But I was hoping you could go to him, try to get some information out of him."

"I'm usually pretty good at wrapping people around my finger but Daniel is smarter than the typical sucker." Lady remembered the crass old man from years ago and he had seen through her easily then. Maybe she had more practice and experience now with the added advantage of him losing his mind to old age, but she wasn't too confident.

"I know," John said. "Believe me, that man taught me a hell of a lot. Years ago he told me about a special gun, a Colt revolver. Possibly mystical, may just be a myth. If it's real I need to find it. Lean on him a bit, see what you can get out of him."

"Yeah...so what are my chances of getting stabbed, shot, sacrificed, beaten, chased, disemboweled or anything relatively unpleasant happening to me?" Lady asked.

"Well, it is Elkins," John chuckled. "He won't hurt you, but he's a bitter old man. You'll probably have to work on him a while to get anything."

"I'll do what I can. I'll call you when I reach Colorado."

Lady was already trying to remember more about Elkins to see if there was anything she could use to her advantage when Thomas returned with Freddie's x-rays.

"Nothing is broken, but he has a torn muscle. Since he is putting weight on it I don't think he needs surgery, if you can just keep his activity low and easy it should heal on its own. Now if it doesn't after another two weeks I would say he needs surgery which will keep him locked in a kennel for a week. Think you can regulate his activity?"

Lady frowned as she rubbed Freddie's head. "You little jerk, you just couldn't leave the prairie dogs alone, could you?" She sighed and kissed the top of Freddie's head, "I'll try."

"Good, because when you brought him to me to fix his broken leg two years ago he tore up half the kennels," Thomas said. "I don't want to have to put him through another surgery."

"Me either," Lady said. "Thanks, Thomas."

"Anytime, Lady. So, you going to be at the bonfire on Friday?"

"Uh, doesn't look like it," she said. "Eat a hotdog for me."

"Will do," Thomas smiled as he walked them out.

Lady packed up the Beetle and let Mason know she was going to be gone for a few weeks or more before driving south. She drove through the night and arrived at Bobby's house the next morning.

After having lunch and a nap Lady found Bobby checking the Beetle's engine. "This thing is looking pretty good. I hope you haven't wasted your hard earned money getting it fixed up," Bobby said in a sarcastic tone.

"You'd be surprised how many mechanics will look under my hood for free," Lady said.

Bobby chuckled, "I see you are all packed and loaded. Where you heading?"

"West," was all she offered him. "I need a small, tiny favor," Lady said.

"That is?" he asked.

"Can Freddie stay here a week? Two weeks tops?"

"What are you up to?" Bobby asked suspiciously.

"Nothing dangerous," she assured him. Elkins was rougher than John but he wouldn't actually hurt a human being, she hoped. "It's just Freddie's been dealing with this injury the past month and I just want him to take it easy."

Bobby nodded. "Yeah, that's fine."

She gave Bobby a genuine smile, "I've come across some good leads. Once I'm done with this maybe we can go over them. If you have time?"

"I'll clear my calendar," he said sarcastically. More seriously he asked, "You doing okay with that book?"

Lady shrugged, "It's hard to read. Nothing earth-shattering yet, but I'm hopeful."

"Hopeful? Yeah, you're something," Bobby muttered as he unloaded Freddie's dog food from the back.

"Thanks for this, Bobby."

"Yup," he said as the heavy bin fell to the ground. "How long will this last him?"

"A few days," Lady said, handing Bobby some cash. "That should cover him for two weeks, three if you can find a good deal."

Lady got on her knees to say goodbye to Freddie. "Be good, and get better. Eat, sleep, and poop. That's all you are allowed to do," she said as he licked her face. She unhooked her charm bracelet and slipped it through the link on his plain leather collar. She gave him a long hug before leaving him.


	11. Colorado, July 2006

**June 28th 2006, Manning Colorado**

Daniel Elkins lived in the mountains, and even at the end of June there was a cool chill in the air and some ice on the winding road. The town of Manning was pretty small, but she hadn't been there since she was seventeen and had to consult a roadmap to find her way. She remembered Elkins lived outside of town, a bunch of winding dirt roads to a secluded cabin. There was no chance she would remember them, she'd get lost. She reached the town in the late evening stopped in at the only establishment open in town, a bar. "What can I get you?" A young bartender asked. She had long curly dark hair and a push-up bra.

Lady smiled, "A beer, whatever is on tap that doesn't taste like water."

"You got it," the bartender said, grabbing a mug.

Lady settled into a stool next to an older man, recognizing him even though his hair had thinned and gone completely white since the last time she had seen him. "Nice place," she said as she paid for the beer.

"Mmhm," he said, sipping the glass of liquor while flipping through pages of a worn book. His hand grabbed a pen and he scribbled something out on a page and then added new notes. A journal. She remembered John had something like it, but it was now in Dean's hands.

"It's been a long time since I've been here, the town looks smaller."

The man finally glanced at her briefly before going back to his journal. If he was unsure that she was talking to him or if he was just deliberately being rude Lady wasn't sure.

Lady took a long drink of the beer. "I guess eight years," she continued. "A friend of mine brought me to meet a man who he thought could help me. Dickhead almost killed me, made me want to die for sure. It sucked ass." Elkins finally turned to really look at her, and a bit of a smile touched her lips as recognition showed across his face. "But I'm still upright and breathing, so no hard feelings."

"Lady?" he asked.

"That's right," she said.

Her eyes narrowed in frustration before he said, "Leave me the hell alone."

Lady hadn't expected a warm welcome from him, but she hadn't expected him to be on the edge of hostility. At least right off the bat, he hadn't even given her time to give him a reason to be hostile. "Afraid I can't," she said, trying to sound sympathetic. "I sort of need to talk to you."

He was finishing his drink and gathering his things, "No. I'm retired, I don't want anything to do with you."

Lady shrugged as she finished her beer, "I don't want anything to do with me, either, but I have no choice. You...well, you won't get rid of me very easily. I'm a persistent little bitch."

"Obviously, you were supposed to die years ago," he snapped at her as he got into his jacket.

Lady turned to the bartender as Elkins left, "Do you sell wholesale? I think I need something to go."

With a bottle of aged whiskey beside her she followed Elkins' Jeep. She didn't try to hide that she was following him, several miles of bouncing along a secluded dirt road where they were the only two vehicles it was sort of hard to pretend she wasn't following him.

Elkins looked mad enough to spit when he got out of his car and hurried into his cabin before her. By the time she reached it the door was locked and she could hear him moving quickly to lock the back door as well. Lady slid the front window open and slid through, she was sitting in his recliner when he returned to the front room. "Got you a bottle of your favorite," she held up the whiskey. "Got some clean glasses? I don't mind sharing the bottle but I figure we can at least be civilized. At least need a jar to drink whiskey properly."

He crossed the room to slam the window down. "What do you want?"

"A glass for starters," she said with a pleasant smile. "C'mon, Danny, I drove a long way to see you. I'll let you warm up to me a bit before I piss you off again."

Lady kept Daniel's glass full of whiskey, neither of them talking much. One thing she had learned over the years was that hunters loved their alcohol, and she didn't blame them. Anything to numb the mind so they could sleep without nightmares was helpful. She never had nightmares, not even dreams, but alcohol often helped numb things she'd rather not feel.

"I found a few counter-curses that keep me healthy without making me sick," Lady was explaining to him. "Nothing to lift it, yet."

"So is that why you are here? See if I have anything new? I wasn't much of a witch-hunter, I never had much and what I did nearly killed you," Elkins said, his eyelids getting droopy.

"I'm not here for myself," she said, setting her glass down and leaning towards him. "I'm here to do a favor for John." Elkins uttered a curse under his breath at the mention of John, and Lady smirked. "Yeah, I'd have to agree with you on that. But thing is John saved my ass and I try to repay the favor when I can. He needs to find a gun. The Colt."

"Yeah? What for?" Elkins asked.

"He's tracking down the thing that killed his wife," Lady said quietly.

"The Colt doesn't exist," Elkins said after a few moments.

Lady leaned back in the recliner. "Cool. You don't mind if I crash here until John comes to get me, do you?" Lady pulled the lever so the footrest came up and closed her eyes. "Think I can get a blanket? I just came from North Dakota and I'm no stranger to cold, but this mountain stuff sort of threw me. Think it will snow? Not that I don't like the snow, love it actually, you know the first..." Lady opened her eyes and tensed as she heard the future sound of a gun clicking. Elkins was just pulling out a pistol and checking to see if it was loaded. "C'mon, Daniel, you aren't going to shoot me."

"Get out of my house, Lady," he said.

Lady slowly stood up and stared at him as he aimed the pistol at her. She wasn't entirely confident that he wouldn't pull the trigger. She had been pouring whiskey down his throat the past few hours, drunk people weren't entirely predictable. "Okay," she said, finishing the last of the whiskey in her glass. "You know, John is closer to the demon he's been hunting than ever before. You do know it is a..." Lady put her hands up before he could threaten her again, "Okay, I'm leaving. Enjoy the whiskey you senile old bastard."

Lady drove slowly on her way back down the mountain. The temperature had dropped below freezing and her Beetle slid dangerously on tight curves in the road. She got a place to stay in town and once she was settled in called John. John didn't answer his phone but she left him a message that the first meeting was unsuccessful and asked where one could purchase a bulletproof vest with no questions asked. Before she could get comfortable and try to sleep off her whiskey her cell phone rang.

She let out a groan when she saw it was Dean, she didn't want to have to lie to him that she was helping out his father again, that she had managed to speak to John when Dean would have had all of his teeth pulled to do just that. Also she wasn't used to having to check in with people. Bobby had long ago learned to deal with long absences and her random visits, and Missouri had completely given up on her, and Mason often knew where she was going to be before she did thanks to Max. She let it go to voicemail, he could wait for his weekly update on the book until she had sobered up and got some sleep.

The next few days Lady kept an eye out for Daniel's jeep, watching for his routine. He went to the same bar every night, around the same time. The third day he came into town earlier to pick up some supplies. The fourth night he continued his routine bar stop. She could go back to his cabin while he was away, hide any deadly weapons from him so she could ambush him safely. She knew from watching him that she had at least three hours to manage that, however she had a few more tricks up her sleeve and no time restraint.

Lady walked into the bar, meeting his eye briefly before walking past him. She ordered a beer and tapped some salt in it before going to sit at a table. It was a custom John and Bobby both taught her, it was to ward off evil. Lady didn't practice it herself, but Daniel was old-school like John and Bobby so he would hopefully appreciate the act. The bars patrons were mostly middle-aged to elderly men. They looked at her with interest just like they looked at the attractive bartender, but they left her alone. Her conservative dress went past her knees, her black boots with four-inch heels weren't very warm but kept her feet dry.

She drank three beers each with a dash of salt in them while staring at a local newspaper before Elkins finally went to her. He sat across from her and put a hand in his jacket pocket while the other stayed on his glass. "Why are you still here?"

Lady looked at him and then around, "Trying to get drunk."

"I don't want you in town. Anywhere around here," Elkins said.

Lady looked at him with wide eyes, "You think I want to be here? I've been helping John on this crazy hunt for months, don't you think I'd like to go home? I'm afraid what we've been after all this time will stop chasing him and come after me," she muttered.

"You think you led that demon here?" Elkins growled at her.

"All I know is I'm not leaving this place until John gives me an all clear to leave."

Elkins hadn't been in a healthy state of mind the last time they spoke, but now he was completely paranoid. "Come on," he said. "Follow me."

Lady fought back the victorious smile as he led them out, and this time he let her follow him to his cabin without rushing inside to lock her out.

Once at his cabin Daniel rushed to grab a bag of salt, pouring it across windows and doorways. It was a purifier and demon deterrent. Demons could not cross a threshold covered in salt and Elkins was thorough to make sure any place of entrance in his home was blocked by it. Once he was satisfied that they were protected from a demon that would never have any interest in Lady he sat in his recliner and let Lady sit in the uncomfortable wicker chair across from it.

"How much do you know about this demon?" Daniel asked her, pouring them both a drink from a whiskey bottle.

"Just that it killed his wife," Lady said.

He shook his head, "This demon is powerful, evil beyond your understanding." Daniel finished his whiskey and poured more into his glass. "Damn yellow-eyes, is what John always called him."

"Yeah, I think I've heard that," Lady said.

"How much you know about the Colt?"

"Just that John wants it," she said.

Elkins shook his head, "He needs it. The Colt is mystical, can kill any supernatural thing, even if it is immune to bullets. It can kill djinn, vampires and demons." Lady was immediately curious to djinn and vampires, but she didn't ask him to elaborate for two reasons. First, she didn't need to know about any more monsters in the night, she left that sort of crap for people like Bobby and the Winchesters. Secondly, Daniel was actually talking and she wouldn't interrupt him for anything. "In 1835 Samuel Colt made a gun, a special gun for a hunter. Story goes he made thirteen bullets, and the hunter he made it for used it half a dozen times before he disappeared. The gun along with him."

Lady waited a long time, longer than she would wait for most people, to see if he would continue. "You believe in it?"

Elkins shrugged, "I've seen a lot of things in my years. You, you are just a pup compared to me, girl. But you've seen wicked things, felt wicked things that I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy. You tell me, you believe this gun could really exist?"

"I know John believes it does. And he believes you know more than you are willing to tell him," she said. "You sure as hell know more than you are willing to tell me."

"You are right, I do," Elkins admitted. "So you go back to John, and tell him next time he wants something from me he damn well better come himself. If he ever sends someone else to do his dirty work, I'll kill them. I don't care if it is you, or his own sons. I don't want what he is dealing with finding its way to me, I'm too damn old for this. Now get out. Out of my town. Hear me?"

"Yeah, I do," she answered. "Just so I know, when I meet up with John again...if he shows up?"

"I'll probably shoot him, too," Daniel confirmed.

"Got it. Thanks for the drink," she said.

Lady was nursing a beer and working up to a good buzz when John called her. It was early in the morning where he was, earlier where she was. "Progress report," he said the moment she answered.

"Question for you," Lady said.

"Are you drunk?"

"Trying to be, but you are a real buzzkill," she muttered. "When Elkins threatens to kill someone, how often does he carry out?"

"I'd say pretty often," John said, not sounding surprised. "You pissed him off?"

"You know, I thought he was warming up to me but he did say he'd shoot me, your sons, and even you if we bothered him again. But I think I got a bit of fear in him." Lady went over her conversation with Elkins more in depth. "You know, saying it out loud, while drunk, I am starting to wonder if you haven't lost your marbles, John. I mean, the gun is like a hundred and...um..."

"Yeah, don't strain yourself," John chuckled.

"Eat me," she muttered. "What I don't get is why do you need it for a demon? I thought exorcisms got rid of them."

"That just sends them back to hell. This one has to die," John said roughly. "Take the pressure off of Daniel a bit and just be careful. He probably wouldn't kill you but I'm not able to leave where I am to come and patch you up if he shoots you anywhere non-lethal."

"Yeah, okay," she said while hanging up. "Oh, I'm drunk," she moaned happily as she tucked herself in. "Mm, happy drunk," she mumbled as she snuggled into the pillows. They smelled a bit musty, like an old person, or maybe that was her from spending time at Elkins cabin. She missed her dog suddenly, something warm to curl up next to. She fell asleep with a near-pout and wished she had brought her dog along. Maybe Freddie needed to take it easy but he could play teddy bear and take it easy at the same time.

The next couple of days Lady stayed away from Elkins, his routine started a few hours earlier and ended an hour later, she had bothered him quite a bit. In her observations of 'normal' human behavior, even though Elkins didn't really meet normal requirements, she noticed that people were creatures of habit. Men especially. When a routine became altered it was always a sign, not always a good one. Lady knew she should feel bad for scaring an old man into believing a demon may be ambushing his town any minute, but it was hard to feel bad for a guy who nearly killed her years ago and threatened to shoot her a few times the past week.

The third day Elkins broke routine farther and actually left town for several hours during the day. But when he returned the first thing he did was go to the bar, and Lady decided he had enough time to cool down. When she met him at the bar that night he gave her the stink eye and left quickly. She found him outside puncturing a tire on her Beetle.

The next day was spent calling around local shops for a replacement tire, then finally settling for having one ordered.

"Hey, Bobby, thought I'd check in on my favorite man," Lady said brightly.

"I'm doing just fine, kid," Bobby answered.

"Not you, Freddie!" she laughed.

"Figures," Bobby chuckled. "The monster is eating anything small enough to get down his throat, which is just about anything. His leg seems a bit better but I haven't let him run around like you asked. You on your way back?"

"Unfortunately, no. The source of information I'm trying to tap is tighter than a..."

"I get it!" Bobby snapped.

"Anyways, I wish I was on my way but looks like I'll be spending more time here."

"I don't mind," Bobby said. "Just let me know you are safe and give me a heads up if you will be longer than another week, okay?"

"You got it," Lady said. "Thanks again, Bobby."

While Lady had eagerly entered this favor for John as a tool of procrastination she hadn't expected to spend the whole month of July doing so. The book she had left in North Dakota began to itch at the back of her mind, time that was being lost felt heavy on her and she got dressed in preparation to finish the damn favor or get shot.

Dressed in her knee-high black boots she carefully walked down the sidewalk to the bar. While the temperature had been steadily warming there was the occasional patch of ice that was too stubborn to melt and dry up. The whole town was staying cool and moist with frequent drizzles. She was in jeans and a sweater, comfortable and warm.

She took the stool next to Elkins and waived to the bartender. "I'll have what he's having," she said before the bartender could ask.

Elkins didn't look surprised to see her and closed his journal protectively while slipping a hand into his jacket pocket, "Roads have been clear, you should be gone."

"You know how much it costs to get a tire for my Volkswagen to a shit-town like this?" Lady asked. "Only reason I'm not making you pay for it is because you are broke as hell. And I know that because I've been to your house. Now threaten me as much as you'd want. Like you said I've been through things you wouldn't wish upon your worst enemy."

"I told you, I'm not dealing with you. Nothing you say or offer me will change that."

"Not to sound self-centered, but I have a lot to offer, unless you play for a different team," she said. "Normally I don't pimp myself out but..."

"You make me sick," Elkins said.

Lady shrugged, "I've done stranger things for less, believe it or not. You know I once had to hold an alligator's mouth closed so..." Lady frowned as she was about to lose her audience. Elkins eyes were going to move to the door as it opened and stare for a moment, and curious Lady turned to look just as it was opening. A group of people around her age, mid-twenties to early thirties, walked in. One woman, long dark hair and attractive. Three men, average builds. One was black with a shaved head, the second was a bit wider at the shoulders with rough facial hair and flat short dark hair on top of his head, and the last was clean-shaven with shaggy blonde hair. Lady couldn't help but look, they were the first people in the town near her age that she had seen out past ten in the evening. Manning was a small town of retirees and couples with empty nests and a failing economy, if it didn't get some fresh blood soon it would die out over the next few generations. They stood out.

"What can I get you?" The bartender asked them.

Lady didn't hear what they ordered, Elkins grabbed her upper arm and pulled her off of her stool to drag her out. "Change your mind?" she joked.

"Come on," he growled once they were outside. "Where is your car?"

"At my motel on a cement block thanks to you," she said. "New tire comes tomorrow."

"Get in, we have to go," he said. "Now."

Lady didn't like the urgency in his voice, and got into the passenger side. He drove swiftly up the bouncy dirt road to his cabin, faster than he had when she first followed him there.

"What's going on?" Lady asked. "You aren't really going to shoot me, are you?"

"Is it true, you see things?" Elkins asked.

Lady held onto the dash as they hit a hard bump that nearly sent her into the roof of the jeep. When she had met Elkins for the first time her visions hadn't even been strong enough to be considered anything more than a distraction. She had told no one about what she saw except John, Bobby and Missouri at the time, hoping they'd fade away. Apparently John had shared that information with him. "Yeah, why?"

"Vampires," he breathed. "Four of them."

Lady sucked in a breath. That was why they had stood out so much in the bar, besides being half everyone's age. They weren't even human. "Uh...are you sure?"

"I hunted those things damn near to extinction. I'm sure," he said. "I can't take them all myself. John thinks you are good enough to handle a demon, you can handle a vampire or two."

Lady's jaw dropped as he slammed on the brakes in front of his cabin. "Uh..." was all she managed to get out as they raced to his door. They didn't have time for her to explain that she had stretched the truth about how she helped John. She knew things, sure, but she knew nothing about vampires. And because she had been trying to be as non-threatening as possible she had left her pistol in locked in her glove box, all she had was her butterfly knife. "Are you sure?" she asked again as they got into his cabin.

"Shut up and blockade the door," he ordered her.

"Yeah! Fine," she said. "So, uh...where are the wooden stakes?"

He stared at her with wide eyes, and Lady could almost see him discover her lies. She was trapped with him in a cabin and really knew nothing. "Come on," he said, urging her to follow him into the back.

Lady grabbed his arm as they reached his back room, the woman from the bar was standing there. "It's been a while. I have to say, you look old," she said with a smile. She tilted her head slightly and her dark eyes reflected the light.

"What do you want?" Elkins asked her.

"What do you think?" she smiled, and turned her eyes to Lady. "Please tell me she's your daughter. Or granddaughter."

Elkins didn't answer, he pulled a knife from his belt and threw it at the woman in one swift motion while pushing Lady back into his bedroom. The vampire hissed as the knife struck her chest, but it didn't appear to hurt her at all.

Elkins slammed and locked the door to the bedroom, and then got beside a heavy bookshelf to slide it across the door. "Weapons in the trunk," he pointed.

Lady dropped to her knees and opened a heavy wooden trunk, grabbing a gun.

"Not that! The machete, find it," he ordered as he turned to a safe on the wall. Lady jumped as the door began to splinter behind the bookshelf. Her hand grabbed the handle of a long machete. "Have to chop their heads off." Lady groaned internally at that information. "And keep your damn mouth shut when you chop, you get any of their blood in your mouth and I'll have to kill you."

Lady got off her knees and saw Elkins was desperately trying to assemble an ancient looking gun. While she was no weapons expert she had been given, force fed really, basic firearm safety and usage by Bobby, but she had never seen a gun like that. It looked like it was from the nineteenth century. Considering she had been sent to him specifically to get information about an old gun she knew what it was immediately. "You had it?" she snapped at him, momentarily forgetting about the vampire trying to break down the door.

The moment didn't last because the window in the bedroom came crashing in. Lady saw it happening with just enough time to jump out of the way and keep herself being cut to ribbons, but the moment it took her to get back on her feet one of the large men from the bar had his arms around her and was prying the weapon she had out of her fist. And the door finally gave way as the woman broke through.

Elkins was pinned against his desk, the Colt on the floor. The woman picked it up, "Nice gun. Wouldn't do you much good, of course," she said. She smiled cruelly, "Boys, we're eating in tonight."

Elkins moaned in pain as one of the men attacked his shoulder with his mouth.

"Kate, I like this one," the scruffy man that was holding her said. "I think I might want some time alone with her."

Lady was struggling as fiercely as she could against the iron warms around her before he finished speaking. "Let him go, he's just an old man," Lady said before the air could be squeezed out of her lungs.

Kate looked over Lady, "Nice boots. Size seven?"

"Don't you dare touch my boots," Lady snarled.

"Kate, please, let me keep her," the man said, his fingers sliding around Lady's wrists.

Elkins screamed in pain as they threw him on the ground and continued biting him, making her wince. She twisted within the grip and fought back the best way she knew how against a much larger and stronger opponent, she shoved her knee as hard as she could into the vampire's groin. The grip slackened enough for her to slip away but she got one step towards the door to run when his hand was around her throat. She faced him, looking into dark eyes that were not human. He pulled his lips back and a second set of sharp fangs began to descend from his gums while his other hand tore the neck of her sweater open. Lady fought and struggled as he bit into the top of her shoulder. The pain was hot and immediate, the sharp teeth tore deeper as she struggled but never lost their grasp.

The vampire let her go after a minute, Elkins screams were getting louder and more painful. "Please, I want her," he said.

"You'll have to ask Luther," Kate said. "Until he returns she's cattle."

Lady was held, every time she struggled the vampire's hands tightened hard enough to leave bruises. They bled Elkins dry slowly, and then tore him apart like animals.

"Sorry about your friend," Kate said, licking the blood from her lips. "For your sake, I hope you weren't close."

Lady met her eyes, "Monster."

"Lunch," Kate replied. "Let's go."

Lady was bound and gagged before being thrown into a small trunk of a car. There were sub-woofers in the trunk that made it cramped even for someone as small as she was, and after the first half hour she wasn't sure she'd get her hearing back after being blasted with bass.

When they let her out of the trunk she only had a few minutes to explore her surroundings. They were far down the mountain. It was at least twenty degrees warmer. She wasn't sure if she was still in Colorado or not, but she was outside of a large barn with several cars outside of it. She could see nothing else, no highway or other buildings or signs of civilization.

Her ears were ringing from being bombarded by loud bass for hours and couldn't hear what the vampires were saying as they dragged her in. She wasn't struggling, her legs were completely numb and uncooperative. If she had any hope of surviving this place it would be easier without a broken arm, she just needed a minute to measure how much shit she was in. Four more vampires were inside. Total of eight. She didn't have a measuring cup but she was willing to say that was a lot of shit to be in.

There were humans, too, a dozen of them locked in a cage. The cage had a sink, toilet, and a few blankets.

From within the cage she watched the vampires, studying them. Some of her hearing was returning and there was music, loud chatter and laughing, and a lot of beer drinking. Take away the holding humans in pens for food and it wasn't much different than a party at Mason's house.

And then, they went to sleep. Lady waited for an hour before moving from her spot to begin examining the cage when another prisoner grabbed her arm. "Sh," he hissed, and Lady was relieved that she could hear it. Once the vampires had gone to bed everything had been silent. "If they wake up..." the man said, and shuddered. "Be quiet."

Lady nodded until he let her go. She got to her feet and walked around the cage, the other prisoners watching her with terror. The floor was dirt, but packed down tight. She didn't see any tools that could be used to dig. The scruffy vampire had taken her butterfly knife, cash and phone. Kate had taken her boots. Lady knew it was a bad time to be pissed about losing an expensive pair of shoes but she had really liked those boots.

The pen was secure, any way she thought about getting out would make enough noise to wake the vampires, and required at minimum a crowbar. So she sat next to the prisoner that had spoken to her and quietly said, "What's going on here?"

His eyes looked haunted, but not as bad as the others. "It's like some sort of freakish cult," he whispered back. "Every night they grab us and...drink our blood. Some nights one of us don't come back."

"How long have you been here?"

"A week? Maybe more," he said quietly. He held out his hand, "I'm Carl."

"I'm Lunch," she said with a smile.

That evening when the vampires awoke Lady stood up, standing near the cage as the others huddled as far away from it as they could. "Beau, I don't think your girl is right in the head," one of them laughed.

The scruffy vampire walked closer to the pen and smiled at her, "That's why I like her. See that fight in her eyes?"

"Don't get too attached," Kate warned. "She was with Elkins, she might be like him."

"Little thing like her? Nah," Beau said. "You're no hunter, are you, doll?"

"Just some hired whore," Lady said. "Really a business woman at heart. What do you guys want in return for letting me go?"

"I heard Elkins talking to her about us," Kate said. "She's more than a whore."

"Be quiet, adults are talking," Lady taunted.

Kate was at the cage in an instant, but Lady didn't flinch. "When Luther is gone, I'm in charge. One word from me and you are shreds like your pal Elkins."

Lady could hear Elkins screaming in the back of her mind, the intense pain of torture...poor old bastard. "Then say the word, or give me my damn boots back," Lady said.

Kate's lip twitched, "You'd like that, wouldn't you? You might have some insight, but you are no hunter. I can see it in your eyes, you feel so hopeless right now."

"Oh, sorry, I just completely spaced out. Were you talking?" Lady raised an eyebrow.

"Enjoy your breakfast, Beau," Kate said.

It went on for nearly a week. Every other day Beau or one of the other vampires would take some of her blood to sustain their own lives. But she was still the newest cow in the pen. Considering what they had been through all of them still seemed sane.

The vampires fed them, some days it was just a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter, once it was a few boxes of pizza. Every couple of days one of the humans would be allowed a shower and a change of clothes, it wasn't optional or private. Apparently vampires liked to eat clean food.

Tamara was looking bad. Pale and anemic, she had been there over two weeks. "Looks like we'll need to find a few replacements soon," Kate said as they finished breakfast.

"Just give her a few days, you don't have to kill them," Lady said in a hushed voice.

Kate looked at her blankly, "We keep you humans around too long and you start to stink, no matter how many times we wash you."

"You used to be human, right?" Lady asked.

"And you used to be entertaining," Kate countered. "I've heard every insult you have, I'm bored with you. Beau is even bored with you. The only chance you had of surviving is gone. Once you are as weak and used up as she is he won't even want to keep you."

Lady's eye twitched as she realized what Beau's plan had been. Not to keep her as a food source, but to switch her over. She had spent a week watching the vampires as much as possible, listening to them discuss everything from music, movies and favorite places to draw blood. A lot of useless crap, but she hadn't been able to ignore the vampire sex between a few of the couples. She had also noticed the couples weren't sharing each other. In fact now that she thought about it only Beau and Kate were alone.

It was perfectly okay if Beau decided to kill her over turning her into one of them. In fact that was her new goal in the whole shit pile. For the first time since she had been caged up Lady sat in the corner with the other dying humans and tried to tune out what their captors were doing.

It had been a week, they were at least a hundred miles if not two or three hundred from Manning. John knew where she had been, he was the only one. Would he come looking for her when she didn't check in? At least try to call and make sure Elkins hadn't made good on his threat to shoot her? Well, if he really wanted that god damned gun he better. Lady wasn't sure how Elkins place was left, if John would find enough clues he needed to find the gun, and since Kate had taken it as a trophy if he could track that well he'd be running into a huge coven of vampires. She quietly hoped John didn't give a damn about her or the gun, he'd get himself killed.

Her next thought was Freddie. Bobby didn't know where she was exactly, but by now he'd figure that something had gone wrong. Or at least he'd be thinking that she had spaced out checking in with him, but by the time she had been bled dry he'd know she wasn't coming back for her dog. Freddie would be in good hands with Bobby.

And eventually Max would see, or already did see, that she was dead. What happened from there Lady had no clue. When it came to the old medicine woman she had stopped guessing. It wasn't like she would send Mason to take on a coven of vampires.

Lady let it all settle in. She never left many loose ends, she always knew that her death would come early in life. The world would keep moving on without her. It was scary, something so great and unknown, but if she only had a few days or weeks versus a year, she was going to do what she could. The hope that finding the book had given her hadn't grown enough to change her thoughts about her death, but it was a disappointment that she wouldn't get a chance to use its knowledge against the witches.

Unfortunately the only thing she thought to do was piss the vampires off enough that they'd leave the others alone, give them a reprieve and a chance to take a few extra breaths.


	12. Dead Man's Blood, July 2006

**A/N** - _I wrote this and the previous chapters with the belief that those reading fan fictions have probably seen most, if not all, of Supernatural's episodes. Please let me know if some of this gets too confusing or needs more of the background with the Winchester side of the story._

_Thanks for reading so far, I have some fun chapters coming up and can't wait to share them. I'm trying to slowly leak these chapters out to avoid a long absence while I finish writing through the later seasons but at the same time I'm just so eager to share them. I've worked really hard and I hope you enjoy reading.  
_

**July 23, 2006. Vampires Nest, Colorado**

"'Sup, ho-bag," Lady said as Kate walked past the pen.

"Taking my new boots out for a spin," Kate said.

Lady hated that Kate was wearing her boots, and hated it even more that they looked good on her. "Careful, they are two-hundred bucks. That's robbing a lot of little red riding hoods, you know."

"That's wolves, darling," Kate chuckled. "And tonight I think I'm in the mood for fast food."

"I hear that goes right to your thighs. I didn't want to say anything but there is only so much skinny jeans can do for a fat ass."

"Eat you later," Kate said.

"Bring me back something spicy, I want to explode out the other end," Lady called back. Damn vampires had tough skin.

"Do they really...go to the bathroom?" Carl asked quietly. He had gotten less social as the week progressed, becoming more like the other penned humans.

"Fuck if I know, man," she said. "All the booze they pour down their throats has to go somewhere."

Kate and her entourage she left with were gone a few hours before returning with a man and a woman. They tied them up separate from the others. Both of them were hysterical at first, but quieted down after a few threats. Lady wished they'd put them in the pen with her. Maybe she wasn't the best at comforting victims but at least she could explain to them what was happening. Although telling someone to save their fear until they felt the anemic affects of blood loss probably wasn't helpful. They just didn't seem safe outside of the cage.

And then Luther arrived. Lady watched with interest as Kate jumped into his arms and he returned her eager welcome. Luther, their leader. That was the guy not to piss off, so Lady began working on new insults for when she got some face-time with him.

Luther examined the new humans tied up outside the cage and seemed to take an interest in the woman. Lady saw the near future, the man being given to Luther's vampire family for a gory feast.

"Hey! Let him go, okay? Just, put him in here with us!" Lady shouted.

Luther's eyes reflected the dim lights as he glared at her. Kate put a hand on his shoulder, "She's a lot of talk, not even amusing anymore. If you want I'll kill her."

Luther pulled the man to his feet and shoved him into Beau, "Treat yourselves."

"NO!" Lady's screams mixed with the mans. "No! Stop it!" She hit the cage in fury before turning so she didn't have to see it. His screams didn't last as long as Elkins. Not nearly as long.

Lady retreated to an empty corner of the cage, there was no way to save these people. Having the attention on her may make it easier for them in the short term, but sooner or later they'd all share the same fate. And more humans would come to replace them.

"You, blue-eyes," Luther called to her.

Lady glared at him and walked to the cage, "What, Nosferatu?"

He didn't smirk, he didn't even play along like Kate would, "You were with Elkins?"

"I like old-man ass, the saggy part always makes me warm and tingly."

Luther unlocked the cage, grabbing her and pulling her out. Lady examined her options, no escape, only so much blood to share between nearly a dozen vampires, and her goal to keep her bones intact...well, no options, really.

She was taken farther into the barn, a part she had never seen. There was hay on the dirt floor down a hallway and a walled off section that Luther dragged her into. The room had a bed, cash, adult toys and liquor. Sort of reminded her of her bedroom in her trailer, minus the cash. "How many like Elkins are left?" Luther asked her, turning his back on her.

"Whole world is full of old men like him," she said, her eyes exploring new opportunities of escape.

Luther smirked, "Run. I'd love to chase you down. Tease you, let you think you are getting farther out of my reach. But you know I can smell you from a mile away?"

"Sorry, I think you guys have hard water. Really hard to get the soap to lather," she said.

Luther grabbed her right arm and studied the tattoo on her wrist, "I'm willing to bet you aren't a hunter like him, but a helper. Wiccan?"

"Bless you."

Luther glared at her now, "I don't think you understand what..."

"I know you are going to kill me," Lady said. "Why should I tell you anything you want to know?"

"Because it will make the difference between me killing you swiftly, or very slowly," Luther said, looking menacing.

"Finally, someone ready to get down to the torture," Lady said with a sigh. "I've been waiting for this all week, you have no idea. I thought you guys were all plush teddy bears with how nice you've been. I have to tell you, I've been held against my will a few times and so far I'm ashamed to not have more scars walking out of it."

"Well, I hate to disappoint," he said, grabbing her by the throat and slamming her against the wall. "Painful enough?"

"Yeah," Lady gasped as his fingers tightened around her throat.

"You aren't walking out of here," Luther said in a promise, letting her fall to the ground and catch her breath.

Lady's hands were tied at the wrists and a length of rope was tied to a hook in the high ceiling. She was barely able to touch her toes to the ground and her shoulders held her weight painfully.

Luther was looking through her cell phone, "Interesting collection you have. Who is Alex?"

"Either a drummer in Phoenix, or a salesman in Pennsylvania," Lady said.

"Why does he two asterisks after his name?"

"He was only worth two stars," she said. "Definitely the salesman from Pennsylvania."

Luther continued through the contacts, and gave up before reaching the H's. He threw the cell phone on the ground, shattering it. "Damn it, that was a new one," she complained.

"Other hunters. Who, where. Nearby?"

"How the fuck should I know?" Lady asked.

Luther smiled, "Let's start with something simple. What is your name?"

She stared at him for a few moments, "Kingrate. First name Sofa."

"You're Sofa Kingrate?" Luther repeated, and frowned at her.

She grinned, "Why yes, yes I am."

Luther smirked, "You think you are cute?

"Worse, I know I am," she answered.

"Your name, pet," Luther demanded.

"My name is really Fook," she said seriously. "Fook You, actually."

Luther smiled at her, "You aren't afraid of what I can do to you?"

"Sure. But I don't see myself escaping anytime soon, no reason not to screw with you a bit."

Luther pulled his lips back and let his second set of teeth out, he tore open the front of her shirt and sunk his teeth into the side of her neck. "How clean are vampire mouths? I'm really worried about infection," Lady said as her own blood leaked past his lips and down her front.

Luther pulled back and adjusted her shirt until it covered the wound to help stop the bleeding. "Least of your worries," he said.

"I hope I make you sick, you know," she said. "Explosive diarrhea sick."

Luther licked his lips once his teeth were back in place, "Tell me about the Colt."

Lady stared at him, "Isn't that a horse?"

"The gun," he said, and he smiled. "You know what it is."

Lady had nothing to say to that.

"Beau, where is Kate?" Luther asked, averting his eyes from Lady to look behind her.

"Don't know, Luther," Beau said from behind Lady.

"Check the rafters, maybe the bitch turned into a bat," Lady chuckled.

Luther glared at her and struck her once across the face. "You do not call her that," he said calmly.

Lady felt the blood pooling in her mouth and spit it on the floor. She looked at him, "Sorry, did you want that?"

"Beau, your request is denied. She's food, and then she's fertilizer," Luther said. "What do you think about the new girl out there?"

"She's a little feisty, not very talkative," Beau answered. "Not sure if she's really my type."

"Why don't we go get more acquainted with her," Luther said. "We'll let blue-eyes hang out for a while."

Not long after he left did the hot pain of strain settle into her shoulders and upper back from supporting her weight. Lady could manage to lift herself up halfway to the hook but before she got anywhere near close the strength in her arms gave out. She was too weak after a week of being fed upon. Her toes barely grazed the ground, she couldn't get any slack on the rope to try and get unleashed from the hook.

By the time Luther and Kate came stumbling into the bedroom her upper arms down to her lower back were aching, but her shoulders were completely numb and screamed in protest at the slightest attempt to move.

Luther and Kate were already half undressed and all over each other. "Hey, guys I'm not a shy person or prude in any way, but I really don't need to see this," Lady protested.

They ignored her, as if she wasn't there. As if she was already a dead body just hanging there. Lady worked on getting herself turned around so she could at least look at the wall, but their sounds were still too close. She suddenly wished that being bombarded by amplified bass had left her permanently deaf.

Lady drifted in and out of a light sleep. It was impossible to tell time, and she had given up days ago. But Luther and Kate were asleep so that meant it was daytime. It could be dawn, noon, or nearly twilight for all she knew. She wondered how much longer they'd keep her alive.

Lady let out a soft whimper of pain as her aching muscles throbbed, and glared at the two slumbering vampires cuddled next to each other. And then she heard the soft rustle of footsteps on hay. She worked on turning herself to the door, wanting to see which nasty vampire was coming her way. They'd piss off mommy and daddy vampire if they woke them up, might be nice to see Beau get backhanded by Luther.

At first she thought she was hallucinating, a tall broad-shouldered man was taking a step into the room and looking around while holding a two-foot long machete. It didn't take long for him to spot her.

Lady shook her head and clenched her jaw when John was about to quietly ask her if she was okay, she moved her eyes anxiously to the sleeping vampires. She wished her hands were free to help in silent communication, but she opened and closed her mouth a few time while baring her teeth and nodding toward the vampires again. However once she was done she realized if John was carrying a machete he had an idea of what he was dealing with and didn't need her help.

John took one step towards her and she shook her head again. She stared to the other side of the room, and nodded towards it. John followed her gaze to the Colt. Next to the bed, an arms reach from Luther. He looked back at her and nodded. The nod was more than simple gratitude for understanding what he came for, it was a job well done. Lady watched the vampires as intently as John did, both of them barely breathing.

Lady couldn't warn John when she heard the future-sound of a noise that would wake not only the leaders of the vampires but the whole damn clan of them, anything she could do to warn him would have given him less time. A scream from the front of the barn filled the whole area.

Luther was awake in an instant, grabbing John and throwing him away instinctively. John only had seconds to grab the nearest thing, a bottle of liquor, and throw it through a painted over window to assault the vampires with sunlight.

"Boys! Run!" John hollered, taking two steps to Lady and slicing the machete through the air.

Lady let out a cry of pain as her weak arms fell and hot pain assaulted her upper torso. Her knees buckled against her own weight, but John was right there to support her. Without hesitating, knowing she couldn't move fast enough on her own, he threw her over his shoulder and ran.

Lady couldn't move her neck far enough to see behind them, but she heard the vampires moving swiftly through their home to intercept them. Before they could Lady saw bright sun and smelled fresh air for the first time in a week.

"Dad! Dad!" She recognized Dean's voice calling.

Lady had twigs assaulting her as John carried her through trees, his footsteps slowing now. The grass changed to gravel and her head swam as John tried to put her on her feet. "They won't follow, they'll wait until tonight," he said. John got Lady's feet on the ground, for a moment she stood, and then she let her knees buckle so she could sit on the gravel.

"Once a vampire gets your scent, it's for life," John said, kneeling next to Lady and cutting her wrists free with a smaller knife.

"What the hell do we do now?" Dean asked.

"You find the nearest funeral home, that's what," John said. He put his hands on either side of Lady's face and pulled her lips back.

"Get off me!" Lady said, snapping at his fingers and trying to move her numb arms to slap him away.

He grabbed her wrists, "Did they try to turn you?"

"Are you shitting me?" She snapped at him, squinting at the bright sun. "Try to touch me again and I'll bite your ass!"

"Dad..." Dean started.

John held up his machete, "Did they bleed on you? Feed you their blood?"

"No!" Lady snapped.

"Are you sure? Why are you having trouble with the sun?"

"I just spent a week in that damn place! Give me some fucking time to adjust!" Lady snapped. "Use some fucking sense, John! How many people can stand to spend a week with me, let alone an eternity?"

John nodded, "C'mon, I'll help you up." Lady accepted his hand and leaned on him as she got used to being on her feet again. "So, you learn anything in there?"

Lady backed away from him, swaying slightly but able to keep herself upright. She glared at John, "Did I learn anything? Oh, I learned a lot. I learned how long it takes a full grown man to be bled to death while being tortured, a good hour. I also know that Beau likes the shoulder, Harold likes the back, and that fucking bitch Kate likes expensive shoes. You know what the hell I've been through the past few weeks, John? I got threatened by your good buddy Danny, and then he recruited me to help protect him from vampires. Fat lot of good that did, seeing as he's dead and I've been breakfast, lunch and dinner the past week. You know they have a dozen people in there? They are dying! Half of them aren't going to last another week, a few maybe not even a night. And there wasn't a god damn thing I could do! And I spent most of last night listening vampire porn. VAMPIRE PORN, John! I ought to kick you in the fucking shins and run the other direction!"

"What's stopping you?" he asked once he was sure she was done.

She let out a huff of breath, "They stole my shoes and I don't know where the fuck I am. I need a ride."

"A new shirt, too," John said.

"Victoria's Secret is out, I guess," Lady muttered, hugging her torn shirt to herself. "At least they let me keep my underwear."

"You okay?" John asked seriously as he led her to his truck.

"Ask me tomorrow if we're still alive," she said, groaning as she saw the big step up to his truck. "You have a plan?"

"Something in the works," John admitted as he climbed into the driver's seat.

During the drive Lady gave John any information she thought was useful, and a lot of information that wasn't useful. The Winchesters had a cabin about an hour from the vampire's den, not completely secluded like Daniel's had been but quiet enough.

"Found your car, grabbed your bags," Dean said quietly as they entered the cabin.

"Is the car okay?" She asked urgently.

"It's fine. It's in Manning, but it's fine," he assured her. "Got everything out of it that looked important."

"Hurry up and get dressed," John said, flipping through a book.

"You can't expect her to help us with this," Sam said as Lady went into the bathroom. "You nearly got her killed."

"She can take care of herself," John muttered.

"Obviously not, she was vampire food for a week," Sam countered. "She may have a chance to survive that curse, did you know that? We helped her find information on that witch's coven."

John went quiet and Lady hurried to get into her clean shirt. She stepped out of the bathroom, glaring hard at Sam. "Lady?" John asked.

"Nothing concrete," She said, moving her glare from Sam to look at John. "Got some information on the coven that might lead to taking them down. It's a work in progress."

"You have my sons investigating this for you?" John asked, almost angrily.

Lady stood straight, "Yeah, I do. If what we found together is half as useful as I think it is there may be a chance to get rid of that coven once and for all. They did damn good." John's anger faded away a bit. "I think the more important thing is surviving when it gets dark. If we're still breathing at dawn we can bitch to each other then. Well, you guys can bitch to each other all you want. I plan on kicking the nearest Winchester in the shins and going back to my dog."

"Yeah, where is Freddie?" Sam asked.

"I left him at..." Lady coughed as she saw the future glare from John if she finished saying Bobby's name. "I left him with Mason."

"Right," Dean said, catching the lie but letting it slide for the time being. "So, plan on staying alive?"

John tapped the book he had been reading from and Lady recognized it as Daniel's journal. "Vampires need fresh blood to survive, that is why they keep humans. A dead man's blood weakens them. Daniel used to dip arrows in it, hit them from afar before they could sniff him out, and then go in close for the kill."

"Half of the coven is always at the base," Lady said. "There are nine of them."

"Ten," Sam corrected. "They turned one of the captives. That's who screamed...I thought she was a victim."

Lady looked down. That poor woman was now a monster for the rest of her life, which hopefully would end at nightfall. If Lady hadn't been so antagonistic with the vampires it might have been her instead. "So we hit up a local funeral home. Morgue?"

"Let's see what is closest," Sam said, grabbing his laptop.

"Getting access to a dead body isn't easy," Lady said, looking at John.

"Two things," Dean said. "First, if you have trouble that is because you are doing it wrong. Second, why they hell would you be going after dead bodies?"

Lady turned on him, "Two things. First, screw you. Second, none of your concern since it wasn't your dead body."

Sam rolled his eyes at them as his large hands moved nimbly over his keyboard. "The town has a funeral home, nearest morgue is more than an hour away."

"Dean, go to the funeral home. Lady, I have a shopping list."

"Sure thing," Lady said, grabbing the paper. "Oh, you mean like a go hunt around in ditches and find stuff. Not like go buy a carton of eggs and a jug of milk."

"You think you can find this stuff?" John asked.

"Yeah, this stuff grows like weeds everywhere," she said, letting Dean glance over the list of plants John wanted her to find. "Mind if I ride with you into town?"

"You sure you are up for this?" Dean asked her.

"Yeah, I'm good," she said, pulling on a pair of sneakers. She patted her pockets, remembering her knife was gone. As if John knew he handed her a small blade in a sheath.

"Okay, let's go." Dean turned to his father and brother, "Uh...you two are going to be okay?"

"You're wasting time, Dean," John said, looking back at Daniel's journal.

Dean and Lady got into the Impala and drove into town. "You look nervous," Lady said as she worked on loosening knotted muscles in her upper back.

"It doesn't bother you that we're about to steal some blood from a dead guy and in less than six hours we're going to be hunted by a coven of vampires?"

"Sure," she said, watching out the window and looking at the vegetation on the side of the road. "Dude, you are talking to someone who spent all of last week either in a cage or tied up. I'm really just sort of happy to be out for the time being."

"Looking for a little revenge?" Dean glanced at her.

Lady had to think about it, and before she could answer she spotted a bush. "Hey, pull over, I see what we need." Dean slowed to a stop and she jumped out. "Go ahead, I'll meet you at the funeral home."

"Okay," he said, leaving her on the side of the road with a garbage bag and a knife.

Lady cut through the dry bush and stuffed what she could into the garbage bag. The bush wasn't flowering but when the branches were burned it would make a pretty powerful smell. Running along the road with a full garbage bag she found Dean's car parked behind the funeral home and let herself in. He came out not much later with a noticeable bulge in his jacket pocket.

"Hold onto this, make sure it doesn't spill or break," he said, handing her a jar that was wrapped in a paper bag. "I was thinking, this goes as planned we need a way to get those people into town, away from the place. I think we have one more stop."

Dean parked the Impala a block down from a line delivery vans, examining the area. "You want to steal a van?" Lady asked.

"I definitely don't have the cash to buy one," he smiled. "I see a few security cameras, but also see a pretty big blind spot."

"It's been a while since I've hot wired a car," Lady said.

"No problem, I can handle it," Dean said.

"Right, sure," she turned to him. "Then I should follow you in your car?"

Dean froze, "Hell no. Hell. No." He let out a breath as Lady chuckled. He reached under his seat and handed her a slim-jim to get the door open, "Can you be gone in sixty seconds?"

Lady couldn't help but laugh. "If you see anyone come out of the building give me a honk of warning. If you have to leave me, leave me. I don't think the vampires will break into a prison just to get me."

Lady got into position across the street from the vans, took a quick look, and darted across the street. She tested the door handle of the vans on either side of her, both locked. She grabbed the slim-jim and within seconds had the door unlocked.

She got in low and closed the door, straining to hear any car honk that may be Dean warning her. A full minute passed before she got the wires exposed, another minute before the engine came to life. Trying to stay low behind the wheel until she got past the security cameras she backed out and drove down the street. After a few blocks she saw the Impala behind her. Once they were out of town Dean honked his horn and she pulled onto a dirt road and behind a line of trees that hid the van from the highway. Dean was already removing the license plates and putting on different ones to help avoid police.

"Dean!" Lady called, opening the sliding door. "I need help getting rid of this junk."

"What's in there?" he asked.

"Folding chairs," she said, grabbing the first one and throwing it out of the door. "Stuffed in tight, too."

"Folding chairs?" Dean had to look for himself. "Folding chairs. Why?"

"Fuck if I know. Guess a delivery van has to be used to deliver something, right? Why not chairs?" she said and he dodged to the side as she tossed another one out, narrowly avoiding getting hit. "Oo, sorry."

He glared at her briefly before moving to remove the license plate in the front. Once that was done he went back to help her unload the van to make room for the people they had to rescue.

"Are you okay?" he asked between tossing chairs, grabbing another one as she handed it to him.

"Pretty sure I'll be fine," she said. "Well, I'm a little hopped up on adrenaline. I did just steal a van," she grinned at him.

"Did they hurt you?" Dean asked flatly.

"That's a stupid question. Unless you were blind and can't see the bruises," she said bitterly, wishing he would take that she was fine and let it go. "It wasn't fun in there. I'm out now, I have a chance to help get those other people out. If I'm alive tomorrow morning you can ask me whatever you want."

Dean accepted the next chair and several following ones in silence until the van was cleared out and there was a messy pile next to them.

"It's only four, we're making good time," he said after glancing at his watch. "You know, we are severely out numbered. And if even one of these things escape they'll be able to track us the rest of our lives."

"Yeah, I know," Lady said.

"Which means this very well may be our last day alive," Dean said. "It's going to get ugly, and very dangerous."

Lady was confused for a moment until she saw the tell-tale glint in his eye, "Wow, are you feeding me a line?"

"Are you biting?" he asked with a smirk.

She grimaced, "Don't mention biting."

"Sorry," he said. "Serious, may be your, our, last chance to ever have sex. With anyone. Ever."

Lady glanced at the cold metal floor of the delivery van, and back at Dean, "My stolen van or your backseat?"

He smiled victoriously, "My backseat."

"I call topsies," she said, turning away from him before he could lean down for a kiss to start them off.

"You can't do that," he said, following her quickly and getting ahead of her to open the backdoor of the Impala.

"You chose the location, I choose the position," she said, unbuttoning her jeans as she got into the back of the car. Dean followed her quickly, putting his amulet in his pocket while shrugging out of his button-down shirt. Lady put a hand around his neck and pulled him in for a kiss before he could attempt to argue. His hands went to her waist and eagerly tugged at her jeans, helping her pull them off.

"I could say my car, my rules," he said as she moved to place a knee on either side of him. His hands fell on bare thighs and moved up until he felt the soft cloth of her panties, "But this isn't half bad," he breathed as he pulled her down for another kiss.

Dean's body was very warm against hers, and his kiss was eager but skilled. She settled into his lap and rubbed against the front of his jeans while letting her hands move over his firm torso. His hands were busy unbuttoning her shirt, too busy to help her get his t-shirt off.

Dean had to take a moment to look at the hand-print shaped bruises on her arms and the bite-marks left on her shoulders and neck. A week she had been there.

Impatient Lady ran her hands under his shirt, feeling the smooth warm skin. Dean raised his arms to pull it off over his head, trying to avoid knocking Lady off of him in the process. Her hands were already at his jeans and once his shirt was gone he raised his hips to pull his jeans down to his knees. Before they could go farther Lady was back on his lap and pressing her body to his while kissing down his neck and to his chest. Dean caressed her legs and kissed her hair as she made his breath hitch by dragging her teeth gently around one of his nipples.

Dean worked on freeing his legs from his jeans, managing to grab his wallet and finding a condom inside. He kept it in his hand, knowing he was going to need it very shortly, and let his other hand move up and down Lady's back. Lady jerked suddenly the same time he felt a rough spot on her back. She grabbed his wrist and lowered his hand, but he pressed her against him so he could look over her shoulder and down her back. More bruises and another bite that looked like it had been a favorite spot. No wonder she wanted to be on top, it looked painful.

Lady distracted him by holding his face to hers for another kiss. This was the first time in a week that being touched hadn't hurt and if he mentioned anything about the vampire nest it would take her mind back to that horrible place that was the last thing she wanted to think about right then. Kissing Dean was fantastic, his full lips met hers without hesitation and his tongue played with hers while it teased her lips until they tingled. He tried to keep the kiss going as she moved to pull off her last barrier of clothing and he went to free himself from his boxers. Lady eagerly waited for him to unwrap the condom, and then moved herself over him again. His fingers moved over her moist sex as she lowered herself onto him.

Dean's hands were gentle when rubbing up her back and over her front, becoming more firm with they settled on her hips as he tried to control the rhythm. "Hold on," he breathed, kissing her briefly before he began to shift in the seat.

He laid on his back and Lady moved with him, holding onto the backrest of the seat as she worked with the different position. Dean closed his eyes and moaned happily with her for several moments before sitting halfway up. She met him halfway there to meet his lips, adding his sensuous kiss made her moan.

He wrapped his arms around her as he laid back down, holding their torsos together as he began to thrust upwards to meet her. Lady couldn't hold in the gasps and moans he was bringing out in her now, her hands gripped his shoulders and she kissed his mouth, jaw, and licked at his earlobe. His warm hands traveled up her back gently and caressed the sore muscles of her shoulders, and she lost it as the warm hands massaged the knotted muscles. Lady attempted to muffle her cry of pleasure in his neck, his heavy breathing was at her ear and changed into soft moans. Dean let out a final satisfied 'Mm' as he finished and their movement stilled. The car continued to rock for a few moments.

Lady was still stretched out on him, her mouth at his neck as his hands continued to rub her shoulders. "I feel like I owe you money right now," Lady finally said, laughing in his ear before beginning to move.

Dean tightened his hands on her shoulder, not letting her move until he got another long kiss. "I think we need to live through the night, and do this again."

She gave him a short kiss and then moved off of him to begin pulling on her clothing. She had nothing to say to that, as much as she silently agreed. Dean was fun, gave her what she wanted and didn't hassle her. He got under her skin at times, but she returned that favor quite often. Problem was she was she liked Dean. It wasn't hard for people to earn her respect, but him and his brother had actually earned her trust. Being physical had always been just that, she was used to sex and run. But with Dean it was different, their time together she felt a sort of safety and security that she rarely felt. She shrugged it off as trauma from being held by vampires.

"Meet you back at the cabin," she said, going to the van.

Lady parked the stolen van in a hidden spot and walked the rest of the way to the cabin. Dean met her out front and they went inside together. Sam and John were sitting across from each other and looked up immediately. "What took so long?" John asked.

Dean shrugged, "Some heavy security to protect a bunch of dead guys."

"Lady?" John asked.

"The plants are in Dean's car," she said. "We also got a van to move the prisoners."

"Good thinking," John said.

"Dean's idea," she said quickly. "Few hours until sundown, what do you have?"

Lady listened intently as John went over the plan with the three of them. They set up a few false trails, and one final one to lead a scouting party to Dean while his brother and father would wait to ambush. Lady would be with the van working on John's mix of incense to help hide their scent after dealing with the first vampire attack.

The sun was completely down as Lady maintained the burning plants and herbs. It smelled like a skunk had a party with a hundred other skunks, and made her eyes sting. By the time she had grown accustomed to the smell the Winchesters were returning.

"Ugh, that reeks," Dean complained.

"That's the point," John said. "Lady, come here. This one, the leader's right?"

John pulled Kate out from his truck, she was tied up and looked ill. Lady smiled at her, "Oh, honey, you look a little pale. Not scared, are you?"

"You feel the need for a little payback?" John asked her.

Kate flinched as Lady pulled out the knife John had loaned her, Sam and Dean watched with wide eyes as Lady knelt down and cut open the sides of Kate's jeans so she could get at the zipper of the boots. Kate didn't struggle as Lady pulled the shoes off of her feet. "I don't have need for revenge, she didn't do anything to me that won't heal up on its own," she said, giving John his knife back and walking away to put her shoes in his truck. She stopped, examining the boots by the headlights. She turned back to Kate. "You scuffed them! You crazy bitch, I'll kill you!"

"Whoa! Whoa!" Sam said, grabbing Lady around the waist with one arm as she lunged for the weakened vampire. "Just shoes, Lady."

"Expensive boots!" Lady corrected. She glared at John, then threw the ruined boots into the bushes. "I just can't have nice things when dealing with you guys," she grumbled.

"Lady, go separate the ash. We'll be there in a minute," John said.

"Yeah, whatever," she muttered. "Fucking sucks, man," she grumbled to herself as she shoveled the ash out of the fire and put it on the ground to cool. She waited for the men to finish their conversation by the cars, and then they went to her to take the ash and dust their clothes with it.

"Hang back about half a mile," Dean was telling her. "Take my phone, if Sam doesn't call you, don't get near the barn. Go back and keep going." Lady took his phone and didn't argue. John was already driving away with Kate, hoping to lead the rest of the vampires away from their nest so they could run in and free the captives.

"We ready?" Sam asked.

"Ready," Lady and Dean said.

Lady turned to get into the van and turned back quickly as Dean pinched her butt. He grinned, "For luck."

"That's my line," she said, trying to sound offended but unable to keep from smiling back at him.

"Not anymore," he said as he got in his car.

Dean's taillights were small in the distance, she wasn't able to tell if she was a half mile away or not. When they got closer she shut the lights off and crept along. Only the silhouette of the barn that had been her own prison for a week guiding her.

Dean's phone rang and Lady turned on the headlights and quickly got the van into position by the door. She opened the sliding door and Sam was opening the large barn doors guiding the prisoners out. "Is that all of them?" he asked.

Lady counted them as they piled into the back of the van, "Yeah, we're good."

"Keep Dean's phone, if we don't call you keep on driving," Sam ordered as she slid the door shut.

The back of the van was so silent Lady had to keep checking the mirror to make sure the captives hadn't vanished. "Hey guys, we need to keep moving for a while but as soon as it's safe I'm going to get everyone to the nearest hospital," Lady promised them.

It was an hour before Dean's phone rang and Lady answered it immediately, "Everyone okay?" Sam asked her.

"Still cruising. How did things go?"

"We're all fine," Sam said. "Drop them off and ditch the van, we'll come get you."

Lady dropped the captives off at the hospital, the shock finally wore off and they ran in screaming. She got out of town quickly, leaving the van on the side of the road and getting into the back of the Impala when it stopped for her.

"Here you go," Lady said, handing Dean his phone back.

"We're heading back to torch the nest," Sam said quietly. "Two of the vampires ran. Dad is trying to track them down. But he got the Colt back."

"Great fun," she said.

At the nest the brothers made a thorough sweep to make sure no other captives had been locked up somewhere else while Lady searched for the things they had stolen from her.

"Damn, these guys were sitting on at least five grand in jewelry," Lady said. "All stolen from people they kidnapped." Lady ignored the gold rings and expensive watches and grabbed her butterfly knife and whatever cash she found.

"Take it, get it fenced and buy yourself a new pair of boots," Dean muttered.

"Give me a minute to see if my SIM card for my phone survived," she said, ignoring his comment. If he wanted to rescue the jewelry that had been stolen he had more pockets to carry it in than she did.

Lady sifted through the rubble of her cell phone in the bedroom she had been rescued in. She found the SIM card for her phone and it looked undamaged. Holding it carefully she slid it into one of the many cell phones she had found in the lair and waited for it to power up. While waiting she looked around the room and shoved open a heavy door that had been closed when she was last in there.

"Oh my god!" she cried out.

Sam and Dean were there in an instant, both of them had their heavy machetes ready for whatever had shocked Lady. All they found was her on her knees surrounded by shoes. "Are you kidding me?" Sam asked.

"Is this...oh my god! This is Prada," Lady said, pulling off her sneaker to slip into a sleek red heel. It was only on her foot for a second before she picked up a golden sandal to try on instead. "God help me but I am so taking these. And these. Oh. My. God, these are so cute!"

"Jesus Christ," Dean muttered. "Lady, we have to go."

"One minute," she said, pulling on an ankle-high tan boot while reaching for a pair of green pumps.

"Just grab her," Dean said.

"No! No! Please!" Lady protested as she went to gather the shoes in her arms.

The sun was rising as Dean drove them back to the cabin. "Happy?" he asked in a harsh tone as he looked at Lady and the pile of shoes she had taken.

"You have no idea," she said. She had a pair of leopard print stilettos on and admiring them. Already she was taking them off to try on another pair.

Back at the cabin Lady was given first access to the shower as the brothers attempted to get in touch with their father. She wasn't sure if she still smelled like the incense she had spent a few hours inhaling the previous night, but she felt clean. Nothing like rescuing a few people and getting free designer shoes before burning a barn to a ground and ending it all with a warm shower to make a person feel good inside and out.

Once the shower was done running she could hear men speaking, John was back. "What's the deal with the shoes in the Impala?" John was asking.

"Lady," Dean said simply. "I tried to burn them and she nearly scratched Sam's eyes out."

John chuckled, "Yeah, well, Lady is interesting. Doesn't take much to set her off or make her happy."

"I don't get it. Why send her instead of us to try and talk to Elkins?" Sam asked.

"Daniel met Lady years ago, tried to help her like I did. I knew he wouldn't trust her, but I also knew he wouldn't shoot her on sight. He was a paranoid son of a bitch."

Lady stepped out of the steaming bathroom in sweat pants and a tank top. She sat down on the edge of a bed as she dried her hair with a towel. "So, not to complain or anything, but I still need a ride back to Manning," she said. "Any takers?"

"Yeah, just give us a few hours to clean up and get some sleep," Dean said.

Lady looked up as a cell phone was about to ring, and saw it was the phone she had put her SIM card in. She had been so excited over the shoes she had forgotten about it. She was standing when it rang and Dean reached over to grab it. "Thanks," she said, taking it from his hand as he looked at the screen. "Sorry, I know it's been over a week," Lady said as she answered.

"I've left you half a dozen messages. Jesus, kid, I thought you were dead," Bobby breathed.

"You know, I've been getting that a lot these days," Lady chuckled. "Everything is fine but I can't talk. I'll call you back later."

Sam was helping himself to a shower and Dean had a tense look on his face. "That was Bobby Singer?" Dean asked. John's head turned immediately and his eyes narrowed on Lady.

"Yeah," she said, making a show of packing her bag. "That was him."

"How is the old son of a bitch?" John asked, sitting on the other bed and pulling his boots off.

"Same as always," Lady said shortly.

"He know what you were doing?" John asked.

"No," she said.

"Good," John said, and then he chuckled, "Bet he'd be pissed to hear what you've been up to."

Lady turned to John, "You know, actually, he wouldn't be. And I'm not playing the messenger game between the two of you, I'm sort of sick of it. If you can't kiss and make-up, fine, but stop treating me like the red-headed middle child in whatever sick and twisted divorce happened between the two of you years ago." Lady grabbed her phone in her hand, "I'll be outside."

Lady took a few breaths of fresh air. It was strange how she could feel the tension between Bobby and John without even having them together. John's udder lack of concern over her well being, his willingness to let her handle potentially dangerous situations and Bobby's nearly overwhelming concern that he kept in line by asking for as few details as possible. She knew it was probably because of the fight Bobby and her had in Nebraska while dealing with Loki that was making her feel the tension. It wasn't between the old men, not really. It was her loyalties to each of them and the thought that she was betraying the others friendship.

Bobby picked up on the first ring, "Hey, kid," he said.

"Hey, sorry about the quick disconnect before," she said, walking forward to lean against the back of John's truck. "Everything okay over there?"

"Yeah, about the same," Bobby said. "I had to leave Freddie alone for a few days to deal with something, damn dog doesn't fit in my car. But I came back and he was still here."

"Just scratch him above his tail, he likes that," Lady said with a smile.

"I ain't scratching your dog's ass," Bobby chuckled.

"I'm sorry this took longer than it should have. I hope I'll be on my way back in the next day or so, though," she said. When she got there she'd have to explain the bruises and bite marks over a bottle of whiskey, then Bobby would give her that familiar look of concern while trying not to explode and call her an idiot.

"Just glad you are okay. You are okay, right?"

"Yes," she said. "Well, ready to be done here, let's say that. I'll call you when I know I'm done and heading over."

Lady hung up the phone and sucked in another calming breath that rushed out when she heard Dean about to speak.

"You seem to know a nice network of hunters."

"Only those John has introduced me to," Lady said, pushing herself off the back of the truck. She faced the door to the cabin as it opened with John in the doorway. He was waving them to come inside, looking around anxiously. "Oh, fun," she muttered.

Sam was out of the shower and the four of them gathered. "Lady, we're going after the demon. I know you've been through hell..."

"Tonight's the new moon, I knew this was coming," she said.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"There is a cloaking spell I've been using to keep the demon from tracking me. Lady isn't too shabby at rituals," John said.

Lady remembered the ritual, and she also remembered she'd been steadily bled for the past week. She rubbed her eyes and before John could ask she said, "Yeah, I can handle it."

"You two, go fetch her car. I'll get what we need, we should be ready by night," John said. "Lady, stay here. Eat something and sleep...you'll need it."

Lady ate what she could and then fell asleep with a pillow over her head.


	13. New Moon Ritual, July 2006

**July 26th, Colorado**

Lady rode with John to a spot he had found for the ritual, his sons behind him in the Impala.

"We have to do it three separate times," Lady said. "Did you go over it with them?"

"What do we need to do?" Sam asked.

"Just stand there and don't talk," Lady said.

"Sam, go first," John said, handing Lady a rag and a knife.

"What exactly..." Sam began, looking at the knife.

"Don't say anything," Lady said firmly. "If you interrupt I have to start over, and that sucks. You won't feel anything, just stand there. Don't move. Don't speak. And don't touch me."

"She knows what she is doing," John assured his son. "Back up, Dean."

Lady began to slide the blade along her forearm, holding it out towards Sam as blood trickled down. It landed on a pile of ingredients at their feet between them. At first the ground began to smolder, and then a small flame grew. Lady said the last word and the fire went out, she quickly wrapped the rag around her arm. "Gather up the ashes and put them in this," she said, taking the bloody rag from her arm. Sam knelt down and did as she said. Lady knelt across from him and handed him a lighter, "Repeat, exactly, after me." Lady said a few words of Latin at a time, and Sam expertly repeated them. When the last verse was said he lit the bag on fire. "Next."

She did the same with Dean and John. By the end she couldn't feel her right hand and she felt the familiar fatigue and coldness that came with blood loss.

"You feeling okay?" Sam asked her.

She gave him a smile, "I feel about a pint low."

He laughed and put a heavy hand on her shoulder, "Thanks, Lady. You, uh...thanks."

The ride back to the cabin took several hours, John wanted to keep the ritual area as remote and far away from them as possible. She was half-asleep when he parked the truck back at the cabin and she was so tired she didn't want to move, but knew the inside of the cabin would be warmer than the inside of John's truck. "You going to make it?" Dean asked as she shuffled to the door.

"Mmhm," she murmured as she stepped inside. One of the men suggested getting breakfast but she climbed under the blankets on a bed and curled up to fight off the cold that was sinking into her insides.

"Maybe this wasn't a good idea, she looks almost dead," Sam said with concern.

"Lady knows what she can handle," John said dismissively. "I'm going to head into town to pick up supplies. You guys need anything?"

"Yeah," Sam said. "I'll go with you."

"Dean, try to pour some water down her throat," John instructed as they left.

Dean pulled off his shoes, ready to get some sleep himself. "You need anything Lady?" He asked, not prepared to force feed her. Like his father had said, she knew what she could handle. He looked at the lump she made under the blankets, her head was even tucked in and barely visible.

He climbed into bed and slid to the middle, pressing the length of his body against hers. "What are you doing?" She asked, her voice muffled under the blankets.

"Just trying to keep you warm," he said, carefully wrapping an arm around her, remembering how bruised she was. His hand moved over her bare arm, she did feel cold compared to him. His lip twitched in an almost smile, "Just trying to make sure our friendly psychic doesn't die."

"This friendly psychic isn't going to die today, or tomorrow. I don't…" As if her body was trying to get her pride to shut the hell up a shiver ran up her spine so hard she vibrated against Dean. He laughed. "Shut up," she mumbled. "Fine, but I'm tired so no lines."

"I don't need a line, I already have you in bed," he joked, and her laughter was muffled against her pillow. "I actually wanted to ask you something, and I haven't had..."

"I haven't heard anything new to help with Sam's visions," Lady said apologetically.

Dean was quiet for a moment then said, "Thanks, but that wasn't what I was going to ask you. Just wondering where you'll be going after this."

"Bobby's," she said. "I have to get Freddie before he eats Bobby's house." Lady scratched at a healing vampire bite on her neck. "He knows what's been going on, sort of. I know he has some issues with John but he's worried about everyone. He won't admit it, of course, but I know he's looking forward to hearing when it is taken care of. Be nice if you let me know when it is so I can pass the news to him."

"Yeah, I'll do that," Dean promised. "Maybe if you are still there when it's done we can stop by. It'd be good to see him again, and maybe he'd be less likely to shoot at us if you're there as a witness."

Lady groaned, "No, I am not playing mediator between those grumpy old men. You make amends with Bobby on your own." Dean grinned as Lady leaned a bit against him, pressing her back to his chest for warmth. His hand rubbed gently against her arm. "Freddie is going to be so mad at you for this."

Dean laughed. "Does it help that I'm not enjoying this one bit? You still stink from the incense," he said.

"Bite me…no, wait, don't," she sighed.

Dean closed his eyes. He was enjoying this very much. The past few days were possibly the best days he'd had in a long time. His father was back, he and Sam were even getting along for the moment. They had teamed up to take out a large coven of vampires, and they would be leaving later that day to finish hunting the demon that had turned their lives upside down over twenty years ago. In the middle of it he had got to have car sex and he was enjoying the bit of cuddling as Lady's body relaxed and warmed next to his. Maybe if she was up to it before they had to leave they'd get one more go, that would just be another cherry to top off the whole thing. Dean had few illusions about his life, he knew it was screwed up beyond repair, but everything was pretty perfect at that moment.

John and Sam returned around noon. Dean's eyes opened at the sound, but recognized Sam and his father's sounds so he didn't move to get up. John looked at the cozy lump under the blankets and looked away quickly.

"Dean?" Lady said, her back flush against his front so he could feel her words as well as hear them.

"Yeah?" he asked sleepily. She shifted to move against his crotch and he realized that while he had been asleep he'd started to get hard. The next thing she did was shift his arm down, it had moved up to cup a breast. He chuckled, "Can't blame me for that, they have minds of their own."

"I want to get ready to head out," John said, and Dean adjusted his jeans before getting out of the bed. Lady rolled onto her back and held the blankets around herself as she watched the Winchesters. "You can sleep, Lady. We'll be out of here in a half hour"

"You guys are noisy," she said. "Where are you going?"

"East," John offered, and she let it go.

"She isn't coming with?" Sam asked as he worked on packing his things. Dean was coming out of the bathroom and began helping.

"Lady can't handle a demon," John said.

"She can handle witches without a problem," Dean offered. He hadn't missed that Lady had given him and his brother credit with their father, it only seemed right to do the same.

"Yeah, because she used to be one of them," John snapped. Dean and Sam both paused, surprised. John looked at their surprised faces and looked at Lady with a frown. "You let my boys help you without knowing all the facts?"

"That little fact is no ones business," Lady said in a small voice. "I think a few months as a witches apprentice hardly can be used to call someone a witch."

"You used to be one of them?" Sam asked her, surprised.

"No," Lady said.

"She sure was," John said roughly.

"Does it matter now?" Lady asked.

John glared at her, "Not really, no."

Lady tightened the blankets around her as she suddenly felt colder and looked at the wall while trying to avoid pouting. John had a lot of dirt on her, knew enough secrets to make her want to cut out his tongue and he was going to be letting them spill now.

"Wait a second…" Dean started.

"Dean, it's in the past," John said.

"You just said she used to be a black witch," Dean countered. "You…you always taught us that is something that can't be taken away."

Lady looked back at the three men anxiously. Ten minutes ago she had been rather warm and comfortable in Dean's arms, now she felt cold and weak.

"Lady got lucky," John said, realizing his outburst could cause problems for her. "She's one of the few people I could trust the past year, she's helped me out a lot."

"What do you mean the past year?" Sam asked.

John looked surprised now. With how cozy she had looked with his son he had expected she would have told them everything. "Lady's been helping me out since October. I've been talking to her every few weeks."

Dean and Sam both looked at her in shock underlined with the look people who have suffered great betrayals. "You lied to us," Dean said flatly.

She shrugged, "That's what I do."

"Since we met you knew we've been looking for our father and you knew where he was the whole time?"

"Maybe about a quarter of the time," she said in a small voice. "Okay, maybe half the time."

Dean shook his head and grabbed his bag angrily before stomping out of the cabin. She briefly met Sam's eyes, he looked hurt, not angry. He looked away and finished packing before leaving.

"Nice work, John," she said quietly as John finished packing.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I mean those two were my friends, and now they hate me," she said, falling back into the bed but knowing she wouldn't get to sleep.

"That wasn't my intention," John said. "But it is for the best. When this is…"

"Go kill your demon, John," she said sharply. "I don't need your help with my coven."

"No, I suppose you don't anymore, do you?" he muttered. "I'll give you a call later."

"You know, I don't need you to check in with me," she said, sitting up again and looking at him furiously. "I don't need your help, I haven't for a long time. The only time I ever wanted your help you were too busy, and you know what, that's okay. But those two wanted your help. They wanted you back so bad they went back and forth across the country, and a few times I helped you send them in the wrong direction. You talk about your sons and family as if they are everything, but you pissed on them, John. You know they are really good at what they do?" John gave a small nod. "On top of that they aren't even dickheads like you."

"You really want to start with the insults?" he asked, almost looking hurt.

"You sort of pissed me off and insults are the best I can do," she admitted. "You have your kids back, go kill your demon and just leave me alone."

"I'll call to check in on you," John said as he shouldered his bag.

"Just go to hell, asshole," she muttered halfheartedly as she curled back up in the bed.

Lady had trouble sleeping, drifting in and out restlessly. She had worked on gaining Sam and Dean's trust to benefit John, doing it through lies. And they had earned her trust by showing they were upstanding guys and helping her take out Ian and his black dog. Unfortunately it seemed all trust was gone now.

It wasn't like she had lost allies before. Well, actually it was considering for a long time Bobby and John were her only ones. Max was in the picture, but far off to the side considering her intentions. While Lady trusted Mason and the rest of his family they couldn't help her with this, they weren't hunters.

It would be nice to blame John, but she had been given several opportunities to tell the truth. Of course the truth would have betrayed John, sticking her between a wall and a hard spot.

Goddamn Winchesters.

The next day Lady still felt weak but as soon as she knew she wouldn't fall asleep behind the wheel she began driving north, renting a motel room in southern Wyoming. The day after she got farther north and near the border of South Dakota before stopping for another night. It would have been better if she had stayed, she wasn't necessarily healthy yet, but Colorado didn't feel very safe, especially knowing there were two vampires still out there. From the sound of it they had ran in fear and were probably still running, but she knew it was best to get her own distance as soon as possible. Not to mention if any demons were magically searching for John or his sons they'd get directed to her ritual spot which was only hours from the cabin.

Lady woke up tense when her cell phone rang after midnight. When she answered it Freddie's barking was loud on the other side.

"Bobby, what's wrong?" she asked.

"I don't know, you tell me," Bobby said as the barking became muffled. "Five minutes ago he lost his marbles. I brought him inside, thinking maybe a mountain lion was outside. He goes from barking to whining."

Lady heard the whimpering in the background now. "He doesn't do that without reason. I don't speak his language but I know when he's trying to warn someone." Lady licked her lips. Freddie was a typical dog in the way he enjoyed to catch balls and sticks, loved to roll in the dirt, loyal and protective of people. He could be noisy, and he was easily excited, much like Lady. But he didn't bark like that unless he had a reason to. "Bobby, I'm going to drive and I think I can make it before noon. Do me a favor and keep him in the house."

"Got it," Bobby said shortly, and hung up the phone. She could imagine him checking his nearest weapon, making sure it was loaded before strapping it to his belt. How many times had she seen him lock down his house in practice for the case that someone or something came after him in his own home? Lady hurried to get dressed, anxiety building up. It could be something as simple as a mountain lion, but after everything she had been through the past few months she wasn't so sure. A pagan god and a pagan demigod, a couple of witches and a nest of vampires had her paranoid. She wouldn't stop driving until Bobby called to tell her everything was okay in Sioux Falls, and if he never called she wouldn't stop driving.

Lady had her bag over her shoulder and was looking over the room to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything when her future-sight warned her of someone knocking on the door. By the time the knock was heard with her real ears she already saw if she opened the door a young blond woman would be standing there.

Lady opened the door, "Can I help you?"

"Checking out?" The young blonde woman asked her while looking at the bag over her shoulder.

"Going to run and do some laundry across the street," Lady said, trying to block the view of the inside of the room as the woman tried to look around her. "Is that all?"

"No," she said, smiling at Lady. "Can you tell me where the men you were with went?"

Lady felt her pulse jump, "I'm sorry, do you work for the motel?"

"No, I don't," she said, "I'm Meg, maybe you've heard of me?"

"Can't say I have," Lady said tensely. "Goodnight"

Lady closed the door and even though she knew she didn't have enough time she tried to find her butterfly knife that had settled to the bottom of her bag. The door busted open and Lady moved as far back as she could in the room. Meg walked through the busted door and toward her, Lady was only able to see eye-to-eye with Meg because of her pretty new four-inch heel boots, she looked fearlessly at the woman, "Get out."

Meg smiled sweetly at her, and Lady saw her eyes turn black in the near future. Lady's heart stuttered in her chest, even if she had her knife in her hand the steel wouldn't do much against a demon but piss them off. Lady had never been that close to a demon before, but she had heard enough about them from John and Bobby over the years to know what the black eyes meant.

"What do you want?"

Meg smiled sweetly as she shoved Lady down into the bed and brought out a knife of her own. "Let's chat, just us girls."

"Chat. I can chat, I can talk for hours. Without stopping. What would you like to chat about? Do you like the Cowboys? I'm more of a hockey fan myself but you look like a football person."

Meg smiled and tilted her head, "Let's talk about our dear friends the Winchesters. Where are they?"

"Who?"

Meg struck her hard enough to make her topple off the bed. Lady had seen it coming and rested on her knees for several moments before Meg grabbed her and threw her back on the bed. Lady struggled with her as Meg dug through her pockets. Finally she pulled out Lady's cell phone. She kept her hand around Lady's neck as she looked through text messages and phone numbers. Lady kept herself from laughing, knowing that the information Meg was seeing was mostly from the previous owner of the phone. Unsatisfied with the information Meg stuffed the phone in her pocket and struck Lady again. "The Winchesters. Sam, Dean and John. I know they were with you. I followed their trail right to a nice little ritual spot. And followed that trail all the way here." Meg grabbed Lady's arm and held it up to look at the tattoo. "I didn't know they had their own personal witch on the payroll." Meg looked amused, "You are the reason we haven't been able to track them. You've been cloaking them."

"You'd be surprised how cheap we are to hire," Lady gasped.

Meg smiled at her, "Don't waste my time. I know they have the Colt, I know what they are looking for. I just want to know where they are right now."

"They went to Atlantic City, some gambling and hookers to unwind a bit. Fun old father-son bonding experience, I guess," Lady said.

Meg smiled wider, "You see, I've been spending a lot of time watching Sam and Dean. I know more about their family and history than maybe even them. Out of everyone I thought a lowly little whore of a witch would be quick to roll over on them. Are you willing to die for them? After they set you up to take the fall for them. You had to know that cloaking ritual could be traced right back to you eventually."

"I am sort of a glutton for punishment," Lady admitted. "But you don't hang out with hunters without learning a few tricks to go along with their paranoia."

Lady shifted painfully and threw a handful of salt. Meg leaned back swiftly and let out a violent shriek of pain at contact with the purifying seasoning. Lady barely managed to move before Meg grabbed her and threw her out the window.

Lady had her arms over her head as she crashed through, landing hard on the ground and rolling in the broken shards of glass. She was getting to her feet as Meg angrily stepped out of the motel. "Cute, real cute." Meg growled as she grabbed Lady by the hair and slammed her head into the fender of the Beetle. Her vision blurred and her body went limp as she lost consciousness.

Meg held the knife to Lady's throat as she came to. Lady felt the bed under her and several stinging cuts from the broken glass. "Try it again, itchy-witch, and I'll cut your tongue out. And eat it in front of you."

"Understood," Lady said through clenched teeth.

"Sit up," Meg ordered, and Lady slowly did so. "You are going to help me get the Colt from the surviving Winchesters."

"What do you mean surviving?" Lady asked.

Meg smiled cruelly, "Daddy Winchester is dead." Lady closed her eyes to hot unexpected tears.

Inside Meg's pocket a cell phone rang and a smile spread across her lips, "And there is Dean, calling for help to stay hidden?" Lady glared up at the demon. "Answer it."

Meg turned on the speakerphone and answered the call. "Lady?" Dean said when there was just silence.

Meg pressed the tip of the knife into the hollow of Lady's throat in a warning, "Yeah, I'm here," Lady said.

"I hate to ask...but we need help," Dean said, sounding anxious. "A demon nabbed Dad."

"Is that so? Cute little blonde one, by chance?" Lady asked, tensing as the tip of the knife pressed more firmly at her throat.

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

Lady glared up at Meg, "Lucky guess," Lady said.

"She's there, isn't she?" Dean asked.

"That would be a better guess," Lady said.

"Hello, Dean," Meg said. "Pretty little witch you and your father have been hiding."

"Let her go," Dean barked.

"Your father thought he could pull the wool over our eyes with a fake gun, I want the real one," Meg said. "You want the witch to keep breathing, we trade."

"I don't think so," Lady argued.

"You think I won't kill you?" Meg glared at her.

"I know you will, but I damn near died finding that fucking gun and I'd rather die than see something like you have it. Stay course, Dean, don't..."

"We'll trade, but I pick the location," Dean said.

"Dean, no..." Lady tried.

"Shut up!" Dean shouted. "Lady, remember where we were going to meet when this was over?"

Lady's nostrils flared in fake anger, but she saw the plan behind Dean's words. Bobby's house, secure and an extra body to help. But it might end up with four dead bodies instead of her one. "I remember," she said she said stiffly.

"You think I'll let you lead me into a trap?" Meg said.

"I think you can't find us without her, and if you want any chance of getting near the Colt or us before we find you then you'll get your sulfuric ass in Lady's passenger seat," Dean said. "When can you be there?"

"Noon, I think," Lady said.

"The real Colt, or you'll see what's left of her blood," Meg promised as she hung up the phone. "Nothing funny, sweetheart."

"Funny, me?" Lady said lightly as she leaned away from the tip of the knife. "It's a long drive, I better pee before we go."

Lady had driven under some stressful situations before. There was a high-speed chase in California four years ago that had made the news, driving a snow-plow across a frozen lake in the thawing season, racing to chase down Tammy in Texas after she had tried to kill her from afar, and driving a stolen van full of vampire cattle but none compared to having a black-eyed demon sitting in her passenger seat. "What's your name?" Meg asked as they crossed into South Dakota.

"Lady," she answered. "Just Lady, like Prince just with better dance moves."

"That was a heavy cloaking spell you used, far too advanced for most white witches," Meg said, sounding amused. "Unless you dabble in the black arts?"

"I don't practice demonology," Lady said.

"You should," Meg said. "You know how powerful we can make you?"

"Working with demons always ends one way, the stupid witch gets torn apart with their soul pulled into hell. No thanks," Lady said tensely.

"That's only if you are a stupid witch," Meg said. "You must have some smarts."

"Obviously not, you found me," Lady said. "Do we really have to talk?"

"Makes the time go by faster," Meg said. Lady held the steering wheel tightly as the black eyes fixed on her. "I know the Winchesters are setting up a nasty trap for me, what is it?"

"Even if I knew it wouldn't help me to tell you," Lady said. "I just really hope it doesn't get me killed."

"You aren't going to survive it," Meg promised her. "You want to hear a little secret, itchy-witch? I have a nasty trap ready for them, too." Lady swallowed hard. "A real bad one."

"Yeah? What is it?"

Meg chuckled, "Oh, I think you'll like it. But I don't want to ruin the surprise."

Lady pulled the Beetle into the salvage lot, she didn't see the Impala but she saw the signs that Bobby's house was in lock down. Freddie was off his chain, inside waiting for ambush she hoped. "Are they here?" Meg asked.

"Let's find out," Lady said, grabbing the door handle to get out.

Meg grabbed her other arm in an iron grip, "I'd prefer if you came out this way," and yanked her across the seat to exit out the passenger seat, dragging her in the gravel a few yards before lifting her back to her feet. Meg wrapped a hand around her throat, "You know how easily I can break that pretty neck of yours?"

"I have an idea," Lady breathed.


	14. Bobby's House, July and Aug 2006

**July 30th, Sioux Falls, South Dakota**

Dean looked anxiously at Bobby Singer as he walked up to his house. They only had a few hours until Lady and Meg were supposed to be there to meet them, that didn't mean that they wouldn't get there earlier. "Hey," Dean said as his brother got out of the car and walked up to stand by his side.

"Damn, look at you, Sam. You know you are supposed to stop growing at some point," Bobby said, unable to hide how happy he was to see them, even with the current circumstances.

Sam smiled, "Good to see you again, Bobby. We want to thank you for.."

Bobby shook his head, "No thanks needed. Come inside, tell me what you can about this demon."

"Powerful that she was able to kill Pastor Jim in his church. Good enough that she got one over on Caleb," Dean said.

"We can handle that," Bobby said. "How sure are you the demon will keep Lady alive?"

"Not very," Dean admitted, waiting for Bobby's face to change to anger or concern. "Lady is the only way she can find us right now, once they are here all bets are off."

Bobby had a bit of an anxious look as he led the brothers into his large living room. The bookcases spread into the connected dining room and there were two desks piled high with books. He went to a cupboard and brought a few things down. Freddie was sitting in the corner whimpering sadly, his head under his paws. Bobby sighed, "I had a feeling she was doing something for John. Never got a chance to hear exactly what, though." Dean gave Bobby the short version of what happened while Lady was in Colorado. Bobby's eyes grew wide at hearing about the vampires and then he chuckled. "Surviving vampires, damn kid has more lives than a cat."

"She managed to annoy Elkins into setting up a mail-drop for our dad," Dean said. "We've seen her handle a few nasty things the past couple of months, how well do you think she can handle a demon?"

Bobby frowned and shook his head, "Lady isn't above fighting dirty. Hell, it's really the only way she knows how to. She knows some basics but if she got caught there isn't much she can do against a demon. Only thing we need to do is get the demon into this room, right under here." Sam and Dean looked at the high ceiling and the complex pentacle painted on the ceiling. "That right there is the Key of Solomon. Get a demon in there and they can't get out, they are powerless. Come on over and check out this book, you two will find this useful."

They quietly worked over a plan until they heard a car pull up into the lot. Freddie got to his feet and for the first time since last night went quiet. "Stay," Bobby ordered the dog. "Be ready for..."

The door kicked in, Meg had an arm wrapped around Lady with her hand around her throat. "This is the big plan? Increase your numbers?" She glared at Bobby briefly before turning her gaze to Dean who was unscrewing a flask of holy water. "No more crap, okay?" Meg waved her free hand Dean went flying into a stack of books. Meg turned her black eyes to Sam, "Where's the Colt?"

"Let Lady go," Sam said as he stood in front of Bobby and began to walk in a wide circle around Meg into a corner.

"The Colt, or I'll break her pretty neck," Meg snarled.

"We don't have it on us, we buried it," Sam said. "Let her go and we'll take you to it."

"Didn't I say no more crap?" Meg asked as she took a step towards them. "I guess I wasn't clear. No. More. Crap." Lady began struggling for the first time and Meg put a hand over her mouth. Lady began coughing and choking, falling to her hands and knees.

"Lady!" Bobby tried to step around Sam but he held him back.

Meg left Lady gagging on black smoke on the ground and glared at Sam. "I have to say, after everything I heard about you Winchesters I'm a little under whelmed. Johnny tries to pawn of a fake gun and leaves the real thing with you two chuckle-heads, and you have a witch who can't even cover her own tracks after performing a ritual. Did you really think..."

Without a sound Freddie jumped over Lady on the floor and knocked Meg onto the ground under the Devil's Trap on the ceiling, pinning her down and snarling, waiting for a command that it was okay to rip the stinking woman's throat out.

Lady, still coughing and choking, grabbed Freddie by the collar and pulled him to her, holding him tightly.

Meg got to her feet quickly and glared at the dog that was whimpering softly next to Lady as she continued to gag. "What the hell is that?"

"That's a damn good dog," Lady said, coughing at the sulfuric black smoke that was a demon Meg had tried to put in her.

Dean walked into the room. "You think that cheap shot will save you?" Meg snarled at him. She took a step towards Dean and found herself blocked. Dean looked up at the ceiling, and Meg followed his eyes. "Fuck," Meg growled.

"Lady, are you okay?" Bobby asked.

"Bitch threw me out of a window," she said. "I don't feel so good." Lady jerked in surprise at the cold splash of water across her back, and looked up at Bobby who was holding a silver flask. "Was that necessary?"

"Yeah," Bobby said, offering her a hand. Lady groaned as she took it and he pulled her to her feet. "C'mon, let's get the windows and doors salted."

Lady patted Freddie's head as his tail began to wag, "Watch the blonde, buddy," she said as she followed Bobby.

By the time the house was protected from any more demons entering the brothers already had Meg tied up to a chair under the trap.

"If there are anymore out there they ain't getting in," Bobby said.

"Are you okay, Lady?" Sam asked as Lady sunk to the floor next to Freddie.

Lady began to take her bracelet off of Freddie's collar, "That thing tried to go down my throat," Lady said. "I can still taste sulfur."

"How did you keep from being possessed?" Bobby asked her. "She shoved it right into you."

"I dunno," she shrugged. "Oh, wait, I think I do." She opened her mouth and lifted her tongue to show a pentagram tattooed there. She shrugged at the surprised face Bobby made, "It helps ward off curses."

"And demons," he muttered.

"I guess I underestimated your whore of a witch," Meg said. "Though I am surprised you'd be using someone smothered in black magic. And wielding a black dog. Aren't you guys supposed to kill things like her?"

"You don't know anything about her," Dean said, looking at Meg smugly.

Meg smiled at him, "Neither do you."

Lady got to her feet while Dean finished tying Meg to a chair, "I've been saying you needed new furniture for a while but I think this is something for the junk pile."

"We know about you now, itchy-witch, and we'll find and tear that arrogant tongue right out of your pretty mouth," Meg said.

"Kinky," Lady said. "Gag the new armchair, I'm going to make a sandwich."

Lady settled into a kitchen chair with her head on the table and felt her limbs begin to tremble. She listened to Dean shouting at the demon, demanding to know where his father was but the demon kept declaring John dead. It went on for a long time until they all came into the kitchen.

"We excised the demon on the plane," Dean was saying.

"If we do that we'll lose any chance we have at finding Dad," Sam said quietly. "Lady, you were stuck with her a long time, did she say anything about him?"

Lady sat up and looked at Sam sadly, "Just that John was dead, and some creative ideas she had for killing me and you and your brother."

The men talked quietly about different methods before the brothers went back to the living room. Bobby put a hand on Lady's back, "Kid, you don't look so good."

"I don't feel the best," Lady admitted, resting her head back on the table. It was a mix of physical exhaustion, blood loss, hunger, stinging pain, nausea and grief. "Are you okay with this?"

"I'll be okay with it once it's over," he said. They both went quiet as the demon in the other room begin to howl. "Hang in there, kid."

Between the demon howling Lady heard Sam speaking Latin, an exorcism. There was a horrible scream and then a surge of activity.

"Lady, grab some water," Bobby ordered as he ran to a closet with a phone pressed to his ear, Lady was already at the sink. When he ran back he took the glass from her and she followed him into the living room. Meg had blood leaking from her mouth and nose, choking on it, and was talking quietly. The smell of sulfur was fading in the room, the demon was gone.

"You should get out of here before the paramedic's come," Bobby said to them.

"What are you going to tell them?" Dean asked.

"You think you guys invented lying to the cops? I'll think of something," Bobby answered. "When you find your daddy bring him by. I won't even threaten to shoot him this time."

Dean cracked a relieved smile, "Thanks, Bobby." Dean turned to Lady, "I'm sorry."

"Sorry? You saved my ass. Again," Lady said, not meeting his eyes. "Good thinking bringing her here. You guys better run, sirens aren't far."

"You sticking around?" Bobby asked her as the brothers went out the back door.

"I'm going into the basement," she said. She knew she was a mess and she'd cause more problems when the cops showed up.

Lady leaned against Freddie in the basement, listening to the sounds of paramedics and police upstairs for nearly two hours before her cell phone she had retrieved from Meg's body threatened to ring. She switched it to vibrate before it could and answered it when the call finally came through. "Yeah?" She asked quietly.

"Everything okay there?" Dean asked, she could hear the engine of his car running loud in the background.

"Cops are still here. I'm hanging out in the basement until they are gone," she answered softly.

"I need to know if that ritual is going to hold up. How long does it last?" Dean asked.

"More than a few days so you are still cloaked," Lady answered. "But it only works by blocking magical searches, you get close enough for one to see you and they'll still see you."

"And our dad, he'll still be protected by it?"

"They have to track you the old fashioned way if they want to find you," Lady said. "No ritual is without it's loopholes but this one is pretty beautiful in its simplicity. Power is all in the blood and the ritual site combined with the new moon. Any time they try to search for you they'll hit the ritual spot. Even if they have a piece of your hair or blood to focus it the cursed blood leads them in the wrong direction. It isn't permanent but you have a few moon cycles. Get John away from the demons, make sure they don't follow you the traditional way and they'll be back to chasing their tails in Colorado."

"But Meg found you easily enough."

"Yeah, well finding the Ladybug is easier than tracking your dinosaur."

"Hey!" Dean snapped, and let out a short laugh that made her smile. "Yeah, I bet that car of yours led Meg right to you."

"Unfortunately, but that car also drove her right into your lap. We can have a pissing match about this when you aren't driving a hundred miles an hour and I don't have half a dozen cops walking over my head."

"Or we can just skip that and declare me the winner," Dean said.

"You think I'm letting you off the hook that easily?" Lady teased quietly.

"I saved your ass and you even admitted it, I think you should let me have this one," Dean said.

Lady couldn't help the grin stretching across her face, wondering if it was possible that all trust hadn't been completely destroyed. Dean seemed to be in a good mood, all things considered. "I'm not giving you anything for free, Dean," Lady said with a quiet chuckle. "You get back here and we can bicker, tease and compare scars."

"And tattoos, how many more do you have hidden? I thought you said I found them all."

"I have to keep some secrets to myself," Lady said, her amused smile fading. "About me helping John…"

"No, I get it," he said, his voice suddenly serious. "Following orders, believe me, I get it. And, uh…you never told him what I told you about Sam?"

"No," she said. "Because you didn't want anyone to know."

"Yeah, well, he found out and he was pissed to all hell, just like I knew he'd be," Dean said quietly.

"When you get him back bring him by so he can chew me out, okay?" she said.

"I plan on it, I don't want to take all that on myself," Dean chuckled.

"Isn't this where you usually say you need to focus on the job and leave me anxiously waiting if I'll ever see you alive again?"

Dean was quiet for a moment before saying, "I suppose it is. But you will be seeing me again, after this we still have a coven to kill."

"Watch out for yourself, Dean," she said quietly.

"You too, Lady."

Lady leaned against Freddie, she felt anxious. Maybe John was alive, but demons didn't keep hostages for long. The brothers knew they were heading into a trap, but they weren't half bad at setting traps themselves.

Lady climbed the steps when Bobby signaled her everything was clear. She stretched out on the couch and Freddie stretched out on the floor next to her. "You okay, kid?" Bobby asked as he took in her pale lips and cuts.

"I spent my time in the basement picking glass out of my ass," she said as her eyes drooped. "I'm just worried about them."

"Yeah, sounds like John finally got in over his head," Bobby said sadly. "I hope he's okay. I know him and I have our issues but...he was a good friend for a long time."

"Whatever happened between you two?" Lady asked he threw blankets over her.

Bobby sat in a chair, the first time he'd had a chance to rest since Freddie started barking up a storm in the middle of the night. "It was something that had built up over the years, really. For the longest time I just dealt with it, but after this one hunt..." Bobby looked as Lady let out a light snort. "Lady?" She didn't stir. He shook his head and got out of his chair. There was blood to clean up, shelves to repair and books to rearrange after the demon attack. He'd let Lady get her rest but there would be none for him for a while.

Lady slept unusually well as Bobby kept busy during the day. The phone rang frequently, hunters across the country were reporting demonic activity and were checking in with Bobby as a source and reporting in so he could gather data at the same time.

When Lady woke up in the evening her whole body was stiff. She felt weaker than she had after the ritual and the absence of adrenaline made her drag her feet to the kitchen so she could satisfy her growling stomach. "What's going on?" she asked as Bobby hung up the phone.

"John and the boys really stirred up the hornets nest. It's damn anarchy out there," he grumbled.

"Did you call and let them know?" Lady asked.

"Yeah, Dean called a few times to check in. I've been keeping him updated," Bobby answered. The phone rang again, "No metal in the microwave," he said urgently as he went to grab the phone.

"Got it," she said, grabbing a pair of hot pockets out of the freezer. As they heated up in the microwave she grabbed a bottle of ranch out of the fridge and poured a tall glass of milk. Her stomach didn't feel very strong but she needed to get something in there if she wanted to be able to stay upright. What the Winchester's were doing had come back to bite her once, and if they failed in their newest assault it could very well come back again. While there was no where safer to go up against a demon than in Bobby's house she needed to get some strength back and be ready.

The next morning Dean let Bobby know they found where their father was being held, if they didn't hear from them after a day Bobby was supposed to go down there. Lady tried her best to help take some of Bobby's workload by walking customers around the salvage yard and assuring them that while Freddie could swallow a baby whole he would never do so. Babies just didn't taste good without barbeque sauce.

The next morning Lady was trying to keep from scratching at her several healing cuts when Bobby got a call that made her go still as he talked. "You guys okay, Sam?" Bobby's face scrunched up as he listened. "Yeah, of course. Jesus. I'll leave right now and call you when I'm close. Just take care of them."

Lady was walking to the kitchen as Bobby moved to grab his keys. "Everyone okay?"

Bobby shook his head, "No, they aren't. Not dead, but in rough shape. I need to get down there and help them retrieve their car before someone finds what they've been carrying in the trunk. Uh...you'll be fine here, just don't leave and..."

"Don't answer the phone unless it's your number on the caller ID, I'm not allowed to use the stove and don't put metal in the microwave. I remember the drill, Bobby. Did you want to take Freddie?"

Bobby's eyes widened in surprise, but he quickly shook his head. "No, you need him more than I do."

"I may be moving a bit slow but I can still see a demon a few seconds before you can," Lady said.

"And you lose any more blood so soon and I won't have a choice but to take you to the hospital. I'll be back in a day, two tops."

When Bobby returned the next day from Missouri he had Dean's Impala on a flatbed. It was completely mangled. Bobby took his time unloading it into the lot and then began the long task of emptying out what was in the false-bottom trunk and putting it somewhere safe in his home.

Bobby had barely finished and was sitting down for a beer and a chance to listen to the messages that had added up in his absence when the phone rang. Lady wrapped her arms around Freddie's neck and rested her head on top of his before Bobby hung up and turned to tell her, "John's dead."

Bobby switched to hard liquor, a look of disbelief on his face.

Lady scratched behind Freddie's ear, her chest felt heavy as she tried to breathe. As a kid John had been a real hero, someone she admired even when she butted heads with him. That he was dead felt like a bad joke. "That sucks," Lady said quietly.

Lady wasn't sure what time she finally fell asleep, she sat in the kitchen watching Bobby get drunk and listen to his old stories of John and his young sons. She had helped him to the couch when he needed to pass out and had cleaned up the kitchen a bit before going to the cot in a back room. For a long time she didn't sleep, didn't even feel tired. She just looked at the ceiling while rubbing Freddie's back. For long stretches of time death held no fear over her because she had obsessed over it to the point where she became insensitive to it. The past several months since John had showed up to ask for help had been an exciting adventure of escaping dangers and riding adrenaline before finally dealing with the pain it left over. The adventure was over. The consequence of it was John's death, the man so stubborn she thought he couldn't die. So brave that she was sure he would laugh right in the face of death. John had died. A large and strong man who had more to live for than she did. He lived to save lives, a good purpose. And he had lost his life.

As much as she wanted to grieve John, it felt like he deserved to be grieved, she was done grieving before she fell asleep. Her own life was passing by very quickly, and she didn't have the time to spare crying over the man. She was going to die soon enough, she needed to get things back on track if she wanted to stop that, or at least end it on terms that she found acceptable.

She woke up when Freddie began barking. It wasn't an urgent sound, more like he wanted to get someone's attention. He wasn't by her side when she woke up, and she figured he needed to go outside to relieve himself. Before she sat up she heard the front door opening and Bobby's muffled voice.

She was at the door when she heard Bobby, "Hey, fellas. Make yourself at home, help yourselves to a beer if you want."

Lady stayed in the hallway to hear Sam reply, "Yeah, thanks. Listen, Bobby, we really..."

"Where's my car?" Dean interrupted.

"I put it in the back, but it..." Bobby said but was cut off, and the back door opened and closed. "He gonna be okay?"

Lady stepped out of the hallway in time to see Sam shaking his head. Sam had a swollen bruise over his right eye and several cuts on his face. He looked at her, "Hey, Lady. You're looking better."

"You look like hell," she said. "I'm real sorry, Sam. I'm so sorry."

Sam clenched his jaw and his eyes began to moisten. He took a few long steps toward her and gave her a hug before tears could fall, "Thanks."

Lady sat with Sam and Bobby as Sam went over what happened. "We found Dad tied up in an apartment building, held by a couple of demons. We got him out of there and ran, as fast as we could, to a remote spot. But, uh, the yellow-eyed demon was possessing Dad. We didn't know, and when Dean figured it out we were trapped with it. He nearly killed Dean right there. I, uh...I shot him in the leg with the Colt and the demon got out of Dad. We were on our way to the hospital, Dean was in real bad shape, when a demon possessing a truck driver ran into us with a semi. All of us got banged up, but Dean got hit real hard and was already in bad shape from the demon. The hospital got Dad fixed up just fine, but Dean was in a coma. They said he might not wake up, and..." Sam shook his head. "Dean wasn't going to make it. I'm pretty sure while he was in the coma his spirit had left his body and was trying to communicate with me that he was running from a Reaper. But then Dean just woke up, doctors said it was a miracle. No internal injuries, no brain damage, good health. And then Dad just fell over. Dead."

They were quiet as Dean came in from the back door. They all looked at him as he walked into the kitchen. He barely glanced at them as he grabbed a bottle of beer from the fridge and popped the top off. "I had my tools in the trunk of my car. Where'd they go?" Dean asked without looking at any of them.

"I'll show ya," Bobby said. "I'm moved everything to a safe place."

Sam looked down at his hands, "I don't know if Dean can survive losing Dad. After everything we've been through...he's barely talked, I haven't seen him eat. The only thing he does is glare and drink." Lady's eyes were wide, surprised Sam was laying this on her. "He's worshiped Dad his whole life, did everything for him. All those years Dean was the one that kept us together, and now he's the one unraveling."

"He'll be okay," Lady said, receiving a doubtful look from Sam. "Eventually. He has you."

Sam rolled his eyes, "Yeah, well, a lot has happened the past few days." Sam rubbed his eyes, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to dump this on you. I mean, you've done quite a bit for us already. More than Dad should have asked of you. You shouldn't have been pulled into this."

"I don't disagree with you there, but I do what I can, Sam."

"Help yourself to whatever you find in the lot," Bobby was saying as he helped Dean carry out a few things. "Let me know if you have trouble finding anything."

"Yeah, thanks," Dean said, tossing the empty beer bottle in the garbage and taking the box from Bobby's hand before walking back out. Bobby shook his head, "You were right, Sam, he really is going to fix up that car."

Sam nodded, "Dean would sell his soul before he let the Impala go." A strange look came over Sam's face and he looked back down at his hands. "Think I'll go get cleaned up."

Two cots were moved into Bobby's living room and Freddie was chained up outside during the night to help make room in the crowded house. The first couple of days were strange. Bobby was getting reacquainted with the brothers after a long time of not seeing them and they were still working on handling their father's death. Lady worked on spending time outside of the house with Freddie, enjoying the summer heat while it lasted while making mental plans and preparations, deciding what she wanted to do over the next few months. She'd need to go back to North Dakota soon. For the moment she was free to finish healing and stick around Sioux Falls to make sure the demon didn't try to finish off her and the Winchesters. It would be the last favor she did for John, make sure his kids weren't ambushed while they were down. Well, at least if they were they had her and Freddie to back them up.

Freddie let her wrestle the ball out of his mouth and got ready for it to be launched again. Her arms were tired so she kicked it. They'd been at the game for nearly two hours.

"He ever get tired?" Sam asked.

"Never gets tired of this," Lady said. "Dean's already gotten pretty far on the car. Not that I know much, but I hope whatever he is doing is progress. Otherwise that is one jigsaw puzzle that will never be put back together."

"Well, Dean knows cars," Sam muttered as he leaned against a junked car next to Lady. Lady pushed herself off of it as the fragile piece of junk fell off its last wheel with Sam's weight.

Lady couldn't help but laugh as Sam jumped away. He let out a breath, it had startled him. "Thanks for the warning," he said, managing to laugh as he leaned against the car again.

Lady did the same, "You learn that there are just some things that are better left alone. If I pay too much attention to what I see, well, we'd have a conversation where you never speak."

"What's it like?" Sam asked. "For you?"

"It's almost like...well, things I hear it is almost like a skipping CD. First I hear it in my head, and it sounds different. A bit amplified and muffled, like coming through bad speakers. Then I hear it repeated over as it actually happens. And they just mix over each other like a rendition of 'Row Row your Boat' or whatever."

"How can you stand it?" Sam asked.

"A lot of practice. Either I had to deal with it and learn to act normal, or put a bullet in my head. So I learned how to deal with it."

Lady grinned before Sam said, "Still working on the acting normal part?"

"I'd say 'bite me' but I still have some vampire marks I want to get rid of before I start daring people to try again," Lady chuckled. "What it comes down to is I know what you are going to say before you say it, I know what you are going to do before you do it, and most of the time I just let it happen. It pisses people off when you interrupt them, even when they know I heard them say everything."

"But it's..."

"It's just things that if I was going to see or hear it anyways that I see," Lady interrupted.

Sam chuckled, "That is annoying."

"If I knew this was how things would have turned out, I would have done something. Warned you, gone with to help, anything. But what I see really only benefits me. Occasionally I get real visions but they are few and far between."

Sam took the ball that Freddie had been impatiently waiting for someone to throw for him and threw it across the lot. "I get premonitions sometimes," Sam said.

Lady nodded, "Yeah, I know. Dean talked to me about it, that time we met in Texas."

"I had a feeling that was what he wanted to see you for," Sam muttered. "They hurt, like a bad migraine. They used to just be dreams that came true, but now I know it is because of this demon. This other guy my age, his mother died the same way, and he was telekinetic. The yellow-eyed demon said he had plans for me and others like me. I just...I need to find this thing. I need to know why. It feels like everything..."

"Don't try and blame yourself for a sadistic demon," Lady said. "Holding guilt over your head like that will pull you somewhere dark, you won't like it."

"All Dean wants to do is work on his car, we need to be looking for it," Sam said. "It's all I can think about. That and how Dad died."

Lady pulled herself to sit on the trunk of the car they had been leaning on, letting Sam throw the ball for Freddie again. "Let me guess, Dean puts up a wall the moment you try to talk to him and it's a bit awkward for you to lay this on Bobby after all these years?" Sam nodded. "I know as much about demons as I do about psychology, but I have ears if you need to run your mouth."

Sam shook his head, "I get why Dean likes you. You are just like him, you know?"

Lady arched an eyebrow, "No I'm not. He looks a lot better in a thong than I do."

Sam made a face, "That's what I mean. Always quick to crack a joke."

"My life is short, I take what laughs I can," she said. "So up to you, you need a set of ears, someone to bounce ideas off of, or just want me to fill your head with naughty images of your brother?"

"The one I just got will be my nightmare tonight, so thanks," Sam said, but the humor was fading quickly from his face. "Dad had the Colt before he died, and when he died it was gone. He was banged up but he was fine. And then Dean had a miraculous recovery. I should have recognized it immediately, but it wasn't until the day we got here that it sort of clicked. I think he sold his soul to save Dean."

Lady was quiet as she watched Freddie tumble in the dirt before grabbing the ball in his jaws and ran back towards them. "He wanted, more than anything, to protect the two of you from this demon."

"All he ever wanted was to kill the thing that killed our mother," Sam said. "That was all he ever wanted. I mean, how could he just do that to us? If that's what he did. Make a deal and leave us alone and without the Colt?"

Lady looked sadly at Freddie as Sam reached for the ball. "How do you choose between saving someone you love, and getting revenge for someone you loved that already died years ago?" Sam looked at her with wide eyes. "Way it sounds, and I'm not trying to be cruel because either way it would have gone down would have been tragic, is that either your brother or your father was going to die. I know I don't have a family unit of my own so maybe I can't empathize with you properly, but either way you lose big."

Sam looked almost angry as he watched Freddie run at them for another throw. "I don't even know. I don't know if Dad really did just have an aneurysm and fall over while the Colt is hidden somewhere, or if he's...if he's some demon play toy."

Lady hopped off the car to get ready for Freddie when he returned, "If he is that was his choice. Hard choice to make, not sure if you could say it was the right one. I'm really sorry, Sam. So sorry."

He nodded and rubbed at his eyes, "Yeah. Uh, I think I'll go in for a bit."

It became a daily thing, talking with Sam. They'd walk around Bobby's lot or even take the few mile hike into town, Freddie always in tow. She learned a lot about him and his brother, just by listening. She heard old stories, some from when he was just a kid and more recent ones. She learned about the love-hate relationship he had with his father, and how he wished more than anything he had a second chance.

Often Sam asked her questions. Not prying, just trying to get the conversation a new direction and a chance for him to listen instead.

"You ever find anything with that book?"

"Yes and no," she said. "That thing scares the crap out of me."

"I can imagine," Sam muttered.

"I really only managed to decipher a few black rituals. Nothing that resembles what I remember from being cursed."

"What do you remember about the ritual?"

Lady let out a short laugh, "You don't want to know, Sam. You'd get that look on your face and apologize and yada yada. It was a long time ago."

"I don't buy that you are just okay with it," Sam said.

"I'm not okay with it. But I've made my peace with it."

"Uh huh," he said, sounding doubtful.

"You asked for it, buddy," she muttered. "There were mutilated parts. I couldn't recognize them then, I'd probably have better luck now. Not sure if they were human or animal, for the most part. They cut off all my hair. Tied me down. Not just wrists and ankles. Completely secure, the only thing I could move were my eyes, but I couldn't blink. My eyelids were held open by needles. They started out by..." she stopped talking when Sam stopped walking. "And there is the look."

"I...I'm so sorry that happened to you," he said, looking horrified.

Lady smiled to show she was okay, "Being rescued from that place...only thing I felt afterward was relief. Also the reason I'd do just about anything for John and Bobby."

"Bobby was there?"

"Bobby kept me alive while John drove me to the hospital."

They walked in silence for a long time before Sam asked, "I'm surprised we never met before. I mean we used to spend a ton of time up here with Bobby."

"Well, not long after I started working with Bobby was when he stopped talking to John. I kept in touch with John a bit, handing him leads or asking for my own. But eventually listening to them bitch about each other while making sure they were both doing okay pissed me off until I just went out on my own." Before he could ask she answered, "About five years, now. I mean, well, if you want to get technical I've been on my own a lot longer than that. But never really on my own, either. Bobby was always there for me to fall back on, and I found Freddie and met Mason. And yeah, you and your brother. For the first time in a long time I might have a chance. Not a lot of time, but a chance."

"Do you know when?"

She shook her head, "Not really. I have to say with how often I've escaped death the past few months that my quota is about up, it's really hard to complain when I'm still alive after everything."

"Yeah, I suppose. I wish I had your optimism about the whole thing," Sam muttered.

"I've had a lot of time to dwell on it," she said as they neared the Impala. "I've learned to enjoy what time I'm given. I don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things." Dean slid out from under the Impala, the hot August sun and the hard work of taking apart the car for its repairs had him drenched in sweat. His t-shirt clung to his firm torso in a very appealing way, even if the bitter anger dampened his handsome face. "Although there are exceptions," she muttered.

"What?" Dean asked as Sam made a noise and had to look away.

"Want to join us for a card game?" Sam offered his brother. "Get out of the heat for a bit?"

"No," Dean said, reaching for a tool and sliding back under the car. Freddie was curious and stuck his nose under the car. "Hey! Get out of here! Lady! Get him away!"

"Freddie," Lady called lazily.

Freddie backed out from under the car and, whether he was just being friendly or trying to get back at Dean for yelling at him, jabbed his nose at Dean's exposed crotch. "Hey! God damn it!" Dean shoved Freddie away and slid back out.

"He's just being friendly," Lady said.

"Too friendly," Dean barked at her. "Keep the damn dog away."

"C'mon, Freddie," Lady said, and he obediently followed.

This was another thing that had become normal, Bobby would even join them to make the games more interesting. They played several types of poker, rummy, even old maid however that was too easy for Lady to cheat at.

Less than a week after the brothers arrived they left the safety of Bobby's home. How safe it was hadn't really been tested beyond Meg, and Lady wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. She was still weak but not nearly as bad as a week prior. The vampire bites were barely dots and her little nicks and cuts from going through a window were tough scabs that were healing well.

"You leaving, too?" Bobby asked as he watched her picking through her clothes and packing them.

"I at least need to head up north and collect a few things," she said, finding a blood stain on a shirt and throwing it in a separate pile to be trashed. She looked at Bobby. "What's wrong?"

"I, uh, guess I just expected you to stay. I wanted to head to Minnesota and check out something going on over there. Was hoping you'd stay around until I got back to answer the phone. Keep an eye on the place?"

"I can stick around until the guys get back," she said. "I'm not in a hurry."

He gave her a doubtful look, "That'd be a first. Normally you can't wait to get the hell away from here."

"That's not true. I just normally don't get to stop here unless I'm passing through."

"Sure," he nodded. "I can have the calls forwarded to my cell, don't worry about it."

"I'll stay," she said. "Answer the phone, watch out for demons. It'll be fun."

It was strange having Bobby's house to herself. The phone didn't ring much, it seemed that the demon activity was on the decline and things were under control. A few calls for wreck pick-ups that she left in a book for Bobby when he returned, other than that she watched television with Freddie and ate hot pockets.

Dean called two days later. "Where's Bobby?"

"Minnesota," she answered. She was going to ask if they were alright but saw the answer would be a shouted 'yes' from Dean.

"The, uh...the van he loaned us died, we had to ditch it. We're in Wisconsin dealing with a killer invisible clown and needed some help on it...What, Sam?" Dean barked away from the phone. Lady waited patiently as they talked. "Fine, we know what we're dealing with."

"You guys need me to come pick you up?" Lady offered.

"No, hell no," Dean said. "We'll find something."

"Rude," Lady muttered after he hung up on her, laying back down on the couch and turning up the volume on the television.

Two days later they returned in a car Lady was pretty sure was stolen, immediately hiding it in the back of the salvage lot and beating it until it resembled the several other cars in the lot. Sam was unusually quiet, and Dean was the type of angry quiet that made even Freddie unwilling to go up to him. Sam went to bed in one of the cots and Dean crashed on the couch not long afterward.

"Hey, Mace," Lady said softly in the room she'd been using to sleep in.

"Lady," he said pleasantly.

"I'm heading out tonight, should be there by morning."

"That is good, I was worried you'd miss the full moon."

"Just waiting until the last minute, I guess," Lady said. "Is the ritual going to happen?"

"Max hasn't said it won't, won't confirm it will," Mason answered.

"Figures," Lady breathed. It didn't matter if it did or not, she had things that needed taken care of up north. Even if Max cheated her out of a ritual.

Lady shouldered her bag as she quietly walked out. Dean was asleep on the couch with the television on, some infomercial on hair-removal. Silently she opened the back door and walked down the lot to the Beetle. Bobby had moved it in the back to avoid customers or police from examining it. The Ladybug had been involved in more hit and runs than it had dents and scratches for, it was made of sturdy metal that most newer cars couldn't stand up against.

She stopped before reaching for the keys that were supposed to be above the visor, knowing they wouldn't be there. Her almost-movement to look under the seat and in the ignition was stalled when she discovered they weren't there, either.

Then she looked through her window to see Dean walking out of the house with a bag over his shoulder.

Lady was quiet while he opened the door and didn't move when he said, "I'll drive."

"I'm afraid the car is full," she said, nodding toward Freddie who was sitting shotgun, his head already out the open window.

Dean held up the keys and smiled smugly, "He can ride in back. He's a dog."

"I could say the same about you," Lady countered. She saw her chances at snatching the keys from his hand, there was no chance. He was expecting it, waiting for it even. "You can't come with me, Dean."

"Can, and am," he said. "So slide your tiny ass over, or I'll do it for you."

"I'm not going on any hunt," she said.

"You are up to something," he said.

Lady thought about her choices. She could go back inside and leave in the morning, getting the keys from Dean would be difficult. He wasn't stupid, and he was paranoid enough to duct tape them to his body to keep her from getting them. She smiled a bit, he could come along. He'd never get past Mason. "Fine," she said, getting out of the car and ordering Freddie into the backseat.

"Where are we going?" Dean asked as he started the car.

"New Town, North Dakota," she answered. "I know the way, I'll make sure we don't get lost. Just watch for deer."

Lady watched quietly out the window. The air conditioning did not work in the Beetle so both windows were down for the cool breeze.

Lady was ready to gain a bit of heat from Mason when she showed up with Dean, but it wasn't that big of an issue. Dean could travel the countryside of the reservation all he wanted, he'd get lost and never find her.

"So, you going to your secret hiding spot for the witch's black cookbook?" Dean guessed.

"I'll probably do that while I'm there," she answered.

"Good, I want to take another look at it," he said. "Our copy spontaneously burst into flames."

Lady frowned a bit, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"We called to tell you, you never answered," Dean said. "You were already in Colorado then."

Lady pressed her lips together, "That's bad."

"You think?" Dean asked. "Just lucky it happened in a motel instead of in my car. How sure are you that the original didn't blow up?"

Lady thought about it. "The leather it is bound in protects it from being destroyed by magic. Sorry, I didn't expect photo-copies to be able to hold onto magic. I should have checked it."

"What's this ritual you want to do on the full moon?"

Lady frowned, she hadn't expected his hearing to be that good. "Something to help keep the curse in my blood in check," she answered, and Dean fell silent. "You think I'm secretly a black witch."

"No," he said tensely. "No, I don't. It's a damn good thing I don't, too."

"I never was," she said. "You remember when I told you that they like to sacrifice other witches, for more power? It doesn't necessarily have to be a strong or powerful witch." Lady reached back to scratch Freddie's back. "I was a dumb teenager, the witch, Ananda…" Lady grimaced as she remembered the woman. "She played nice, said she was my friend and I believed her. Taught me a few things, nothing even that dark, before she decided to prep me as a sacrifice."

"Dumb teenager," Dean agreed.

"I was just so sick of being on my own," Lady muttered. "Tired of having to take care of myself. She showed up and, I hate to admit it, but for a few months I loved it. I didn't have to worry about where I was going to sleep or watching out for cops, it was almost like having a mother." Lady swallowed hard and looked out her window as she held back tears. "You know, the type that feeds you candy for breakfast and then by lunch ties you down to perform a few rituals on you." Lady let out a breath as she put a lockdown on her emotions. "If you apologize I'll grab the wheel and drive us into a ditch. I screwed up back then, I'm more pissed than anything else about the whole thing."

"I get it," he said. "Why leave in the middle of the night?" Dean asked after a long stretch of silence.

"Why not?"

"Okay, why leave without telling someone?"

"I wasn't aware I had to notify anyone of my movements. Guess I missed the memo," she said smartly.

Dean waited a long time before saying, "You know what, stop it. You are so damn shady when it comes to anything about this coven as much as I try to believe you are on the right side it's hard."

"I'm sorry but there is a lot I just cannot tell you. I do you a favor of not digging into your personal business, it'd be polite if you did the same."

"Polite?" Dean snorted. "And don't pretend you aren't digging into my personal business. You've been in mine and my family's business all year."

"I did what John asked me to do. He never told me more than what he thought I needed to know. You seem like you prefer to handle things on your own, I'm the same way. I told you and Sam in Florida when I needed help I'd call. Until then you have your own things to deal with."

"Yup. And this is one of those things," Dean answered.

Lady frowned and turned up the radio. She'd told Dean and Sam more than she told Mason and his family, they knew almost as much as Bobby and John did, but she was sworn to secrecy about the medicine woman she was going to see for help. It wouldn't be easy to shake Dean, and she could only imagine the hell she'd have to pay when she called Mason to hold him back.


	15. North Dakota, August 2006

**A/N** - _I sort of have a soundtrack for this story and if anyone has suggestions I'd love to hear them. This chapter's songs are:_

_Cotton Eye Joe - By Rednex_

_Run Run Away - By Slade  
_

**August 9th,2006. New Town, North Dakota**

They got into town around eleven in the morning and she directed Dean to the casino on the edge of town. There was a hotel attached to it but a sign declared no vacancies. "Come on," she said.

The air conditioning of the hotel lobby hit them hard after the mid-morning heat. Lady walked right up to the counter, "Page Roy Mason."

"Yes, ma'am," the young man said.

Dean snickered, "Ma'am."

"I just spent over ten hours in a car with you, how fast can you block a sucker punch?" Lady threatened mildly.

After a few minutes Mason appeared in the lobby. If the man didn't stand out no matter what he wore Dean may have had trouble recognizing him. He was in a nice business suit, better than the cheap ones he and Sam had when impersonating officials. "Lady, you look like you got thrown out a window."

"Funny story, I did," she said happily.

Mason glared at Dean, "Is that why he is here?"

"No, play nice," she said with a smirk. "Think you can set us up with a room?"

"Max is waiting for you," Mason said.

"We had a long drive. A shower and a nap sound good right now," Lady said. "C'mon, you know you always keep a few empty rooms in case someone adorable shows up." Lady smiled widely.

"Max wants to see you now," Mason said, and every muscle in Lady's body tensed before Mason said, "Both of you."

Lady's mind worked fast, it had to just to keep up with what she saw in the near future, but she had to take a few moments to register that. Max didn't see anyone she didn't have plans for, including Lady. Lady was perfectly fine that Max used here as long as Lady got something out of the deal, which she did. But Max was not necessarily a safe person to have ties with, either. She wasn't evil, far from it. But she was manipulative and vague. Lady didn't care about protecting Max from outsiders any longer. She had to protect Dean from the bitch.

"Wait a fucking minute, here!" Lady snapped, and Mason was leading her behind the counter and into an office as she had her outburst. "What the fuck, man! No! No way in hell am I taking him to see Max!"

"Is Max an ex-boyfriend? I'd love to meet him," Dean said as he closed the door to the office.

"Max is my grandmother," Mason said.

"Oh," Dean said.

"Trust me, Dean, you don't want to meet her," Lady said and turned back to Mason, "What the hell is she thinking? For years she's threatened to cut me off from her help if I told one soul about her, and now she wants to meet him? What? What the hell is she planning? What does she want from him?"

"I do not know. She only said that you and your companion were to meet her today."

"Fuck that. He's staying here. I'll handcuff him to the bed," Lady said.

"No chance," Dean said.

"I have two-hundred pounds of dog, I have a chance," Lady said.

Dean smiled, "I got three-hundred pounds of Indian that says I am going."

"I hate you both," Lady nearly spat, storming out of the office.

Dean followed her quickly back into the scorching parking lot. She turned on him halfway there, "You don't know what you are getting into," Lady said, calming down.

"Then tell me something. The truth would be great."

"Max is a medicine woman," Lady told him. "A powerful one, but getting her help comes at a price."

"She's a witch," Dean said flatly. "You work with a witch, I'm so not surprised."

"Don't call her a witch," Lady warned. "You'll end up with boils on your ass. Yeah, that's from experience. Don't talk to her without me there. She spins words, she'll talk about the future to get you worked up and confused until you are at her mercy. I've had a lot of practice sorting her bull from the important shit that she won't try anything with me around."

Dean studied Lady's face, "She scares you?"

Lady shook her head, "I'm scared for you. She's an abusive bitch, but I can handle her. I don't know if you can."

"Please," Dean snorted.

"She is my protection," Lady said. "She's powerful enough that just her influence keeps the coven from finding her or anyone here. And she can do a lot more than block a tracking spell. She's been keeping me alive the past several years so I could have a chance at lifting my curse."

"Can't wait to meet her," Dean said as he followed Lady to the Beetle.

"And I have to drive," Lady said, getting into the driver's seat.

"No way in hell."

She slammed the door shut and pressed the button down to lock the door. Dean just smiled and reached into his pocket to grab the keys, only to frown when they weren't in there. Lady grinned victoriously as the Beetle roared to life. "No way, Lady," Dean said, and hit the window with the palm of his hand as Lady crept forward in the car.

"C'mon, either get in or follow on foot," she said. "It's about forty more miles, but I hafta be there by midnight. I don't think you can run that fast, pal."

Dean hit the back of the car angrily and moved to get into the passenger seat. As soon as his door was closed Lady accelerated. "You are such a bitch," he breathed.

"Don't look so nervous," Lady laughed. "I'm really a good driver." Dean snapped the seatbelt loudly as she took a hard turn back onto the highway.

The houses fell away into pastures and the occasional farmhouse. Lady turned off a country road onto a gravel one, then a dirt path. Dean grabbed onto the dashboard as Lady turned onto a bumpy prairie trail. "Glad we aren't doing this in the winter. We have to use snowmobiles then. You ever been on one? There is this great path that goes up a hill and down a cliff face. One year the snow was an almost perfect 70 degree angle on this cliff, we trashed two snowmobiles that year. I damn near broke my leg. Hell of a lot of fun." Freddie barked in agreement from the backseat.

"Anything else I should know?" Dean asked through clenched teeth.

Lady let out a breath, she'd warned him the best she could and would protect him. She was getting close to her home now and was feeling better in the safety net around Max's property. "You are the first outsider, besides me, that has been allowed out here. Well, as far as I know." Dean frowned at her. "You have to understand if I told anyone about Max and what she did for me, I could die. Like drop dead, die." Lady licked her lips in preparation, "John has met her." As expected Dean didn't like her mentioning his father, just John's name sent his muscles rigid. "He never told anyone, for the same reason. Max is the only reason I'm alive."

"How is she even helping you?"

"She knows magic native to this land, things that no one else alive knows," Lady said. "She puts herself and her family at risk helping me. When I first met her John was with me. I don't know if he ever got to come out here, but he was warned not to tell anyone about her, too."

A modern looking house came into view, it had a large teepee in an open space next to it. "Bobby doesn't even know about her?"

"No," Lady said, parking the car and getting out. She pulled her butterfly knife out of her pocket and set in on the front seat, "You too, no weapons when we see Max."

Dean frowned but pulled the pistol out of his waistband and the hunting knife from his belt. He tried to stare Lady down for a moment before pulling a smaller pocket knife from his back pocket. "That's it," he said.

"I so don't believe you," Lady said. "I'm not playing around here, Dean."

"All I have left are my fists, and I sure as hell am not cutting off my hands," he said, slamming his door. "I'll need them to hold on when you drive us back out of this damn place."

"Uh huh," Lady said, leading the way to the teepee. She held back the flap of leather, "Go ahead."

Dean bent over to get into the short opening, and bounced back immediately. "What the fuck was that!" He asked, turning around with wide eyes.

"No weapons are allowed," a rough voice said from inside the teepee.

Dean rubbed his ear, "Felt like a bug zapper just went off in my head."

Lady grabbed his wrist and said quietly, "I warned you. You need to listen to me here, Dean. Any other time I'd follow your lead without hesitation, but here I am the expert." She got to her knees and found the extra knife strapped to his ankle and set it outside of the tent. "Go."

Dean stepped into the dark and surprisingly cool teepee, Lady was right behind him. There was a small hunched over woman on the far side. Around the circle of the teepee were several small tables with jars and bags of things, some he recognized others he didn't. "Dean Winchester," Max's rough voice said, turning to face him. Dean clenched his jaw from saying anything as he saw the woman. Long gray hair fell down her back to the floor, dark red-brown skin hung in wrinkles so deep and sagging that he couldn't even see her eyes. There was barely a slit where the mouth should be, no lips were visible, lines so thick it looked like the mouth of a ventriloquist's dummy. The nose was hooked and hung down, nearly touching the mouth. "Sorry about your father, son," Max said.

"You are in a friendly mood," Lady said.

"Shut up, white whore!" Max snapped at her.

"Did you get laid last night? I haven't seen her this happy in years," Lady said. "Cut to the chase, Max."

"No chase," Max said. "Please, sit."

Lady folded her legs beneath her to sit. "You don't get to sugar coat yourself, Max. You love to talk, get on with it."

"Perhaps Dean and I should speak alone," Max offered.

"No way in hell," Lady said. "You get to play with me all you want, darling, you don't get to mess with him."

"Why?" Max asked.

"He has enough to deal with."

Max nodded, "You are right. I know much about him already, and you are right. Very well. You may both leave. I'll have Mason find your corpse next month, Lady."

"Wait a second," Dean said.

"Shut up, Dean," Lady said. "And sit down." Lady looked up at him, and he sat next to her. "Cut it out, Max, we both know I'm not dying next month."

"It is only by my assistance that you still breathe, you can die whenever I choose," Max said.

"That's your bargain? You get to toy with him or you won't help me out?"

"I only want to see his destiny," Max said. "This man was meant to die just a week ago, yet here he sits here healthy and whole. I am curious."

Lady chewed on her lip a moment before turning to Dean, "She wants to play with her stones with you. Not much different than tarot. She's psychic, never reveals just how powerful of a psychic but definitely more than me and Missouri put together. She's more than curious, she has an interest here somewhere. Thing is we won't find out unless you agree. It gets us to the next stage and it's pretty harmless, but we can leave without doing it."

"But she..."

"She's just messing with you," Lady lied. If Max said she'd die in a month without her help, Lady was going to be dead in a month.

"Fine, do your worst," Dean said, staring at Max.

Max pulled out a worn leather sack and shook it a few times before holding it out to Dean. "Breath into this, three large breaths, and then empty the contents into the circle between us."

Dean put the bag to his face and followed the old woman's instructions, three large breaths before dumping it out. Several smooth rocks and pebbles tumbled out and rolled a few times before settling into the dirt circle. "That thing reeks," he muttered as Max leaned forward to look at the rocks.

"It was made out of a buffalo bladder," Lady said, smirking as Dean grimaced.

Max touched the largest stone that had landed near the line of the circle, "This is your life-stone. It is the largest, you are strong. Strong of body and will. Near the line of the circle of life, you are willing to risk yourself before others." Max pointed to a pebble that landed on the line, "Your life revolves around a broken family. Orphan, but not alone. This is a strong position to have, gives you meaning and purpose. But when it is all you have on the line it can cause bad decisions." Max went to the stone in the middle of the circle, "Your life cycle revolves around this one thing. The thing you want most, but it is alone and far away from everything else. You will not achieve this desire. But I cannot see it, you hide it. Even from yourself. Hm, what is it you desire most in the world, Dean Winchester?"

Max looked up at him and for the first time he could see the milky white eyes behind the sagging skin. "Kill the thing that killed my mother," Dean said.

"No, no that is here," Max said, looking back down at the stones and setting a finger on another rock. "It is an achievable goal, but I cannot see if you will reach it. But I see a resourcefulness in you, I think you just might accomplish what your father failed to do."

"Yeah, I heard you got to meet my old man," Dean said stiffly. "You try the same bull with him?"

"When I met John it was under stressful circumstances," Max said. "Lady, you have not told him how you found salvation here?"

"I don't call this salvation," Lady said. "But no, I didn't get a chance to tuck him in with that story yet."

"He's curious, always curious," Max said. "So very curious of you. Careful, Dean, becoming curious in Lady's affairs is a dangerous business."

"I've handled worse than a few black witches," Dean said.

"You have," Max agreed. "Give me time to read the stones. Before you leave we will speak again. Go now."

Lady stood up immediately, and Dean followed her shortly afterward. The hot sun hit them the moment they exited the shade of the teepee. "Everything she said, don't think about it too much."

"Yeah, I know," he said. "How old is she?"

"Old," Lady answered. "Older than the Civil War, younger than the Revolutionary War. I think."

Dean caught the keys when she threw them at him, and took the driver's seat without another word. He followed a worn patch of grass for a while until Lady instructed him to turn off. The Beetle bounced over the land until he saw a small and old yellow trailer.

"What's that?" Dean asked.

"My place," she said. "Doesn't have TV or anything, but it's someplace to hang out until midnight." Before he could ask what happened then she answered, "Max helps suppress the curse. She can only perform the ritual on the full moon."

Dean grabbed his bag and a bag full of vampire shoes as Lady grabbed a couple of her own bags and entered the trailer. "Sorry, it smells like Freddie."

"Getting sort of used to it," he muttered, dropping the bags on an empty spot on the floor. "How do you get electricity out here?"

"Mason has it running from his house to mine," she answered. "His place is only a mile or so away. I don't know how he managed it. Water is pumped from a nearby well. Phone line is one of his, no long distance."

"Nice," he said, and Lady glared at him. "What?"

"You don't sound sarcastic," she said.

"It's secluded, supposedly protected from evil witches, hard as hell to find. Not a bad set up."

"Not supposedly. Definitely is," Lady said. "Max knows more about what I'm in than I do. She's crossed paths with this coven before. I don't know how long ago or to what extent, but she's hinted at it."

"You don't trust her," Dean said, stating the fact.

"I do and don't," Lady said, sitting on the sagging couch. Dust from disuse puffed up, and another cloud rose when Dean sat on the other side. "Max and I have an understanding, and I know I am at a severe disadvantage to her. I also know while she's no saint, she's not evil. I knew enough about witchcraft before I met her and the things she uses are pure or purified. Almost all of it is plants, very few animal parts, and no human parts."

"You are trusting your life to a dried piece of jerky," Dean said flatly.

"I don't have many choices. I tried Bobby and John's way, it didn't work," she said.

"You have me," Dean said. "Sam and I got more for you in Florida than you ever saw before."

"I still need Max to help suppress the curse," Lady said. "Max sees a lot farther into the future than I do, and she's hinted that what I want to accomplish will happen."

"You'll find a way to lift the curse?"

"I'm more interested in stopping Garrett," she said. "I want to put an end to what they are doing, and I know there are a lot of other things I could be doing but it feels very important to me that he doesn't get to continue what he is doing. Maybe it is some sort of revenge that I'm in denial about. But if I had a choice between living another fifty years or getting rid of him and his coven, I'd choose to kill him."

Dean shook his head and looked at the bare wall across from them. "You are willing to sacrifice yourself to get rid of him?"

"I'm already his sacrifice," she said, and Dean looked back at her. "Killing him would free me from that. I'd rather die free than be his. This mark, I'm forever connected to what he is. Maybe my thinking is screwed up, I mean I have been hit in the head quite a few times. The only thing that would really piss me off is if it was the curse that killed me. I don't care when, but it feels like if it does he wins. I'm a real sore-loser, and I'll cheat like hell to make sure that doesn't happen."

Dean looked away again but he had a slight smile on his face, "I hope your crazy isn't rubbing off on me, because that makes sense."

Lady smiled slightly, "Good. You know you are one of the few people who can make sense of that. Makes it so much easier when people aren't just feeling sorry for me. I get so sick of it. I'm alive and healthy, I just want to enjoy things and deal with my own shit without them breathing over my shoulder."

"Mmhm. Without them constantly asking if you are alright. If you need to talk about it," Dean agreed.

"Exactly," she said, leaning back on the couch and staring at the blank wall.

Dean glanced at his watch, it was only two in the afternoon. "You spend a lot of time here?"

"Enough, I guess," she said. "When I don't have anything going on I stay with Bobby or here. Or some random place. Whatever I feel like."

Dean turned to look at her and she turned to look at him, "What do you want to do for ten hours?"

"Do you want to see my shoes?" she asked brightly, getting off the couch before he could even give her a confused look. She grabbed the bag full of shoes and walked down a narrow hall and he moved to follow her.

"Jesus Christ, did you rob a Payless?" he asked.

"Gross, no," she said, placing her new shoes carefully like trophies next to dozens of other pairs. The shoes had spilled out of the closet and were invading the small amount of walking space between the door and the bed.

Dean rubbed his forehead, "What is it with you and shoes?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I mean you go more nuts than normal the second you see them," he laughed. "I just don't get it."

"I don't know, I just like them," she said. "I mean, look at them. They are all so much fun!"

Dean rolled his eyes and they fell on a dresser shoved against the wall next to the bed. There was an old boombox covered in dust and a few stacks of CDs next to it. He had to blow the dust off to be able to read some names, but most of the CDs were old and varied. Everything from Motown classics to Johnny Cash to Creedance Clearwater Revival. He opened the disc on the boombox to see the last CD had been Queen. He shrugged and hit play and the song 'Fat-Bottomed Girls' started.

"Your boney ass shouldn't be allowed to listen to this song," Dean said as he picked up a stack of CDs to look at them more closely. He smirked a bit, "You named your dog after Freddie Mercury, didn't you?" he turned.

"Think whatever you want," Lady said, still playing with her shoes.

"Seriously? They are just shoes, Lady," he said.

She looked at him as if he had threatened to slit her throat before smiling a little, "I know they are just shoes. But the right pair of shoes can make a huge difference. Some are bright and flashy, they make a statement. Others are casual and blend in. The right heel with the right jeans or skirt can make the difference between earning a whistle or a laugh."

Dean smiled at her, "You know even busted up you are still a knockout. If you want a guy to whistle at you all you have to do is a little wiggle. Even if you don't, we still look. Trust me. Even if you weren't hot, we'd still want to get in your pants. That's just men."

"It isn't about trying to get men," she said, finding a sleek black stiletto and slipping them on. With them she was barely an inch shorter than Dean. "I've had some of my best hook-ups wearing dirty jeans, an old tank top and worn out sneakers." Dean fought a grin as she stepped closer, remembering vividly the times they had been together. He set the CDs he had in his hands back on the dresser.

Lady put a hand on his chest and moved it upward to rub his shoulder. She understood what he was going through, losing his demon and his father and his car all in the same go. He'd been miserable and a few wrong words from a violent temper tantrum since he had showed up at Bobby's. He had taken the hunt with Sam and bullied himself into joining her to North Dakota to keep his mind off of it, but she could see the anger boiling in the background of his eyes and the tension in his shoulders. Normally he could be set on edge with a little playful bickering, but he had always been quick to relax if she hit the punch line right or if she let him get in one of his own. It was different this time, though, and she wished she could erase his grief. But she'd settle with helping him keep his mind off of it. "You see, with these I'm taller and my ass in incredibly tight. The shoes have to fit an attitude and feeling, and when you get the right match it's perfect. Strutting shoes, running shoes, or disco platforms. You need a shoe for every occasion."

"Uh huh," he said in a low tone as her fingers lightly touched his bare neck. "You have any stripper shoes in there so we can test that?"

"Leather or vinyl?" She asked, arching a teasing eyebrow.

She grinned in victory a moment before Dean's mouth took hers, his hands sliding around her waist to cup her rear as he deepened the kiss. "You are right, your ass is great," he muttered before kissing her again.

She ran her hands up his firm arms and gripped his shoulders, pushing him backwards until she could push him over onto the bed and on his back. She grabbed the button of his jeans and opened them with a fierce tug and got his pants halfway down before he pulled her down onto the bed next to him. He held her against him with one arm while kicking his shoes off and kicking his legs free of his jeans. Her hand rubbed against his firm chest and down to his boxers, sliding them down to massage the insides of his thighs before taking him in her hand to feel him grow hard. Dean let out a low growl as his hand ran over her covered chest to her jeans. There were two clunks as her heels fell to the floor and she moved her hand up the inside of his shirt to feel the smooth skin. She stopped when her fingers felt rough scabs. "Painful?" she asked as Dean pulled his shirt off to reveal healing wounds on his upper chest.

"No," he said, moving to push her onto her back. She pushed back more forcefully to keep his shoulders on the bed, kissing around the rough skin to tease his nipples with her tongue before moving back up his collarbone to his mouth. They both let out a soft moan as his hand slipped into her jeans and between her legs to massage her moist sex. "You don't get top this time," he said, grabbing her firmly and flipping her onto her back while pulling her jeans down.

"You think so?" she breathed as he dug through his jeans pocket for his wallet and a condom. She wrapped her legs around him, pulling him back as he worked to unwrap the condom. Her smooth legs rubbed against his torso and legs.

Dean grabbed a leg in his hands and kissed up the calf as he turned. He moved up the bed between her legs, kissing up her stomach and breasts before stopping at her mouth, "You are already squirming, you really want to fight me on this?" he teasingly pulled back as she raised her head for a kiss. His soft lips and tongue were too close to avoid one, but he stayed just out of her reach.

"I sort of like fighting you," she said. "You are interesting and fun. More so when you don't get your way."

His hands rubbed her thighs as he held himself over her. He kissed down her jaw and neck, "Well I'm definitely getting my way today," he said as he rubbed himself up and down her slick opening. Lady sucked in a sharp breath as the sensation ran from her groin to her chest, "And you are going to enjoy it," he chuckled roughly as he felt her tremble below him.

He nipped at her ear as he entered her slowly, holding his weight with one arm as his other held her leg against his waist. Lady gripped his shoulders tightly as she thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of him moving inside of her. She knew his slow pace was just to spite her and he held her tight to keep full control, and she nibbled at his smug lips when he pulled a deep moan from her throat and dug her nails into his back as he thwarted an attempt to roll him over.

Dean enjoyed driving Lady crazy with pleasure, everything she did from her kisses to her hands moving across his back was urging him to take her hard and fast, almost pleading with him for a quick release. Part of this was mutual physical desire. There was an attraction between the two of them that neither of them ever hid and there was no doubting the sex was good for both sides. But the other part had darker motives than the simple joys of getting off. It was a way to temporarily forget his father's last words and death. There wasn't enough alcohol in the world to make him take away the cold dread he got whenever he thought about what his father had told him, and to be honest there wasn't enough women, either. But at least focusing on Lady, not just her body but the whole world of trouble she had, gave him something else to think about. They were using each other for easy sex, but he was using her to hold onto his sanity for another day.

Lady became completely submissive as she gave into the growing sensations between them. Her soft moans of pleasure were constant and mixed with his own as they reached their climax, the final surge of pleasure that made them quiver from head to toe.

Dean held onto the feeling as long as possible, caressing her arms and feeling the healing cuts, running over the scar of a vampire bite. His fingers found the rougher skin of the tattoo of the blue bird. He wasn't against or for tattoos in general, but that one he had rather liked. Possibly because its location, the skin below a woman's breast was always soft and smooth. He was about to ask her about it when he felt her slightly tense, and he decided to stay quiet. He had learned to watch for Lady's signals and something about what he was going to say was going to, or had already, bothered her.

Lady closed her eyes and kissed him briefly, "That was fun," she said, moving out of his arms. "Dean, you know I don't want any sort of relationship, right?"

"I hope not, I'd hate to break your heart," Dean said, letting his head fall back as his pulse slowed down.

"Good. Fuck buddies that occasionally work together," Lady said, getting off the bed. "I'm going to take a shower."

Dean pulled his boxers on as the water ran and looked over Lady's bedroom, going back to her stack of CDs and switching from Queen to Journey while he looked through the rest of them. Dean was not looking for a girlfriend, far from it, but a longer distraction would have been welcome. With Lady it was some banter, maybe a little arguing, some teasing, the act, and then back to business or off to sleep. She was possibly the only woman he could have pillow talk with and she didn't participate. She caught her breath, and then got out of bed like it was going to start on fire.

Already the euphoria from sex had faded and his thoughts turned back to the darkness he was trying to avoid thinking about, he wished he could have it erased from his head. His father's death he may have been able to deal with, but what the future held for him he couldn't handle that.

Lady stepped out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her body, and Dean took his chance to get cleaned up. He set the water so it was barely warmer than freezing, it felt like it was at least ninety degrees in the trailer and he knew outside was at least a hundred.

He stepped out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and walked to the living room to grab his bag. Dressed in a clean shirt and boxers he went back down the hall to the bedroom, only to see Lady wasn't in there. There was another door in the narrow hallway that was closed, and had been closed when he passed it earlier. He was very aware he was in what served as Lady's sanctuary and he was damn sure her shoe collection wasn't the only thing she kept there. He heard her calling Freddie's name from outside, and opened the door.

It took him less than a second to realize this was where Lady worked. It was a room of information. Maps with writing on them covered the walls, notebooks piled on a desk with scribbled words written in Latin. Shelves that held jars and bags of herbs and little trinkets that were arcane. Some he recognized, others were unfamiliar.

He narrowed his eyes at a seam in the wall, a small square only a few feet wide and tall. It was far from an original hiding place and he hoped Lady could be more creative than that, but he got on his knees and slide the square over and peeked in. The safe tucked inside the floor the tiny crawl space didn't even look like it had tried to be tucked away in an effort to hide. Cracking a safe wasn't something he had a lot of practice with, but he thought he could probably manage it. It wasn't very high-tech. It didn't look any more secure than any motel safe he had seen.

"Let me guess, you dropped an earring," Lady's voice said from behind him.

Dean closed his eyes in disappointment that he had been caught, but he really didn't give a damn. Slowly he backed out to keep from hitting his head, "You forgot this room on the grand tour," he said, getting to his feet. She looked annoyed, but not pissed. "What's in there?"

She sighed and walked to the hole in the wall, "I'll show you," she said, getting on her hands and knees and crawling inside. The shorts she wore rode up her thighs and her tank-top slid up her back. The memory of that soft skin being under his hands was recent enough that it didn't send the same longing it would have an hour ago or would a few hours from then.

There was a metal click as the safe opened, and another click as it was shut and locked again. She came out with book, and handed it to him. "Unless you can read Latin you won't make heads or tails of most of it."

Dean flipped through the pages. He could pronounce Latin, but translating it would require a few more books. But there were enough sigils and drawings in it that he got the idea of what was in it. "This is the safest place for this?"

"Anyone who knows I stay here doesn't steal from me. It's only locked up so they don't come in contact with it. I'm not sure how badly the residual magic will affect others."

Dean frowned and handed her the book back, "Now you say something."

"You are one of the few people I don't worry about when it comes to this," she said.

"How have you been getting it translated?" Dean asked.

Lady's mouth opened and closed a few times, he could almost see her trying to decide whether or not she wanted to lie and was physically fighting herself on it. "I know Latin," she finally said.

"You do?" he asked. "You learned Latin? A dead language?"

"Not as hard as it sounds," she said stiffly as she went back into the hole to lock the book back up. "It, uh, sort of helps when you take a crash course of it," she said, her voice muffled as she locked the safe. Dean got another long look at exposed thigh and lower back, enough time had passed that he wanted to remember the soft feel of her skin against his. They still had a lot of time to kill and all there was to do in the trailer was sleep or have sex. And he really didn't want to sleep, going to sleep meant having nightmares. Lady backed out of the hole and stood up fluidly, "Uh, Ananda taught me, sort of," she was admitting. Her posture and the tone of her voice told his instincts they were signs of a liar, but he knew Lady well enough that this was a painful truth for her.

"The witch that cursed you?"

"That's right," she said. "The ritual that she was going to kill me she was trying to summon power and, uh…well John got there late enough that it was answering her call. She had it contained but when she died it just…sort of like filling a water balloon until it breaks. It went all over, mostly harmless but I was right in the middle. A while after that I got the visions, and I could read, write and speak Latin as naturally as English."

Dean searched her face, "That's not possible."

"Coming from you that makes me feel like more of a freak, thanks," she said, walking past him and out of the room.

Dean rolled his eyes and followed her, "Did my father know?"

"Yeah," she said. "There wasn't much about me that John didn't know. Bobby knows, too, I help him translate a lot of things he finds."

"If you can read that book as easily as Harry Potter why aren't you?"

Lady cleared her throat, "Because it makes me feel sick," she said, another painful truth she was giving him. "When I first got that book here I spent hours locked in that room reading it, and when I finally took a break I could hardly move. That book was made and bound with black magic. It needs to be handled in child sized doses. Gets worse the farther I get through it. That's why smart people always burn the books." Lady turned and began to walk to the living room. "I know how much I can handle, I counter it the best I can, but no matter what it will be a slow process." Lady tilted her head and a few moments later Freddie barked. "Huh."

"What is it?" Dean asked, grabbing his bag to find a weapon.

"I have company," she said. "Company as in put your pants on, not grab your gun."

Outside a man hollered, "Lady!"

Lady bounced out of the trailer while Dean went to retrieve his jeans from the bedroom. He slid them on quickly and went outside to see what was going on. Lady was accepting a hug from Derek and laughing. "Your dad didn't tell me you were home. I thought you were taking classes over the summer?"

"I am, I just finished. I have a break until the fall semester starts," he said, and looked over Lady's shoulder at Dean. "How's it hanging, Kansas?"

"Hey, Derek," Dean said, shaking the smaller man's hand.

"Dad is on his way home, we're having a barbecue so get your boney ass moving," Derek said to Lady.

"Your mom making frybread?" Lady asked.

"You know it," Derek laughed.

"We'll head over in a bit," Lady said.

"See you guys there," Derek said, swinging a leg over a bicycle and beginning to pedal.

"Mason's isn't too far but I'd rather drive than walk in this heat. Do you want me to drive?" Lady asked.

"No. Hell no," Dean answered immediately. When she had driven him to Max's it hadn't been nearly as terrifying as the joyride she had taken him on in Texas while chasing a black witch, but in general he hated being a passenger. "So what do I need to know before we get there?" He asked as they got into the Beetle.

"Nothing," Lady said. "It's just a barbecue. Eat a few burgers, have a few beers, don't hit on the women wearing wedding rings. Uh, well, most of the people there don't know what I do. A lot of them have never even met Max. Just, uh, play it normal."

Dean had expected a few people. Mason, Derek and Derek's mother. When they arrived several vehicles were parked along the gravel road leading to the house and the yard was full of people, nearly twenty. "Hm, missing quite a few people," Lady said as he parked the car.

"Lady!" Derek hollered, jogging over as they walked up. "What took you so long?"

"I let Dean drive," she said as an explanation.

Derek gave Dean a sympathetic look, "Driving that thing? Oh, man, that must hurt your manhood."

"You have no idea," Dean said bitterly.

"Why didn't you bring your car up? That thing was bad ass. My Uncle Charlie would have loved to see it. He's big on old muscle cars," Derek said before Lady could try to shut him up.

But Dean didn't take the comment in offense. "Actually it's being repaired right now. I'm working on rebuilding her," he said. "Got in a bit of an accident."

"Oh, man, sorry to hear that," Derek said sincerely. "How's the rebuild going?"

"Real good," Dean said as they walked closer to the crowd. "Having a hard time finding a few parts but I ain't giving up on her."

"Rock on," Derek said enthusiastically. "You have to meet Uncle Charlie. Lady, how could you not introduce him to Uncle Charlie?"

"We just got here," Lady said in defense. "I haven't had time to warn him which women grab ass and which grab cheeks."

"That's easy," Derek said, throwing an arm around Lady's shoulders. He pointed at her, "She'll grab anything." Derek moved to point at a few other people that were standing around talking and laughing. "Ass, cheeks, cheeks and ass. That woman right there gives the most painful titty-twister you could imagine. Basically, if you aren't related you are going to get groped. And if you are related, you are going to get abused."

"Knock it off, Derek," Lady said. "Don't worry, Dean. Everyone is real laid back."

Lady went fearlessly into the crowd and greeted people she hadn't seen for months or longer. Mason had four brothers. Thomas, a veterinarian. Charlie, who owned and operated a body shop. Homer, who owned the house in Florida they had stayed in and worked in real estate. And David, who was an electrician. None of them were as large as Mason but they all were taller than Dean and heavily built.

Next she introduced Mason's children. Derek had two older brothers, Clark and Michael who were in their mid twenties, married with a few children of their own. An older sister Maxine who was in her late twenties and single. A younger brother, Jacob, who had just graduated high school, and two younger sisters that were identical twins, Carrie and Erin, who were seventeen. All of them, besides Derek, were at least six feet tall.

"Yeah. Fertile Myrtle and potent Pete," Derek said while pointing at his parents.

"That's gross, Derek!" Carrie said.

"That's so wrong," Erin agreed.

"You don't even know what it means," Derek rolled his eyes at his baby sisters.

"We do too," Carrie said.

"Unlike you, we can get dates," Erin grinned victoriously as the frown on Derek's face.

"Oh! Burn!" Lady reached up to get Erin a high five.

"You guys need to visit me in Florida sometime. I'm the man down there," Derek said, trying to keep some respect for himself.

The heads of the family, Mason and his wife, came over to them. They each had a grandchild in their arms. "Dean, this is my wife, Greta."

"Very nice to meet you, Dean," Greta said as the toddler she held sucked his thumb. Greta was a petite woman with a big voice. She was about Lady's height with much wider hips, considering how many oversized children she had Dean forgave her for that. "Lady, don't you eat? I'm going to tie you to a chair and force feed you until I see some meat on those bones."

"Promise?" Lady smiled.

Dean was chuckling until Greta turned to him, "What are you laughing at, scrawny?" His eyes grew wide. He'd been called many things, but he hadn't been called scrawny since he was a teenager. "You heard me. I would say you are pale, too, but there is nothing I can do about that. Derek, take your nephew. I need to start rolling out the food, I'm watching everyone around me wither away."

Derek took the toddler in his arms and happily bounced him until he giggled.

"Scrawny?" Dean asked, slightly offended.

"Look around, Dean," she said. There were only a few people Dean was taller than, most of them were the women. "Compared to these guys, you are a little small."

"Shut up," he said.

"Aw, don't worry little guy. Size doesn't matter," she said in a cute voice and he ducked away when she began to ruffle his hair like a child.

"You are lucky there are witnesses around," he said, unable to hide his playful smile. "I'm so taking that out of your ass later."

Derek handed his nephew over to one of his brothers. "How long are you guys hanging around?"

"Until tomorrow for sure," Lady said, watching some of the younger children attacking Freddie. Freddie could have knocked them all down with a shiver but his tail just wagged happily as they pulled on his fur and scratched his belly.

"Bet you are glad that they are too young for your magic tricks," Derek said.

"Magic tricks?" Dean asked.

Lady shrugged, "Pull a quarter out of their ear, card tricks, slight of hand stuff."

"Nice," he said. He had known she had quick hands, she had after all picked his pocket without him knowing it.

"Kids are easy," she said. "Noisy little monsters, demanding and talk too much, but easy."

Dean grinned even as she glared at him, "Just like you."

"Don't be a dick," she said, looking away. "I'm not demanding."

"Lady used to be our favorite source of entertainment," Derek said, and she gave him a pleading look to shut up that he completely ignored. "Carrie and Erin finally grew out of it."

"I'm lucky you don't get kicks out of it anymore."

"I was always more interested in catching you in Daisy-Dukes than watching you pull cards out of your ass," Derek chuckled. "I'm joking, I'd still like to see either."

Lady nudged him with an elbow. "You have to let me know next time you have time off from school. I'll take you down to Vegas and I will find someone to do that for you."

Derek looked thoughtful for a moment and Lady rolled her eyes before he said, "Out of their own ass, or yours?"

"You need a girlfriend," Lady said.

"You need to set me up with one of your hot friends," he joked.

"The only hot girls I know are your sisters," she joked as he made a face. "Keep Dean company, I'm going to go help Greta. I'm starving."

Lady and the twins, along with Greta, Maxine and several other women he hadn't seen since he got there began bringing out food. Lady sat next to Dean, looking tired but happy as she had a conversation with Carrie and Erin over the table. Most of it Dean tuned out, it consisted of shoes, brands of shoes, the girl's high school, and their part-time jobs.

The food kept refilling itself and there was no shortage of cold beer. Around eight the smallest children began to leave with their families. A stereo was turned on that kept a mix of country and classic rock playing. Dean had gotten into a conversation with Uncle Charlie. Charlie listened intently as Dean explained his own restoration on his Impala. Not just listened, but asked questions and compared information. Dean was enjoying being able to talk about his car that he didn't notice when Lady left his side. He found her across the yard near the stereo with the twins and Maxine, talking and laughing and dancing to Rednex 'Cotton Eye Joe.'

A few hours later it was just Mason, Maxine, Charlie and Derek that remained. The sun had set and the moon was rising.

"We have to wait until midnight," Lady said before Dean could ask when she needed to have her ritual. "You don't have to stay, you look tired."

"No, I'm rather interested," he said.

"More like curious," Maxine corrected.

"Be nice, Maxine," Charlie said, quick to defend his new friend. "Dean's a top-notch guy. Just like his father."

Dean looked at Charlie with surprise, "You knew my father?"

Lady answered before Charlie could, "Yeah, John met some of Mason's family same time he met Max." Dean had been having a good time, she wanted to throw her beer at Charlie for bringing up his father and reminding him that so recently John died. She cleared her throat before Mason could speak, meeting his eyes across the table they sat at. "Sorry to say John recently passed away."

The table went very quiet until Mason held up his beer, "To John Winchester. We're very sorry to hear the news that such a great warrior has passed."

Dean accepted the toast with tense shoulders. "How did you guys get involved with Lady to begin with?" All eyes fell on Lady, as if asking for permission. "Well I know you didn't pull two dozen Native American's out of your ass, no one is that good of a magician." Dean looked around, knowing none of them would crack unless Lady gave them the go ahead, so he focused on her.

When Lady cracked a smile the whole table laughed and relaxed. "Well, it was six years ago…"


	16. Flashback to 2000

**A/N** - _This chapter is brought to you by Buckcherry's song 'Rescue Me'_

**July 30, 2000. North Dakota/Canada**

Lady ignored the call that was coming in on her cell phone, it didn't matter if Bobby blocked his number she always knew who would be there if she answered. When the voicemail became available she called it to listen to his voice. "Lady, it's me again. Been a while since I saw you, give me a call and let me know you are alright. Somethin', at least. I deserve that much., kid."

Yeah, Bobby deserved that much. The old man deserved a lot. But she didn't see how it mattered. She wasn't doing alright, she was weak and sick. And there was nothing more he could do besides ask her to come stay with him so he could take care of her which did neither of them any good. She was sick and tired, literally and figuratively, of being a burden. Most of her life she had taken care of herself. There was no way she'd return to Bobby's just so he could watch her die, she had her pride. At nineteen her pride was all she had left, almost everything else had been stripped away from the curse.

Lady began to slow down her truck, barely checking her mirrors as she moved onto the shoulder. Traffic drove past her swiftly as the truck came to a stop as she began holding back coughs. Soon the coughs shook the whole truck, tearing through her lungs and out her throat painfully until she could taste blood. It lasted fifteen minutes until her eyes were watering and she was gasping for the tiniest breath while black phlegm mixed with blood was hacked up. Once it was over she trembled in pain while trying to catch her breath without going into another coughing fit.

She got back on the road, she didn't have time to mess around. There had been a few signs of witchcraft reported in Saskatchewan and she was trying to find a way to avoid border control.

She stopped near the Canadian border to fill up her vehicle, a beat-up two-seater Datsun pick-up truck. Not very large but louder than most semis. Inside the gas station she grabbed a few bottles of water and several energy drinks. She was starving but her throat was so raw she hadn't been able to handle anything coarser than apple sauce for a week. While waiting to check out she noticed a large poster alerting the public of two missing young girls. Native American, eleven years old, identical twins. Cute kids. Whenever she saw missing posters her mind always drifted to witchcraft, but she had magic burned into her brain, literally. She saw the potential of witchcraft in just about anything. Knowing what her mind was tuned to she regarded the two young girls as unfortunate victims of some human monster and wished their family the best of luck. The rational part of her mind told her she was just seeing what she wanted to see, she wanted to see evidence of witchcraft so it meant she wasn't on another dead end.

But what she knew of witchcraft told her that tonight was a rare occasion, it was the second new moon within the month of July and that having a set of twins to sacrifice would lead to a nice offering. Where they had disappeared was two hours south of the border.

"They hear anything about those kids?" Lady asked as she got to the counter.

"No," the man said as he rang her up. "Been missing three days now and they aren't even putting it in the paper anymore. That all for you?"

"Yeah," she said, paying for her things.

Lady managed to get across the border without being discovered, which was nice because she really didn't have the right vehicle for a high speed chase across prairie trails while running from border control.

Finding the coven was a hit or miss situation even in the best circumstances. There were small signs that could be recognized before their big rituals, the ones done on the blue and black moons, but not much before hand. Most of the time the signs were barely found. Grave robbing, which was easy to cover up. Animals missing, which wasn't widely publicized. But she knew that many witches didn't abandon their territory, and if they did the prime spot was taken over. She discovered a few signs from the last blue moon that indicated a witch may be in the area she was scouting out, and the missing twins was letting her hope grow that she was right.

Lady was examining a map of the province, marking with a pencil a few areas she wanted to look at. Narrowing down their location was something she didn't have down to a science, it was something closer to intuition. They wanted seclusion, outside of towns and cities. Far enough that no one could hear screams or see their eerie blue flames. And flat land was better than hills or cliffs. They also preferred the southern states, since the night had a less drastic change between the winter and summer months. It was strange that a witch would be so far north when the nights were so short at this time, but there was plenty of seclusion to be found and tonight would be considered a powerful new moon even if it didn't last long.

Lady pulled into a gas station of a small town near sunset. Knowing her time, and if the twins were really meant to be sacrifices their time as well, was growing very short she did the only thing she could to help narrow down her search. Ask a local. "Hey, hoping you could help me out, I'm looking for a friend. Has this same tattoo." Lady held out her wrist to the young man. She tried to give a flirty smile but the dark circles under her eyes, pale lips and the constant sweat shine on her face had taken away her good looks weeks ago.

"Yeah, the Roberts," he nodded. "Sean and Steve Roberts."

"That's them," Lady said, feeling a little excited that there were at least two of them. The quick breath of excitement she had taken had hurt and she was now taking in a shallow breath as she felt a tickle in the back of her throat. She prayed another hacking fit wouldn't start before she finished. "I'm trying to surprise them, I just got into town. Can you tell me where they live?"

"Uh, no, afraid not. I don't know," he said. "I know they live somewhere south of town, out in the boonies."

"I'll find it," Lady said, hurrying out of the gas station and barely getting into the truck before coughing more bloody black phlegm up from her lungs. The curse had been worse before, without some treatments Bobby had found and more traditional medicine she would have died less than a year after being rescued. She knew enough about the curse that it was in her blood. The fluid in her lungs would be seen as pneumonia to any doctor, but the black phlegm and blood cultures they took had a cocktail of things that couldn't be medically explained. The few times before she had been this bad she had been taken to the hospital and had to flee before they tried to put her in a quarantine and call the CDC. She'd die before having herself trapped in a locked room so people who only knew science tried to figure out the magic that was killing her. There was no way in hell anyone would get her back into a hospital bed. She knew once autumn hit she wouldn't make it. Right now the heat and the humidity was the only thing keeping her lungs from shutting down completely. She felt like she wanted to die. What she was now was barely living. She couldn't take a full breath without being assaulted by throat ripping coughs. Even when she wasn't coughing her chest felt like it was going to explode with the smallest breath, her throat was so raw she couldn't eat, she couldn't sleep more than an hour at a time because the fluid built up so rapidly it began to choke her. Anything that had worked before, from Bobby's disgusting Houdoo juice to regular antibiotics were barely taking the edge off anymore.

She was sure it was her last job. When she had started driving this way she had feared it, but it was now certain. She wasn't going to last much longer, days or maybe a week, if it continued. If she could take out this coven, just get through the night, she'd be okay with that. If she could win this battle then she'd deal with losing her war.

She found a run-down farmhouse about half an hour out of town, it was dark enough now that she could see dull blue light glowing beyond the house. She killed the headlights and let the truck roll as far as she dared. By now she knew the best way to take out a witch was with stealth. If you gave them more than a few minutes warning they could cook something up for you and make you bleed out your eyes. She grabbed her gun, a six-shooter revolver that Bobby had entrusted her with, and began to make her way to the ritual site.

Three men were around two young girls tied up in the center, all illuminated by blue fire. Two of the men were identical, a set of twins themselves and Lady guessed they must be Sean and Steve Roberts. The other was younger, probably only eighteen. Maybe even younger. The girls had been positioned in the center, their arms tied around one another and their quiet sobs could be heard from Lady's spot in the darkness. The ritual hadn't started yet, one of the witch-twins was still making preparations.

Lady wasn't close enough to get a good shot, not with her hand trembling the way it was. She covered her mouth as she began coughing, hoping she could keep it quiet enough to be mistaken for an animal. No such luck. She aimed her gun and tried to see through the tears that were forming from the searing pain in the back of her throat all the way to her lungs to get off a shot before her racketing coughs alerted the witches to her presence. Lady didn't use the sight of the revolver, never considered it necessary since she knew a few seconds before she pulled the trigger if she would hit a target. She did that now, steadying her hand the best she could and holding her breath while squeezing the trigger. One of the twins dropped dead as she let out a series of bloody coughs that brought her to her knees.

She couldn't hear over the sound of her heart pounding in her ears and her coughs, but she tried to watch as the remaining witches separated and ran into the darkness that their blue torches didn't penetrate. If they were smart they'd go around in the shadows near her, take her from both sides and if she could keep her focus she'd manage to get at least one more round off before they could get her.

Focus was hard to maintain when your body is fighting for its simplest need, air. Lady fought onto consciousness as she coughed out the black fluid, but she wasn't getting enough air and her lungs were taxed after her run to the site. The blue firelight blurred and faded into darkness as she passed out.

Lady kept her breaths shallow as she came to. She kept her eyes closed and didn't move as she decided what her situation was. Her hands were tied behind her back and she was lying on her side in the grass. She could hear the two girls very clearly now, they were sobbing, one of them asking for her daddy. She could feel the warmth that the blue torches gave off, could see their blue light through her eyelids.

"She killed my brother!" One of the witches hissed, Lady was sure it had to be the surviving twin. "She's mine!"

"She is one of us, she has the mark, we take her together," the other said. "Without Steve the twins are useless. You can have both of them for your own."

"Fine, fine," the remaining twin said and Lady searched her memory, his name must be Sean if Steve was the one she killed. "Or I'll take them all." There was a gunshot and the girls screamed, but Lady didn't flinch or move even when she felt the thud of a body hit the ground.

She waited until Sean forced her to sit up and slapped her across the face. Her eyes opened and she looked up at him wearily. He was holding her revolver to her, but she knew he wouldn't use it. He was furious, she had killed possibly the only true ally he could ever trust, his own blood. That made him kill the other witch to ensure he got all the credit for the sacrifice they were going to perform and that he got to enjoy his vengeance the way he saw fit.

"The twins are useless, let them go," Lady said in a raspy voice. "Compared to me they won't even matter. Cut them loose and let them run for it."

He shook his head, "Not a chance."

"Then shoot me, because you won't kill them tonight unless you shoot me right now," Lady said, swallowing hard as she felt the need to cough coming on.

"You'll wish I would have shot you," he said, lowering the gun.

"So will you," Lady rasped as her wrists became free of the rope. They may have got her gun but had not checked her for her knife. She slid the knife through the air and in one easy movement the sharp blade slide across his throat. She kicked him back to avoid being splattered, but it sprayed her legs quickly. He choked for a few moments before going still.

Lady grabbed her gun, emptying the bullets before putting it in her waistband. "It's okay," she said hoarsely to the twins who were wailing. "I'm not going to hurt you, but I need to cut these ropes. Uh…best if you keep your eyes closed," she added as an afterthought, however she was sure they had already seen the dead bodies. "I'm very sorry for this."

Once the girls were free Lady staggered back as they threw their arms around her, holding onto her bloody clothes tightly and screaming in fear. "Please…don't…" Lady gave up before asking them not to do that, they needed something. She had an idea of what they had been put through the past few days, if they needed to touch a human being that wasn't a complete monster she'd try to serve that purpose. For such young girls they were nearly her height. "I'm getting you out of here," Lady said, trying to move with them attached to her. Her car was a few minute run, but she knew she couldn't handle that. A five minute walk, she wasn't even sure if she could handle that.

And she couldn't, halfway to where the small truck was parked she couldn't hold back the coughs any longer and pushed the girls away as she fell to her knees as she got light-headed. She managed to stay awake until it passed but was shaking so bad she couldn't move. "Ma'am? Ma'am, are you okay?" One of the girls was saying, her voice shaking.

Lady fell onto her side, trying to keep her breaths shallow but she needed more air. "Follow the road, take the truck. Run," she said. "Keys are in it."

"We…we can't drive. We're only eleven!"

"I can't keep moving," Lady said. "Go. You're safe, just go."

Without speaking the girls worked together against Lady's protests to get her back on her feet. Lady's legs didn't cooperate as they dragged her along the dirt road until they reached the truck.

Lady sat behind the wheel for a while, the front seat cramped with the two girls. Maybe she couldn't walk by herself, but she could manage driving for a bit.

"Do you need a hospital?" Lady asked as she began to drive.

"No, we just want to go home. Please, take us home," one of them asked.

Lady had planned to get them to the nearest public place and find herself the closest secluded spot to rest, but she remembered the girls were from North Dakota. If they were found in Canada it meant border control would be more reinforced and if she had half a chance of living long enough to return to the states that would make her attempt difficult. The least she could do was get them back in their home country, a few hour drive.

"I can't take you all the way there, but I can get you close," Lady said. "What are your names?"

"Carrie."

"Erin."

"Carrie, Erin, I'm Lady," she said weakly. "I'm sorry but I'm real sick, I can't get you all the way home, it's at least four hours away and I can't make it that long. But I'll get you as close as I can and find somewhere safe to drop you off." The girls were about to cry again. "You like music? Carrie, turn on the radio, find something you like, okay? You guys want some chips? They're a bit old but it's all the food I have in here." Lady pulled a bag out from under the seat.

It took half an hour of driving with the two kidnapped twins before they stopped whimpering altogether. When they heard a song they liked they sang softly, ate the chips and thankfully didn't ask to stop to go pee.

Lady made it across the border and to the nearest town. The town was so small it didn't have its own police force, the only thing open was a convenience store. Lady parked her truck on the side of the road. "Girls, you were real brave. You've been real good. You see those lights up there, it's a gas station. Now everyone has been looking for you, when you go in there ask them to call 911, and stay there. Don't leave unless it is with a police officer. And check their wrist. If they have this mark," Lady showed them their wrist. "Don't trust them. It means they are bad."

"But you aren't bad, Lady," Erin said.

"No, I'm not. I'm different," Lady said.

"I don't want to go there alone," Carrie said. "Come with us. Please?"

Lady shook her head. Finding two kidnapped girls would normally merit at the least a blue ribbon, but it also came with a lot of questions. Like why she was covered with blood, where are the people who took them, things that while she had the answers for would just get her into trouble she couldn't handle. "I can't. I'm sick, I have to go somewhere. I know you don't want to be alone, and I know why. But soon you'll be back with your family. Um…here," she handed a twenty dollar bill to Erin. "In case you are hungry while you wait. Just…go, please, go."

There were no words to describe the pride that came with saving a life, doubling that and make them children and it was beyond words. Lady had liked the two girls, and they were being spared death tonight because of her. While murdering three men in their view wasn't child-friendly Lady hadn't been given much of a choice.

Lady drove as far and as fast as she could, but only made it to the next large town. She got a motel room and began to die. Lady had been holding onto the hope that she may have been able to manage to get past it. That if she got some sleep and drank enough water her body would heal itself enough that she could make it back to Bobby's. That if she could choke down some calories she'd get enough strength back to look through more possible cures or remedies to help her, but it was over.

Lady saw the clock said nine, she didn't know if that was nine at night, morning, or the next night. There was a sound at the door, someone knocking, and she was worried that a maid or the motel manager would come in and find her like she was, they'd call 911 and she wasn't sure if she could manage to tell them not to. She didn't want to roll to watch the door, being on her side was the easiest way to keep breathing and if she moved she would begin coughing and it would make her look worse than she was…well, she wasn't aware that she already looked like a corpse and nothing made her look worse than she already did.

Greta Mason was curled up in her chair, her eyes were red but no more tears would fall. "Roy, our babies," she murmured. She was the only one who ever called him by his first name, and that was only when she was upset.

Mason's eyes were red, too, as he put a large hand on his wife's shoulder. "Max is doing everything she can to find them." He didn't tell his wife, but when the old medicine woman located his missing children he was going to tear whoever took them from him into pieces. Mason was not a violent man, a real gentle giant, but Carrie and Erin were his babies. He'd die for them in an instant, and he'd kill for them just as quickly. "Derek, take care of her," he said.

Derek moved into the chair with his mother and hugged her. He felt guilty, he had prayed to God and begged Max to do everything in their power to return his little sisters to him. They had been at the county fair. His older brothers had ditched him immediately. His parents wanted to walk around to take in the sights while he wanted to go on the rides or play carnival games. Since he was the oldest that couldn't get away with running off on his own he had been given the cash and told to watch over his younger brother and twin sisters. Jacob was twelve, Carrie and Erin eleven, and he was almost seventeen. Most teenagers wouldn't have liked that, and Derek wasn't an exception. He split up the cash, told the younger kids to meet him beside the Ferris wheel in two hours and left to do his own thing. It was a fair, and the younger kids weren't stupid. They had watches, there were cops patrolling the place, they would be fine.

Jacob had been fine, meeting Derek when he was supposed to. Derek and Jacob waited for their sisters to show up. He still remembered the feeling of dread growing as the minutes ticked by, and how the dread had felt almost solid in his stomach when he finally tracked down his parents and told them what happened.

He apologized a hundred times. Other than the initial shock of what he had done his parents hadn't been upset, they were just worried. He was old enough to know what happened to children when they were kidnapped. He'd give anything to get rid of the solid lump of dread that was stuck in the pit of his stomach, to hear his sisters were okay.

Mason stood silently in Max's teepee as she worked. Her slow movements were pushing his patience. "Please, anything?"

"I'm sorry," Max said solemnly. "Whatever has them, I cannot locate them. I fear your children were taken by something not natural."

Mason's face twisted, "What could it be?" He knew the things that were in the world, though all he had ever seen were occasionally the spirits that protected Max's land.

"A moment…" Max said, using a gnarled finger to make lines in the dirt. When she pulled her hand back there was a symbol drawn into the dirt. It was a symbol of three moons. Waxing, full, and waning. Max let out a shuddering breath. "They have her."

"Who?"

"The coven that bares this mark," Max said. "Stay here, Mason, lend me your strength."

Mason was there for what felt like days, it had already been days since his daughters had gone missing and his heart couldn't take much more when Max inhaled a sharp breath. "I see them." Mason swallowed hard, waiting for the worst news. But instead Max told him, "They are alive. And free of dark magic. They are with another, I cannot see. The other they are with…I cannot sense where they are but it can't be too far." Max let out a hiss. "It is a witch. They are with a witch."

"Where?" Mason asked.

"Mason, you cannot best a witch," Max said.

"I don't care! They have my daughters!" Mason roared.

Max looked up at him, her wrinkles shifting enough in surprise at his outburst that he could see her milky white eyes. "I will keep trying to break through their magic to find them. I will not allow my blood to be taken, there will be hell to pay for this."

Max made a confused sound after a few more hours. "They are to the north." Mason went to move. "They are unharmed, the other witch has abandoned them. Mason, wait."

"I have to get them."

"Send your brothers or your blubbering wife," Max commanded. "We must locate this witch before she attacks again. And I must come with you."

Mason had lived just five miles from Max his whole life, when his father passed he picked up the torch to be Max's aide. From his memory Max had not left the reservation in his lifetime, he only recalled her venturing the five miles to his home twice. But he did as she asked and helped her into his pick-up truck. He called Greta to tell her the news, and his brother Thomas to start driving Greta west. Then he called Charlie, if they were going to deal with the black witch that had taken his daughters he wanted more assistance than the frail old medicine woman.

John Winchester had been in Minnesota. He and his sons had been looking into a haunting and were working on narrowing down local dead bodies to find out which one was their spook. John was sitting down to write about the haunting in his journal while Sam was cleaning up and Dean was asleep. He turned on the television and switched to a news channel, it was about four in the morning and there wasn't much on unless he wanted to look into purchasing a set of kitchen knives. His eyes focused on the television as the news report was talking about a set of twin girls who had been rescued from their kidnappers.

"Carrie and Erin Mason, eleven year old identical twins, were rescued from an undisclosed location late last night and are being reunited with their family today. Police have reported that a possible cult had abducted the girls and are looking for their rescuer who was described as being a young woman with dark hair and blue eyes with a tattoo on her right wrist. In other news…"

"Stupid witch," John muttered gruffly as he shut the television off. When Lady had first started out hunting, against his and Bobby's wishes, he had done what he could to make sure she was prepared. At least so she didn't shoot herself in the foot. But he remembered damn well how he stressed the importance of keeping a low profile. Especially if she was going to focus on hunting witches, all the cops saw if they caught her would be a murder. But he couldn't blame her, she had saved those two girls.

John shook Dean's leg to wake him. "Huh, wha?" Dean snorted and sat up, quickly becoming alert.

"I got to go," he said. He needed to make sure Lady wasn't found and questioned. He was sure she could spin a great tale but she wasn't the smartest when avoiding being found.

"Okay, I'm ready," Dean said, swinging his legs off the bed.

"No, I need you to stay here and finish this job with Sam," John said. "When the library opens up tomorrow you two get down there and keep researching."

"Everything okay?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," John said. "I'm just going to check in on someone."

John got into the Impala and began to drive. The radio had the news announcement but nothing more than what he had already seen. There was the benefit that they didn't give out Lady's description again, but he was willing to bet the local newspapers would have it printed by the next morning.

John knew enough about where the girls had been dropped off to have a good starting point to track Lady down, managing to find her late in the evening. The junked Datsun was one of the wreckers he remembered being in Bobby's lot and was parked outside a motel room. So far no one appeared to have caught onto Lady, but she was too close to the center of the news storm. He knocked, and when the light inside the motel didn't turn on he figured she was pretending not to be there. He looked around before getting on one knee to pick the lock. He would only give her enough time to grab her crap before he threw her into that junked truck and made her follow him back to Minnesota. If the stupid kid didn't get herself killed she sure as hell was going to get arrested, and when that happened he wasn't going to be around to help get her ass out of the fire. All he could do until then was try and knock the cocky out of her.

The lock disengaged and he opened the door. He closed it behind him before turning on the light. Lady's back was to him and she was on top of the covers. "Lady, get your ass moving," John ordered. "Now," he said more firmly when she didn't move.

Lady made a noise that was cut off by horrible coughs. John frowned as he walked around the bed, and he took a shocked step back when he saw her face. Lady's skin was pale gray, her lips a darker gray. The pillow was stained and slimy with blood and black phlegm. "Jesus Christ," he gasped, moving to her.

She waved a weak arm to keep him back as she kept coughing, her eyes rolling into the back of her head as she tried to take in breaths until the coughs settled. "What are you doing here?" she asked in a hoarse whisper and added a few weak coughs.

John felt his insides turn cold. He hadn't spoken to Lady in at least six months when she had called to get his opinion on something she had come across in Georgia, and hadn't seen her in over a year. A year ago she had been a pretty young thing. But now…

Lady had always been petite, but now she was sickly thin. She had to be less than a hundred pounds. Her eyes were blood shot and hazed, her mouth was nearly black and whatever she was hacking up smelled like decay. Every breath she took was a wet rattle and every part of her was trembling.

"I have to get…"

"No hospital," she said weakly. "You know...nothing works now," she rasped, her eyes moving to the nightstand where there were pill bottles, asthma inhaler and a flask that held a mix of things her and Bobby had worked together to create. She closed her eyes and let out a few weak coughs.

John sat on the edge of the bed and tapped on her back as she coughed, hoping he could help her work what was killing her out. He didn't know what else to do, he was watching her die. He set his jaw, he wasn't going to just watch her die. "C'mon, get up," he said. Lady wobbled as she sat up, and fell back down in a fit of coughs. "You just going to lie there and die? What happened to Miss Bad Ass?"

"Bite me," she said, and he saw a bit of fire return to her eyes.

"Tell me what you need," he said. "Whatever is going to help you so I can throw your ass in my car and get you to Bobby's." He wasn't going to be a welcomed guest at Bobby's, not after last time he had seen his old friend, but Bobby had a better idea of what was wrong with Lady than he did. Too bad it was at least a twelve hour drive to Sioux Falls, she didn't look like she'd last.

Lady sucked in an urgent breath and began to speak but before any words could be made out they turned into coughs again, but she was struggling with her body to contain them and talk through them. "Wa..."

"Water?" John thought she was trying to get out, but the door of the motel opened before he could reach for the glass next to her on the nightstand. He stood up and turned quickly, seeing two large Native American men stepping into the motel room. "Hey, don't you knock?" he asked, very aware of the men's menacing posture. He took a step forward, "Excuse me but my friend here is very sick, she needs some privacy."

"Charlie," the larger man said, and the other one, still a considerable size larger than John, moved forward. John wasn't about to pull a weapon on the intruders, he'd save that for when he knew it was necessary, but he didn't need a weapon to be dangerous. He slugged Charlie right in the face, but the hit barely made him stagger. There was a brief struggle before the larger man had John pinned and looked at his wrist. "He doesn't have the mark, Mason."

"He's helping her, keep him there," Mason ordered, going to the bed where Lady was catching her breath. Mason took Lady's thin arm in a large hand and looked at her tattoo. "Witch."

John struggled to get to one of his concealed weapons, but Charlie held him tight and knocked him on the head hard enough to make his vision blur. He had feared that Lady's mark would one day get her killed. Not many hunters knew of the coven, but he knew enough that just having the mark was enough to warrant her death in many of their eyes. "She isn't a witch!" He said. "Look at her, she's dying!"

"She is a witch," an old woman said as she slowly walked into the motel. "As sure as my sight shows me, she is a witch."

"And him?" Charlie asked.

The milky white eyes of the crone looked at John, "He is not. But he wants to protect her."

"Kill them both, then," Charlie said. Another thing John had feared, one day his association with Lady would get him targeted.

Lady had been very still as Mason held her arm, her raspy breaths coming quickly but she was silent. That was unusual for Lady, as long as she was breathing and had an audience she would talk. But she was saving her breath as she used her free arm to nail Mason right in the groin. The man groaned and stumbled back, releasing her arm as he went to protect himself.

"Hold her down, she is dangerous," the old woman commanded.

Lady's raspy breaths turned into choking coughs but she fought with her tiny arms and legs as Mason tried to pin her down on the bed while the old woman began to chant a verse. Lady hacked until the black was leaking from her lips and nose, still fighting with her last ounces of strength against someone three times her size.

"Get off of her!" John fought just as fiercely as Lady was, but Charlie knocked him good a few times. Those men were dead. Even if she died just trying to fight them they were dead.

Lady's coughing stopped and she went limp as she passed out from not being able to breath. The old woman stopped chanting, "Now, Mason, take your revenge."

Mason looked at Lady, eyes closed she looked peaceful and dead. The large man pulled a hunting knife from his belt, looking like he wasn't sure if he wanted to go for the heart or the throat. He looked at the old woman, "She's barely more than a child. I have children older than her."

"Evil is ageless."

"Max…I can't," Mason said, lowering the knife.

"Then I will," Max said, putting a hand on Lady's forehead to lift her head and expose her neck while taking the knife from Mason that was comically large in her hand. Max's hand paused just as Mason's had and then lowered. "This one is different," she said, sounding surprised. The old crone took a step back. "Bring her with us, I want to speak to her. We will settle this where I have full command of my power." Max looked at John, "I sense he is a warrior. Make him sleep but let him live."

John struggled as Charlie put a hand to his throat, cutting off his air and pressing on the artery in his neck. John fought against the blackness and struggled for an advantage, but failed and passed out. He awoke only minutes later, but the motel room was empty. His limbs were a bit wobbly but he got out to his car. He looked at a matchbook he had picked from Charle's pocket, it had the name of an Indian Casino on it, and that was where he planned to go.

John Winchester reached New Town four hours later, it was the middle of the night. He looked a bit roughed up, which he had been, but he went straight to the brightly lit Casino.

John took a seat at a blackjack table. He put a few chips down and played a few hands before starting to chat up the dealer. "Great thing about those kids that were found, huh?"

She nodded, "Yeah, a real relief. Their father, Mr. Mason, is a manager in the hotel here. He's a super nice guy and he's been really broken up about this whole thing."

"I bet," John said. "You know, I knew Mason way back when. Him and I had some good times. He still live in town?"

"Oh, no, as far as I know he's always lived out in the boonies," the dealer said. "Him and his family are over at Charlie's, though. Everyone is celebrating those little girls being back."

"I bet they are," John said. Celebrating by killing Lady the sick bastards. "Where is Charlie holed up these days?"

"He's across the bridge, has that auto-shop out front," she said. "Few blocks west of the clinic on Main."

"Oh yeah, yeah, I remember that," John said. He played his last chip and shrugged when he lost. "That's my limit. Thanks."

"Thank you, sir," she said.

John drove across a narrow bridge and slowed down to watch for the landmarks the woman had given him. There was a body shop and behind it was a house with a few lights on. He parked his Impala a safe distance and kept a weapon at the ready. Those men had gotten the jump on him once, it wouldn't happen again.

Lady woke up several times in the backseat of a large pick-up truck. She struggled as an old woman with curled fingers put her hands to her mouth, but she couldn't avoid them when a large man held her still. There was a musty smell she couldn't help but breathe in, and when one of the gnarled fingers slipped into her mouth she tried to bite it before passing out again.

"Ferocious," Max said, avoiding losing a finger. She sniffed at the black that had transferred to her fingers. "Death. This woman is dying swiftly. Hm, I am getting a better sense of her. This woman did not take your children. She rescued them. I want to know why. Why did a black witch save them, and not use them? Mason, if you do not hurry she will not live."

Lady was delirious and barely breathing as she was carried out of the truck and into a building. There were a few disassembled cars and the smell of oil and gasoline. She was taken into the back of the building and laid on a padding of dusty blankets.

"Maxine, do you have what I need?" Max asked.

"I grabbed exactly what you asked for," Maxine said. What Max needed and what she asked for could be entirely different things.

"This is not what I need but I will make do," Max said, sifting a mix of herbs ground into dust in a large wooden bowl. "The sickness she is leaking, gather it."

Maxine made a disgusted noise as she saw the black phlegm. She gathered it in her hands, scraping it off the dying woman's face and letting it fall into the bowl.

Max made a few noises as she mixed it within the bowl. Soon Lady had coughed up enough to turn the dust into a disgusting paste. "I see. I see now, what you are," Max said, her voice strangely light and high. "Maxine, we must save this woman. This cursed one must live."

Maxine assisted Max, holding Lady over smoldering incense as Max chanted. Lady coughed and struggled, trying to get out of the way of the smoke but Maxine held her firmly by the hair to keep her in its path. Lady thought it was some sort of sick torture. Her lungs tightened, she could almost feel them shriveling and giving up inside of her until black phlegm began to come out in streams instead of leaks and lumps.

"That will help her for now until I know more about her," Max said as Maxine laid Lady back down. Her breathing was slow and shallow, it still had a wet rattle but it was going to get better. "Stay with her, I want to speak to the children."

Maxine sat next to the woman. Maxine understood some of what Max had done, but not enough to be able to do it herself. As Max's apprentice one day she would be the tribe matriarch if and when Max finally gave up the title. Max had taught her many things over the years, but Maxine had the feeling that Max had no intention of passing the torch onto her. And she was okay with that.

"What did you do to me?" Lady moaned, her eyes half closed and dazed.

"We're trying to help you," Maxine said, taking a wet cloth to her face. "You are safe, we won't hurt you." When Lady tried to move Maxine pushed her back down. "But you cannot leave."

"Fucking bitch," Lady breathed.

"Your bark have any bite?" Maxine countered. "Breathe, can you feel a difference?" Lady looked away as she took deeper breaths. "I'll get you some water."

Lady was still until she heard Maxine leave the room. She sat up, pausing when she felt herself go light-headed. Water sounded wonderful, but she sure as hell wasn't sticking around. She also quickly realized she sure as hell wasn't going to get to her feet without falling on her face.

She looked at the movement of a shadow, pawing at her empty pockets for something, anything, until she saw it was John. He put a finger to his lips to signal her to be silent as he tucked his pistol in his pocket. She held onto him with weak hands as he lifted her into his arms, and her head fell back as she passed out again. He made it halfway to the door outside before Maxine moved to block his exit. She held a rifle and aimed it at him. "Don't move." John went still immediately, and then began to shift. "I've been deer hunting since I was eight, you really want to test my aim?"

"Not really," John admitted. It wasn't like she had a long distance to aim.

"The warrior has returned," Max said as she walked back inside. "Maxine, he is no enemy."

"You kidnapped my friend and knocked me out, you sure?" John questioned the crone.

"It was a misunderstanding," Max said. "One that these two girls have straightened out."

The twins he had seen pictures of shyly walked into the building, their father behind them with a hand on each of their shoulders.

"If this is a misunderstanding let me take her and go," John said. There was no way he'd dare to fire a gun with two little girls in the room.

"If she does not stay she will die, you know this John Winchester," Max said, and when she said his name a shiver crawled up his spine. "Yes, I know you. I know what you do, too. Come and speak with me outside, allow my children to watch over the cursed one and you have my word if you still want to take her away you will meet with no resistance."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but your word is with jack shit," John said.

"I could do this forcefully," Max said, a hand motioning toward Maxine. "That girl will not leave our care until I am satisfied."

John tightened his hold on Lady as Mason grabbed his shoulders firmly. He wasn't going to drop the frail girl, and he wasn't going to start shooting with two young girls watching. He let Maxine take the girl from his arms and was roughly shoved outside with Mason and Max.

Lady drifted in and out of consciousness, she thought that Carrie and Erin were hallucinations until her mind began to clear. She laid very still, her lungs felt dry and achy but for the first time in a long time the threat of coughing wasn't what had woken her up. The sun was shining in, warming her spot on the ground. Carrie and Erin were sitting on their knees, one near her face and the other near her legs, both of them smiling hopefully. "Think she can talk?"

"I don't know. Lady, can you talk?"

Lady's voice came out as a squeaky raspy. A few light coughs came out but didn't turn into the death hacks she was used to.

"Here, have some water."

One helped her sit up and the other put a glass of cool water to her lips. Lady sipped and swallowed painfully. The cool water felt heavenly in her dry mouth. She stayed sitting up, her head felt light but not bad enough to threaten her to pass out again. She was dressed in a clean nightgown, in what looked like an office to the mechanic shop she had been taken to. Her voice squeaked when she tried to ask the girls if they were alright.

"Maybe you shouldn't try to talk," one of them said.

"Yeah, you were, like, almost dead."

"But Max and Maxine helped you!"

"Yeah, we begged them to help you. I mean, you still look almost dead."

"Erin!"

"Well, she does."

"Do you feel better?" Carrie asked hopefully.

Lady had to think about it real hard, and gave a slight nod. The girls both grinned. "Who…Max?" Lady forced out the words, impressed that the effort it caused didn't send her into a coughing fit to finish her.

Carrie and Erin both looked a little unsure. "Well, we really aren't supposed to talk about her. But she's an ancestor of ours. She is an old medicine woman."

"And she has cures for, like, anything," Erin added. "This one time Derek got this real bad fever and wouldn't stop puking. She came over and the next morning he was fine."

"We shouldn't tell her," Carrie said.

"Girls," Maxine said. "You've been up all night, go into the house and get some sleep."

"But we want to stay with Lady," they whined together.

"The woman needs to rest, and I need to speak with her," Maxine said calmly.

"You better be nice to her, Maxine," Erin said.

"Yeah, you better be!" Carrie agreed.

"Get out of here, runts," Maxine said, giving them the smallest nudge out the door. "Sorry for putting the kids on you but I needed to go out and get some coffee. You want to eat?" Lady's eyes followed her in a glare. "Your buddy John is here." Lady squeaked but couldn't get any words to make sense. "Don't bother talking, it will be a few days until you can. I'll get you a pen and paper later. Until then I'll stick with yes or no questions. Your throat is probably sore as hell, would you like a milkshake?" Lady looked at her as if she were insane. "Okay, if it is a yes move your head up or down. If it is a no shake it from left to right. You aren't retarded, are you?"

Even knowing it was useless Lady let out a series of squeaks to verbally lash out at the woman while trying to get to her feet until she fell onto the floor gasping for breath. And then it really hit her. She was _breathing_. It still hurt, but not nearly as bad as it used to. Her lungs were working, she was taking in deep breaths and sighs and occasionally she needed to cough to clear her throat but that was nothing compared to what she had dealt with before.

John and Max came into the room as Lady worked on catching her breath. "She seems to be coherent, but not very bright," Maxine said.

John knelt to the ground to be on the same level as Lady, "One hell of a job you did rescuing those girls. I got to hear it from them, real nice work, Lady." Lady tried to ask him to get her out of there. That she was wearing some weird nightgown from the seventies that went to her ankles and she wanted to get out of there, but she needed his help. "Stop trying to talk. I know it's what you do best, but you just got to stop. You sound like you have a squeaker toy lodged in your throat."

Lady managed a weak, "Screw you!"

John smiled painfully, "I need a minute alone with her." Maxine and Max both stepped outside. "Really, Lady, one hell of a job. I saw you less than a day after you did it and I bet it wasn't easy in the condition you were in. These people, Max, is an old medicine woman. She knows folk magic that has never been written down, she's helped you. I'm going to leave you here." Lady shook her head and tried to tell him there was no way in hell he was leaving without her. "You listen to her carefully, and don't you agree to anything she asks of you unless you are damn sure she's on the up and up. Use her and this family, get yourself back on your feet, and get out of here. I can't stay, I got to get back to my kids. Don't trust that hag, not one inch. But take whatever aid she can give you." Lady looked at him hopelessly. "I'll be back for you," he promised her, but it didn't make her feel any better.

Lady was moved into Charlie's house, Maxine stayed with her most of the time but she had visitors. All of Mason's family wanted to know about her, curious who saved their little sisters, how she did it, and just what she was. Lady didn't tell them much of anything, but Max had figured enough of it out on her own.

A week later John returned and he stared at Lady with disbelief. Her eyes were clear, the dark circles had faded, her lips were pink and she had a healthy color and was walking on her own.

"I'll be damned," he muttered.

Lady slugged his arm fiercely, "Damned is right! You left me with the Native American Brady bunch with a witch in place of Alice for a week!"

"Lady, you…"

"I don't know how they did it," she said. "It's no cure but I feel better than I have in a year."

"Max get down to the cost of her services yet?" he asked, leaning against his car.

She leaned next to him, looking at the small faces that were in the house looking at them. "No. But she said if I speak a word of her to anyone she can reverse everything she did."

John nodded, "Yeah, she told me the same thing."

"Thing is, I think she's powerful enough to do that. And powerful enough to know, too."

"Then we don't tell anyone," he said. "You look good, Lady."

She cracked a smile, "I feel good. Get me the hell out of here. I want to get laid before I get sick again." John rolled his eyes as he moved to get in his car. "You aren't even going to help a dying girl fulfill her wish?" Lady gave him a joking grin.

"Get in the damn car," he chuckled.

They drove where he had originally found her, finding her Datsun had been impounded. He helped her retrieve it and then gave her some cash to get her on her way again. "I found something, you might as well have it," he said, showing her a silver charm bracelet. He put it on her wrist, still so thin it almost slipped off. "Don't lose it, okay?"

"Why are you giving it to me?"

"It has some decent protection to it, and too damn small for me or my boys. It's either give it to a dumb girl who thinks she is a hunter or melt it down into bullets," he said roughly. "Just take the damn thing."

"Okay," Lady said. "Uh, thanks, John. It, uh…"

"Don't mention it," he said. "Take care of yourself."

"You too," she nodded.


	17. North Dakota Part 2, August 2006

**A/N** - _This chapter is partially brought to you by the song 'Take Me Home Tonight' originally done by Eddie Money, but I prefer the cover done by the band Every Avenue_

**August 9, New Town, North Dakota**

Dean looked at his beer as a bit of a smile tugged at his lips. He rather liked hearing his father come to Lady's rescue. Dean wondered how things may have went down if he and his brother had been allowed to go along.

"You have any children, Dean?" Mason asked.

Dean looked at him with surprise, "Uh, no. No I do not," he said.

"It is hard to understand, then," Mason said. "What Lady did, rescuing my daughters, makes her part of my family. Of course, as stubborn as she is, it took her a few years to accept it."

"Looks like it's time to get you to the wheel," Maxine said, looking at the sky instead of a watch.

"What's that?" Dean asked as Lady stood up. He stood up with her.

"It's on top of the hill behind the house," Derek said. "You don't have to come with, Dean. Its ten minutes of listening to Max bitch about Lady, two minutes of Lady trying not to choke and then a long walk back down the hill trying not to step in anything Freddie has dropped. I'm not going, you can hang with me and Charlie while they are gone."

"I'm going," Dean said. They followed Mason and Maxine as they led the way, the full moon their only light. "So what is this?" he asked Lady as they began to climb a hill. "This keeps you alive?"

"If Max hadn't known this ritual Lady would have died a few years ago," Maxine said.

They climbed the hill to the top, at the end was a sheer cliff face and at the bottom was a lake. They were far enough that they couldn't see the lights of the house. The full moon was bright enough to guide their way and at the top of the hill Dean saw white rocks that reflected the moonlight. They were arranged in a circle about twenty feet across with a cross in the middle.

"It's a medicine wheel," Lady answered before he asked. "At the edge is a cliff, about a thirty foot drop to the lake so don't wander too far. It was built at a point so Max could look over the whole town when performing protection rituals, until the town was flooded to create the lake. Still serves its purpose, just not as nice of a view."

"Better view, no people," Max argued, dressed in a blackened leather poncho that touched the ground so that she looked like a shadow rising from the ground at the edge of the cliff. "The older I grow the more I hate you all."

"Can we get this over with so I can pass out?" Lady asked.

"Not so quick tonight," Max answered. "Tonight is a rare night, for I ask that my bloodline leave this sacred spot."

Mason and Maxine nodded obediently.

Dean was aware of the haze in his head from the alcohol, he had so many beers through the day he had lost count, but his mind was clearing quickly as his instincts woke up.

"What's the deal, Max?" Lady asked.

"The spirits must be summoned to give you further guidance," Max answered.

"Can we save this?" Lady asked.

"You don't want him to see it," Max said. "You worry that he'll see evil in what I do, what you do."

"I'm not the one binding spirits," Lady said.

"But you allow it to happen," Max said cruelly.

Lady turned to Dean, "Max binds spirits for protection. They are one of the reasons the area is so safe, they are like watch dogs. Most spirits are her ancestors, people connected to her by blood and willingly gave their time after death to her service."

"She has ghosts as slaves?" Dean said.

"Exactly. Most of them aren't powerful enough to be visible or speak, but a few will pop out now and then on a dark night and strike up a conversation." Lady turned to Max. "It isn't black magic, the spirits have to accept the binding. Thing is Max struck the deal with several of them under stressful circumstances so not all of them are happy. Morally questionable, magically clean."

Dean let the information sink in and said, "That's just wrong." He'd gone up against a ton of Casper's over the years, they weren't natural. After a person died if their spirit hung around it was never for a good reason, they were meant to move on. Where they moved onto he didn't know, but they sure as hell didn't belong where innocent people lived. Where chipper teenagers like Carrie and Erin braided each others hair and good housewives like Greta cooked enough food for a third world country.

"Then you'll both hate this," Max said.

Dean jerked slightly as Freddie's side touched his leg. Freddie sat next to him and whenever Dean tried to move the dog moved with him. Instead of fighting it he gave in and let his hand fall on the dog's head. Lady was on Freddie's other side, her face hard as Max began to chant in a low voice. Soon little orbs of light that normally wouldn't have been seen without the aid of technology like a video camera began to appear, and then a young woman appeared in the center of the circle with Max. Her spirit had a black tinge to it, and on the inside of her right wrist was a pure black mark that looked almost solid.

"I told you not to keep her here," Lady said.

"Who is that?" Dean asked, looking at the ghost.

"The witch Angie killed in Florida," Lady answered. "Tammy."

Tammy bowed her head, "Thank you for calling me, master. Lady, I see you have not yet joined me in death. I'd very much like to…" Tammy ran to the edge of the circle, but as if it was made of salt she bounced back and was unable to cross it.

Max shook her head, "Rebellious youth these days, I know I should have kept your heart in order to strengthen your binding."

Dean glared at Lady, "You told me you took her body to take care of it."

"I lied, don't sound too surprised," Lady said quietly. "Mason was there so he could take it back to Max. I didn't know what she wanted it for, and I couldn't stop him."

"We were there, we could have," Dean said firmly.

"No, you couldn't have," Max said. "Nor would you have wanted to."

Lady turned to Dean. "We know Garrett uses necromancy, if he wanted to he could have summoned Tammy for his own uses. Tactically speaking keeping her here puts him at a very small disadvantage." Lady turned back to Max, "But it also means you have a desperate spirit with knowledge of witchcraft. I don't know necromancy that well but this is stupid."

"Yes, it is," Max finally agreed. "But she also provides knowledge that even the book you have does not provide. I am still working to tighten my hold on her, but she has knowledge of the lines."

Lady's hard face softened as she looked between the spirit and Max. "Ley lines?"

"Yes," Tammy said, walking around the circle as if she were looking for a way to get out. "You know about them already?"

Lady licked her lips, "Yeah. All about them."

"Liar," Tammy said with a slow grin. "You know we use them. But you don't know how we find them."

"Enlighten me," Lady said stiffly.

Tammy struggled, the black mark on her wrist twisted around her arm and she snarled in pain. "No."

"I will get the information out of her," Max said confidently. "Be gone until called upon, spirit."

Lady brought her fingernails to her teeth, "If we can find out how they find their ritual spots I might be able to root them all out within the year, Max."

"Does that mean you approve of binding Tammy?" Max asked.

Lady took her hand away from her mouth, "No. One wrong detail and you may give her free reign to off your whole family in one night!"

"You think I would make such a fatal mistake?"

Lady put a hand to her forehead, "It happens to the best of us."

Max let out a rough hack that may have been a laugh, "You think you can consider yourself in the league with the best, girl?"

"I am not okay with this," Lady said flatly.

"Aren't you even curious why her spirit was black?" Max asked.

"I think I know why it was," Lady said.

"He doesn't," Max said. "The symbol of black witchcraft marks a person's soul, their spirit, their purest essence. Even now she has that magic tied to her, keeping her from being completely faithful." Max moved around the edge of the circle, "Come, it is time for the ritual."

Lady unclasped her bracelet and hooked it onto Freddie's collar. Without meeting Dean's eyes she said, "The cross in the medicine wheel works like a crossroad, spirits might come in and out but they can't leave the circle and they won't hurt anyone. Stay outside of the circle with Freddie."

"Dean, should you interrupt the ritual you will kill her," Max said, from the sound of her voice it sounded like a dare.

Lady took her butterfly knife out of her pocket and set it in Dean's hand before stepping into the circle. She put her feet in the center of the cross and sat down, her shoulders drawn in and tense. She wrapped her arms around her knees to make herself as small as possible in the center as Max began speaking in her native tongue fluidly. The cool wind grew harsher. The day had been a hundred or hotter and the night in the comfortable eighties, now it felt like forty or maybe even colder. And then the rocks seemed to glow brighter in the moonlight until little orbs of light began to form on the circle. Freddie whimpered and bumped into Dean's leg hard enough to make him shift his footing to keep from toppling over. He put a hand on the dog's head and rubbed gently.

Max went silent and Lady was very still in the center. "This is no cure," Max said, and Dean realized she was talking to him. "The curse affects her in many different ways, this is only able to hold back the harshest of those ailments." Dean glanced between Lady and the old crone. "Her senses are too busy to notice us speaking. Tell me, Dean Winchester, are you still willing to help her?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Dean asked.

"You tell yourself it is because you want to kill witches. She believes that. But I don't. Now more than ever you want to be able to save someone. Now this is the only chance you'll have to speak to me without her keeping you from hearing what she doesn't want you to hear."

"Then why don't you tell me what you think I want to know," Dean said.

Max let out a raspy breath, "Are you afraid to hear the future?"

"Is she going to die?" Dean asked.

"Everyone will die. Even I will. You already have once, and you will again."

"Is that curse going to kill her?" Dean corrected his question.

"That is a fantastic question," Max said.

"That isn't an answer," Dean said.

"Every time one looks into the future it changes," Max said. "If I told you, it would change again."

"Then tell me what I need to hear to make sure she doesn't die!" Dean demanded suddenly, surprised by his own outburst.

"I have survived more battles than your history knows of, you cannot intimidate me," Max taunted. "This is the last summer Lady will be here. She already knows this. However, you can help her."

"How?" Dean asked.

"How will you help her?" Max said.

"Yeah, how will I help her?"

"I do not know," Max admitted. "I was asking you. How will you help her? How can you help her?"

"Can you just tell me something straight? I don't need your god damned riddles," Dean said.

"Yes. The warlock Lady looks for, Garrett, is growing impatient and is beginning to sense her as a threat. He is powerful enough that when he decides to hunt her down he will find her and finish her. Killing him will require more than a bullet or blade, it will require powerful magic. Magic that is in the book she recovered, but she is too afraid to use."

"Black magic is the only way to off this guy?"

"That I can see, yes," Max said. "If you cannot convince her to open her mind to this option you will not be able to save her, only in time to see what is left of her. Something new to join your nightmares."

Dean shook his head, "No. She becomes a black witch I have to kill her."

"Then she will die," Max said, moving to the center and nudged Lady with a foot. Lady sucked in a sudden raspy breath and gasped as she fell onto her side. Her eyes fluttered open and she coughed a few times. Freddie jumped into the circle and licked her face until she sat up.

"Come clean the gutters tomorrow," Max said roughly before walking back down the hill.

Lady replaced her bracelet and took her knife back from Dean. "So, thoughts on the night?" she asked as they walked down the hill.

"I think you are way over your head," Dean said before telling her what Max told him. "How can you trust her?" Dean asked. "She's telling you to use black magic."

"It's a test," Lady said. "She gives me an option to do something quick and easy that I find morally repulsive, while vaguely hinting at the long and hard way to do it. In the end Max and I both want the coven done with. Without her help I wouldn't have been able to track half the witches I have. She's shady, no doubt, but whatever help she's willing to give I take. Besides, I have a few things she wants." The yard of the house was empty, the party had moved inside, but instead of rejoining them she walked down the road to the cars. She led them to the Beetle. Before Dean could protest to her opening the driver's door she threw her hands up and walked around to the passenger side. "I'm not sure how well her goals mix with mine, but killing the coven does benefit her."

Dean started the Beetle and turned on the high-beams as he let it bounce at a crawl across the grass. "If she is so powerful why can't she just lift your curse?"

"Honestly? I think she could," Lady said quietly. "Saving my life doesn't benefit anyone."

"Excuse me?" Dean glared at her. "You save lives. Sam and me would be dead if it wasn't for you."

"If it wasn't for me you wouldn't have gotten into that mess," Lady said. "Don't take it the wrong way, Dean, but I know the world isn't going to shatter when I die. A few people here and there might miss me but I'm nothing but a grain of salt in this whole thing." She reached across and corrected the steering before they could hit a hole. "I've invested a lot into this. Some things are questionable and if you don't like it I'm sorry, but I'm not stopping. John didn't know if the benefits outweighed the risks, I don't either to be honest, but this works for me. But if he knew what she did to Tammy. And I..."

"I'm not my father," Dean said, stopping the Beetle at her trailer. "I don't like it, but I said I was going to help you."

"But you don't have to," Lady said. "You just...you have a lot going on, You probably still have demons looking for you and your brother."

Dean looked at her, "Do you trust me?"

"I think I've shown a generous amount of trust," Lady said with wide eyes.

"I'm up for a witch hunt any day of the week. Sam and I have your back on this." Lady looked confused for a moment, but turned her head and got out of the car before he could be sure.

Once inside the trailer Lady opened the windows to let in the cool breeze and turned on two fans in the bedroom. Lady fell onto the bed, passing out quickly. The trailer wasn't climate controlled and the fans hadn't managed to cool it down yet. Dean pulled off his shirt and jeans, looking at Freddie as if daring the dog to try and take the other half of the bed before he could lie down. The damn dog could sleep on the floor, there was no way he was sleeping on the dusty couch. Dean stretched out on the mattress as the fans blew cool air over him. As he drifted to sleep he tried to think about what he had learned, the important information he'd soaked up since he left South Dakota, but a comfortable smile kept tugging at his lips from a fulfilling day. However not even a long day full of laughs could keep the nightmares away once he fell asleep. Only this night the nightmares starred Lady in her snug daisy-dukes and tank-top, pinned to the ceiling, bleeding from her belly as fire consumed her. The same way his mother and Sam's girlfriend had been murdered. Her pale eyes looking at him and her hand reaching out for help while her mouth snarled that it was his fault. Meg was there, laughing and dancing in the flames and a dark shadow chuckled. If the shadow was his own yellow-eyed demon or Lady's coven-leader Garrett he didn't find out.

"Dean?" Fire erupted from Lady's mouth, the orange flames momentarily turning blue before he jerked awake. The full moon was shining through the window and he had goosebumps all over his body. Lady was looking at him with concern and confusion. There was no fire on the ceiling, just her eyes that looked silver in the moonlight. "Do you want a blanket?" she asked in a sleepy mumble.

He want a lot of things, a lobotomy was high on the list, but there was only one thing she could give him to make the feeling of sickening dread go away. He was tasting the alcohol still on her breath before he knew he was going after it. At first the kiss was sloppy as she worked to get the sleep from her head, and then her hand went to his neck as she moved herself to him. She kissed him hungrily back. The second their clothes were off they were making love, tangled around each other while testing her mattress's strength.

Freddie got to his feet when the noises woke up him, looking curiously and making an annoyed noise when he saw they were doing it wrong. His nose touched Dean's foot, trying to get his attention. "Ah! Cold dog nose!" Lady giggled and wrapped a leg around his back. "Maybe we should put a video camera on his head if he's going to watch."

"Freddie, get out!" Lady said before she let out a squeal.

Freddie let out a huff and walked down the hall to rest on the kitchen floor. First the guy takes his half of the bed and then decides to go after Lady like he wanted to go after Laurie Johnson's golden retriever and goes about it all wrong. He put his head on his paws and closed his eyes.

Dean woke up as the hot sun heated the trailer beyond what the fans blowing on him could manage. He had managed to sleep through the rest of the night without another nightmare after he and Lady had nearly died of exertion. Her legs were still tangled with his and he didn't remember how they managed it but their heads were at the foot of the bed. As good as he still felt his mind was clear this morning, free of bad nightmares and alcohol, and he was realizing that the wild sex had been unprotected. He was about to vocally state his idiocy but Lady jerked awake before he could make any noise. "What?" she asked, her head jerking up and looking around. She let out a breath and put her head back down, "Did you say something yet?"

"No," he answered, beginning to feel more stupid. Now he had to tell her. "Lady?"

"Mmhm?" she murmured to tell him she was listening and hadn't fallen back asleep.

"You are on some sort of birth control or something, right? Because last night was, uh…heh, raw dog, you know," he said, an uncertain smile on his face as Lady began to laugh at him.

"Yeah," she said, beginning to stretch. She tensed slightly and moved to glare at him, "You aren't carrying anything, are you?"

"No," he answered quickly.

She put her head back down, "Then that's okay. And besides for my fatal curse I'm as healthy as a horse."

Dean let himself relax, that could have gone horribly wrong, but already it had ruined his mood. He could almost hear his father giving him the awkward puberty talk, could almost hear him shouting for his lapse in judgment.

"I'm going to take a shower before I go to Max's," Lady said while getting out of bed. "You coming?"

"Hell yeah," he said, pausing only to untangle his leg from a sheet.

After their shower that lasted longer than the hot water they got dressed and Lady heated up pop-tarts for breakfast. "What are we doing at Max's?" Dean asked as he looked through her fridge and grabbing a bottle of juice.

"I'm just doing to do errands," she said. "Clean the gutters, pull weeds. You can go back to Bobby's…you…" Lady's face twisted into a frown.

Dean raised his eyebrows, "What?"

"Never mind. If you want to hang out here you can. Or Mason can get you a room at the Casino."

"What were you going to say?" Dean asked. He had caught onto Lady's habit of adjusting her words when her future-sight warned it wouldn't go well and he was curious what it had been.

Lady studied his face for a few moments, "To go back to Sam." Dean's face hardened. "If you need a few more days away, that's cool."

"I'll hang around because I think there is more here."

"You don't trust me?" Lady asked lightly.

"I trust you to do a lot of things, Lady. Just not sure if being honest is one of your many talents."

"I don't have much I can lie to you about anymore," she said.

Dean turned to lean against the counter, "Yeah? What's your real name, then?"

"Now I never lied to you about my name," Lady said. "I simply do not tell anyone."

"Tell me," Dean said. "You trust me, right?"

"I don't trust anyone with that," she said.

"How bad is your police record that you can't use your own name?" Dean asked. Considering he was named a murderer in St. Louis several months ago because of a shapeshifter he didn't think hers could be much worse. Of course, killing witches often left human bodies.

"Can't have a record if you don't have an identity," she said. "But I wouldn't be surprised if my fingerprints haven't ended up in a few systems. I'm sure you can imagine some of the things that would be associated with."

"Killing witches usually leaves a mess," Dean muttered.

Before he could offer to teach her methods he used to clean up messy kills she said, "I'm heading over to Max's. Unless you want to help you can stay here and...well, nothing to do here, really." She was right, unless he wanted to count the stains on the carpet he was going back over to the witch's house.

Dean was beginning to hate the Beetle. The car drove fine, handling prairie trails or no trails easily, it had even had a decent amount of power in the engine. But every few minutes Freddie stuck his head over the seat to bark at a prairie dog or breathe foul doggy-breath on Dean until Dean roughly shoved him back. It was small, he felt trapped inside of it. The clutch was inconvenient. And the paint job was emasculating.

Dean parked the Beetle in front of Max's house. There was smoke coming out of the teepee in the yard but Lady didn't even go near it. The morning into the early afternoon was full of manual labor. Lady was on the roof cleaning gutters while Dean trimmed back overgrown trees with a chainsaw.

Lady had finished going through a large garden, the knees of her jeans were dirty as well as her hands, and was calling to Dean. "You having fun with the chainsaw?"

"A bit," Dean admitted as he killed the engine. "I've cut more than is down there. Your damn dog keeps dragging them off."

"Yeah, he likes to do that," she said as he climbed down the ladder.

"We done for the day?"

She smirked a bit, "You wish. I think I should get you inside to cool off before you get heat stroke."

Dean wiped at the sweat on his forehead, the hot sun combined with physical work had both of them dripping sweat. He followed her inside the air-conditioned home, much nicer and more comfortable than he thought Max's home would be, and drank a few glasses of water.

"You work slow," Max snapped as she slowly walked into the house. "And you are getting my home filthy."

Lady smeared the dirt from her hands on her shirt, "Oops," she said without caring.

"Serve me some tea," Max said, sitting at the small kitchen table.

Lady was already turning to the stove to grab a tea pot.

"Sit down, Dean," Max said.

"I'm good, thanks," Dean said, leaning against the kitchen counter.

"I was hoping we could speak before you left today," Max said. "The three of us."

"Is this the part where you tell me if I speak of your existence you'll let Lady die?" Dean guessed.

"I will allow you to tell one soul," Max said. "Your brother. Should he or you speak to anyone else I will have no choice but to sever my aide to her."

"What's your angle in this?" Dean asked.

"I believe you and your brother will both be important in ending the coven," Max said.

"All this time I thought you just liked messing with my head."

"I don't wish to mess with you, Dean Winchester," Max said as she folded her gnarled hands in front of her on top of the table. "I do wish to know what you plan to do. You are holding a great burden on your shoulders, if you don't share some of that burden it will break your back. I am willing to share that."

"You know something about the demon?" Lady asked, looking surprised.

"I know about many things," Max said. "But that is not the burden I speak of. Tell me, Dean, about your father's last words."

Dean was frozen at the counter, glaring at Max with hatred. The last words of his father that haunted his nightmares and disturbed his days, the only way he managed to stay sane was by keeping his mind and hands busy with work.

Lady looked at Dean with concern, but his eyes never left Max. She turned her glare to Max, "That's enough, Max."

"You want to forget it, pretend it never happened, erased it from your mind. You are fighting it with everything you have, you can't have much left, can you?" Max continued.

"Dean, ignore her."

Dean nodded, turning his eyes to the floor. "Go to hell, bitch," he said, and began to walk out.

"Must be a horrible thing to hear your father say," Max said, and Lady's face went slack as Max continued, "That you will have to kill your own brother." Dean tensed, he hadn't even made it out of the kitchen. His eyes went back to Max. The look on his face told Lady that Max had hit the nail on the head. "That if he becomes evil, you must be the one to kill him." Max continued.

"That's it, you are done," Lady said.

"He's not done listening," Max said, almost happily.

"You see that in your damn pebbles?" Dean asked hotly.

Max looked at him with milky blind eyes, "It is as of yet unseen. There are powerful forces, more powerful than I am, at work within your destiny. Too many things are changing too quickly to be sure. Evil so dark I cannot safely see it, and you are in the middle of it. Your brother's death may be the only way to avoid it."

Lady wrapped her arms around Dean's middle before he could physically lash out at the old woman and shoved him out of the kitchen. "Take it easy, hold on," Lady grunted as Dean couldn't hold back the anger any longer. Max had been so close, but soon Lady had managed to shove him out the front door.

Lady stared at Dean as he kicked a dent in the door of her car, anything she thought of saying was only met with silence or more attacks on her car for a long time.

Dean turned to her, then shook his head to look away again. "You couldn't even begin to understand."

Lady rubbed her forehead, and then dropped her hand after remembering the dirt still stuck to it. "I think my realm of understanding is pretty large but you are right, I don't understand this. Is what she said true?"

Dean looked at her with pained eyes that scared her more than his anger just moments before. It had been there since he had returned to Bobby's after his father's death, and she had believed it was grief. It was more than just grief. "Yeah," he said.

"Jesus," she breathed, looking away from him. She shook her head, "Why would John think Sam would turn evil?"

Dean shook his head, "I don't know. It has something to do with that damn demon. But I don't know. It said it had plans for Sam, we don't know but Dad did. At least I think he did. Plans for Sammy and all the other kids like him."

"To be honest it would be more believable that Big Bird would be evil than Sam." Dean stared at her. "Your brother talks, god damn does he talk. He's compassionate, to the point where I wonder if he doesn't have girl parts. How he ended up that way growing up with you and being raised by John I don't know. I don't understand most of the world or the people in it, but he's good, Dean. If anything happens to him that makes him...well, it wouldn't be Sam."

"Yeah, I know."

"If you do why does it..." Lady stopped talking as she saw Dean was about to go into a frenzy. "Does Sam know what John said?"

Dean threw his hands up, "What the hell would I tell him? 'Hey, bro, heads up I may have to stab you in the throat if you go Darth Vadar on me.' That sounds great."

"Good point," Lady said shortly.

Dean met her eyes, "I don't know what the hell to do."

"I know what you need to do," Lady said. "Take the Beetle, there is enough cash in the glove box to keep it gassed up. And go back to Bobby's."

"What if Max knows something else?" Dean asked.

"If she does I'll find out," Lady promised. "Just give me a few days with her."

Dean lowered his eyes, "I..."

"Don't worry about the car," she said.

Dean got in the car without another word and left her there.

Max was serving herself some tea when Lady returned to the kitchen. "You do some twisted and horrible things, but what you just did actually made me ashamed to know you," Lady said.

"You say that like I should care," Max said as she returned to the table.

"That man just lost his father, all he wanted to do when he came up here was forget it for a while. And forget what he and his brother had been put through and what his father told him. They are good people, Max."

"There is a lot of blood on his hands, how sure are you he is a good man?" Max asked her.

"If it wasn't for me your blood would have been on his hands, too," Lady said.

"He wouldn't have been able to finish the job," Max chuckled.

"Tell me what you know," Lady said firmly. "No crap, Max."

"I cannot see far enough to tell," Max answered. "I have never seen evil as dark as the evil that haunts Dean Winchester. Demons have magic that cannot be purified. If what John Winchester believed is true, the best thing to do is to kill the boy before it is too late."

Lady clenched her jaw, she didn't need to see the future to know repeating that to Dean would end violently. "You know when I first came here you ran your mouth about saving lives. You use me to get rid of the coven because you think they are a threat to what you have here, and that's fine because I want the same thing. But the second you think I won't make it to the finish line you start telling me that I need to up my game and play at their level. And you think killing a man you don't even know is for the best?"

"Dark times are coming upon us," Max said gravely. "Things must be done to assure our survival."

"Open your blind eyes, your bloodline is a few generations from becoming extinct," Lady said. "You need to look outside of this reservation every now and then."

Max was quiet for a while, "I will search his destiny and meditate to see if I can discover more."

"You do that," Lady said.

"When I return I want the house painted," Max said, getting up from her seat.


	18. Bobby's House, August 2006

**August 23rd, Sioux Falls, South Dakota**

Dean stepped out of Bobby's house with a bit of a bounce in his step, "Charlie, good to see you, man. You bring it?"

Charlie Mason jerked a thumb to the back of his truck, "Found it off an original. I should charge you twice as much for making me give her a ride."

Lady stepped out of the truck, "I paid for gas," she snapped.

"Didn't tell me that gas came from your damn dog," Charlie grimaced as Freddie made a noise.

"Don't you _dare_ blame that on my dog!" Lady pointed at him.

"Help me get this unloaded," Dean said, jumping into the back of the truck and grabbing hold of the heavy car piece.

Lady went into the house, wanting to see Sam. Sam looked up from Bobby's computer and smiled, "Hey, was hoping you'd come back."

She returned his smile, "Of course!" She said, wrapping her arms around him in a hug.

Sam glanced out the window to see Dean talking to the man how had delivered a car part. "He's gotten real far on the Impala. It's pretty amazing, actually."

"Yeah, I got a glimpse on my way in," she said. "How you been, Sam?

"Good," Sam said. "Better. You know, uh, I actually wanted to thank you for getting rid of Dean for a couple of days. I think we both needed a bit of a break and when he came back he's been a bit better."

"Then I'm glad," Lady said. "You'd be surprised what a few pounds of hamburger, case of beer and a party can do to a person."

Sam laughed, "That's what you guys did? Party?"

"I let him play with a chainsaw, too," Lady smirked. "He didn't tell you anything?"

"Uh, well, yeah, he did. He told me about the medicine woman, I was actually looking into the area a bit. The reservation, that sort of thing, before you came in."

Lady took a seat next to him, letting him show her things he discovered about the area Dean had told him about.

Dean entered the house and went to wash the grease from his hands. "Give me a few more days and that car is going to be better than new," Dean said.

"Dean, check this out," Sam said. "Have you ever heard of the Buffalo Bird Woman?"

"No," he said, leaning over Sam's chair to look at the article he was reading. "Maxidiwiac?" Dean snorted a laugh. "Max?"

"No," Lady said. "But one of her descendents."

"Born in 1839?" Dean looked insure.

"This woman is dead," Lady said. "I chatted with her ghost a few years ago. Nice woman, definitely not Max."

"Weirdest thing I've found about the area though...is nothing," Sam said, looking excited.

Dean frowned, "What?"

Lady smiled, "That whole area is protected. It might be crawling with spirits, but nothing gets in that Max doesn't want in." She ruffled Sam's hair, "You are so damn smart."

Sam chuckled and moved his head, "It's really fascinating. Do you think I can..."

"No," Lady said firmly. "You can't meet her."

"Hell no," Dean added. There was no way in hell he'd let his brother visit the medicine woman that thought he was better off dead, that had received insight straight out of his damn head.

"Max has been settled in that area for over a century, it's not so much her influence as years of setting up protection," Lady said. "Not to mention the weather sucks, not many things or people, want to hang out there for long."

"Why are you getting so excited over this?" Dean asked. "Max is a...a folk-magic bitch, cranky as hell and won't think twice about jinxing you."

Lady turned to Dean, "She gave you boils, didn't she?"

Dean glowered at her, and then away, "Shut up."

"I told you not to call her a witch!"

"I didn't think she could hear me five hundred miles away!" Dean snapped back.

"Dean, we deal with evil supernatural things all the time. Finally there is a supernatural thing that isn't evil," Sam said.

"Excuse me," Lady said.

Sam looked at her with wide eyes, "I don't think you are supernatural, Lady," he said.

"Aw, you are so sweet and adorable," Lady reached to ruffle his hair again.

He leaned away, "Stop it," he laughed.

"Sam, want to do me a favor and take Freddie on a run? His leg is better but I haven't had the time to get him exercise and I've had two hours of sleep. I'm ready to crash."

"Yeah, no problem," he said, knowing it was to get rid of him but happy for the excuse. If Lady and Dean wanted to be alone then he probably didn't want to be around.

Lady and Dean watched him leave and waited until he heard him call for Freddie. "Want to hear what the folk-magic bitch had to say?"

"Yeah," Dean said, taking Sam's chair.

"Whatever your father got you into, it's big," Lady said.

"How big?" he asked.

"Max isn't all powerful, but she's pretty damn uber. She can't get a hard read on any of it. I had to nudge a bit and give her some information, about the other guy like Sam, the others that might be out there. She can't get a read on any of them, it's like they are protected by this thing."

"Could she track down the demon?"

Lady shook her head, "Without a piece of the demon, no. But without the Colt how can you even take it on?"

Dean looked away, "Yeah, I know." He rubbed his eyes, "What about the Colt? I saw that thing gun kill a vampire and a demon, it's mystical, can we find it again?"

"You know what, I might be able to," Lady said thoughtfully. "The bullets were made with the gun, right? Do you have one of the bullets?"

"No. There was only one left and it vanished with the gun," Dean said. "But I have one of the shell casings."

"I'll give it a shot," Lady said and flashed a grin, "Catch that? I'll give it a shot." She nudged him with her elbow until he cracked a smile.

Bobby and Sam were present as Lady prepared the ritual that evening.

"It's about to start raining, shouldn't we do this inside?" Dean asked as he handed her the empty shell casing from the bullet he killed a demon with in Missouri.

"I prefer doing them outside," Lady said. "Safer in case it blows up in my face."

Dean tensed as Lady stepped into the circle of salt she had made. "What are the chances of that happening?"

"There is no one more experienced with this sort of stuff than Lady," Bobby assured him as he took a step back and tugged Dean to do the same. "Unless you go recruit a real witch."

Lady used a silver bowl that already had a mix of ingredients and threw a lit match inside. The orange flame flickered weakly inside the bowl as she began to speak in Latin, and then she put the empty shell into the flames. The flamed extinguished and Lady swirled the ashes a few times before dumping them onto a map of the United States. She watched the bullet rock and sway before it began rolling across the map. It trembled upon a spot and then righted itself before becoming still.

"Colorado? That means it's in Colorado?" Dean asked.

"Not so fast," Lady muttered as she reached a finger out to the bullet. Her future-sight warned her what she would see if she touched the bullet. Tortured screams and red-hot flames streaked with smoky clouds that moved fluidly between bright flashes of lightening. She pulled her hand back before making contact. "Sorry, guys. Your demon has a sense of humor."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

Lady splashed the map and shell with holy water and the hot shell sizzled. "I mean he used the same spot we used to cloak you and cloaked the gun...sort of. He expected you to search for it. I got a bit of a glimpse of where it really is, and it doesn't help you any."

"Where?" Dean asked.

Lady crumpled up the dirty and soggy map and stepped out of the circle, "I think it is really in hell." Lady handed Dean the shell casing, "I'm going to bed," she said softly. "Sorry."

If Lady was capable of dreaming she knew what would be in her nightmares that night. The split second her future-sight had shown her of the true location wasn't fading easily, but she was sure if she had stayed her course to come into direct contact with the piece of the bullet she would have seen more than she could have handled.

Lady woke up before the sun the next day and walked silently into the kitchen to see Dean hunched over one of Bobby's books. "Sorry about last night," she said, biting back a smile when she startled him.

Dean closed the book, "You did what you could. It was always a long shot, wasn't it?" Lady let a smile spread across her face before he said, "Get it? Long shot?"

Lady started the coffee maker, "Guess we're back to square one."

"We have other leads we're working on. Not really fair to ask you to do any more."

"I like being able to help," Lady said quietly as the coffee brewed. "All the spells and rituals I've learned over the years... it feels nice when I can put them to practical use."

"Practical Magic, huh? Not that great of a movie but had a hot lead," Dean said.

Lady smirked as she rinsed out a coffee cup, "Nicole Kidman fan?"

Dean worked on hiding his smile as he stood up from the table and reached over Lady's head to grab a mug from the cupboard, "I'm more into Bullock, I like dark hair."

Lady studied his face for a moment and then turned to pour herself a cup of coffee, "Sam is right, you are in a much better mood."

"Well I know if anything happens to him it will be because of this demon," Dean said. "And every time you show up I get a little bit more information." Lady returned the pot to the hot plate after filling Dean's mug and turned to face him again. "No offense, you are a stone's throw away from being a witch yourself, but you've become the closest thing to a friend Sam and I have had in...years. I've pretty much accepted I'm on the crazy train."

"You were listening to Ozzy recently, weren't you?"

The corner of Dean's lip twitched in a smile he was unable to fight for long. "Guilty."

"Of so many things," she agreed.

"How about you? Max come through for you?"

"Yes and no," Lady said. "I want to run it by Bobby, but I'm real excited about it."

Dean set his mug down on the counter and took a step closer, "How excited are you?"

Lady grinned at him, "Good morning, Bobby," she called.

Dean let out a breath and turned away from her as Bobby walked into the kitchen. "G'morning," he said gruffly.

"Here you go," Lady said, handing him the mug she had filled.

"Thanks, kid," he said. "You doing okay?"

"Upright and breathing, no complaints," Lady said, and he replied with a rough laugh. "I'm glad you are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, because I need to talk to you."

Bobby glanced at Dean and back to her, "Well my day is starting off on a good note."

"I thought mine was going to, too," Dean muttered as he excused himself from the kitchen and outside to work on his car.

"This the kind of thing where you say I should sit down?" Bobby asked.

"Mm, this is the sort of thing where you quietly sit there angry at me for a while but then get over it because in the end it's good news," Lady said. Bobby let out a breath and sat down. "You've been wondering where I've been getting my help all these years. I can't tell you everything about them, but it is a Native American medicine woman. Dean met her a few weeks ago, hated her. I really don't care for her most of the time but she's taught me a lot. She's very secretive, I couldn't tell you and even now I can't tell you much else. But I finally got approval to speak to you about her so you know where I got this information."

"Sounds shady, kid," Bobby said. "How can you be sure..."

"It's just something you have to trust me on," Lady said. "Because with her help I've managed to hold back the curse, and there were a few witch hunts where if she hadn't given me some hints I may have become extra crispy. Working with her isn't without its risks, but I've been managing really well. And I stumbled upon something huge."

Interest sparked in Bobby's eyes, "How huge?"

Lady smiled as her audience became hooked, "You want me to do a few size comparisons for you? Should I use sports terms?"

"Stop screwing around and tell me," Bobby said.

"No foreplay?" Lady pouted.

"Kid!" Bobby snapped.

"Okay, let me get the brothers, they'll want to hear this."

With everyone in the kitchen Lady spread out a map of the United States with small dots in several places. "You guys have heard of ley lines, right?" She asked, pulling out a marker.

"Sure," Sam said. "There isn't any real proof that they exist, though."

Lady looked at him blankly, "No proof? You believe the experts that claim no proof that spirits, demons and vampires can not naturally exist? Sam! Really?"

Sam let out a laugh, "Okay, but we can see demons and vampires."

"Ley lines do really exist," Lady said. "Lines of mystical energy running underground. Whenever these lines intersect...for a hundred points that would be called a..." She looked at the group of men.

"You are making a game out of this?" Bobby asked.

"I had a long ass drive yesterday and I spent it preparing this whole thing, damn right I am," Lady said.

"A crossroad," Dean said numbly, remembering the medicine wheel Max used to summon her spirits and perform rituals.

"And Dean-o has the lead," Lady grinned. "Intersections of ley lines have, since ancient times, been sights of powerful spots. Ritualistic altars, the Pyramids, churches to black masses. However there is some question as to if these places happen upon the intersections, or if intersections are created from these sites. Kind of a chicken and the egg question, I don't know but what I do know," she gave Bobby a firm look, "is that the ley lines aren't stationary. They shift, some appear, some disappear. Some are positive, some are negative, like batteries. Now for five hundred points can anyone tell me what happens when you only attach the positive end of a battery to something?"

"It doesn't work," Sam said flatly. His eyes widened, "So these intersections are of negative and positive lines?"

"Bingo," she said. "Over the years I've revisited ritual sites," Lady pointed at the map she had spread out. "All the dots represent sites I found, not all of them had witches there at the time but every single one at some point was on one of these intersections. Sometimes a new witch moves in other times they stay quiet forever and I've been trying to figure it out. I managed to wrestle some information down, this coven has been dueling it out with each other for decades because something happened about twenty years ago that disrupted the ley lines. Positive lines went negative, negative went positive, some stayed the same, some shifted, some disappeared, new ones popped up. I'm thinking this coven could be worldwide, but not nearly as much as a threat anywhere other than the states because whatever happened affected lines from west to east coast."

"What is big enough that could have done that?" Dean asked.

Lady shook her head, "That's the thousand point question," she looked at Bobby. "You were the only one of us not attached to Barney in that time period."

Bobby shrugged, "Can't say I know. What sort of things can disrupt these lines?"

"They don't shift without reason, but I'm willing to bet with enough practice and the right tools you might be able to track them," Lady said. "They aren't impossible to detect, and I found out how the heavy hitters of the coven locate active sites." Lady pulled a folded piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to Bobby. He opened it and set in on the table. Dean looked at it, reading it upside down. The writing was messier than his father's, heavy lines and large spaces with a lot of scribbled out words. "What do you think?"

"You got this out of that book?" Bobby asked roughly.

"Yup," Lady answered.

"Find something else," he said, crumpling the paper.

"What if that's the only way…" Sam began.

"It came out of a black witch's book, Bobby is right," Lady said. "I have other options."

"Like?" Dean asked.

"Have you ever heard of water-witching? Take a forked stick and walk around?"

Dean looked at the map, it was impossible to search the whole country, even a whole town, like that. "Well, you have fun with that."

"This is just a new project until I hear something on the coven again," Lady said. Lady looked up at Bobby, "Almost positive that Garrett is a warlock, now."

Bobby nodded, "We suspected it for a while, prepare the best we can, I suppose."

"So he's a warlock? You've killed dozens of these things already," Dean said.

"Witches, not warlocks," Bobby said. "Don't you know the difference?"

"You shoot them, they die," Dean said.

"Witches need rituals," Lady said. "They might be able to hold onto enough power between rituals to light a candle with a thought, but otherwise they need ingredients and a spell. A warlock doesn't. They've gone so far that they can draw magical power either straight from a source, or maybe they are the source."

"Saying they are the same thing is like saying the Geico Gecko is Godzilla," Bobby added. "A normal witch can't do much to you unless they were already prepared. Even if you catch a warlock off guard they won't go down easy."

Sam rubbed his eyes, "Well, what is our next move?"

"For you guys, I don't have one," she said, rolling up the map and tucking it into her bag. "But I plan on spending the next few weeks checking out a few points of interest."

"That's what you have?" Bobby asked.

Lady tried to keep from pouting, "Well I was pretty damn excited about it. Now you have me wondering how the hell to figure it out from here and now I'm sort of pissed."

Bobby let out a breath, "You did good, kid. We'll figure something out."

Sam went to the computer and Bobby got to work on one of his projects as Dean went back outside to continue working on his car.

"I have to say I am pretty damn impressed," Lady said as she looked over the nearly completed Impala. "This looks pretty damn good."

"And after this it will even run again," Dean said from under the hood. "This should have cost me over a grand, Charlie gave me one hell of a deal. Which reminds me I got that money you lent me."

"Don't worry about it," Lady said. "Hold onto it in case I need a favor later." She walked around his Impala to her Beetle that wasn't parked far away. "Okay, seriously?"

"What?" Dean asked, looking up.

"You untwisted a ton of metal back into car-shape but you couldn't take the time to pop out the dent in my door?" She asked. "Screw you, I want my money!"

Dean dug into his back pocket, "I am sorry about that."

"Yeah, you will be when I take it back to Charlie to fix," she said, taking the money and counting it. Satisfied she shoved it into her front pocket.

"You leaving already?" He asked as she opened the trunk of her car to check out her things.

"Not until tomorrow morning," she said, hefting the heavy bin of dog food out of the trunk and opening it. At some point the food had begun to mold so she drug it into the taller grass to dump it out. "I just need to get ready for the trip." She came back with the empty bin and tossed it back into the trunk. She opened the driver's door and then slammed it. "You couldn't even fill the tank? Dude, last time you drive my car. Ever. Common courtesy."

"I was going to get around to it," he lied.

Lady smiled a bit as she pulled a few things from her bag, "Hey, I brought you something," she said and Dean looked up again while wiping his greasy hands on his jeans. She was pulling out a small gem on a long black cord. The gem was about the size of a dime and was yellowish-orange with an engraving of a lion on it. "It's garnet. It's for protection while traveling."

Dean smiled a bit as he let the cord flow through his fingers until it caught. He let the gem swing back and forth, "I really..."

"Enough making fun about my driving, okay?" Lady snapped before he could say she needed it more than he did. "But, uh, it will protect you from accidents, suicidal deer, and may even give you some luck with the police. No promises, but it's a legit charm. And, uh, also if you put it under your pillow it can help ward off bad dreams."

Dean had the length of cord wrapped around his fingers and looked at the small gem. He had seen stranger things pull more powerful feats. "That's actually pretty great," he said.

"Just, don't actually wear it," Lady warned quickly. "Especially after midnight on a new moon." Dean gave her a concerned look. "You might turn into a gremlin with a white mohawk."

Dean let out an unexpected laugh, "Thanks, Lady," he said, more for the laugh than the trinket. He pulled her into a long hug and pressed his lips to the top of her head in a silent kiss. She gave his tender butt a playful swat, he let out a grunt of uncomfortable pain as he let her go. "Go ahead."

"Bitch," Dean let the word hiss out from his teeth, but there wasn't anger in his tone.

"I warned you not to call her a witch," she chuckled. They both looked to Bobby's house as Sam bounded out with Freddie on his heels, it looked like Sam was ready to take Freddie for another run around the lot. "You didn't tell him, did you?" Lady asked, relieved when she heard the answer.

"No," Dean said shortly. He didn't want to talk about it, and she didn't blame him.

She wanted to ask him if he ever would tell his brother his father's last words, warn him that something dark may be coming to turn him into an evil version of himself. "Probably for the best. At least until you know what you are up against."

"I know what I'm up against. I just don't know if it's better to run and hide from it, or hunt it so I can put it down before it can get him."

Lady nodded. But it wasn't easy to hide from a demon. Bobby's house was very well protected, but even Meg had got in. "That cloaking ritual should keep you pretty well hidden for a while longer. The equinox next month falls on a new moon, we can do it again then. Would even be pretty powerful mixing it." Lady tucked her arm into her side as she saw him looking for the fading scar from the last time. "I don't mind opening a vein for a good cause. A lot of things I don't mind opening for a good cause." She smiled happily until Dean returned it.

"That'd take the edge off of this thing a bit until we can figure out a better plan," Dean said. "Hey, do me a favor and turn the key."

"Oh wow, you trust me to actually sit in the driver's seat?" Lady asked in shocked sarcasm.

"You don't need to sit down to turn the key. Nothing funny," Dean said firmly.

The Impala started up without a problem, the engine running loudly as Dean examined the engine under the hood with bright eyes and a satisfied smile. He slid into the driver's seat as the engine rumbled. There was still more work to be done, but his baby was running like a dream again.

Lady sat in the passenger seat, "You know, if you want to take it on a short cruise we could go into town."

Dean shook his head, "Don't need to go into town."

"We could get a motel room for the afternoon," she said.

Dean looked hesitant for a moment, he was keen on continuing his work and getting to the paint job, until she crossed her legs at the knees. "Are those the stripper heels?"

"Uh huh," she said.

Dean glanced around and shifted the car. The wheels spun on the gravel and the engine gave a satisfying roar as he pulled out of the lot. Lady slid across the seat and put her hand on his knee and slowly slid it toward his groin. Dean put his hand on hers to keep her off him until they got into the privacy of a motel room. The thrill of being back behind the wheel of his car, not one of the junked pieces in Bobby's lot or her crappy Beetle, combined with the promise of a little physical attention he was having a hard time resisting the urge of pulling onto a dirt road and taking her.

Lady giggled at Dean's focus she was trying to distract him from. She wouldn't grope him if he didn't want her to, but she couldn't resist leaning toward him to blow a cool breath on his ear before licking it lightly. If he didn't get her somewhere soon she was going to make him pull over so they could get down to business. He was completely irresistible right then. His skin hot from the sun and working on his car, the smell of new vinyl seats in the car mixed with grease and his own scent.

"You are so asking for it," he laughed as she continued the light teasing as they reached town and he had to slow his speeding. Stopping at a red light he turned to get a kiss but she moved back, her eyes wicked and playful.

Lady kept out of arms reach until they were inside a motel room. Dean had his back to her while locking the door and when he turned she jumped into his arms, wrapping her arms and legs around him while kissing him almost violently. His hands went up her thighs and cupped her ass while staggering forward before pressing her between a wall and himself. Her fingers went up the side of his face and ran through his hair, pulling it lightly as he bit her lip.

Lady held on to him tight as he carried her to the bed and let herself fall onto her back and she had to laugh when she bounced back up. "Oh, this bed is awesome. Get down here," she commanded, hooking a leg behind his knee and tugging him down to her.

"You are bossy," Dean said as he pulled off his shirt.

Lady ran her hands up his stomach and chest to his neck until she could hold his face, "Don't make me gag you," she said before shoving him onto his back and straddling him.

"I'd like to see you try," he said as she pulled her shirt off, his hands running up her sides and his thumb grazing the bird tattoo before pulling her down for a kiss. He moved his hips against hers until he shoved her off of him to get his pants off. Lady was struggling with her tight jeans and he gave them a hard enough tug that made her slide across the bed. "Are you serious?" He laughed. "How do you manage a booty call when you can't even get out of your own pants?"

"Don't ask me to decipher my own madness," Lady said as she giggled. "Help me out here!"

He pulled one way as she pulled her legs the other and when she was free of her pants and their hands were all over each other again. Dean let out a happy growl as he pulled her onto his lap and nuzzled her neck. Lady worked on keeping her breath steady as she moved her body with his. She moved her lips across his jaw until he let her kiss him, her eyes closed as she let out a soft moan around his mouth.

When Dean had left her in North Dakota she had at first been eager to lean on Max to gain information, to help him somehow. And after a few days she was surprised she had missed having him around. It was a strange sort of release to have someone else in on some of the many secrets she had, and unlike his father he didn't judge her on them. Lady always thought if someone knew too many details about any part of her life it would be dangerous and scary, but Dean didn't make her feel like that. He'd proven himself to be effective, had taken the strangest things she threw at him with a shrug.

"Oh! Dean!" Lady cried out as she came, her fingers curling and becoming tangled in his hair.

Dean kept an arm around her as she rested her head on his shoulder. His fingertips went up and down her arm, "So, do I get that money back?"

"That wasn't worth two-hundred dollars, and you should be paying me," Lady said.

"I am worth much more than two-hundred dollars," Dean said.

Lady laughed and began to drag her fingertips across his abdomen, delighted when she felt that her touch made the muscles tremble slightly. "You know if you ever need cash I can help you guys out."

"We make do pretty well," Dean said, his hand meeting hers on his stomach and linking fingers with her. "If you want I can teach you a little bit, actually. Running credit card scams is a great way to keep the car filled up."

"I'm sure it is, it just seems too dishonest," Lady said, pressing her face to his chest as he burst out laughing.

"Dishonest?" He managed to say through the laughter.

"Yeah," she grinned and joined his laughter.

"Oh, wow," his laughter eased up. "That's the funniest damn thing I've heard in my life. You find something dishonest."

"I'm the first to admit my morals are a tad jacked up. I really don't think you are the person to question them," she giggled.

"You are insane," Dean chuckled.

"Bite me," Lady said and began to pull away.

Dean held her tightly and pulled her in for a kiss, laughter still vibrating in both of their bodies.

Dean and Lady returned to Bobby's that night. The four of them set up a poker game in Bobby's kitchen. The pot was up to fifty dollars and it was nearing midnight when a tingling numb sensation crept through Lady's limbs. She stared blankly across the table at Bobby as a future vision came to her.

"Lady, your bet," Dean said, his hands already on his chips ready to call. He had an excellent hand and was ready to take the psychic for all she had. "Lady?" He rapped his knuckles on the table. "Hey, space cadet!"

"Lady? I think something is wrong," Sam said, leaning over and waving his hand in front of her face before snapping his fingers.

"Give her a minute," Bobby said quietly, his cards were down as he stared back at Lady's blank eyes. "She'll be back in a bit."

Lady was watching a woman walking briskly down an empty sidewalk, almost racing towards the next streetlight. There were heavy footsteps behind her, the woman heard them and her shoulders were pulled inward protectively. Lady knew she was afraid what those footsteps were doing behind her. Too soon the footsteps went into a run and the woman attempted to run in high heels, one snapped and she tripped at the edge of the light from a streetlamp. A man wearing a ski-mask came out of the shadows grabbed her roughly, too rough to be trying to help her up after her trip. She screamed shortly before he wrapped a meaty hand around her throat and dragged her into the shadows. Even though it was nearly black Lady could see everything the man did to the woman, brutal and messy before he choked the life out of her.

Lady blinked furiously as the bright lights of Bobby's kitchen became visible. Her hands clenched unconsciously, bending playing cards and confusing her. It took a moment to remember what she had been doing before the vision. "Uh, I fold," she said, setting the cards down. "I have to go."

"That's it?" Sam asked curiously. "That...that was you getting a vision?"

"Yeah," Lady said.

"Beats migraines and nosebleeds," he muttered. "What's going on? We can help you out."

"Not your type of gig," she said with a slight smile. "Sorry I can't stay longer. You guys be safe."

"Boys, do me a favor and clean this up," Bobby said gruffly as he followed Lady out. "How sure are you that this isn't our type of gig?"

Lady dug the keys to her car out of her pocket, "More sure than I was about the last one," she said.

"I'll take you," Bobby offered.

Lady wanted, very badly, someone with her to not only save the woman but to punish the man who was going to do every imaginable sick thing possible to do within ten minutes, but her visions were a personal burden. "C'mon, you know you are busy here. It's a murder. Not ritualistic, just brutal and sadistic. I can handle a thug who thinks its fun to beat up women."

"Okay. Give me a call, let me know where you land," Bobby said.

"Bobby, why are you so concerned all of the sudden?" Lady asked.

Bobby gave her a look of disbelief, "Are you serious? Kid, you've been in trouble up to your eyes since the last one of these hit you."

"Nah, I say ass-level trouble for the most part," Lady said lightly.

"I worry," he said simply. "I've given you a hell of a lot of leeway the past few years but you laid a pretty damn big bomb on me earlier this morning."

Lady nodded, feeling fairly rotten. "I know, and I'm sorry. Um, does it help if I say don't worry?"

"No," he said flatly.

She shrugged, "That's all I can do right now. I'll call you later." She opened her car door and Freddie squeezed into the back of the Beetle.

Bobby briefly contemplated following her, but turned around to head back into the house. "Bobby, you sure everything is okay?" Sam asked.

He nodded, and then thought better and shrugged, "Hell if I know. I'm beat, I'll see you boys in the morning."

Bobby climbed the steps to go to bed, instead of laying down he sat on the edge of his bed and thumbed through one of the books he had up there. This book was handwritten by him, his own journal. Unlike John who kept a journal of everything he ever came across, Bobby had something like that more organized downstairs, this was his journal of Lady. Failed counter-curses, useful ones, information on the coven, whatever he had managed to gather over the course of about nine and a half years. He pulled out a pen and began to write.

Bobby had always had a soft spot for kids, he never had any of his own. When he had met John and his boys years ago he had been rather pleased when they took to calling him Uncle Bobby. Lady was quite a bit older when they met, but definitely still a kid. But she had never been a child, she had gone through too much to be a child. He had mixed feelings on the woman as of late but he couldn't help but worry about her.


	19. Oregon, August 2006

**A/N** – _Just an update. I'm having a blast editing and getting the next chapters out to everyone. I'm also having a lot of fun finding songs that go with the chapters! I'm sorry the chapter is lacking in Winchester goodness, but Lady is an independent woman on a quest to save her own life while the Winchesters are busy saving damsels in distress and fighting monsters of the week. Stick with me a few more chapters and I promise they'll be back…as always clothing optional._

_**Song for this chapter**__ – 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen_

**August 26, 2006. Portland, Oregon**

The burst of energy Lady received from her visions had her wide-eyed and ready but even a few straight days without sleep had her feeling a bit off. But the drive had given her a long time to think about the vision and she had a plan before leaving South Dakota. There were two things she had to do. The first was simple, find the woman who she was drawn to and interrupt her in a way to help her avoid being attacked and murdered. Then she needed to lure the guy who wanted an easy victim, disable him and call the cops.

Lady found the woman at a doctor's office in the waiting room.

"Great weather lately, huh?" Lady said brightly. The woman was in her mid twenties, dark hair and darker eyes. She smiled politely and nodded before going back to the magazine she was flipping through. Lady pulled out her cell phone and scrolled through the short list of numbers she had. The woman had no desire to talk, and if Lady kept trying she would eventually get up and move to the other side of the waiting room. Lady pressed a few buttons on her cell phone as if she was making a call and held it to her ear to listen to the silence. "Hey, Shelly, it's just me. Seems I'm going to be here longer than I thought, did you still want to get dinner or save it for another night?" Lady paused as she waited for her imaginary friend Shelly to answer. She chuckled, "Yeah, that sounds like a plan. But not the place on 42nd." Lady did another pause and then made a shocked noise. "I don't care if it is closer, some woman was murdered in an alley near 42nd and 10th. Scary, right? I walk that way home from work all the time. I've been taking a cab since it happened, and I will until they find the guy who did it." Lady waited and made a few noises of confirmation to her imaginary friend before saying, "I'll call you when I'm done here. Talk to you later."

Lady pocketed the phone and picked up a magazine as the vision adjusted in her mind. The woman had heard enough to decide to take another route, she would not be walking down that street tonight. Lady was always thrilled at how easy it was to alter a person's life, how something as small as planting an idea in their head as they overheard a conversation made the difference between life and death. This vision was unusually easy because she knew the location before the potential victim led her to it, she had been able to see the street signs in her vision. That was rather sweet in her mind.

The next thing Lady had to do was find the man. The vision wasn't to save him and she didn't have an easy way to find him, but she knew where he was planning to be and what he was looking for. An easy target on a dark sidewalk.

Freddie didn't like to be on a leash but a dog as large as him without a handler made people nervous. As soon as the sun went down the leash was unhooked and Freddie ran freely in the paved playground of the city. The fatigue she had now was being masked with caffeine and adrenaline. She knew the place and approximately the time. Now she just had to lure the man to his new victim, her. Lady wasn't an easy target. Even without her extra sight she was a rather vicious and dirty fighter when she had to be, and even if her manicured nails weren't as sharp as glass she had her butterfly knife in her pocket.

For a long while there was nothing in the area until a man walking down the sidewalk looked like the right size, but without wearing a ski mask it was hard to tell if it was him or not. And since he hadn't attacked her she just didn't know. Of course she could stab a knife in his neck just to be safe, but killing the man had never been her intention. But she had been working the street for nearly half an hour and hadn't seen another person and only a handful of cars, and if there had been someone else stalking in the shadows Freddie would have found them. Worried about the missing link in her vision she decided to follow the man.

Lady and Freddie waited far back as the man stopped at an apartment building. It was a secure building that required someone from the inside to buzz them in, but no doorman. The man had no key, he was waiting for someone to let him in. And someone did.

Lady had thought the attack was a random act of violence, but a new thought came into her mind. What if the woman had been targeted? What if she knew the man?

Lady hit a button from the large selection on the pad by the door, and a man took a few moments to answer. "Who is it?"

"UPS, sir, we have a delivery that requires a signature," she said.

"It's almost nine at night," he countered smartly.

"Yeah, I know, we're running late," she said, wrapping her fingers anxiously around the door as a loud buzz signaled the door was now unlocked for her.

Her and Freddie ran up the stairs, looking for any sign of the man. The hallway of the second floor was empty and they were halfway up to the third floor when she heard the future sound of a scream. Lady turned around and jumped down the steps and ran down the hall when the scream finally happened. Lady stopped in the middle of the hall, she hadn't been close enough to hear what door it came from. She held her breath until she heard a crash to her right a few doors down and ran forward again. She pounded on the door when she saw the doorknob was locked and bolted.

"What's going on?" An elderly man poked his nose out of his door down the hall.

"Are there balconies on this side of the building?" She asked, helping herself into the man's open door before he could verbally answer. There was a sliding glass door that she opened and stepped onto a metal balcony that was slippery with the rain. There was a six foot jump to the other balcony. "Next time I just wait," Lady grumbled breathlessly as she slipped out of her heels and got her feet on the railing of the balcony. It was narrow and a slip would definitely break her leg, maybe even her neck. That'd be a fun way to spend her last year alive, as a paraplegic. But she didn't fall, she launched herself across the six foot gap and grabbed onto the railing of the neighboring balcony. Her bare hands gripped tightly until her feet slipped through the metal bars. Climbing over was easy, and she grabbed the handle of the sliding glass door, relieved that it opened easily. She stepped through the vertical blinds and curtains into a mess of broken and turned over furniture as a man was holding the woman down. Lady jumped onto the man's back and wrapped her thin arms around his neck. Maybe she couldn't hold her own in a hand-to-hand fight for very long, but she had enough practice dealing with rowdy drunks at the bar to have learned the choker-hold.

The bad thing about doing a choker-hold on someone twice your size was it required at least half a minute if not longer to knock someone out and during that time they were still twice your size. Her arms were locked in the position as he tried to pull her off, and when he couldn't he did the next best thing by standing up and backing into a wall. Lady grunted as she was slammed between the man and the wall. As hard as she tried she couldn't hold on after that. She slid to the floor and sucked in a breath as she reached for her knife, the murder she wanted to avoid looked like it may become required for self-defense, but the man was retreating. He was unbolting the door and yanking it open only to be greeted by a furious force of two-hundred pounds of muscle, fur and sharp teeth.

Freddie had his front paws on the man's shoulders and was snarling in his face. Every slight movement Freddie barked loudly in a warning to the man.

Lady pulled herself off the ground and went to the woman with the broken face. "You're okay. You are safe," she said as the woman held onto her, trembling and crying. On the floor was a broken picture frame of the woman and the man holding each other with happy smiling faces. Lady didn't understand it. What had possessed this man to hurt someone he had, at least at one time, cared for? Maybe even loved? "You'll be okay," she said, hearing police sirens coming.

Lady let a police officer talk to her in the broken apartment as the woman was taken by paramedics. "It's funny, really. I wrote down the wrong address, I was supposed to show up to view an apartment for rent a few blocks over. Someone let me in and I was searching for the apartment when I heard the scream."

"The man next door said you...jumped a balcony?"

"I'm a gymnast," Lady said, ignoring his skeptical look. "I got into the apartment and when he tried to run my dog held him down."

"And...is this dog, what is this dog?" The officer looked anxious near Frank.

"He's a mutt." She pulled the leash out of her pocket and clipped it on his collar. She smiled, "He's really very sweet. Would you like to rub his belly?"

Freddie made a sound and rolled over onto his back, looking at the officer with wide brown eyes that pleaded for some attention.

"No," the officer said shortly. "Can I get your address and phone number? We'll need to follow up at a future date."

"Sure," she said, writing down a false number and address in Delaware. "I don't have a residence in the state, yet. But I have my cell with me all the time."

"Thank you, miss," he said.

That night, as exhausted as she was from going without sleep for over two days, she had trouble sleeping. Her limbs trembled from exertion and she felt unusually cold even with Freddie next to her on the bed. She thought that saving the woman from any trauma of being attacked was the best option, but it was a big screw up.

The next morning Lady left Freddie at the motel to go to the hospital. The woman was asleep, her swollen face looked painful. Lady rarely spoke to the targets of her visions after saving their lives. People were often happier with their ignorance. The woman woke up, pain medication glazed her eyes. "You," she breathed.

"I didn't mean to wake you up," Lady said. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

The woman looked at her sadly and reached for Lady's hand. Lady didn't like strangers touching her, but she understood the need for physical comfort. Even something as simple as holding hands. The woman lying in the hospital bed needed some sort of friendly touch and Lady was the only one available. So she took her hand and held it gently. "I'm alive because of you," the woman said. "Are you an angel?"

Lady held back the laughter, "No, far from it," she said in a low voice. The poor woman was completely high on narcotic pain relief. Lady was jealous. "Why did he do this?"

The woman's eyes began leaking tears, "I don't know. I loved him. Why did he do it?" She let out a few sobs, "We were going to have a baby." Lady's hand became empty as the woman wrapped it around her belly and the sobs grew harder. "It's gone," the woman cried.

Lady's future sight told her a nurse was coming and would ask her to leave, but she was already exiting the hospital room. She could barely remember how she made it back to the motel, and wasn't aware that Freddie was trying to get her attention by licking any visible part of her skin as she opened a bottle of rum and started drinking.

Lady would never have children, it was something she had mixed feelings about. She believed it was for the better, who knew how twisted her DNA was and what would even be passed on. Even if that wasn't a concern it wasn't like she had time to raise a child or be a mother between what she did and her short life expectancy. But she liked kids and there was some sort of primal animal thing that wanted her own bloodline to continue. Her biological clock had been effectively smashed when she'd been used as a witch's plaything, but she understood the importance and value of children.

And because of her that woman had lost hers.

It was a few days later when Lady answered her phone. "Hey, just checking in. You doing okay?" Bobby asked, not sounding concerned or relieved that she had answered.

Lady looked at the empty bottle of rum and let it slip out of her fingers, "I'm okay," she answered. Bobby was quiet for a few moments and before he could ask she answered, "I'm fucking trashed." Before he could ask why she slurred her answer. "Loki was right. I'm an arrogant bitch. I mean, nine years and I still make screw ups like this?"

"What happened?" Bobby asked.

Lady mumbled something incoherently and passed out. Freddie whimpered and scratched at the door, if she didn't start moving soon and let him out he'd have no choice but to pee on her shoes.

The next morning Lady woke up from her binge, aside from the near-crippling hangover and the horrible stench of dog urine in the motel room she felt considerably better. Fortunately she had practice at not wasting time dwelling on past screw ups, they wouldn't help her survive. After relieving the worst of her hangover symptoms and rinsing off her shoes she called Bobby back to give him the full story.

"It's no one's fault but the asshole that did it," Bobby said firmly.

"I know, but I saw it. I could have told her, warned her. I could have followed her instead of trying to...I don't know. I'm just pissed at myself, and I feel so bad for her. But on the other hand she won't have to raise the spawn of a sadistic dick." Lady thought about her choice of insult, then nodded approvingly.

"That's one way to find a silver lining," Bobby muttered over the phone. "Don't beat yourself up, kid. That woman is alive because of you, and she'll have another chance. It isn't like your visions come with an instruction manual or anything, you did what you thought was best."

"Yeah, I know and I really don't need a pep talk. I just know you won't look at me right unless you know what I've been up to. So there you have the story. I'm going to pack up and head to an old ritual spot to start the great impossible search for ley lines."

"You know, I was reading up on them a bit more. Even been trying that, uh, water-witching thing. I think it's a bunch of bull, kid," Bobby said. "All the research I've pulled and there isn't much concrete evidence on them."

"I have to start somewhere," she said as she began to fold her map of Portland. "The Winchesters still there?"

"Nah, they left not long after you did, caught wind of a satanic cult in Montana."

Lady looked at her pencil marks on the map, the cross street and the 'x' she penciled in where she believed the alley to be unmarked on the map. "I'll talk to you later, Bobby," she said, hanging up without waiting for him to say goodbye. She tapped her fingers on her thigh as her mind worked. "Hm," she frowned and then finished grabbing her things.

Freddie was hanging his head out the window of the Beetle as Lady parked illegally on the street near where the attack should have happened. She held Y-shaped branch as she went around the area the attack was originally going to take place if she hadn't screwed it up. It had been a hard choice to come back here and even attempt this, especially during the day when people walked down the sidewalk and cars drove past. She held the stick with a relaxed grip and walked slowly into the alley, and sucked in a breath before she felt a slight pull and the stick dipped down to signal a ley line.

Excitement ran through her blood as she rushed back to her car. She was so happy that she may not be able to get rid of the grin etched into her face.

"Bobby, I am the bomb-diggity," Lady said over the phone as she got on the highway leading south.

"Glad to hear your spirits are back up. What'dya find?" he asked.

"If you want to hear you have to bow to my greatness," Lady said. "And, uh, well since I can't see you just say I'm the bomb-diggity."

"I'm not saying that," he said flatly.

"Say it!"

"No!"

"Say it or you will never know why I am," she said.

"Fine, you are the bomb-diggity," he said bitterly, sounding like he was almost embarrassed.

"Remember when you said we don't know what causes these visions?"

"Sure," he answered.

"We know! Or…sort of," Lady said. "The spot where the attack was supposed to happen was on a ley line. I went back to check it, right on top of a fucking ley line! It makes perfect sense. The power that hit me during my sacrifice was straight from an intersection on an active ritual site, and I'm actually connected to them." Lady let out a short laugh, but it died quickly. "Oh god, Bobby, I'm connected to ley lines. What does that mean?"

Bobby was quiet for a long time, "I don't know, kid. Not sure if I like the sound of it, though." Lady licked her lips. "Maybe you are wrong, maybe it was a coincidence. More likely you just don't know what the hell you are doing," he said roughly.

"C'mon, Bobby, I know what it felt like when I went to that spot. It was a line," Lady said in a small voice.

"Think about this a bit more. If your visions really were connected to these lines, that I'm not even convinced are there, why don't you see the coven performing rituals when they are on the lines?"

"Because they cloak those locations to protect them," Lady said, but it was a guess. She wasn't sure just how powerful the lines or her connection to them were, or how well the witches knew the ley lines. "Hey, I'm driving…I'll call you back after I think on this a while."

"Yeah, I'll hit the books," he said roughly.

Lady took a few calming breaths and tried to keep her fast food lunch in her stomach. For a long time she just accepted that the things she saw in her head was because the magical shockwave had rewired her brain so it worked like other psychics, but if her new theory was correct it meant she was actually drawing magical power off of ley lines to glimpse into the future. The coven she hunted could do that with their rituals. A warlock just might be able to do that without any ritual.

Freddie let out a low whine and pushed his head between the seats. Lady wrapped her arm around his neck and stared straight ahead at the road. "What the hell am I?" Freddie licked her face and neck lovingly. To Freddie it didn't matter, none of it did, really. Dogs were pretty damn cool in that regard. Lady could have sprouted horns and wings and Freddie would have been just as quick to try and comfort her. It didn't matter what this new theory made her. If she was wrong nothing had changed. If she was right things would only change if she let them. Anything that was wrong with her now had been wrong with her years ago, she was still the same person she had been that morning and would be the same person tomorrow night. Freddie knew that, she knew that, and now that she knew it she was ready to get back to work.

She sniffed a few times and cleared her throat before calling Bobby back. "Hey, I need your help," she said.

"That's what I'm doing, kid," he answered. "Got to give me more than twenty minutes, though."

"I need to go to the spot where you found me," she said. "Outside of Vegas."

"Kid, you sure you want to go back there? You nearly died there."

"So? I'm going to die if I don't figure this out. A lot of people are going to die if I don't. If you can't drive down that's fine, just give me directions."

"No. I'll meet you. Kid, don't get ahead of yourself on this. We have a lot of figuring out to do, still."

Lady smiled, "Don't worry. When we figure this out it doesn't change anything except give us knowledge to use against those sick sons of bitches. I'll get us a room at the Bellagio," she said happily before hanging up. She hissed a curse and called him back. The moment he answered, "Do you want me to have a prostitute waiting for you when you get here, or do you want to pick one out yourself?"

Bobby shouted a curse and hung up on her, making her want to roll in laughter. There was no high greater than the excitement received from discovering great secrets and finding a great missing link in a chain, even if it might mean she was a queen of freaks. If her new theory was correct it didn't change a damn thing about her or what she did, it just meant she understood what her capabilities were more thoroughly while at the same time she might be a little less human than she originally believed.

She reached back and scratched Freddie's head, "I'm not even mad that you peed on my shoes or that you are licking your balls in my car. You know why? Because you are my life saver, my one true love, Freddie." Lady turned up the radio as 'Bohemian Rhapsody' began to play.


	20. Las Vegas, September 2006

**September 2nd 2006, Las Vegas, Nevada**

Lady had a day before Bobby reached Las Vegas and spent it walking the sidewalks she used to hustle on. Shell games, card tricks, even some acrobatics mixed with begging. The games and tricks were the same, but there were new faces. She'd been to Vegas a few times since her first time dealing with the coven, usually because she needed cash and there was no better city to get it from in her mind. But the occasional vice had drawn her there. She held no hard feelings for the city. It wasn't its fault it drew some of the worst humanity had to offer. Murderers, thieves, cheats and hustlers. She was four out of the four, after all. Although was it really murder killing witches? They were human, but barely. And stealing from crooks was a total Robin Hood thing and he had been considered a hero. And it shouldn't be a crime to cheat and hustle idiots out of money. People should really know better.

"I see you've already been busy," Bobby muttered as he entered her hotel room. She was counting cash and straightening crumpled bills.

"I love this city," she said. "My god, I could live like a queen here. You know if I ever run out of witches to kill I'm moving back here. Get a permanent suite and live like a fat cat. And even get Freddie his own personal harem. Hell, one for myself, too."

"Yeah, but they ever discover your tricks to winning they will be more likely to break your kneecaps than kick you out," he warned. "Let's get to work."

"You can be such a killjoy. Here we are in the city of neon boobies and you want to get right down to following what you believe to be an imaginary yellow brick road."

Bobby tossed his bag on the plush bed, "Have you done anything useful since you got here?"

"Hello! I made nearly five grand," she said. "Bobby, do yourself and me a favor and hop on down to the Bunny Ranch for a few hours. I'll even pay." He glowered at her. "Or I'll leave and you can watch TV. Free porn. You need to do something to lighten up. I am enjoying myself. I'm happy. Thrilled can't even touch what I am feeling. This is good, can't you...crack a smile?"

"While you are trying to find a way to get me laid? No, I can't. It makes me uncomfortable."

"Oh," she said. "Why?"

"Why? Lady, does it ever occur to you that it is private? Should be private?"

"Well, sure, I'm not asking you to video tape it for me. Keep it private, just do the deed and perk up a bit! I want happy Bobby skipping behind me and Toto while we follow the invisible yellow brick road!"

Bobby shook his head, "I'm happy. I'm thrilled! Thrilled can't even touch what I'm feeling right now," he said sarcastically. "Now get your damn shoes on and let's go."

"Okay, crotchety old Bobby is cute and lovable, too," Lady said as she slipped into a pair of flat sandals. "I love you, old man," she said, giving him a hug and kissing his cheek.

Bobby frowned at her, "You're drunk!"

"No. Buzzed," she corrected. "But you should probably drive."

Bobby let a curse hiss out of his lips as he opened the door. "C'mon, Freddie," he barked at the dog. Freddie stood up and yawned and then on unsteady paws walked to follow. "Is...did you get your dog drunk?"

Lady started to giggle, "Free mini-bar, man."

Bobby rubbed his eyes, "That's it, sleep it off."

"No, really, we're good," Lady laughed.

"You are so far from good. It ain't funny!" Bobby said seriously and cut Lady's laughter short. "You are happy, I'm happy for you. You want to have a drink to celebrate, fine. But we aren't doing this half-cocked. That's how things get screwed up! That's how people get hurt, die, or end up cursed for the rest of their life. Have your laughs, Lady, but in the end it's still your life on the line!"

"Yeah, got it," she said soberly. "C'mon, Freddie, bedtime."

Bobby couldn't help his hand from trembling in anger. Lady was a grown woman and he gave her a lot of freedom, but he sure as hell couldn't give her this sort of freedom when he was joining her. He admired her attitude most of the time, not many people went through what she had and could laugh about it. Ever since he met her he admired the strength in her, but at the same time it scared the hell out of him. Bobby had been around a while, he'd seen all sorts of people enter the life of hunting and from experience he believed Lady was on a quick path to a violent death. The only reason she hadn't met it yet was because of her extra sight.

Freddie was snoring louder than a dog should be able to, and Lady was snuggled in close to him on the bed. Bobby kicked his boots off and went through a few local newspapers to get a feel of the area. He'd want to get some sleep before they went out the next morning but with Lady asleep this was going to be the only quiet time he had to read.

The next day Lady was unusually quiet as Bobby drove her out of town. Both her and Freddie were on their best behavior, silent like children that had just been given the worst scolding of their lives.

Since the ritual that nearly killed her almost ten years ago the city and suburbs had expanded and instead of empty desert there were new housing developments and paved roads.

"Well, this is where it was," he said, pulling into an empty lot that had a sign declaring a Wal-Mart would be under construction soon. Lady had a strange look on her face, and then she began chuckling. The chuckles turned into giggles and then finally a laugh so hard she wrapped her arms around her stomach and leaned against the car. "What?" Bobby asked.

"It's just," Lady wiped at the tears that her laughter was causing. "They are building a fucking Wal-Mart...on a ritual site." Lady fell to her knees laughing. "Oh. My. God." Her face began to turn red.

"This ain't funny," Bobby said.

"It's hilarious!" She gasped.

It took Lady a full five minutes to get over her case of inappropriate giggles. "When is the grand opening? I want to be first in line to buy a jar of Vaseline," she said, and the giggles returned.

"Can we do this?" Bobby asked seriously.

"Mmhmm," Lady said, pressing her lips firmly together to hold back the laughter. She snorted from trying to hold it in and started laughing full strength again. "Oh, I'm sorry, but you have to admit there is something funny about this."

"You nearly died here. I don't find that funny," he said.

"Bobby, imagine a hundred years ago. Two-hundred years ago. This area was what? Nothing. Small mining towns, Vegas wasn't even a dream. The only thing they had around here was silver mines, if that. These lines streaked every which way, and now...Wal-Mart. And this spot used to be secluded enough to kill a teenage girl and no one would hear her scream or find the blood pools she left behind. Now...Wal-mart. Wal-Mart!"

"Yeah, hilarious," Bobby said flatly, frowning coldly until she finally reigned in her laughter.

"Oh, I nearly peed myself," she gasped, holding her side as it ached. "Okay, watch me play with my stick, Bobby." Lady snorted a few more giggles as they walked to the empty lot.

Bobby watched the forked stick dip as Lady neared the center of the lot. She followed it and it continued bobbing. It looked like she could be moving it herself and she was sneaky enough to do that, but he extended his belief for now. "This was about the spot," Bobby thought. It had been dark but there were a few landmarks still around he recognized.

"Freddie, stay," Lady said, and began to walk in a circle around the dog. The stick was still for a while and then began to dip again as she walked in a westward line. "Okay, this is an intersection."

"No witch will be using it, though," Bobby said, nodding at the new houses nearby. "So, you confirmed this site is on an intersection. What now?"

Lady pulled a gem out of her pocket, about the size of a dime and round, "We're going to see which of these lines are positive, and which is negative."

"Is that…is that a diamond?" Bobby asked, and Lady looked at him with wide eyes. "Where the hell did you get that?"

"I, uh…well…c'mon, Bobby, you know," Lady said. "I stole it. It's over eight carats, this is like a two-hundred thousand dollar rock."

"When the hell did you pull of a diamond heist!"

"When I passed through Sacramento," she shrugged. "And don't call it a heist! That makes it sound like it was planned out. This was only slight better than a smash and dash."

"Oh my _God_!" Bobby couldn't believe it. Well, to be honest he could and he was thankful he didn't hear about it before she attempted it. "Okay, what are you going to do?"

"Gems react to this energy. Ley line energy is pretty neutral but supposedly a diamond should still get a read on it," Lady said. The rock was on a long black cord hanging from her fist. She held it over where she knew the line was, the diamond moved back and forth. "Or not," she muttered as she moved to the intersecting line. The diamond moved back and forth as before, but began moving in a swift clockwise circle until it hung, suspended pointing to where Lady had discovered the intersection.

Bobby cleared his throat, "I am officially convinced."

"I'm not sure if this means if this line is negative or positive," Lady said as she moved back to the center of the lines, as she did so the diamond stopped pointing until it began to be pulled towards the middle of the intersection. Lady let her mind wander back to that night she nearly died. "So this is it, where it happened," she muttered, all humor an excitement was gone from her face.

It wasn't often that Bobby saw her as much more than the beaten up teenager he had helped John rescue, but Lady's age showed on her face now. Not that she was old, not even close compared to him, but lines of wisdom she hadn't had back then were there now. A focus that he rarely saw came out in her eyes and that strength of survival was more noticeable.

Lady let out a breath and put a smile back on her face, "Let's see how far away this diamond can find an intersection."

They walked as far as they could, the diamond steadily pointing back to the intersection as if it was magnetized to it. "Half a mile," Bobby guessed, they couldn't go any farther because construction had started on a nearby lot.

"I have other places I can test this out at," she said. "It means finding there ritual spots I haven't located yet a bit easier."

"That's what I like about you, kid, you always find that silver lining," Bobby said as they walked back to his car.

"Thanks for coming out, Bobby. I'm glad we checked this out together, but let's get the hell out of here."

"So soon?"

Lady shrugged, "The decent hotels here are expensive and the cheap ones are noisy as hell."

"Worried about money now? I thought you were living like a fat cat?" Bobby looked at her, and her eyes widened in disbelief as he cracked a smile.

"You are such a shit! You've been Mr. Grump since you got here and now that I'm ready to leave you find your sense of humor?" Bobby chuckled. "You suck ass!" Lady laughed with him and gave his arm a friendly pat that he returned.


	21. Bobby's House, September 2006

**September 22nd 2006, Sioux Falls, South Dakota**

Lady met the Winchesters at Bobby's house and then proceeded to complete the same ritual that had cloaked them before.

"Any idea how often we should do this?" Sam asked when they gathered around Bobby's table. "Maybe we..."

"At least once a season," Lady said. "It lasts longer than that, but once a season is good."

Sam met her eyes, he had been about to suggest that maybe they should let the cloaking spell wear off and she had interrupted him rather quick and there was a warning look in her eyes. He nodded in understanding, Dean would probably be pretty pissed if he suggested they let the demons find them.

"How's the ley line search going?" Dean asked. Lady had already given them the quick version of what she had figured out since they last saw each other.

"Well, I know how to find them," she said. "Problem is I have to be on one to follow it, and that means being on foot. There isn't an easy way to map all the lines, even if there was they move. I learned a few tricks that will help, but sort of hit a wall."

"Sorry to hear that," Sam said.

Dean turned the diamond over in his hands, "I can't believe you stole this," Dean muttered. "Actually, I can believe it. I just can't believe you didn't take more than one."

"That is a huge felony," Sam said.

"So is shooting a witch in the head, a lot of them have social security cards which gives them more rights than I do," Lady said. "But come on, story time, what have you guys been up to?"

Sam and Dean gave each other a look and Dean handed the diamond back, "Found two more psychics like Sam," he said in a low voice. "One of them was a homicidal freak…but the other one wasn't."

"We didn't get much information," Sam said. "We just know at least one of them isn't abusing their power…well, at least not abusing it to kill people."

"Thing is we found out not all of their mothers died in nursery fires. The only pattern we had and not all of them fit the mold," Dean said rather bitterly. "But like Sam said, at least we found another one that isn't using their abilities to kill people."

Dean didn't say it with any sort of relief, but Lady imagined there was some there. If that other kid wasn't foaming at the mouth then maybe Sam wouldn't be, either. Maybe whatever that was going on wasn't going to affect Sam like it was the others.

Sam didn't like the grim topic and more happily said, "We got to take down a zombie, too. This Greek ritual was used to raise the girl from the dead."

Dean chuckled, "Yeah, she beat the crap out of Sammy, here. Broke his arm."

Lady knocked on the cast that was on Sam's right arm, "Nice. Makes you look bad ass, Sam."

Sam chuckled, "Does it?"

"No, not really," she grinned. "Was that what you guys found in Montana? Bobby told me you were looking into a satanic cult."

Sam and Dean both exchanged a look before Sam took the lead, "No, actually that was vampires. But, weird vampires. They were feeding off of cattle blood instead of human blood."

"Not Kate?" Lady asked, looking between the two of them quickly.

"No," Sam said.

"Damn," Lady muttered.

"Afraid she's going to come back to reclaim her shoes?" Dean asked with a smirk.

"Well, she can have them back over my dead body, and I think that's how she'd prefer it," Lady said. "All of ours, actually. But at least one less vampire coven to worry about."

"Yeah, well, these vampires weren't killing anyone, so we let them go," Sam said.

Lady stared at him silently for several moments, and then looked at Dean for confirmation. "What?" Sam opened his mouth to repeat what he said and she snapped, "I'm not deaf, Sam. Why would you do that?"

"They were resisting the urge to drink human blood," Sam said. Lady looked away and took a long drink of her beer.

"I would think that was something you'd approve of," Dean said.

"Considering I spent a week penned up with vampires, no, can't say I approve," Lady said. "But you guys did what you had to, I guess."

"Hypocrite," Dean snorted as he got up from the table to get another beer from the fridge.

"Excuse me?"

"Lady, you are a witch," he said flatly. "You don't use black magic. Those people were vampires, they didn't kill people. They didn't deserve to die."

"I get what you are saying. Believe me, I do. But I have no soft spot for Dracula, okay?"

"Neither do we," Dean said in a final tone, wanting the topic of that particular hunt to be over with. If Lady didn't approve of them letting a few vampires with a conscience go then she probably wouldn't like that they had tied up another hunter who felt the same way and left him trapped for several days. "You guys want another one?"

Lady raised her hand but Sam shook his head. Lady switched the topic, "You guys have anything happening now?"

"Actually, yeah. We're heading to Philly," Sam said, sounding relieved to change the topic. "Uh, someone tipped us off to something there."

"You know I tagged a witch there about...jeez, my first one, over seven years ago," she said. "Hey, think you guys can give me a ride there? The Beetle is shelved until Bobby gets a chance to take a look at it. I never found their ritual site, I might be able to now. And if it's still active there might be a job there for me."

Sam and Dean exchanged a glance and they both shrugged, "Yeah, no problem," Sam said.

"One problem," Dean said, and turned his head to Freddie who was lying on the floor. "That thing is not getting in my car again."

"I thought you and Freddie were pals!" Lady said with wide eyes.

Dean raised his eyebrows, "You know how creepy it is to fall asleep next to you, and wake up next to that?"

"You know how messed up it is to go to bed next to him and wake up next to you?" Lady countered.

"Wow, I so don't need to hear this," Sam said, getting up.

"Relax, Sam, its over," Lady chuckled.

"It is? We haven't even gotten to the part where you steal the blankets," Dean added with a smirk, obviously enjoying making his brother uncomfortable.

Lady turned on him, "Me? Oh, hell no. You..." Lady shook her head. "Whatever, doesn't matter. No dog."

"And you can pay for gas," Dean added.

"If you don't want to give me a ride just say so, I can wait until my car is up and running," Lady said.

"Oh, I want to give you a ride, believe me," Dean said with a wag of his eyebrows.

"Yeah, I'm going to bed," Sam said.

"Goodnight, Sam," Lady said, putting her feet up on the empty chair he left behind.

"Let me say the more I find out about this the sicker I feel," Dean said quietly after Sam had retreated into the cot in the back of the house. Sam probably assumed Dean and Lady would be up for a while for one of their frequent bumps, probably even had headphones in to avoid hearing it. "Those guys we found like him, they could control peoples minds. You know how serious that is?"

"The power of persuasion is dangerous," Lady agreed.

"This wasn't some persuasion. These guys told you to shoot yourself in the head, you did it without question," Dean said. "He wants to keep digging into it."

"I know how he feels," Lady said. "You can't imagine the...listen, Dean, I know Sam and I are in completely different boats. But at the same time his situation isn't a whole lot different than mine. When I figured out the ley lines were where my visions came from it was like a huge blind had been lifted. Of course, that blind dropped again because it's just a tiny piece of a puzzle I have no clue how to put together. And you know, having visions can be scary as hell, and he's still a bit new to them."

Dean ground his teeth and dropped his empty beer into the garbage before he could throw it. "It's not...he shouldn't be having them. It's not natural!"

"I agree," Lady said.

"What if finding out is what sets him off?" Dean guessed, looking at Lady for answers. "Makes him go insane, or maybe he's already on the path to going insane. I mean, c'mon, neither of us were ever very sane."

Lady smirked, "You are completely nuts, Dean, but you aren't insane. Sam is more sane than anyone in this house, including my dog." Dean nodded in agreement. "You've been spending time with him, he show any sign that he's being even a bit naughty?"

Dean shook his head, "No. Still the same Sammy."

"That's kind of boring, actually," Lady said. She threw her empty beer across the room and into the garbage with a clang. "You sure you are okay with me riding along to Philly?"

"Yeah, it's cool," Dean said. "I actually want to see that diamond trick. Still don't believe it works, but at least one of us is making some sort of progress."

"Way to stay positive, Dean-o," she said quickly before a yawn could cut off her words. "So I really can't take my dog?"

"No," he said. "I have nothing against him, but no matter how often you shampoo him he reeks like a dog and he drools. All the damn time. No way." Dean gave her a smile, "You, on the other hand, are invited to the backseat of my car right now."

"I'd rather go sleep with my smelly and drooly dog," Lady said, walking to the living room with Freddie beside her. Lady was unfolding a blanket to use when Dean joined her.

"Well, I'm not sleeping in the same room as Sam," Dean said, wrapping an arm around her waist before sitting on couch and pulling her to sit on his lap. "He farts in his sleep and it is toxic."

Lady leaned against him, warm and cozy but there was no way she'd sleep like that. "Yeah, this won't work," she said. For several minutes they fought and wrestled for space on the couch and the blanket until Lady had her back pressed to his front with one of his arms serving as a pillow and the other wrapped around her waist. Lady let one of her arms dangle off the couch to rest on Freddie's back while he slept on the floor next to her. "You drool in my hair and I'll sic Freddie on you," she muttered sleepily.

"Shut up," Dean said in a low voice that vibrated into her back.

Lady closed her eyes as she felt the pull of sleep. She'd never admit it but she rather liked this. Freddie was a giant teddy bear but like Dean said, he smelled like a dog. Dean was just as warm, didn't leave her covered in dog fur and he had the scent of leather and gun smoke that that she liked. She fought the grin as his hand moved up and down her thigh gently and the fatigue was being replaced by the desire he so easily brought out in her. He seemed to know he was getting her attention as he let his fingers slip under her shirt to touch her bare stomach. He chuckled softly in her ear as she squirmed from his touch. "That's it," Lady said, turning in his arms and wrapping her arms around his neck for a kiss that he was ready to receive and return. "You better be quick, though. I'm tired."

"Right here?" he asked, a little surprised.

"Come on," she said, getting off the couch and grabbing the blanket as she led him through the back door. The night was warm and a big muggy from an earlier thunderstorm. The stars were shining brightly but there was no moon and Lady led him away from the lights of Bobby's house until it was so dark he couldn't see his hand in front of his face.

"I like this idea," he said as she threw the blanket into an old pick-up box. "You've done this before, haven't you?"

"Of course not, I respect Bobby too much to bring guys here," Lady said as she climbed in. "But it's a great place to hide from Bobby for a while."

Dean joined her in the back of the truck, using his hands to feel for the blanket she laid out. "This is showing respect?" Dean chuckled as he pulled his boots off.

"I meant strange guys," Lady said brightly, and Dean looked at where her voice came from, barely able to see her outline in the darkness. That made sense, like him she survived on one-night stands. At one time they had been each other's one-nighters, but things didn't stay that way. He moved on his knees and reached for her with his hands.

"Curious," Dean said as he let his hands move up her arms. "When you can't see normally…"

"I can't see the future. I can still hear perfectly fine," she said. "No funny stuff."

"Just thinking I'm on a slightly more even playing field," he said, pulling his shirt off and balling it up to be used for a pillow later. Lady's hands found his bare torso and he was still as the moved up from his abdomen to his chest, finally to his neck so she could guide his face to hers. His hands went to her waist, finding the bottom of her shirt and pulling it up. She raised her arms to let him remove it and he put it next to his own. Underneath there was no bra and his hands felt over her breasts and shoulders while she went straight for his jeans. "Eager?"

"I said we should be quick," Lady chuckled as his zipper loudly fell down.

"You are the one being slow," he said as she tugged his pants down his hips.

Lady's body moved from his hands as she worked on getting rid of her pants. Dean found her again, this time his hands falling on bare legs. He let his hand moved up to her waist, searching for underwear but feeling none. He quickly shimmed the rest of the way out of his jeans to lie next to her and paused as her mouth landed on his chest. Her hand went up his arm as she left a trail of moist kisses up to his mouth. She gently pressed her body against his, feeling how ready he was for her. Lady let out a soft sigh as Dean moved her onto her back and found his way between her legs, rubbing against her hot moisture before gently making his way inside of her. His fingers clenched the blanket they were on as he filled her.

Lady wrapped a leg around his working butt as she gripped his shoulders. Dean's mouth was moving up and down her neck and jaw as she looked at the brilliant stars above them. His movements were strong and deep, hitting her very core and already she was breathing heavily with need.

Lady let out a soft moan as they changed position with her on top. Her hands rested on Dean's stomach as she rolled her hips into him. She grinned as Dean let out a long moan, his hands moving roughly over her skin as she increased her pace. He raised his hips to meet her as they grew nearer to their release, each of them knowing the others sounds and aching for the rush they helped each other receive.

Dean sat up as she moved on top of him, his mouth searching blindly for her until his lips and tongue touched her collarbone. Her hips shuddered and lost their rhythm for a moment as he moved his mouth down to her chest, his hands cupping her breasts as she let out soft moans of pleasure. His tongue licked at one of her sensitive nipples before she grabbed his neck and pulled him in for a passionate kiss that threatened to send him over the edge. Her hands ran through his hair, tugging gently as she tightened around him. She didn't stop moving, grinding against him to hold onto the feeling and bring him with her. Her soft moans and her pulsing wetness around him made his fingers grip at her hips as he came inside her.

Lady let out a final happy moan as she stretched out next to him. She let out a giggle, "That wasn't very quick, but so worth it."

"Mmhm," Dean mumbled happily as his mouth found her for a final kiss.


	22. No Exit, September 2006

**A/N** - _I'm sorry this chapter is sort of long. I'm trying to keep the future chapters about half this size. This chapter is a rewrite of the season 2 episode 'No Exit' to include Lady's presence.  
_

**September 24th, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania**

The brothers were checking into a haunting at an apartment building, several young blonde women had gone missing over the course of eighty years. They got into Philadelphia in the afternoon and wanted to check out the apartment before nightfall. Lady waited in the back of the Impala trying to keep her bare legs from sticking to the vinyl and wishing she wasn't wearing shorts. She didn't understand why Dean hadn't opted for breathable leather when he restored the car, and if she had known she'd be stuck in a long car ride in the back she may have even offered to loan him the cash. As much as he loved his car he could give it a bit more luxury to match its horsepower. But the garnet charm hanging from the rearview mirror made her smile.

After an hour Dean returned to the car without Sam, looking pissed. Lady watched him with wide eyes as he got into the driver's seat and held on as he squawked the tires. Lady decided before leather seats he could at least invest in some seat belts. She wasn't worried about crashing as much as flying out a window as he took a sharp turn.

"I am going to kill her," Dean growled as he parked the car in the parking lot of the apartment building.

Lady got out of the car with him, "You better not be talking about me because I have done nothing. I've actually been rather pleasant the whole drive down here," Lady said as he grabbed his bags out of the trunk.

Dean threw a bag down, "We're staying here."

"Great fun. I'm going to the other side of the city though," Lady said. "I'll catch a cab, its cool."

Dean rubbed his forehead, "Hold on. I need to think for a moment."

Lady bit her tongue and decided not to ask him how long that would take. She was sort of looking forward to searching out ley lines in the area. Philadelphia was an old city and there were bound to be several powerful lines and she had a good feeling that she could locate the ritual site.

"Okay, go do your thing," Dean finally decided.

"Is everything okay?" Lady asked.

"No, far from it," Dean said with a forced smile. "Stupid..." He ground his teeth and kicked his tire. "Another...can't even call her a hunter. An amateur, showed up. Now I'm stuck babysitting her. And we found ectoplasm."

Lady's eyes widened, "Ectoplasm? Wow, that...that is really rare. How much?"

"I don't know," Dean replied angrily. "Enough."

Suddenly ley lines were the last thing in her mind. "Ectoplasm is...that is raw energy. I mean, wow."

Dean looked at her with wide eyes, "You are actually into this?"

"Put some ectoplasm into the hands of a some-what witch, I get enough of it I can make it dance like toast in a Ghostbusters movie," Lady said. "That actually makes me sound a bit more like a witch than I wanted it to. Can I go get some?"

"You want to...farm ectoplasm?"

"Mmhm," she said with wide and innocent looking eyes. "It's powerful enough I can make a counter curse without waiting a moon cycle, that's important when you are dying from a curse. Nothing powerful enough to get rid of my curse, of course, but there is an encyclopedia of curses I still don't want to get zapped with."

Dean let a curse slip through his teeth, "Might as well, it won't be there for long."

"You guys find such fun things," Lady said as she grabbed her bag out of the backseat.

"Yeah, wait until you see the bundle of fun already up there," he muttered angrily.

"Okay, what's going on?" she asked as she followed him into the apartment building, feeling relieved once the air conditioning hit her.

Dean let out a breath, "We found out about this job from someone who works at a place where a lot of other hunters visit. She has an idea of what we do, but she is just a waitress. If you weren't so keen on farming this spirit you'd be better suited for this job than she is."

"You don't really think I'd rather farm ectoplasm than get rid of a homicidal spirit, do you?" Lady asked.

"I'm not really sure," Dean admitted. "Right now it doesn't matter because I will get rid of it."

"Fair enough," Lady said.

Dean turned to her, "You wouldn't let a homicidal spirit run free just so you could farm it, would you?"

"Of course not," Lady said. "Give me a little credit, Dean."

"Any time I give you credit you say something stupid and lose it," Dean said. "Like instead of being freaked out, you are happy about ectoplasm!"

"I'm not happy there is a wicked powerful spirit here," Lady said. "But finding ectoplasm is sort of a big deal. Like...finding a weed in your garden. It's bad that it's there, but if it has some useful affects you got to take that into...okay I get you aren't following this. You want to blow Casper away, I'll just be quiet and gather ectoplasm."

"Thank you," he said, reaching the apartment.

"Hey, Lady," Sam said as they walked in. "I thought Dean was going to take you across town?"

"He let it slip you found ectoplasm," Lady said, smiling at him and then at the young blonde. "I'm all over this like...well, you can use your imagination."

"Thanks," Sam said. "Uh, Lady, this is Jo Harvelle."

"Hey," Jo said. "Lady who?"

"Just Lady," Lady replied brightly. "Like Buffy, minus the wooden stakes. Well, there was this one time..." Lady shrugged. "Uh, I totally don't want to tell you guys how to do your job but didn't you say most of the missing women were young blondes? Are you going to use..."

"She isn't staying," Dean said. "I have half a mind to throw your ass in my car and drive you back to your mother myself." Dean looked at Sam, "Think you and Lady can take this?"

Jo turned glare at Dean, "Are you kidding me? This is my job. I did all the legwork..."

"I'm not babysitting you while we hunt down a pissed off spirit," Dean countered.

"Then don't," Jo said. "I'm staying, and you can't stop me. And don't try any chauvinistic crap because you are considering having her stay."

Lady put her hands up and took a step back, "I just met you, please don't bring me into this."

Jo narrowed her eyes at Lady, almost furious when she spotted the tattoo on the inside of Lady's wrist. Lady's eyes widened as Jo grabbed a pocket knife and opened it while moving into a defensive position. "You are a witch!"

Lady sucked in a shocked breath as she jumped behind Sam while Jo took a step forward with the blade. She pushed Sam one way and dodged to the other side as Jo kept coming. Dean and Sam were both yelling and Lady was across the room while Sam and Dean were between her and the crazy blonde. "What the hell is wrong with you!" Dean shouted at Jo.

"That symbol is for a coven of witches," Jo looked at Lady accusingly and then at Sam and Dean with surprise. "You work with a witch?"

"Lady isn't a witch," Dean said firmly. "She's weird as hell and occasionally off her rocker, but she's not a witch. Trust me."

"You trust her?" Jo's nostrils flared with anger.

"I do," Dean said, and it sounded strained and forced.

"Jo, how do you know that symbol?" Sam asked as Jo backed away from the fight.

"Some guys at the Roadhouse talked about it last year." Jo put her pocketknife back, "How sure are you she isn't a witch?"

"A hundred percent, because she rescued us from a pair of them a few months ago," Dean said.

Lady looked at Jo, "Other hunters have come across this coven?"

Jo glared at Lady, "You mean your coven?"

"Sweetheart, don't get me mixed up with them. I'm a hell of a lot more dangerous," Lady said. "I want to know every thing you heard about them and I..."

"Hey! Hey!" Dean said as Lady took threatening steps towards Jo. "Go sit in a corner, or something. You aren't helping yourself, here."

"What?" Lady asked.

Dean grabbed her arm and pulled her into the bedroom and slammed the door. "Lady, you have the symbol tattooed on you. You practice a lot of folk magic. You don't make a very good case for yourself. Jo knows a lot of hunters, if they know what that symbol means how long until they are after you?"

"Oh," Lady said, taking a step back. "That would suck."

"You think? Jesus Christ," he hissed. "I should have left your ass in South Dakota."

"No, this is good," Lady said. "I'll behave. Best behavior, Scouts Honor and everything." She smiled at Dean. "Want me to pinky swear?"

"Nothing funny," Dean warned her.

Lady smiled, "I promise you, by the time you nag this ghost me and little Jo-Jo will be best friends."

"Not happening, because she's leaving."

Lady grabbed his wrist before he could leave the bedroom, "Dean, if she leaves she goes back to tell other hunters that she saw me. Not only does she tell them about the coven and me, but she mentions I work with you and your brother." Dean looked angry enough to hit something.

"You understand how serious this is?" Dean asked her.

Lady didn't need to think about it very hard to see how bad it could get. She identified the members of the coven by the symbol. If there were other hunters taking out the coven that was a good thing, but if they decided to search for her it would be very bad. She just had to imagine other men and women with similar skills of Bobby, Dean and Sam. "It's a real good thing you didn't let me bring Freddie. I get it," Lady said. Having a black dog on her heels would have only solidified Jo's belief she was a witch.

"Good. Then you skip the ectoplasm farming," he said.

"But..."

"It's weird!" he hissed at her. "I get that it's useful, but it's weird. It's coming from a violent murdering ghost, Lady! You really want a counter-curse made from something that kills people?"

Lady thought about it and saw the point. "Can't say I'd rather die than let it go to waste, but okay. No ectoplasm. From here on in I am not touching anything even remotely close to witchy." Dean raised his eyebrows. "What?"

"Turn off the psychic stuff," he said.

"I can't," she said a near-whine.

"Pretend," he instructed, opening the bedroom door and giving her a push out. "Okay, everyone is ready to play on the same field."

Lady looked around the apartment as the brothers looked through papers with Jo. Lady could feel Jo's dark eyes following her as she examined the furnished apartment.

"Lady, why don't you pull up a chair and look at some of this," Sam offered.

"No thanks," Lady said. "I'm not a fast reader, I'll trust what you guys find." Lady turned around, only one couch, a recliner, and a bed in the bedroom. She didn't feel very safe. They were on the fourth floor, no balcony or fire escape on this side of the building. And Jo was between her and the only exit.

"Great, a witch that reads at a fourth grade level," Jo muttered under her breath.

Sam and Dean tensed and braced themselves for Lady's retaliation, but Lady just gave a forced smile before falling onto the couch and turning on the television.

"Lady's actually very sweet," Sam said helpfully, and Jo looked at him with a very serious face. "She's normally not this shy, either."

"She has a gag until Jo trusts her not to turn her into a frog," Dean without humor.

"At least..." Jo was about to say that Dean had some sort of control over the witch.

"He has absolutely no control over what I do or say," Lady interrupted angrily, and ignored the dark glance from Dean. "Oh come on, you had to know I wouldn't last very long! Dean, Sam, I really appreciate everything you've helped me out with in the past, I really do. But if little Jo thinks I'm a witch I…"

"Excuse me?" Jo stood up. "I'm not the one sporting witch ink!"

"Funny thing! Me either!" Lady said happily. "See, all a misunderstanding."

Jo shook her head, "I don't like her being here."

"You know what, we don't like either of you being here," Dean said. "Your mother is going to kill me for lying to her."

"When you say 'we' you mean you and Sam, right?" Lady asked.

"What do you think?" Dean snapped at her.

"Just making sure, because I'm liking this less and less," Lady said.

"Hey!" Sam said, standing up. "Okay, here is what we have. No violent deaths in the past eighty years, before that this place was an empty lot. Without a death we have to think a spirit is attached to an item. I think we should scan the building for EMF."

"Sounds good," Jo said.

"You and me will take the top floor and work our way down," Dean said, willing to let the situation go as long as he could work.

"It will go faster if we split up," Jo said.

"I lied to Ellen for you, I'm not going to let you out of my sight until this is done," Dean said. "Live with it, or leave."

"Fine," Jo said sharply, pulling an EMF reader out of her bag.

"Lady," Dean said, tossing her his own. "You and Sam, bottom up."

Lady turned the EMF reader around in her hand and tucked it into a pocket instead of asking how to turn it on. She would ask Sam when Jo was out of ear shot. "Yeah, I totally got this," she said, "Let's walk downstairs, Sam."

"You have no idea what you are doing, do you?" Sam asked once they were down the stairs one floor.

"So clueless and that woman is scary," Lady breathed.

Sam chuckled as he turned the EMF reader on for her, "You know what EMF is, if you get a spike I'll be right here."

"Sam, if she goes back to her hunter buddies and mentions me, how do you think they'll react?" Lady asked, hoping he'd come up with a different conclusion than Dean had.

Sam grimaced slightly, "Yeah, not much better than Jo. Probably faster shots, too. That what you and Dean talked about in the bedroom?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, just, uh, give Jo some time to warm up to you. I mean, you knew our Dad. When we met you there was already a reason for us to trust you."

"I've met witches that looked less interested in killing me!" Lady hissed.

Sam gave her shoulder a squeeze, "We'll figure something out. Before we end this case, okay?"

"Thanks," Lady breathed.

"Tell you one thing that will work, find this ghost before her and Dean do, get rid of it and that will show her you aren't an evil witch." Sam began to walk down to the first floor and turned halfway, "And, uh, maybe covering that tattoo? Having it out and visible looks like you are sort of proud of it sometimes."

"Damn right I am, I'm the only damn person who has survived it without turning into a murdering sociopath!" Lady said, she paused and thought about it before chuckling. "Well, one that uses black magic, at least."

"I'm serious," Sam said.

"Fine, fine, I'll buy a watch or something."

Sam and Lady found nothing on the first floor and impatient Lady ditched him before they finished and disappeared.

Lady went back up to the apartment later with a box of fried chicken and a six-pack of beer. "Lucy, I'm home," she sang as she walked in, finding the brothers and Jo sitting around the table.

"You vanished for four hours to go to KFC?" Sam asked.

"I also got a pedicure," Lady said, putting her open-toed shoe on the table. "You should feel my heels, they are so soft!" She looked around, "No one? Okay."

"Why don't you just leave? Or are you afraid a house will fall on you if you step outside?" Jo asked.

"Oh, I love the Wizard of Oz," Lady said. "I'll be Glinda, why don't you tap your heels together three times and go fuck yourself." Lady didn't flinch as Jo stabbed her knife into the table only an inch from Lady's hand.

"Stop it," Dean said, sounding tired. "As much as I'd love to watch this cat-fight that is brewing I don't want to get in the middle of the knife-fight it will turn into."

"I don't trust her," Jo said, standing up.

"And you trust us? You barely know us," Sam said lightly. "We've worked with Lady before, she'll have our backs if we need it." Sam let out a breath and to keep the conversation productive he said, "Maybe we should interview the superintendent."

"I already did," Jo said.

Dean let out a short laugh, "We should definitely do it again."

"Why?" Lady asked, genuinely confused.

Dean gave her an obvious look, "Lady, you don't do a lot of ghost hunts, follow my lead, okay?"

"Okay, okay," Lady said gently. "But I saw the guy. Portly, close to middle-age, no ring on his left hand? He would have told her everything. More than he'd tell you."

"Excuse me?" Everything about Dean was tense and he was trying hard not to lash out, her questioning his ability to do his job was not helping him hold back.

"Guy like him, pretty woman like her smiles and he opens up about things you never wanted to know," Lady said. "While you have a pretty mouth, she has a nice rack."

"Then why don't you go have a chat with him?" Dean asked.

Lady looked away and muttered, "Well, I did. Anything he told me we already knew because of Jo."

Jo let out a smug chortle, "Still think I don't know what I'm doing?"

"So we know nothing, don't get arrogant," Dean muttered.

Late in the night Dean fell asleep on the recliner and Sam on the couch. Lady was looking at the same news article for over an hour without seeing the words.

"Why don't you take the bed? I'm not tired," Jo said quietly.

Lady looked up, "No offense, but I think you might stab me through my eye in my sleep."

"None taken," Jo said. She let out a breath, "Why do you have that mark? You say you aren't a witch and you have them convinced you aren't. No offense but I think you might cut out my liver in my sleep."

Lady held back correcting her that a liver didn't have as many magical qualities as one would think. "I know the coven, and they tried to kill me once. Its how I got into this whole thing, actually."

"Revenge?" Jo's eyebrows rose with uncertainty.

"Uh, we'll go with that," Lady said. "The Winchesters, starting with their father, have helped me out over the years in dealing with them. I was just hitching a ride with them to check out an old ritual site, but uh, this haunting sounded too good to be left out of."

Jo looked down and twirled her knife in one hand, "Maybe when we're done here you can show me that old site? I'd like to see what one looks like."

Lady glanced back at the sleeping brothers, "Dean seems pretty protective of you. I'm not sure if he'd let that happen and as much as I love getting under his skin I sort of need him on my side."

"Dean is a chauvinistic pig that thinks a woman can't do the job," Jo said bitterly.

Lady held out her arm to show a fresh cut and several crisscrossing scars, "Jo, your skin is still pretty smooth. You stick with this kind of work it won't be."

"Think I'm afraid of getting hurt?" Jo asked, looking as if she'd shove her knife through her own hand just to prove she wasn't.

"No," Lady said. Lady stretched her back and let out a breath of relief as her spine popped. "Everyone has their reason for getting into this. Make sure you know yours, and if it is worth the scars do it."

"It's worth the scars," Jo said without hesitation.

"Maybe that would be okay, then. Thing is I don't exactly know where it is yet, and I may not be able to find it at all. But if you are still in the area if and when I find it, sure."

"Okay," Jo said, nodding once.

Lady nodded, "Well, since we aren't going to try to kill each other while the other sleeps, I'm going to bed."

Jo smirked, "Going to lock the door?"

"Oh, yeah," Lady chuckled. "Throw a dresser in front of it, too."

"Smart witch," Jo said.

"Wicked hunter," Lady said.

Lady woke up a few hours later, after a shower she and Sam went down to get coffee.

"Sleep okay?" Sam asked.

"Woke up without a knife in my back, I take that as okay," she said. "Chatted with Jo after you two passed out, I think it is moderately okay."

"That's something," Sam said as they went down the stairs. "I was hoping you standing up for her in front of Dean would earn you some points. Nice work."

"Thanks," Lady said brightly, and then slowed her steps. "Hold up, something is going on," Lady said, hopping down the last several stairs ahead of Sam.

Sam hurried down after her, "What is...oh no," he muttered seeing police swarming the hallway of the second floor. "Let's check it out."

"What about coffee?" Lady asked.

"This sort of looks more important," Sam said, grabbing her hand and pulling her down the hall.

Sam spoke with a concerned look on his face as the officer told him the woman who had lived in that apartment had gone missing the night before and gave him a description to see if he knew anything. Sam led Lady back to the staircase, "Young blonde, this ghost hit again. Come on."

"But you said we could get coffee!" Lady said as he went up the stairs.

"Are you serious?" Sam looked at her. "We need to finish this case now."

"Starbucks is on the corner, I've been craving it ever since you mentioned it," Lady said.

Sam handed her a few bills, "Go get the coffee. I'm getting back to work."

Lady returned half an hour later with a tray of coffees. Dean had already managed a quick glance inside the missing woman's apartment to discover ectoplasm was there, Sam and Jo were going over everything for the fifth time.

"Are you going to help at all, Lady?" Dean asked as she sat on the couch with her feet up watching TV.

"What would you like me to do? Anything I could do, you've asked me not to do."

"Why don't you go check out what you came here for?" Dean asked.

"Going to let me borrow your car?" Lady asked, and her teasing smile died before she could complete it at the deathly glare from Dean. "You guys give me something to do, and I will do it. This whole reading things you've guys already looked at, no."

"We have pictures if that is more your speed," Jo said, holding up one, and then frowning. "Hey...check this out."

"What?" Sam and Dean both looked at her quickly.

"The building next door, check out the windows," Jo said. "This empty field is where we are now, next door was a prison. What if we've been looking into the wrong history?"

Jo stepped into the bedroom to make a phone call and Lady joined the brothers in the kitchen. "She's sharp. I like her," Lady said.

"Yeah, you think its funny encouraging her?" Dean asked.

Lady smiled, "I find a lot of things funny."

He gave her an angry look but Jo was returning. "The prison was torn down over fifty years ago, but get this. They used to execute people in the field next door by hanging them."

"We're going to need a list," Sam said.

"Ash is already on it," Jo said.

Lady held back a snicker and tried to hide her smile as she dug in the fridge for some cold chicken.

"What's so funny, Lady?" Dean asked.

"I wasn't laughing," Lady turned around with a straight face. Dean looked at her with knowing eyes. "Fine, I find it slightly amusing that she is a step ahead of you."

Dean shook his head and picked up some papers, "Go be a slinky and throw yourself down some stairs if you want a laugh, this isn't funny."

Lady sat on the kitchen counter as the hunters looked through a list that was sent to Sam's computer. Over a hundred and fifty people had been executed before the prison was closed and they were brainstorming ideas on how to narrow down the list.

However the list became very short when Sam discovered one name. "H. H. Holmes. Wow."

Dean and Sam both looked excited at the name but Jo and Lady were equally confused. "Who is that?" Jo asked.

"You never heard of him?" Dean looked surprised. "H. H. Holmes was the first serial killer. The term multi-murderer was coined to describe him." Dean said.

"Yeah, he confessed to twenty-seven murders but some put the death toll up to over two-hundred," Sam added.

"And his favorite, pretty petite blondes," Dean added.

"Let's go dig him up. Salt and burn his bones," Jo said eagerly.

"Not so fast," Sam said. "He's buried in town, but his coffin is covered in a couple of tons of concrete."

"What? Why?" Jo asked.

"Story goes that he didn't want anyone mutilating his corpse, because that was what he used to do," Dean said.

"It gets better," Sam said. "Holmes built an apartment building in Chicago. He called it the Murder Castle. The whole place was a death factory, they had, uh, trap doors, acid vats, quick line pits. He built these secret chambers inside the walls. He'd lock his victims in, keep them alive for days. Some he'd suffocate, other's he'd let starve to death."

"So Teresa, the girl abducted last night, could still be alive. She could be inside these walls?" Jo asked.

There was silence for a moment before the brothers stood up. "We need sledgehammers, crowbars. We've got to smash these walls, anywhere thick enough to hide a girl."

Lady grinned as Sam and Dean returned with the tools they would need. "What are you grinning about? She wasn't a step ahead of us this time," Dean said.

"Oh, I know," Lady said. "I'm just thinking how much fun it is going to be destroying private property and crawling through dirty walls." She smiled happily, "It's like a constant party with you guys. Can I use the hatchet?"

Dean handed to her, "Your brain does not work right."

"It gets it right on occasion," she said.

They began their search in the walls late in the evening. Sam and Lady worked the first floor while Dean and Jo started at the top.

Lady grabbed her phone as it vibrated, "Yeah?" she whispered.

"I just turned to the north wall. Dean and Jo haven't found anything yet. Where are you, we should have met each other by now," Sam said quietly.

"I'm on my hands and knees in the crawl spaces, you are walking upright. I'm little but even I need a bit more room to breathe," Lady hissed back.

"Right, sorry," Sam said. "Find anything?"

"Nada," she answered. "I see your light, meet up with you soon."

Lady pulled herself out of the small space she had been in and stood up straight between brick wall and drywall. "You're filthy," Sam said, shining the light on her.

"Can you say that again, just with a bit of a pant?" Lady asked.

"What...c'mon!" Sam groaned.

Lady grew serious, "Up to the second floor?"

"I guess. If we follow this we should get back to the hole we made," Sam said. "Let's try to avoid leaving too much damage."

"With how fast we're going it's going to take us until tomorrow night to finish this," Lady said, looking at her new watch.

"We'll just have to hope we find the girl before he decides to...well, do whatever he does," Sam said. "We're moving faster than Dean and Jo, they aren't even done with two walls yet. You were thorough, right?"

"I'm serving a dual purpose of dusting the ducts and searching for pieces of people, very thorough," Lady said, patting her sweatshirt and causing a cloud of dust to rise up.

Sam and Lady finished the second floor near dawn and as they climbed the stairs to the third floor they ran into Dean. "Hey, what's wrong?" Sam asked quickly.

Dean clenched his fists, "It took Jo!"

"What?" Sam asked quickly. "How?"

"I wasn't with her! I left her alone. Damn it!"

"Hey, hey, its okay, we'll find her," Sam said.

"Where?" Dean asked.

"Inside the walls," Sam said.

"We've been inside the walls all night. None of the girls are there," Dean said.

"We just need to take a minute to think about this," Sam said.

Lady shook the dust from her hair and pulled it up. "You two think, I'll keep looking."

"No," Dean said.

"I'm not the ghost's type," Lady said. "Maybe Casper can walk through walls but the girls can't. Show me where Jo was last, I'll follow the best I can."

Lady had a flashlight in one hand and a hatchet in the other. She followed the narrow space. For a while there was a smear of ectoplasm that led to a duct that went down a floor.

Carefully Lady descended the slick duct, there were a few rungs to allow maintenance to climb when they needed to but a few were missing. She followed the remaining smear of ectoplasm, but when it vanished she only had the narrow space to follow. She was getting into an area she had searched before on the first floor when she turned back. There was no more going down, the building didn't have a basement.

From within the walls she heard a flushing toilet and a rattle to her left. A metal panel that partially covered a pipe shook as water flowed through, and Lady used her butterfly knife to pry it open. It swung open and the narrow opening led into a confusing jumping of pipes, she was pretty sure she was under the second floor's laundry room. She pulled out her phone and Sam answered on the first ring. "Guys, this building's plumbing system probably isn't up to code."

"Why do you say that?" Sam asked.

"Well, I'm trying not to knock any of the pipes loose right now, but there is a pretty big drainage pipe down here that isn't connected to anything. I think it's for drainage. I hope it is. Not that I am a qualified plumber or anything, let's just go with a…"

"Lady, I get it," Sam said. "We just found some plans for the old sewer system, some of which is still under the building. It isn't being used, it's cut off," Sam said. "Where are you?"

"First floor, no where to go down unless you are being flushed down the drain. I think I can squeeze through and if opening that pipe doesn't flood the building I might be able to get into that, too." Lady bit her inside lip. "There is no way you or Dean could fit, I'm leaving behind layers of skin as it is."

"I get it," Sam said. "Ok, keep your phone on. We're going to keep looking for an alternate route," Sam said.

Lady worked her way through the narrow opening, tearing a hole in her shirt as she did so. She worked her way down avoiding the maze of pipes that rattled and jiggled as various apartments flushed their toilets or washed dishes. She reached the large pipe and grabbed the circle with both hands to open it, watching her future-sight to make sure it wouldn't explode and flood the small area she was in. Only it was stuck. The bit of give told her it wasn't sealed, but she wasn't strong enough to get it open. She used the hatchet to give herself more leverage, but failed. She looked at her scrawny arms and bitterly hissed, "Damn you."

Lady called Sam back, "It's a no go, I can't get this pipe open."

"That's okay," Sam said softly, she could hear Dean angrily speaking in the background. "Can you make it out of there?"

"Yeah," she said. "I'll call you when I'm out of the walls so I can come to you."

Lady met the brothers outside in an empty lot beside the apartment building, they had found an entrance to an old sewer. She followed them down and looked at the series of disused pipes and tunnels that they now had access to.

"Alright, these two lead below the apartment building," Sam pointed. "They might even feed into the same reservoir."

"Might? We don't have time to do this half-assed," Dean said.

"You are right," Sam agreed, flashing a light into each of the long tunnels. "But we have no choice but take this one. That one is too narrow."

"Too narrow for you," Lady said. "Give me a leg up."

"Gotchya," Sam said, letting her step on his good hand and helping her into the narrower tunnel that was high off the ground.

"Lady, take this," Dean said, throwing a canister of salt into the tunnel.

"Ouch!" she complained as it struck her back. She worked it in the narrow spot until it was in her hand and began to shimmy forward.

Lady continued for a long time, unsure how far she had traveled until the tunnel opened up into a circular area with a high ceiling. She was about twelve feet above the bottom of the pit, the only light was an old oil lantern in a corner. There were a few dark circles of pitch black that Lady believed to be other pipes and tunnels which meant there was, thankfully, more than one way in or out of the hole she had found herself in. Hopefully another one was leading the brothers to the same spot.

"Jo?" Lady called into the room, her voice echoing.

"Lady?" Jo breathed. "Is that you?"

"Yeah," Lady said.

"What are you doing here?"

"Just hanging around," Lady said as she felt around the opening of the tunnel for something to hold onto. Her fingers grabbed something securely and she worked on getting her ass and legs out of the tunnel until she was dangling by her arms. The drop down wasn't going to feel good but it wasn't unmanageable. She released and landed on her feet and rolled to the side.

"Oh god!" a woman gasped at the noise.

"Is that Teresa?" Lady asked as she got back to her feet. Her legs were still vibrating with the fall but she was going to be okay.

"Yeah," Jo said. "It's okay, we're going to be okay. Oh god, get us out of here."

"I will," Lady said, walking to a wooden box Jo was in. It was like a crate, but it served the purpose of a coffin well enough.

"Do you see him?" Jo asked as Lady looked at the secure lid.

Lady looked around the room. "If he's here I don't see him," she said. She pulled out her butterfly knife and eased it into the lock in an attempt to snap it off, but it was too secure. "I'm not going anywhere, Jo, I just need to find a better tool to break you both out."

"Okay," Jo breathed. "How did you get down here?" she asked as Lady grabbed the lantern and looked around for anything she could use.

Lady tensed as an eerie cold began to creep into her skin, her eyes moving rapidly around the area and trying to pierce the darkness. "Sam and Dean took a guess he was using this old sewer system. I followed one tunnel, they are in another." She opened the canister of salt Dean had told her to take and began to put a circle around Teresa's enclosure. "Jo, I'm setting a circle down just in case."

"In case?" Jo asked in an anxious voice.

"I'm trying not to terrify Teresa," Lady said just as anxiously. "You feel that?"

"Yeah," Jo said, and choked down a sob.

Lady sat on Jo's crate and put salt around the two of them, finishing just before the ghost appeared. Teresa let out several cries. Lady swallowed hard as the ghost appeared confused as to why he couldn't pass the thin circle of salt, and then he was furious. He glared at her, knowing she wasn't supposed to be there, but he couldn't do anything but glare at her with his dead ghostly eyes. Lady closed her eyes and laid down on top of the box covering her head as a shotgun fired. Rocksalt hit the ghost and he vanished.

"Jo?" Dean called, crawling out of one of the pitch black holes and landing on his feet.

"I'm here!" Jo called.

Dean let out a breath as Lady hopped of the box and outside of the salt circle, "Good work," he said as he took the butt of his shotgun to break the lock on Jo's box. Sam was out of the tunnel and was working on breaking Teresa free.

"Let's get the hell out of here before he comes back," Jo said, relieved to be free but still trembling.

"No, we're not leaving yet," Dean said.

"What?" Jo hissed.

"Remember when I said you being bait is a bad idea? Sort of the only plan we have right now," Dean said.

"Do you have an actual plan?" Jo asked.

"I do," Dean said, looking around the room. "Lady, two jobs for you. Get Teresa out of here and as far away from this place as you can." Dean put a hand on her back and quietly said, "And, uh, think you can manage to get a cement truck?"

"Probably," she looked confused.

"With cement in it?" Dean added.

"I'll do what I can," she said. "So, you don't want me to rent one, you want me to jack one?"

"Yeah," he nodded. He smirked a bit, his mood had improved now that the women were safe. "Unless that's too dishonest for you."

She touched his face with her dirty hands and pinched his cheek before pushing him away. "I'll handle it." Dean smacked her rear as she walked away.

Sam led Teresa to Lady, and Lady gave her a flashlight and had her go into the tunnel Sam and Dean came out of. It was large enough that they could crawl on their hands and knees.

Lady got a cab so the woman could go wherever she wanted to, most likely a hospital. Finding a cement truck was a bit trickier but she managed it. A few hours after leaving she was backing up the cement truck to the opening of the sewer. "Back it up," Dean signaled to her until holding up his hand to tell her to stop. The ghost was circled in salt and the cement would prevent rain from washing the salt away.

"You look like crap," Dean said flatly.

Lady shrugged, her clothes were ruined, even her tennis shoes were finished from scraping along narrow spaces. "I need a shower," she decided aloud.

Dean hooked a finger into a hole in her shirt, seeing scraped skin inside. "Yeah, go clean up. I'll take care of the truck when we're finished."

Lady was tired enough to go to sleep, but after they all got cleaned up they were packing and getting out of there. Teresa was in the hospital and already the police were at the apartment building. For now they could tell them they didn't know anything but eventually they'd get through the crazier parts of Teresa's story and discover they had been involved somehow. They just wanted to get away from the apartment building before that happened.

Jo was helping Lady pack the Impala that evening. "Hey, uh...thanks."

"Don't mention it," Lady said.

Jo nodded appreciatively. "Uh, so, this ritual site we're looking for. What can you tell me about it?"

Lady glanced at Sam and Dean who were walking across the parking lot with their bags over their shoulders. "Quite a bit. The coven that was here last time was pretty small time. A few humans were sacrificed but mostly animals. I've checked the area a few times over the years and it doesn't seem like any other coven has moved in, but it's a big city it's easy to miss the usual signs. Last time I didn't need to find their ritual site, they were pretty sloppy and I didn't wait for them to lead me to it. If I can find the ritual site I can scope it out, see if any other witches have moved in. Also see if they left anything there."

"Like what?" Jo asked.

"Like a connection to other covens," Lady said. "Pretty weird stuff, it's not easy to explain. I mean, I've been working on this for a while, I wouldn't know where to start. And I learn something new every time I come across them."

Jo looked anxiously at Sam and Dean who were nearing them, "Just let me know what to look for. Fill in the pieces I don't know as we go along." Jo saw Lady's hesitance and said, "You want to know what I know? The other hunters who are looking into them, might help me remember if you give me some details."

Lady smirked, "Clever."

Jo returned her smirk, "I have my moments."

"How long will it take you to find this spot, Lady?" Dean asked as he threw his bag into the trunk of the Impala.

"A few hours," she said. "A few days. Eternity."

"Great. I'll drop Sam and Jo off at a motel and we'll check it out," he said.

"I'm coming with," Jo said. "She invited me."

Dean looked too tired to argue, but then the fatigue vanished as he watched a cab coming into the lot. "Oh no."

Jo turned and tensed, "Is that...oh no."

The cab stopped and a middle-aged woman threw cash at the driver before stepping out and looking furious. "Jo! Thank god!" She cried, grabbing Jo in her arms.

"She's fine, Ellen, everything went..." Dean began.

"Don't! Don't even think of speaking!" Ellen snapped at him.

"Mom, I'm fine," Jo said. "The job is done, everything is fine."

"Fine?" Ellen snapped at her daughter. "I've been worried sick! I spent every dime I had saved up to come out here and every second of the way worried that I would be bringing home a body! You are far from fine!"

"We're sorry, Ellen," Sam said gently, not flinching when the furious woman turned on him. "So sorry. Listen, we'll drive you both back to Nebraska."

Dean looked at his brother with wide eyes, but nodded in agreement.

Lady grabbed her bag out of the backseat, "Call you guys later," she said quietly. "I came all this way for my own work, I'm not leaving without at least checking it out."

"How will you get back?" Dean asked her quietly.

"Buy a car, borrow a car, hitch, I'll figure something out," she said. "Uh, nice to meet you, Jo."

Jo nodded and shook Lady's hand, "You too, Lady. Call me sometime."

"I will," Lady said, avoiding the dark glare that Ellen was giving her. "Ciao," Lady said with a wave, walking out of the parking lot.

Lady spent the next couple of days in the city exploring the faint ley lines that were there. Even with the aid of the diamond there were enough old lines with strong intersections that led to old churches and places of historical importance. If the ritual site was still active she never found it. She gave up, deciding that it was just not worth the time when she had no hard evidence that a coven was in the area.

Lady decided to take a train back to Sioux Falls and on the Amtrak she called Jo.

"Yeah?" Jo answered.

"Hey, it's Lady," Lady said.

"Hi," Jo said, sounding surprised. "What do you want?"

"I think you know," Lady said. "A few things, actually."

"Listen, Dean gave me his speech that if I spread the word about you a few of the guys I know may try to kill you, I kept quiet, okay?"

"Thanks," Lady said. "I appreciate that. But, uh, mostly I wanted to hear what you heard about the coven."

"You going to tell me what you know?" Jo asked.

"We really going to do this quid pro quo? Jo, Dean and Sam have a lot of experience but they were nearly killed twice by this coven."

"Fine. All I know is that they are dangerous and that tatt you have is their symbol. But I know the guys who told me about it. They may have more information. If you want to talk to them I can set up a meeting."

Lady considered it and accepted, "Okay. Where?"

"My Mom's saloon, I'll check when they plan to stop in next and get back to you," Jo said.


	23. Roadhouse, October 2006

**October 3, 2006. Harvelle's Roadhouse, Nebraska**

Lady didn't like leaving Freddie at Bobby's, again, but Jo had told her the Roadhouse was a used as a pit stop for hunters and Freddie was just not a good idea to bring into that sort of situation when witches would be mentioned. She parked the Beetle beside a large jacked-up pickup truck, since Bobby had worked on the car it was running smoothly again.

"Hey," Jo said as Lady walked in, and nodded for her to come over to the bar. "My shift is almost over, just hang tight, okay?"

"No problem," Lady said.

Ellen walked out with a pen and paper, "What can I get you...?" Ellen looked at Lady. "Oh, it's you. What do you think you are doing here?"

"What do you think she's doing here, Mom?" Jo asked. "I told her about the place, she wanted to stop in. Trade information, meet some of the others."

"Uh huh," Ellen didn't buy it.

"Just a few people in particular," Lady said. "I've been working a case and Jo thinks someone might have some information."

"She's not working with the Winchesters," Jo said quietly. "She works alone, mostly."

"I'm watching you," Ellen warned her daughter.

Jo frowned a bit, "Did you want anything? A beer? Sandwich?"

"No, I stopped at the Arby's down the road," Lady said.

Jo watched her mother as closely as Ellen watched her daughter, and after half an hour Jo returned to Lady and said, "Come with me."

Lady and Jo sat at a table with two men in their thirties. "Hey, Jo," one with a shaved head and a rough beard said. "Who's this?"

"Lady, this is Roy," Jo said. "This is his buddy, Walt," she nodded to the other man with shaggy dark hair and a clean shave.

"Lady? Lady what?" Walt asked.

Lady made sure her tattoo was hidden by a wristband that was bedazzled with rhinestones in the design of a pentagram, and shook their hands. "Just Lady. Like Elvis, without the mad guitar skills and a better wiggle." The pair of hunters smiled. "Jo tells me you guys came across a witch before. I'm sort of interested in what you can tell me."

"We've taken out a few black witches," Roy said proudly.

"This one was in a special coven," Jo said. "Last summer, the ones with the moon symbols?"

Walt frowned a bit, "Yeah, we remember. That is a hard one to forget." Walt studied Lady, "We took out a whole coven, seven of them."

"Seven?" Lady tapped her fingers on the table. "That is the biggest I've heard of. And they were all together?"

"What is your interest in this? They are all dead," Roy said.

"No they aren't," Lady said. "I tagged three earlier this year in Florida."

"You?" Walt looked at her with scrutiny.

"Plus a black dog," Lady added.

"She's a pretty hardcore witch-hunter," Jo said. "Can't hold her own hunting a ghost, but she'll finger a witch two states away." Lady glanced at Jo, realizing she was using her own pull from the two hunters to help her case. Lady grimaced, this was going to cost her. "Just tell us what you remember."

"Sure," Roy said. "It was outside of Dallas. Last year, late August."

"August?" Lady said, it was painful to keep from interrupting him before he finished the words. "Full moon?"

"Yeah, of course. They are witches," Walt said.

"Seven of them together, a few sacrifices we didn't get to in time had been bled dry. We ambushed them in the middle of some ritual. Weird thing is they didn't even move, like they were all in a trance. But, uh, when the last one fell down dead there was this big boom, shook the earth and knocked us on our asses for a few minutes," Roy said. "But we got them all. Counted the bodies before we torched them."

Lady pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and nodded. "Thanks," she said.

"Wait a second, Lady," Roy said. "Tell us a bit more about this. You said you found more of this coven?"

"Same symbol you showed me last year," Jo said brightly.

"Um, well there are more out there," Lady said. "The only reason you guys managed to get them so easily is you interrupted their Blue Moon ritual."

"Blue Moon?" Walt raised his eyebrows.

"Third full moon within a season that has four full moons. They happen every few years, last year for example. I don't know much about it, but it's a big one. Any interruption sends a massive shockwave of magical energy, enough to knock you on your ass. If they could have stopped the ritual to set you on fire they would have. I went up against the same thing with a coven of two in Lodi, same night." Lady didn't mention that she had managed to rescue their sacrifices that night.

"Well we got a little protection against witches," Roy said with a smile. He tugged a charm out from under his shirt, a small little bundle of cloth, "Houdoo protection, repels witch curses. I showed you mine, maybe you should show me yours."

"Roy," Jo shook her head disapprovingly.

"Afraid mine is in a more personal place," Lady said with a soft smile. "I want to check out the site they used, think you can mark it on a map for me?"

"Do you one better, we'll show you," Roy said.

"Mm, I'd rather you just mark it on a map for me," Lady said.

"Think we're going to let a pretty girl like you go somewhere that dangerous alone?" Walt asked.

"Two pretty girls," Jo said.

All eyes fell on Jo. "What are you doing?" Lady asked tensely.

"You want their info, I want in. We all go together, or you get jack squat," Jo said happily.

"Okay, we need to talk, just us girls," Lady said.

Lady followed Jo into the woman's bathroom, "These guys don't know or trust you. You need me," Jo said. "They trust me, and without me to vouch for you they won't give you anything."

"I appreciate that, Jo, I can really see you are looking out for my best interest here," Lady said sarcastically. "But I really do work alone, you know. Hell, the Winchesters nearly had to pull my teeth to get in this with me."

"Want me to grab a pliers?" Jo asked. "I already have you by the short and curlies, Lady."

"That's not cool," Lady hissed. Not only would she be stuck playing normal with her sight there was no way to stop at Bobby's to pick up her dog. But it was just examining a ritual site, a powerful one since it was used recently and used on the Blue Moon and with a coven of seven. Not to mention Tammy hadn't been too far from Dallas when she had tried to kill her, it sounded like that site was still active. She needed to check that spot. "Jo, there was a witch not far from Dallas a few months ago. This may not be safe."

"Then I guess it's a good thing we have uber-witch-hunter Lady coming with," Jo said with a grin. "Right?"

"When do we leave?" Lady asked bitterly.

"Tonight, after my mom goes to sleep," Jo said quietly. "She'll flip when she finds out."

"Fun," Lady said. "I need to pick up a few things. You want me to pick you up here or do you have your own car?"

"I'll meet you two miles south on the side of the road," Jo said. "Three in the morning. You ditch me and I'll hunt you down myself."

Lady said goodbye to Roy and Walt and began to walk out the door. "Leaving so soon?" Ellen asked, frowning at her.

"Yeah, got what I could out of them," Lady said. "Uh, hey, Ellen, those two guys? They know what they are doing?"

Ellen studied Roy and Walt who were sitting and laughing with Jo and nodded, "Yeah, they do. They might stretch their stories a bit to get in your pants, but they get the job done. Why?"

"I was just wondering if they were stretching the truth to try and get into my pants," Lady chuckled. "Um, it was nice to see you again."

"I bet," Ellen said through her teeth.

Shortly after three Lady was slowly driving down the road past the Roadhouse. She pressed on the brake as Jo came out of the ditch. "I thought you weren't going to show," Jo said, throwing her bag into the backseat and slamming the passenger door. "Nice car. What is that smell?"

"I have a dog," Lady said. "I left him at home."

"Yeah? Where do you live?" Jo asked.

"A hole in a ground," Lady said.

"C'mon, it's a long drive to Dallas," Jo said brightly.

"Yeah, about that, where are we meeting Roy and Walt?"

"I'll call them when we get there," Jo said. "Until then maybe you should tell me a bit more about this witch-hunt."

"Tell you the most important thing about hunting a witch, Jo," Lady said quietly. "They are human. Some are powerful enough to be immortal, to stop aging or disease. Some can even hold off serious injury. But when you kill them, you are killing a human being. This isn't vanquishing a ghost or shooting a werewolf. This is, according to law around the world, murder."

"But they are..."

"Yeah, evil witches. Kill them or be killed, it's simple enough in our eyes. Even simpler talking about it. But have you ever actually killed anything?"

Jo was quiet for a while, "A ghoul. Roy and Walt let me join them about six months ago. Three ghouls in a cemetery, they looked human. I knew they weren't, but I blasted one of their heads off. Looked right into their dead eyes while I did it."

Lady was quiet for a few miles before asking, "What is a ghoul?"

Lady stopped in Kansas around dawn to refuel the Beetle. Jo got out of the car and stretched. "Are you at least paying for half of this little adventure?" Lady asked as the gas pump digits rolled.

Jo looked a bit ashamed, "I, uh, I don't have much money left. Spent most of it in Philadelphia renting that apartment."

Lady sighed, "Why?"

"We needed to get into the..."

"Not why you spent your money. Why me?" Lady asked. "You could have just as easily rode off into the sunset with Roy and Walt..."

"No I couldn't," Jo said. "They respect my mom too much. They are staying there for an alibi right now." Jo shook her head, "You need me, okay? You need me to keep my mouth shut about your little tattoo, and you need my contacts. You owe me, that's why, okay?"

"No I don't," Lady said, replacing the gas nozzle and screwing on the gas cap. "You have been one major headache since you pulled out your knife and called me a witch."

"I'm running away, okay?" Jo said. "I mean, I'm not a kid, but my mom won't stop treating me like one. I want to do this, I want to be a hunter and I can't with her looking over my shoulder. I have almost no money, I left my cell phone and got a prepaid one. Everything I have is what I brought with us. I'm doing this and I'm starting with this thing you have going on because I have enough leverage to make you. I don't expect you to understand, but there it is, okay? Until I can prove to my mom that I can take care of myself I can't go back."

"Not going to say I understand much of that, but I understand running away," Lady muttered. "I'm beat, think you can drive for a while or should we get a motel?"

"I can drive," Jo said.

Lady reclined in the passenger seat as Jo drove, staying awake long enough to ensure Jo could handle the clutch and stick-shift before falling asleep. When she woke up a few hours later they switched spots, instead of Jo going to sleep Jo asked, "So you ran away?"

"If you want to chat can we talk baseball or famous asses?"

"And I thought we were really bonding before," Jo said sarcastically.

"I like you, Jo, it isn't anything personal, but my personal business stays that way, okay?" Lady said. She adjusted in her seat in order to dig into her pocket for her cell phone. She had it in her hand when it began to ring and the caller was blocked. "Yeah?"

"Lady?" A woman asked.

"Who's this?" Lady asked and tightened her grip on the steering wheel.

"Ellen Harvelle."

"Ellen? How the hell did you get my number?" Lady asked.

"Doesn't matter," Ellen said. "Where is my daughter you little tart?"

Lady saw Jo's wide eyes and set jaw. It was a powerful position to be in, having the one person Jo was running away from on the phone. "Excuse me?" Lady said.

"You heard me," Ellen snapped.

"Yeah, guess I did. I don't know why you are asking me," Lady said.

"You know why. She's with you, isn't she?"

"No, she isn't. Have you tried the Winchesters?"

"She wouldn't go to them," Ellen said. "And I know damn well she's interested in that little witch-hunt you are joining Roy and Walt on."

"Sure she is, but she isn't getting anywhere near my hunt," Lady said. "As for Roy and Walt, they aren't getting their hands on this either and if they show up in Dallas tomorrow I'll slash their goddamned tires. If you don't believe me ask Sam and Dean, I get pretty pissed off when someone nudges into my work. Now as much as I would enjoy to give you time to come up with another fun insult I'm busy driving. Goodbye."

"She will call them, you know," Jo said after a few moments. "She probably has Ash looking up all the information he can on you right now."

"Who's Ash?" Lady asked.

"He's like a super computer genius," Jo said. "He can find anything, on anyone."

"Really?" Lady tapped her fingers on the steering wheel. "That's bad."

"How bad?" Jo asked.

Lady was thinking it over in her head wondering just how much information could be out there on her. She shrugged, "Not sure."

After half an hour Lady's phone rang again, this time it was Sam. "Hey," she answered.

"Lady, just checking, you aren't with Jo Harvelle, are you?"

"You, too, huh?" Lady asked.

"We just covered for your ass in case you are," Sam said anxiously. "Well, I did. Ellen called, asking about you. Wanted to know how willing you would be to let someone join in on a witch-hunt because Jo ran off again. I told her there was no way in hell you would ever let someone you didn't know in on this because you nearly took our heads off in Florida. So please tell me I'm right."

"You are right," Lady said. "If the pretty blonde shows up I'm going to take her head off."

Sam was quiet for a moment, "Not sure if I should be relieved or worried. At least if Jo was with you she wouldn't be alone."

"Jo's a big girl, Sam. I bet she even eats her spinach," Lady said.

"And, uh, what were you doing at the Roadhouse to begin with?" Sam asked.

"Jo introduced me to a couple of hunters," Lady said. "I just got some information."

"So is Ellen right, you are on a witch-hunt?" Sam asked.

"Not sure yet," Lady said. "What are you guys doing right now?"

"We're in Maryland, looks like another haunting," Sam said. "Lady, I'm going to have to tell Dean about this when I meet up with him."

"I'll let you guys know if there is anything there worth hunting if you want in," Lady lied, finding it much easier to lie to Sam than Dean. She still didn't enjoy it but Sam was more trusting than Dean. She couldn't have him and his brother come to Dallas and find her working with Jo.

"Not about the hunt," Sam said. "You know how pissed he's going to be that you went to the Roadhouse?"

"Why?"

"Lady, enough of them know about the coven," he said nervously. "What if they see your mark?"

"That is a concern that I have covered. Literally, I have this really cute wristband. Want me to send you a picture of it?"

"Lady, we don't want anything to happen to you," Sam said seriously. "You know since our father died Dean seems to be leaning on you. I'm not going to ask you to tell me why, or maybe I'm just trying to see something that isn't there. I don't know."

"Sam, I don't even know," Lady said. She licked her lips, Dean wasn't leaning on her to handle the grief of their father. She was the only person besides Max that knew his father's last words, the only person he could verbally vent to about it and the added benefit that she really enjoyed physically venting with him as well. "Just have him give me a call and I'll tell him everything. I'll deal with his temper tantrum if he wants to throw one."

"Uh huh," Sam said doubtfully. "You don't have to sit in a car with him for days at a time if he decides he wants to come check on you. Just watch out, okay?"

"Will do. Take care, buddy." Lady shut her cell phone off. "Jo, just throwing this out there, if you get yourself killed before I get rid of you I am not telling anyone you were with me."

"That's fair," Jo said with a smirk.

Lady smiled back and through clenched teeth said, "I'm not joking."


	24. Texas, October 2006

**A/N** - _Oops, another long chapter, sorry. Thanks for everyone faving and subscribing and reviewing! I hope you enjoy because several of the next chapters just make me absolutely giddy!_

**October 5th, 2006, Dallas, Texas**

Lady was following Roy and Walt's pickup outside of Dallas to a secluded area, thick with trees and a nearby creek. "This is about the spot. Hard to tell exactly where, it was dark then," Roy said.

Lady pulled out the diamond and watched it sway gently. She walked, following it's movements until it began to spin erratically until it led her to the intersection. "Yup, this is it."

"What's that?" Walt asked.

"This is a diamond," Lady said, putting it back in her pocket. "It reacts to mystical energy." Lady pulled out a map and marked an 'x' at where she found the intersecting ley lines. "No, you may not see it. It is very expensive."

"We came all the way out here just so you can confirm there is mystical energy?" Roy asked.

"Pretty much," Lady said. "You guys have seen this coven once, tracking them isn't easy. I'm trying something new to try and figure them out."

"You think this spot is still active?" Jo asked as Lady walked around examining the area.

"Hard to tell," Lady said. "Ritual site is still prime real estate for them to move in, but can't be sure if one has taken up residence. But if there is a witch nearby I'll find out."

"We start looking through missing persons, see if they've been leaving their mark, strange occurrences, that sort of thing," Walt said to Jo.

"That works great when they are preparing for a big ritual," Lady said. "But if they are just doing your average sick witch thing you won't find any of that."

"How do you find them, then?" Roy asked.

Lady smirked, "I've been at this so long I almost have a sixth sense about them," she lied. "You guys can head out, I got it."

Roy smiled at her, "What kind of gentlemen would we be if we left two pretty things like you to handle this alone?"

"You can take the blonde one, I go alone from here," Lady said. Jo opened her mouth to argue but Lady said, "If you don't I'll call Ellen back and tell her you two gentlemen lied to her and met us here."

"Bitch!" Jo hissed.

"Sorry, Jo, you had to know I'd get rid of you as soon as I had what I wanted," Lady said. "I like you, sweetheart, but I don't like having people around while I'm doing this."

"Yeah, I did," Jo said. "But either we stick it out until you find out if there is a coven in the area, or you won't like what happens."

Lady arched an eyebrow as she stared at Jo. Would she really risk Lady's life by telling Roy and Walt about her tattoo? Lady wasn't sure if she could convince them she wasn't really a part of the coven. "How long are you going to hold that over my head?" Lady asked.

"As long as it takes," Jo said.

Lady went still, "And if there is a witch in the area?"

"We stick around and help you finish them off," Jo said.

"Well, we have a witch," Lady said, and looked up. The others followed her eyes to see the tree she was standing under, close to the intersection of ley lines, had several dried pieces of flesh hanging from it. Lady let out a curse. She had been so close to Dallas in May but she hadn't stopped to look for anything. Why would she have, though? A city the size of Dallas it was hard to detect the normal weird from the supernatural weird.

Lady climbed up the tree to get a closer look at what was hanging there. "Hard to tell if this is from small dogs or cats," she muttered as she looked at each piece. "Oh, funny, a wishbone."

"Funny?" Jo asked, looking up through the leaves.

"Ever see the TV show 'Wishbone'?" Lady asked. "About a smart dog...never mind. Anyways, I'm guessing this person has used a lot of dogs, and enjoys educational programming for children. Check the other trees, maybe you'll find Barney and the Teletubbies. Or maybe they just didn't have anyone to split a wishbone with after a nice turkey dinner." Lady jumped down from the tree. "Any of the others have ornaments?"

Roy and Walt shook their heads.

"This is pretty wicked," Roy said. "You ever see anything like this?"

"No," Lady admitted. "But most of those pieces, while not fresh, are in good shape. I'm willing they were put up recently in preparation for the full moon in a few nights."

"This is your area of expertise, Lady, what's the next move?" Roy asked.

As surprised as she was by having a hunter readily give up the lead she was rather pissed to be stuck in a situation where she had people forcing their way in to help her. She wasn't going to get rid of Jo without possibly being stalked by any hunter interested in bagging a witch, and the hunters already with them had the scent of a witch and would not back off. Maybe they'd listen to her. Best thing she could do was the thing she hated doing the most with strangers. Tell the damn truth.

"Let's find a place to put our feet up in town, check out local reports. Thing is we'll probably be hanging around until the full moon rises to ambush them right here, but if we can catch them early that would be very nice."

Lady rented a motel room for her and Jo to share, and Roy and Walt did the same with the room next door. They gathered in the men's room while Walt read through articles on his laptop and Jo read through old newspapers.

"Look for missing teenage girls, that's what they used last time," Walt said.

Lady kept her eyes on the ground as Jo looked up at her. "That isn't always the case. It depends on what they are trying to summon power for, different flavors give different results. It could just as easily be a strung out twenty-something woman or a well-fed man or anything in between. Anything as small as a rabbit, anything as big as a cow, once."

"A cow?" Roy asked.

"Big ass bull," Lady said. "It was in Alabama. Sort of wish I had gotten there after they killed the bull, that fucker was mean."

It didn't take long for the research to become mind-numbing and the beers to start getting passed around.

"So you hunt with the Winchesters?" Roy asked, sounding impressed. "I ran into their Dad once, eight or so years ago. Good man, sorry to hear he passed."

"Good to see they are hunting the thing that killed him," Walt said. "We got to see them a few times when they stopped at the Roadhouse."

"I don't hunt with them," Lady corrected. "More accurately our paths have crossed enough times that we've had no choice but to work with each other or step on each others toes. They are good friends."

"Hey, Roy, you know what, we should give Bobby Singer a call," Walt said, and Lady tensed. "He's always looking for leads on witchcraft."

"Nah, he's been more interested in the demon activity lately," Roy said.

"Still, the old man may..."

"Guys, I sort of like my whole army of one, I'm tolerating this foursome at the moment. Let's not bring anyone else into it," Lady said. "At least until it's finished, okay? I don't want any more party crashers."

"The Lady has spoken," Roy said, giving her a charming smile while looking at her cleavage.

"I'm heading to bed. See you guys in the morning," Lady said.

"Me, too," Jo said. "Uh, thanks guys, and sorry if my mom gives you any grief."

"Its okay, Jo," Walt said.

Lady was kicking off her shoes when Jo said, "Wow, you have problems."

"What do you mean?"

Jo chuckled, "I got you figured out, Lady."

"That so?" Lady asked as she fell into the nearest bed.

"Uh huh," Jo smiled victoriously. "Full moon, teenage girl, angry face. They tried to sacrifice you."

Lady gave Jo a golf clap, "Brava, brava. Do you want a cookie?"

"And I know who Bobby Singer is," Jo said. "He's one bad ass hunter. If he's interested in witchcraft, this coven of yours, and if he hears about you..." Jo let out a whistle. "You couldn't run fast enough if he knew about you. I bet the only reason you've survived this long is because John Winchester protected you from other hunters. Hah, wow."

"Is that so?" Lady asked, pulling out her cell phone and dialing a number.

"Who are you calling?" Jo asked anxiously.

"Don't get your panties in a bunch," Lady said.

"Yeah?" Bobby answered the phone.

"Bobby, it's me. I have a situation to run by you," Lady said, smiling at the shocked look on Jo's face. "I'm in Dallas and a few hunters showed up. Might have a witch or two in the area so I'm hanging around and I can't get them to leave. They say they know you, their names are Roy and Walt."

"Yeah, I know them," Bobby said. "Decent guys, haven't gotten themselves killed yet."

"Do me a favor, if they hit you up for information don't mention you know me," Lady said. "I'd rather not leave them an easy way to find me again."

"Can do," Bobby said. "Watch your ass down there."

"Can do," Lady said, and hung up. "Bobby Singer knows I'm in Dallas, and I'm not running."

"Fine, so you have more connections than I thought," Jo admitted as she went onto the separate bed.

"Be serious, no more nasty sarcasm," Lady said as she shut off the lights. "You really going to sell me out after everything we've been through?"

"No," Jo said after a few moments. "Now that you know, you going to call my mom to come and drag me back home?"

"No," Lady said quietly. "As long as you can, uh...I don't know, prove you aren't going to get yourself killed if I don't. I wasn't lying before, you die down here and I'll hide your body and never speak a word of this to anyone. Your mother, your friends, will never know what happened to you. I can't the risk the stigma that would put on me. I've come too far and I'm too close to ending this coven."

"At least do me the favor of burning the body, okay?" Jo said.

Lady thought about it for a while and said, "Deal. And, uh, in case it's me you'd do the same?"

"Yeah," Jo said without hesitating.

"Do me one more favor and dance around the flames, okay?" Lady said as she rolled onto her side. "If I'm going to die I at least want there to be dancing."

Jo was quiet for a while and started laughing, and soon Lady joined her.

The next morning the quartet met at a diner across the street for breakfast. "So what did you girls do last night? Paint your nails? Naked pillow fight?" Roy asked.

"We planned each others funeral pyres," Lady said seriously.

Jo nodded energetically, "And then we tried on shoes."

"And she let me see her knife collection," Lady said brightly. "You know what, Jo, I think we're starting to be friends."

"I know, must be some real evil magic going on here," Jo joked.

After an afternoon search of local newspapers turned up nothing Lady and Jo went to a nearby bar. Playing blackjack to earn a few dollars until Jo found a back alley game of poker with higher stakes. Lady gave Jo a few hundred dollars to buy her way in and returned to the motel.

"Where's Jo?" Roy asked, leaning against his truck in the motel parking lot while smoking a cigarette.

"She's trying to earn some money," Lady said. "Probably be out the rest of the night."

"Walt called that Bobby guy we know," Roy said, crushing his cigarette under his heel. "Bobby's an ace-researcher, he didn't pull up any activity here. Sort of pisses me off, you know? We took this coven out over a year ago, seven of them, and others just moved right in. If I had known I would have stuck around, come back sooner. How many people do you think they've killed since last year?"

"Optimistically? None," Lady said. "Pessimistically, a hundred. Realistically, probably half a dozen. Can't worry about it too much, I've been hunting them exclusively for years and they still slip past me. I wasn't far from Dallas back in May and I didn't catch their scent, so I'm pretty pissed off myself."

"You know, we can team up for this. If there are more, we're up for it," Roy said.

"I don't think so," Lady said with a smile.

"Fair enough," Roy said. "You keep your reasons to yourself."

"Thank you," Lady said.

"So, you do this whole thing on your own?"

"As much as I can, yes," Lady said.

"Must be lonely, being alone," Roy said. "I know Walt isn't the friendliest guy, but at least he's there to chat with during long drives."

"Never bothered me much," Lady said.

"I guess you are a very unique woman," Roy said, his eyes traveling over her. "You know..."

"Roy, are you going to say tomorrow night we might die and beat around the bush trying to find some clever charming way to get me naked?" Lady asked, crossing her arms and staring at him.

Roy thought about it for a while, "I was going to offer you a drink somewhere in there. What do you say?"

Lady unlocked her motel room, "Get in here."

Lady kept the lights off and shoved Roy onto her bed, running her hand over his shaved head while finding his mouth with hers. He tasted like beer and tobacco, not her favorite but the two seemed to mix well together. His rough beard tickled as he kissed down her neck while his rough hands slipped under her shirt.

"Hold on," Lady said, pushing his hands away and getting off the bed.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Just, one minute," Lady said as she went to the door. She opened it and Jo was standing there with the motel key in her hand. "Did you lose all the money?"

"A short game, idiots thought I was bluffing and went all in," Jo said, moving to step into the motel.

"Yeah, go next door," Lady said.

"What?" Jo asked, and saw Roy sitting on Lady's bed with his shirt already off. "Oh wow...uh..." Jo turned around and Lady closed the motel door.

"I hope that wasn't awkward for you," Lady said.

"Slightly," Roy admitted.

"Whatever," Lady said, finding him in the dark room and shoving him back down on the bed.

Lady woke up the next morning with, thankfully, an empty bed. However Jo had made her way back into the room and was asleep on the separate bed. When Lady stepped out of the shower Jo was awake. Lady fought the smug look, "Please don't tell me you are a nun."

Jo let out a laugh, "No, I'm not, just, uh...you know, I actually thought you and Dean were, you know, together?"

"What?" Lady ran the towel through her wet hair. "Why would you think that?"

"Just, in Pennsylvania he was pretty defensive of you, but at the same time you bickered like an old married couple," Jo said.

"I don't have relationships," Lady said. "I have a few close friends because I can't avoid it, otherwise I have flings. Dean was supposed to be a fling, but he and his brother are like cockroaches, they just keep coming back."

Jo was brought out her knife and began sharpening it, "You do this job and keep everyone as far away as possible?"

"It's easier that way," Lady said. "You do this long enough and, uh...well, it is hard to relate to normal people. Hard to stay in one spot. But one thing you do is keep true allies close." Lady tied her hair behind her head. "Which leads me to the question of why you aren't checking in with Dean and Sam who saved your ass."

Jo looked down at her knife and twirled it once before closing it. "You know my father was a hunter. And, uh, I didn't find out until I got back home after the job last month but the last hunt he was on he went with John Winchester. John screwed up and got him killed, he's the reason I don't have a father."

Lady nodded, she had heard that story from Sam. "You blame Sam and Dean for that?"

"No," Jo said. "It's just...I can't stand it. All these years I never knew, I thought just some evil thing had done this but now I know one of his best friends is the reason he is dead. And it just makes sense, you do this job you do it alone. You do the job and cut out contact with everyone else."

"No you don't," Lady said. "You do the job how it needs to be done. You do it with people who understand the risks. You call for help when you need it, and you run when you have to. There isn't a right or a wrong way to do this...well, technically the wrong way ends up with someone dead, I get it, but...Jo, I'm sorry. Sorry you lost your father, and how it happened."

Jo nodded, "Thanks."

"Dropping the morbid chat," Lady said brightly. "So, you and Walt?"

"What? No!" Jo said quickly.

"Why not? We're killing witches tonight, it might get deadly dangerous, last night alive sort of stuff," Lady said.

"I've known Walt since I was ten! It would be like having sex with my brother."

"Well, it's still early if you want to find someone to knock boots with," Lady said. "I might take another ride on Roy if we have time..."

"Oh! Lady!" Jo winced as she laughed. "Wow, you are not shy, are you?"

"Not really," Lady said. "Hell, I'd still be naked right now if I was sure you wouldn't take it as an invitation."

"To...ugh, I don't play for that team," Jo said.

"Me either. Does that mean I can air out a bit?"

"Please don't," Jo said.

"Aw, and I thought we were bonding," Lady joked.

As the sun began to set the group gathered and Lady set out a plan. "Jo and I will go this way, you two split up and come from either side."

"Why don't I move and come in from the north?" Jo asked.

"The trees aren't dense enough to hide or shield you," Lady said. "Roy, Walt, make sure you are moving in from an angle at the road. That way if you shoot you won't hit each other."

"If you are doing this because you think I'm safer with you, I'd rather team up with Walt," Jo said.

"That isn't the case," Lady lied. "Everyone here agrees I know what I'm doing, I have more experience, this is how I want to go in. Either smile and nod, or I'll tie you to the bed until we get back."

"Kinky," Roy said, his eyes looking over Lady while a dopey grin crossed his face, and Jo elbowed him roughly.

"Roy, you would not survive if I decided to play it kinky," Lady muttered, more interested in making sure none of them got killed than teasing back. "Go in slow, count how many there are. Wait until I move in."

"How many do you think there will be?" Walt asked.

"I'm hoping only one," Lady said. "If that is the case I need to try and nail them for some information. They love to talk, if I get them talking you just hang back."

"What if they have a sacrifice?" Jo asked.

Lady looked seriously, "Listen, there are a lot of things that we might be walking into. A ritual on a full moon is usually animal sacrifices and a quest of power. Rituals on the new moon are usually offerings, more likely to have a human sacrifice. This isn't a rule, each part of the coven does things their own way. I wish I could tell you for certain what we were walking into. At any point if it is too much just run."

"We aren't running," Walt said.

"Me either," Jo said.

Lady led the group to the ritual site, Jo in her car with Roy and Walt behind her in their truck, reaching it shortly before midnight. There was already the low blue glow from blue flames. Lady waited for Roy and Walt to split and silently guided Jo through the trees. Once close enough they stayed behind a tree to do some recon.

"Only one," Jo said, sounding relieved.

Lady put her hand up to keep Jo quiet. The tree with the animal part ornaments had a new ornament hanging, a man hanging by his wrists. He was shirtless and struggling slightly. Lady pointed to him and Jo nodded. "I want you…" Lady began to whisper but stopped. Her eyes widened in fear and she could hear her heart pounding in her ears. "Stay here," Lady hissed, pulling out her pistol in her right hand and opening her butterfly knife in her left as she ran in the direction Walt was supposed to be. In the distance there was snarling and barking before a gunshot and a scream.

"Nagual! What have you found?" The witch called into the darkness, sounding pleased.

Lady ducked behind a tree as she watched a large black dog, if she had to guess she thought it was at least part Rottweiler, dragging Walt by the leg as he struggled and moaned in pain. She let out a breath, and stepped out from behind the tree. The dog had released Walt and was circling around. A moment before it lunged at her she turned and fired her pistol five times.

"Nagual!" The witch roared, now furious.

"Don't move," Lady said as Walt tried to tend to his injured leg. She didn't have time to help him.

"Who is there? SHOW YOURSELF!" The witch shouted.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Lady shouted back before he could begin to invoke a spell. She walked forward, her pistol in both hands but she didn't have a clear shot. "Hang back!" She called loudly before Roy could attempt to fire a shot from his spot. Right now the witch didn't know he was surrounded. But shots rang out from Roy's position. A few went wide and the tree next to her splintered and a sharp pain entered her thigh.

"Got him!" Roy hollered as Lady saw the witch go down.

Lady put both hands to her thigh, feeling hot blood pouring out. "Son of a bitch!" She screamed.

"Lady?" Jo called. "Oh god, Walt!"

"I'm okay! I'm okay!" Walt panted. "I got it tied off."

Lady was slipping her belt off to use as a tourniquet and her hands were beginning to tremble. "Roy?"

"Yeah?" Roy called.

"You fucking shot me!" Lady shouted back.

"Oh god, Lady!" Jo gasped, rushing to her and helping her fasten the belt. "Is it bad?"

"Hurts," Lady said. "Help me up."

Jo helped Lady limp to where the witch was laying dead, two of the shots had hit him in the back, one in the head. "Good job, Roy," she said in bitter sarcasm. This witch had a black dog, he was high up in the chain and she may have been able to get him talking. Now he had two bullets in him and she had one in her. Son of a bitch. "I nailed his black dog, we'll need to burn it. You better go check on Walt first."

"Yeah," Roy said. "Lady, I'm so..."

"Get away from me," Lady said harshly, and he did.

Jo looked up at the man hanging from the tree, and then gasped, "Lady! He's still breathing."

Lady looked up, she was right. The man was tall and thin, his shirt had been ripped off and there were dozens of wounds marked on him. Tortured. Jo climbed up the tree to get high enough to cut him down. His drop was only a few feet and when he landed he crumpled.

Lady put a hand to his neck, there was still a pulse. "Run to the car, grab blankets and water," she ordered Jo.

"Got it," Jo said, standing up and running.

Lady was cutting the man's wrists free of the rope as he began to open his eyes. "Help...me..." the man rasped.

Lady put her hand on his forehead, it was burning hot, "Hey, you are going to be just fine."

His eyes fluttered open and he looked at her face, illuminated by blue fire of the torches the witch had put up. "He wanted...to kill me."

"You are safe, he's dead," Lady said, pulling away the coils of rope she had cut free and the man grabbed her wrist in a weak grip. "He was a witch."

"Yeah, I know," Lady said. "Don't talk, okay?"

"You saved me," he said. "Beautiful Lady, you saved me."

Lady tried to bring her hand back as the grip tightened, stronger than she expected him to be after going through everything he had been put through. "Let me go," Lady said, staring into his dark eyes, and her eyes went to his exposed wrists. "Shit," Lady snarled as she saw the mark of the coven. It was another witch.

He laughed as she tried to get her butterfly knife open again, "You, of all people, saved me," he laughed harder. Lady felt a burning begin in her right wrist under his fingers, and his grip was too tight to break now. This man may have been about to be sacrificed, but before that he had been a part of the coven. "I know you, Lady. I know you," he rasped.

Lady struggled with the grip as white-hot pain shot from her wrist through her body. She tried to get a grip on her knife or pistol with her free hand but she couldn't control her limbs. She could feel the magic scorching inside her veins, feeling electricity tickle her hair and the heat of the blue fire grew.

Lady couldn't hear anything past her own screams, she only knew when the pain ended she fell in a heap trembling and crying. Hands that touched her felt ice cold, "Lady, hold on, okay?" Jo said. "Jesus Christ, what happened?"

The next thing Lady could coherently process was a large orange bonfire licking at the hanging leaves of the surrounding trees and the strong smell of gasoline. "Hey, you with me?" Jo asked as she noticed Lady coming around.

Lady licked her dry lips and nodded, "Yeah, I think so. The guy you cut down, he is one of them. Where is he?"

"I shot him," Jo said. "Three times, in the head. He..." Jo looked at Roy who was working to contain the bonfire. "He made you light up like a damn Christmas Tree. I thought you were dead. I was almost ready to toss you on the fire and start dancing."

Lady smiled slightly and went to get up, and then the hot pain in her leg made her decide to stay down. "This coven, pain in the ass," Lady said.

"Are you going to be okay?" Jo asked, genuinely concerned.

Lady shrugged. "Thanks, Jo. I, uh, well I screwed this whole thing up."

"Maybe a bit," Jo said. "C'mon, let's get you into the car."

Lady was breathing heavily as the pain in her leg throbbed and each throb aggravated whatever other injuries the nearly-sacrificed witch may have caused. Jo stopped the car at the hospital and Roy helped Walt into the emergency room. His leg had been pretty mangled by the black dog.

"Come on," Jo said, opening the passenger door so Lady could get out.

"Walt's a big boy, he doesn't need us in there," Lady said.

"You need to get your leg patched up," Jo said.

"No, I don't," Lady argued. "I don't do hospitals."

"What do you...are you serious?" Jo asked in a high voice. "You might bleed out!"

"Sucks to be me," Lady said. With wide eyes, "I hate hospitals, okay?"

"So do I, but you have a bullet in your thigh and you've lost a good amount of blood," Jo said. "Don't be a baby."

Lady managed to get out of the car and an arm around Jo's shoulders with the promise of morphine for the pain. As she got closer to the entrance of the emergency room she froze up. "No, can't do it."

"Lady!" Jo hissed as Lady's weight seemed to double. "So help me god I will go in and get a wheelchair and tie your ass to it."

"I'd like to see you try," Lady said as she tried to get turned around and back into her car. "Not happening, no."

"Roy! Help me!" Jo called.

"You bring him out here and I will stab the fucker!" Lady threatened, now clawing at Jo. "No hospital. No! NO!"

Roy grabbed Lady and even as she threw weak punches he lifted her in his arms and carried her in. The nurses, believing she was screaming in pain instead of stubborn fear, got her a shot of pain relief quickly that hazed Lady's mind so thoroughly she could have been in Disneyland instead of a hospital.

Lady wasn't sure how much time had passed when she woke up in a thin paper gown with tubes and needles in her arms, but it only took her one minute to get disconnected and out of the bed and less than two seconds to fall on her knees because of her weak leg.

"Yeah, you are smart," Jo said, walking into the hospital room.

"I have to get out of here," Lady said urgently.

"Hold on, okay? You had a bullet removed, surgery the whole thing. It isn't an outpatient sort of thing," Jo said.

Lady looked at her with wide eyes, "You don't get it. I have to get out of here."

"Just...Lady, wait!" Jo said.

"Jo, please...I can't walk on my own, I'm naked for crying out loud! Help me out of here," Lady pleaded.

Jo frowned, but nodded. "Let me grab your clothes."

Lady was taking slow breaths as she road in the passenger seat of her car. She had managed to get her bandaged leg into a pair of jeans and was wishing she hadn't. Her leg was swollen and her jeans had always fit snugly. "I need a knife," Lady said. Jo handed her one without a word. Lady cut the leg of the pants to give her injury some room to breath, but now that it wasn't restrained in denim it throbbed. "Oh, fuck!"

"You cut yourself?" Jo asked anxiously.

"No," Lady whimpered.

Jo reached into her jacket pocket, "I swiped some of these from the pharmacy last night."

Lady took the bottle of pills and could have cried to see they were Oxy's. She took three to start off with.

"Where are we going?" Jo asked.

Lady was panting in pain and only wanted to get the sort of pain relief that came with being knocked unconscious. "I don't give a fuck." Lady let out a whimper of pain, "Ugh, fuck. South Dakota."

"Why South Dakota?" Jo asked.

"Bobby Singer lives there," Lady said. "He'll let me crash there while this heals...or help me cut the fucking thing off!"

The next hour of the drive Jo's ears were assaulted by Lady's complaints of pain until the pain pills combined with more pain pills and several swallows of hard liquor quieted her down.

"So, uh, what's the deal with you and hospitals?" Jo asked as the sun fell.

Lady was high on the pain meds and alcohol, so she did something out of character. She confessed. "There is stuff in my blood that sets of X-files alarms."

Jo chuckled, "What do you mean?"

Lady let out a breath, "The coven I hunt? The cursed me years ago. Can't lift it, can't get rid of it...but I'm trying. My blood is messed up, really sick." Before Jo could ask if she was serious Lady said, "Yes, very serious." And before Jo could apologize Lady said, "Don't apologize. Happened long before we met."

Jo frowned as she stared at the road. "You..."

"I'm letting you talk," Lady argued before Jo could ask her if she would allow her to speak. "Or am I? Man, I'm fucked up. Can't tell the future from the present fucked up. God I'm glad I'm not driving. I'm not driving, am I? That's good," Lady's forehead fell against the window and she conked out.

Bobby Singer woke up to the sound of Freddie barking outside. He didn't mind the dog being there, in fact Freddie was a useful watchdog, but the damn dog was just as likely to bark at a prairie dog as a demon. This bark continued enthusiastically and was one Bobby recognized as a signal of company. The damn dog loved people showing up. And considering it was the middle of the night it was either unwelcome company or Lady finally returning to retrieve her dog.

Bobby pulled on his jeans as made his way downstairs as a he heard someone knocking on the door. Lady didn't knock. He opened the door and was confused for a moment as he looked at the young blonde woman. He blinked a few times, "Jo?"

"Uh, hi, Bobby," she said. "Uh..."

"What the hell are you doing here?" Bobby asked and then his face fell. "Your mother's been looking for you..."

"You can't tell her I was here!" Jo said urgently. "Please, just, I need help. Lady is in the car."

Bobby's eyes widened as he followed Jo out to the car, "Why? What...Jesus H. Christ!"

Bobby carried Lady, who was blissfully unconscious, into the house and onto the couch. "You ain't going anywhere," he barked at Jo.

Jo shrugged, "I, uh, don't really have any way to leave. I came in Lady's car," Jo said. "Listen, Bobby, if you tell my mom I was with her...you can't, okay?"

"Jo...I haven't seen you for years. You can't just jump in here toting Lady with a gunshot wound saying 'don't tell mommy' because it doesn't work like that!"

Jo nodded, "Fine, fine. Tell her. But make sure you mention I'm the one who saved her ass."

Bobby let out a frustrated breath. "You were with Roy and Walt, too?"

Jo nodded.

"Idjits," Bobby growled. "I could kill 'em."

Jo smiled a bit, "Yeah, well, I punched Roy hard enough to knock out his front tooth."

Bobby shook his head, "Jo, what are you doing? Ellen's been calling everyone you know, people she hasn't spoken to in years, trying to find you, to make sure you are okay."

"I just...I need to prove to her I can do this," Jo said. "And you know what, I can. So...you going to turn me in?"

"No," Bobby said, grabbing his cordless phone and offering it to her. "You are."

Jo laughed and shook her head, "No, I'm not. I'll be in the next state before she gets here."

"Call your mother, Jo. Don't make me have to do it for you, because if I do I'll tie you down until she gets here," Bobby threatened.

Jo took the phone and dialed home.

Lady's leg was throbbing and she felt the gentle warmth of the sun on her and the familiar smell of Freddie. She let out a groan, "My god, how long was I out?"

"You were unconscious ten hours ago when Jo got you here," Bobby said. "She said you were in an out the past day."

Lady tensed. "'Mornin', princess," a woman said, and Lady didn't have to open her eyes to know it was Ellen.

"Bobby's may not have been the best idea," Lady grimaced as she moved to sit up. She looked around, "Where is Jo?"

"She high-tailed it out of here," Bobby said. "Sorry, Ellen."

"Wish she would have at least said goodbye to my face," Ellen said grimly. Ellen glared at Lady, "You. You lied to me."

"You know, people say that like they are offended, but if you actually knew me you'd just know that lying is my third language. I slip into it so often I don't even realize it," Lady said.

"You think you are cute?" Ellen snapped.

"I sort of know I am," Lady smiled through the pain. "Listen, I know it's no consolation, but Jo saved my ass. Nailed a witch that wasn't even a foot away from me, and she isn't the one who shot me."

"Oh, I know all about what happened in Dallas," Ellen said. "That you led my daughter and two of my friends into a witch's ritual where one got mangled by a black dog!"

"It wasn't that bad, he was out of the hospital before I was," Lady mumbled.

"Bobby, do you even know who she is?" Ellen asked. "Because I had Ash searching the past few days for anything on her and he hasn't come up with squat."

Lady chuckled, and when Ellen glared at her she said, "Squat. That's fucking amazing."

"She's been off the grid a good amount of her life," Bobby said in a low voice. "I've known her a long time, Ellen."

"Longer than you've known me? I don't think so," Ellen snapped.

"Long enough," Bobby said. "Listen, Jo wants in on this life. I don't approve of it, hell I've known the kid most of her life. But if she wants in she's going to do it with or without your blessing, you know that. We both know its better if she goes out with someone experienced to watch her back than on her own, and when it comes to witchcraft Lady is the best."

"I don't believe that for a second," Ellen snarled.

"You sure?" Bobby asked. "Lady, show her."

Lady looked at her wrist, for the first time noticing that the wristband she had taken to wearing was gone, "No. She already wants to kill me."

"Just, show her," Bobby said.

Lady held her hand out to show Ellen the tattoo, and Ellen's eyes went wide with fury. "She's a witch?" Ellen snarled at Bobby.

"No," Bobby said. "She ain't. You remember the girl I told you about, about ten years ago, that nearly got sacrificed?"

"The one that became psychic?" Ellen asked, looking confused and then understanding appeared on her face. "That's her? I thought she died. You said she was dying from a curse."

Bobby shrugged, "She's too damn stubborn to die."

"You got a problem, Bobby. Boys at the Roadhouse are on a witch-hunting frenzy since Roy and Walt got back and told them about this coven. She goes out with that mark and they'll blow her head off."

"Yeah, I know," Bobby frowned. "Just do us a favor and try to convince them to keep me in the loop with any leads."

Ellen shook her head, "Demons, witches, this whole damn world is going to hell quick."

"I know Lady is shady, but she has to be. But believe me, she would have died before anything hurt Jo."

Ellen glared at Lady, "I can't believe this."

"Keep looking, I might do a trick," Lady said weakly.

"If Jo calls, either of you, I want to hear about it," Ellen said. "Maybe I can't stop her from doing this but I sure as hell won't be kept in the dark."

"You got it," Bobby assured her. "Right, Lady?"

"If I don't say 'right' she's going to hit me, isn't she?" Lady asked.

"I'll do more than that," Ellen threatened.

"Right," Lady said. "You got it. You are officially on my speed dial...when I find my phone."

Bobby looked very tired after Ellen left and finally handed Lady some pills. "Kid, you are the biggest god damn headache in the world. What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking if I don't do what the blonde tells me to she's going to sick her army of hunter friends on my ass," Lady said. "But, after a while, I got to thinking this chick is sort of bad ass cool. Now I'm thinking if I ever see her again I'll have to wear a bulletproof vest and look over my shoulder for her mother. You think I'm a headache?" Lady thought about it. "Damn, I'm giving myself a headache. Never mind. Just...sorry, Bobby. This is the most painful year in my life. Second most...no, third, nah, let's stick with second." She gave him an apologetic look, "Thanks."

Bobby nodded, "Holler if you need anything."


	25. Bobby's House, October 2006

**A/N **- _This takes place right after the season two episode 'The Usual Suspects' and in case it isn't clear Sam and Deal are fleeing from the scene right at the beginning of the chapter. Yay for the return of the Winchesters!_

**October 11, 2006, Leaving Maryland**

Sam and Dean had just finished a job in Baltimore. Dean was tense because while they were there he had been arrested and in jail for a few days before managing to escape, but as the miles got put behind them as he drove his mood had gradually gotten better. He popped out a heavy metal tape and rummaged through his box of old tapes and put in some Blue Oyster Cult.

"You know, whenever I heard this band I think about Lady," Sam said lightly. "Remember, that cursed house in Texas?"

"Yeah, I remember," Dean said.

"That reminds me, I talked to her," Sam said, now that they had a moment to breathe he wasn't eager to see Dean's reaction, but it was better to get it over and done with than sit on it any longer. Dean's hands clenched at the steering wheel when Sam told him Lady had visited the Roadhouse.

"Can't believe she went to the damn Roadhouse. You know if she screws up and they think she's a witch all of those damn hunters will be on our asses after they kill her."

Sam nodded. He could see that going bad as having people they befriended deciding to take a shot at them or just the suspicious glances. "Yeah, I hear that."

"Just wish she'd stay at her place and finish going through that damn book, find a cure to get rid of that curse," Dean continued angrily. "Psychotic bitch."

Sam rolled his eyes and shook his head. Dean would be furious until he talked to Lady and they could hear she was okay, that all was well. And then the sexual innuendos would start and then Dean would be looking forward to see her again. "Call her whatever you want, bro, you and I both know what will happen next time you see her."

"Shut up," Dean snapped.

"Proven, time after time," Sam laughed. "It's cool. I like Lady, I think she's strangely enough a good match."

"Dude, stop," Dean rolled his eyes.

Sam let it go. Both Dean and Lady were up for the casual thing, but he saw the difference in his brother when Lady was around. There was chemistry between the two of them. Sure, it had started in Kansas with Lady's intense flirting, but after their father died Sam had spent a lot of time watching Dean. After the few days he spent with Lady, and when Lady returned a few weeks later, he had seen an improvement in Dean's attitude. Dean would laugh it off as getting laid, but even just hanging out in Bobby's kitchen relaxing while playing cards Dean seemed better. Lady had a grin that was hard to resist and never missed a chance to crack a joke. If Lady could make Dean happy then Sam wanted his brother to go for it, the only reason he didn't vocalize his thoughts was because he wasn't entirely sure Lady might feel the same way, and if she did her life expectancy worried all of them.

"Who you calling?" Sam asked as Dean pulled out his phone, hoping it was Lady while at the same time wishing Dean would wait until he was alone so Sam didn't have to listen.

"Ash. I wan to see if he has any news for us," Dean said.

Sam looked out the window at the dark countryside. It wouldn't be too late in Nebraska to call, not that Ash seemed to sleep much. Since Jo had told them their father was the reason her father was dead Dean had been more pissed off than usual. Sam had tried, so many times, to help Dean recover from their father's death and some days were better than others. The past several days had been nearly painful. Sam was hoping that Dean would consider laying low for a bit at Bobby's or if Lady wasn't busy even head up to North Dakota for a few weeks until the heat in Baltimore wore off. But if Dean was calling Ash for an update the chances were they would be looking for a new hunt soon.

"Hey, Ash, got anything for me?" Dean asked as they saw a sign notifying them they were entering the great state of Virginia. Dean let off the gas a bit to be closer to the speed limit as a set of headlights appeared in the distance, they didn't want to get picked up for speeding after escaping from police custody.

"Hey, put it on speaker," Sam said, turning off the stereo.

Dean looked annoyed but did as he was asked.

"Sorry, man, got nothing new but still looking," Ash said. There was a lot of background noise and they could hear Ellen faintly in the background shouting at the patrons in the Roadhouse.

"What's going on over there?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, sounds like we're missing a party...that we'll never be invited to again," Dean said bitterly. Chances of Ellen allowing them to stay at the Roadhouse again after Philadelphia were slim to none. If there was a negative possibility that would be closer. It was too bad, they both had enjoyed having a place to hang out. They had been able to meet several new contacts, not to mention the genius Ash. At least Ash was still helping them out.

"You guys aren't missing anything you don't already know about from what I hear," Ash said. "Whole place has been pretty excited over news of a witch coven Roy and Walt took out. They went out with this pretty little witch-hunter and rumor has it you guys know her."

"Lady? Yeah, we know her," Dean said, sounding unimpressed. "She used our name to make a case for herself with the guys there?"

"Nah, Jo vouched for her the whole way, man," Ash said and the noise became muffled after the sound of a door closing. "Maybe you two can help me out? Ellen's been having me do a search, she wanted to get some info on the chick but I haven't dug up anything. The girl is a total spook. Not like you two, I search your names and I find records in half a dozen states and a few thousand dollars of parking tickets. By the way, how'd you get out of jail so quick?"

"Maybe I'll tell you later," Dean said tensely.

"Sure, fine," Ash said. "Anyways, Roy and Walt stopped in to share the news and show off their scars."

"Scars? Something go wrong?" Dean asked quickly.

"Yeah, Walt got a bit chewed up by a black dog," Ash said. Ash's tone sounded casual, like it was unremarkable, but Sam and Dean knew that a black dog meant someone high-up in the coven Lady hunted. "And Roy got a tooth knocked out. He says the witch did it but I heard from a reliable source that Jo did that for him."

"Jo was there?" Sam asked, frowning angrily. Lady had lied to him. "She got out okay?"

"Yup," Ash said. "Well, she did tell me Lady left a few marks on her when Jo was dragging her into the hospital. Guess Lady got caught in the crossfire when Roy was busy shooting the witch full of lead. Round to the thigh in friendly fire." The Impala jerked forward as Dean stepped on the gas.

"Roy shot her?" Sam asked, grabbing the phone from Dean so he could put both hands on the wheel.

"That son of a bitch still there?" Dean asked.

"Dean, it was an accident," Sam said, thankful Nebraska was a long drive away and his brother had time to calm down. "Is Lady okay?"

"Jo said she was. Dropped her off at Singer's Auto Salvage to recoup," Ash said. "Jo called to tell Ellen what happened and I got the full story. I hafta say Roy's version was more entertaining but I'd believe Jo over him any day. But at least Roy's story had some sex in it."

"Uh," was all Sam got out.

"Excuse me?" Dean said.

"Yeah! First thing Roy was bragging about when he helped Walt in was shagging the Lady," Ash chuckled. "Not sure if it's true or not. But it makes for fun story time."

"We'll talk to you later, Ash," Sam said, hanging up the phone as the speedometer nudged a hundred.

Sam sat quietly in the passenger seat, the look on his brother's face was frightening. Dean could say his relationship was casual all he wanted to but he cared about Lady, they both did. Sam cared for her only as a friend, maybe like a sister even. And hearing about Roy bragging that he had gotten Lady in bed wasn't something Sam wanted to hear about, and if Lady was his sister he may even consider doing something about it. Not like Lady had much virtue to protect or a real name to keep clean, but it just wasn't polite.

Sam wasn't sure what Dean thought of Lady. He definitely didn't think of her as a sister, at least Sam hoped not. A close friend with benefits was the only thing Sam was sure of. What he thought he saw as jealousy in his brother's eyes could be from some macho primal thing of his territory being invaded, or could be because what he had with Lady wasn't as casual as he put off. Sam just hoped the fury faded from Dean's face before they got far enough west for him to be able to do something about it.

"I'll call Bobby to let him know we're stopping in," Sam said. "Because it is more important to check on Lady than it is to slug Roy. And Jo already beat us to it."

"He shot her, I say eye for an eye," Dean snarled.

"Lady's a big girl and she's going to be fine. If she has any hard feelings we can drive her to Nebraska so she can handle it herself," Sam said.

Across the miles Dean's face went from silent fury to silent fury about to pass out from exhaustion. They switched drivers and continued on the course.

Sam pulled into Bobby's lot a few nights later. As he was grabbing his bag and the bag of dirty laundry that would get washed while they were there Dean got into the driver's seat. "We just got here, where are you going?" Sam asked.

"A fun place called none of your damn business," Dean said. Dean started up the engine, "I'm just going into town, okay?"

"Great," Sam muttered as he brother drove off. Bobby met him at the door. "Hey, Bobby."

"Where's Dean off to?" Bobby asked.

Sam made a face, "He wants to hang out in town for a bit." Sam knew Dean wasn't going to Nebraska, they had checked in once already and knew Roy wasn't there anymore. Dean was going into town to be away from them. "How's she doing?"

"Trying to wean her off the pain meds, but she's a big baby," Bobby said. "High as a damn kite right now."

"You look pretty beat. I'll keep an eye on her for a while."

"Thanks," Bobby said.

Lady had a hazy smile on her face as she stared blankly at the television playing late-night cartoons. Freddie was on the couch with her and she was leaning on him. "I don't need a babysitter, Sam," she said.

Sam smiled as he sat in a chair. "I know you don't. You might like some company?"

"Always," she said happily. "Well, not always. But right now, sure. What are you doing here?"

"Uh, well, we finished in Baltimore. But while we were there we got arrested so I was hoping we'd hang out for a while until the heat is off of us. And, uh, Ash, at the Roadhouse, has been tracking the demon for us. When we called to check for an update he told us what happened in Dallas. The Roadhouse is all abuzz," Sam said.

Lady shifted uncomfortably, "Ugh, this is going to come back and bite me in the ass, won't it?"

Sam thought about it. Lady successfully lived so far off the grid even Ash couldn't find information on her but now her name was being passed around the hunter circles. "Probably."

She looked around with slow eyes, "Dean isn't with you?"

"He was," Sam said. "Just, uh, you know long car rides can get. He just wants some time off from me." Sam didn't plan on telling Lady that Dean had gone from surprised hearing she had gone on a hunt with strangers to concern of hearing she had been shot to anger hearing how and then a quiet type of trembling jealous rage when he heard Roy had been bragging about the night he spent with her. Sam knew his brother enough to know that he was in town right now trying to find some strange woman for a one-night stand to even out some sort of sexual scoreboard. "Is there anything you need?"

She looked at him hopefully, "Bobby's hiding my pain medication. I'm pretty sure it's in the upstairs bathroom, but I can't get up there."

Sam smiled, "I know it hurts but you need to take it easy on those meds."

Lady whimpered, "But, Sam, it hurts so bad."

"Don't fall for it!" Bobby called from the kitchen.

"Fall for what? I'm in pain!" Lady whined, and Freddie whimpered at her high voice and got off the couch. Lady slumped over as her pillow disappeared and grumbled as she tried to get comfortable again.

"Sam, I'm going to try and get some sleep. She can have more when she's really in pain. And keep her away from the good liquor."

Lady sighed in complaint and went back to watching cartoons. "He's just trying to keep you healthy," Sam said helpfully.

"Being healthy is overrated," Lady said. "I don't have long to live and I've been sitting on this couch the past two days watching TV and being subjected to torture while I wait for my next fix of pain meds."

"Hey, don't talk like that, okay?" Sam said. "We expect you to find the counter-curse, and if we need to listen to you bitch and moan in pain so you don't overdose, we will. That's what we do for those we care about."

Lady looked at him with wide eyes, "You know, you sort of look like the dude from the 'Gilmore Girls'." Sam's eyebrows raised in confusion as she studied him. "Nah, he's way hotter."

Lady passed out after he gave her a dose of pain meds, she had nearly gone through a whole bottle already. He got out of his chair when he heard the Impala returning and went to meet Dean by the door. "Hey, be quiet, okay?" Sam said, leading his brother into the kitchen.

"Why?" Dean asked, smelling like alcohol. Sam knew his brother enough to tell he wasn't drunk but the six-pack he was carrying meant he was still trying.

"Bobby's been waiting on Lady since she got here a few days ago, he's exhausted," Sam said. "I got a cot out in the back but I was thinking someone should stay in the living room with her in case she needs anything."

"She just took a bullet to the thigh, she isn't paralyzed," Dean said roughly.

"She's in pain," Sam said. "And she's frustrated being immobile for most of a week. I hate to say it but she's actually been a royal bitch."

"Hey!" Dean snapped.

Sam's eyes widened. Dean had called her that, among other things, several times. Hell, he even called Sam a bitch. "Neither of us have gotten much sleep, okay? Just, go in back I'll stay with her."

"I'm not tired. You go, I can babysit," Dean said.

"You sure?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," Dean said, shrugging out of his jacket.

Dean only got three beers into his six-pack before he fell asleep in the chair watching the news channel. He wasn't sure how long he had been asleep when he jerked awake at the sound of a crash, and jumped to his feet when Lady let out a string of painful swears. He found her on her back outside of the bathroom and when he stood over her she laughed and said, "Good thing I fell coming out, otherwise I totally would have peed just now."

Dean's anger was still brewing and he was still feeling enough alcohol that he would have told her she was an idiot, but the laughter faded from her face quickly and was marked with real pain. "C'mon," he said, helping her to her feet and putting her arm over his shoulder so she could hop back to the couch.

"Where's Sam?" she asked.

"Sleeping," Dean said. "He grabbed a cot in the back."

"There's more than one. Why are you out here?"

"We figured someone should be out here in case you did something stupid. Like fall," Dean said, helping her ease into the couch. She was wearing shorts and the bandage was easily visible, mid-thigh. Not lethal, but painful.

"Aw, you are so smart," she said, and he couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or if she was just stoned.

"Everything okay?" he asked as she adjusted herself.

"It just hurts so bad," she said. "Everything above the knee just throbs with every pulse, and from my knee down is so cramped from being tensed that I can barely move, and everything waist up just trembles."

"Yeah, I've been there," he said. Dean sat on the couch and put her legs on his lap. "Just gets worse the less you move, but moving still hurts worse," he said, putting his hands on her lower leg and pressed his fingers gently into her calf. "Right there?"

"Yeah, you feel that knot?" she asked as his warm hands gripped the cramped muscle. "Are you serious?" she asked as he began massaging her aching leg.

"Want me to..."

"No, keep going," she said quickly.

He let a smile slip over his mouth. Lady laid down on the couch as he continued. For a while it felt normal, relaxing on a couch watching CNN at four in the morning. "You know when I first met you I thought I had you figured out," Lady said, sounding drunk. "But I had you wrong."

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"I thought you were a self-centered pretty-boy with a few tricks in his leather jacket," she said with a smirk. "But you are far from self-centered. Took me a while to see that. You know, I got so used to doing things alone but, uh, in Dallas I was really itching to grab the phone and call you and Sam to come help."

"Why didn't you?" Dean asked, some of that anger returning. If she had asked he wasn't sure if they would have been able to, they had been starting out on their own hunt then and were all the way in Baltimore. But he liked to think he would have tried.

"Because I am an arrogant self-centered person," she muttered. "Because I thought Roy and Walt could hold their own. Because I knew even if you weren't busy you wouldn't make it in time. Well, I won't make that mistake again."

"Next time you'll call instead of running in?"

"No, I mean I won't make the mistake of giving two idiots with a few guns in their trunk a bit of trust," Lady answered.

"You trust me, right?" Dean asked, meeting her drug-glazed eyes.

"Yeah," Lady said, looking over his handsome face. She'd said she had trusted him a few times and this time it hit her hard. "As much as it scares me, I do."

"Why is that?" Dean asked.

"I'm pretty scared I'm going to get you killed," she admitted. She knew they would come help her if she asked. Him and his brother were stand-up guys, even if they didn't trust her or consider her a friend they would jump right in the fire with her to help her take out her coven. And she didn't want anything to happen to them. "Or your brother. You know, when I went out on my own at this I changed all the rules Bobby taught me. I know I go in blind but it's because I can see things before they happen. Maybe it's only a few seconds but it's saved my life a lot of times. In Dallas I had no plan, and I didn't get to Walt before he got caught by the black dog. The sacrifice they were doing was another witch, when we cut him loose he...Jo had to shoot him to get him off of me. Everything went to hell down there. Thing is I'm glad it was them instead of you two, I don't give a damn about either of them. I would have been pretty pissed if you or Sam got hurt because of me."

"Listen to me," Dean said. "You don't go into this with people you don't trust, because they feel the same way. You call us. If it means a black dog gets a bite out of my ass, so be it."

"Dean, if you lost a chunk of your ass that would be a tragedy," Lady joked.

Dean let the smallest smile form as he kept working out the knot in her calf down to her ankle. He would have ditched Maryland and made it to Dallas in time had she called, at least he would have if he hadn't been in jail. Maybe he would have bitched about abandoning the haunting but he would have done it. And if he had been there when Roy shot wide Jo wouldn't have gotten a chance to knock out his front tooth, he would have broken his jaw. Lady didn't give a damn about Roy, but she apparently did when it came to Dean.

The next day Lady was limping around the house. Dean swayed as Lady latched onto his arm before she could topple. "Baby steps," he muttered, letting her use him as a crutch so she could hop into a chair.

Bobby came in from outside, "Damn, it's getting cold out there." Freddie came in and yawned widely before trotting into the kitchen and began nudging Sam for attention. "Now that you are walking around maybe you can go pick up some of your dog's presents."

Lady frowned at Freddie as he began licking Sam's face. "You mean the ones he doesn't eat?"

Sam made a disgusted sound as he pushed Freddie away and Dean burst out laughing. He held his hand out, "Brilliant."

Lady gave him his high five, "It's true."

Dean's smile became forced, "God, that's disgusting."

"He's a dog," Lady said.

"Yuck," Sam complained, moving to the sink and splashing water on his face.

"How sober are you feeling?" Bobby asked Lady.

"Feeling like I don't want to be," she said. "But you changed the hiding place for the pain meds."

"Stop being a baby," Bobby said roughly. Lady made a face when he turned his back. "You are up and moving, that's all that matters. A few more days and you'll be good."

"Yeah, well, I need to get back to work. Searching the ley lines isn't going the way I wanted it to and it's a black moon next month."

"A new moon? Yeah, that happens every month." Sam said.

"No, a black moon," Lady said. "You guys know the blue moon, third full moon in a season with four full moons? A black moon is the same thing, just for new moons. It's when the coven gives the biggest sacrifices to appease whatever pagan deities they want to suck up to."

"Why didn't you mention this? We could have been working on this for how long?" Dean asked angrily.

"This isn't my first black moon," she said. "I have been working on this. I figured out a few ritual sites that I know it won't happen at, and that witch in Dallas won't be participating."

"When is this black moon? What day?" Dean asked.

"The twentieth of November," Lady said. "More than a month and a half for me to find a new tactic."

"Which is?"

"I have to find it," she muttered bitterly. She rubbed her forehead. "There will be some obvious signs the day of the new moon, it draws in enough power that the clouds will spin around the ritual site and light up with electricity. Before the most I could hope for was that I would be close enough to hear about the shift in the weather and make it there before they finished the ritual. I was hoping checking out these past sites they used would help me identify where and be ready for them, but it isn't. However I am the eternal optimist and I will find something new. Maybe, I don't know."

"Any other signs that can be tracked?" Sam asked.

She shook her head, "Nothing concrete. I'm mostly hoping they'll use their own as sacrifices."

"Maybe we can get Ash to do a nationwide search, like he is for us," Sam suggested, looking at Dean. "That combined with known ritual sites that there is no way we have enough time to check all of them out…maybe we can narrow down her search?"

Dean made a face, "Yeah, but I'm not so sure how welcome we're going to be at the Roadhouse. The three of us aren't exactly Ellen's favorites."

"If you guys can put a good word in for me I'll see Ash alone, I can handle Ellen," Lady suggested. "I'm willing to give him a shot."

"No, we'll take you," Dean said, not looking too happy.

**A/N** - _I feel like I need to tattle on myself. The actual Black Moon happened in the summer of '06, not autumn like I'm using in my story. I really doubt there is anyone who is researching to check these dates but I made a slight creative change to the whole moon cycle to fit my story. For the most part the mythology I'm using with this story I did do some research on. Do a search on wikipedia about ley lines if you don't believe me. Considering it is a fanfic plus in the fantasy genre I've made my own additions/tweaks as I see fit, but with the moon I just felt bad for changing the date of it so I had to say something...or else my guilty conscience would get the better of me._


	26. Harvelles Roadhouse, October 2006

**A/N** – _Songs for this chapter are:_

_Lithium, by Nirvana_

_Black Dog, by Led Zeppelin_

_Simply Irresistible, by Robert Palmer **(if you pay no attention to the songs I list at least play this one while reading about the pool game)**_

**October 16, 2006, Harvelle's Roadhouse, Nebraska**

Lady had seen Ash hanging around the last time she was at the saloon, but hadn't been introduced. He was tall and thin with a long mullet. She gave him locations of ritual sites and a list of small things that could indicate witchcraft and described what she was looking for. He worked on a laptop with its insides exposed and it appeared to have been taken apart and put back together several times.

"Billy Ray, does looking down my shirt help you work faster?" Lady asked.

Ash didn't bother looking up from her cleavage, "Not really but it does help morale."

Lady stood up straight, "He better be good."

"He is," Sam assured her.

"Eyes on the computer," Dean said to Ash.

Dean and Sam both tensed as Ellen walked in from the back with a case of beer under each arm. Lady smiled warmly, "Hey, Ellen," she said, hopping off the stool. "You need any help?"

Ellen looked up bitterly as she began to shelve the bottles into a cooler under the bar. "You mean since you helped my daughter and best waitress to run off?"

"Yes," Lady said, not seeing any help in even trying to correct Ellen. Technically Lady didn't _help_ Jo run off, she was blackmailed into allowing Jo to run off with her.

Ellen stood up, frowning over Lady's shoulder at the Winchesters and back at her, "You want to do me a favor? Keep those two out of trouble."

Lady smiled, "They will be perfect angels."

Ellen turned her back on her, "Roy and Walt will be here tonight. Anything gets started and I'm holding you responsible."

Lady casually slid a bottle an inch away from the edge of the bar so it wouldn't get knocked over when Ellen turned around. "I'm alive, I don't plan on beating on Roy or repaying the favor to him," Lady said.

Ellen turned and her elbow narrowly missed the beer bottle. Ellen was frowning at her, glaring over her shoulder again at Sam and Dean. "Listen, Lady, I don't buy the cute and innocent crap. Roy and Dean are hot heads, you are a pretty girl, and I run a bar where that combination starts a brawl that leads to collateral damage. And when the two hot heads are both packing firepower along with a few sharp blades it can lead to something pretty messy, get it?"

Lady nodded, again not seeing that an attempt to correct Ellen would help her at all, "Got it."

"Good," Ellen said.

Lady went back to the brothers. "Everything okay?" Sam asked quietly.

"Mmhm," Lady nodded. "Well, no. Should be." Lady frowned a bit as she thought over Ellen's words. Sure, Dean could have a temper. But he was also fairly disciplined, he wasn't stupid enough to get into a bar fight. Especially with Roy over him accidentally shooting her. She was fine, after all.

She tried to remember the hazy conversation she had with him on Bobby's couch, she'd been over-medicating herself and she had woken up vaguely remembering confessing nearly dangerous thoughts. Almost revealing how much she really valued the Winchester's friendship and assistance. She knew they weren't happy with Roy's screw up, after all she was their friend as well. But no, enough time had passed and she was fine. No issues would come out of it.

Lady moved in the stool, suddenly aware at some point her leg had been leaning against Dean's. It had been comfortably warm there. She'd remembered invading his personal space quite often recently, completely without the intention of getting him in the sack. Lady gripped her beer bottle and started scratching at the label. She'd been rather selfish most of her life, rarely thinking about others with the exception of those she'd accidentally grown close to. Her relationships were difficult to maintain at best, but those that were based on some sort of honesty she cherished. It was a very human thing, to want human relationships. And the sort of relationship she had with Dean was the most honest and intimate thing she had ever experienced. This wasn't a revelation, she had felt the connection back in North Dakota when most of her secrets were stripped away. She was completely vulnerable to him, and part of that was terrifying. But much more of it was comforting. She felt safer and stronger when he was with her.

She finished the bitter beer before it got too warm to tolerate and continued picking at the label. She adored the Winchesters, damn John for having to save her life all those years ago. The realization that she had fallen for Dean didn't really matter in the long run. If she didn't finish off her coven eventually her curse would finish her. She perked up a bit as she realized Dean was aware of her tragic fate. Long term plans were for people with day jobs and safe normal lives. People like her and the Winchesters lived day by day. She knew Dean and Sam cared about her as a friend, source of information and a laugh, but any grudges they could have against Roy were so far down their list of troubles that they wouldn't even process it, right?

"Think if I ask for a new beer she'll throw it at my head?" Dean asked, glancing over his shoulder at Ellen.

"Be ready for it," Sam said just as quietly.

"You need another one?" Dean asked Lady.

"Yeah, thanks," she said, watching his rear appreciatively as he walked up to Ellen and leaned against the bar. Since the one with the quicker temper was out of earshot she turned to Sam, "Ellen wanted to warn me Roy and Walt were coming."

Sam cleared his throat and looked at her seriously, then at Dean over his shoulder, "That's not good."

Lady hid her concern. "Why?"

Sam looked at her like she had sprouted green antennae. "Uh, really? You don't...uh, Dean is a pretty loyal guy."

"Yeah, so?"

"Roy shot you," Sam said seriously. "Hell, if we had been there I probably would have knocked him out myself."

"I can see that if he was there when it happened, too, but it's been a week," Lady said.

"Dean isn't necessarily sane lately," Sam said seriously, leaning towards her. "Lady, he's been spinning out of control at times. It was all I could do to get him to take us to South Dakota when we heard instead of here."

"Here you go," Dean said, stepping between Sam and Lady. "What's going on?"

"Sam thinks you are going to clock Roy," Lady said brightly, and Sam glowered at her. "I'm betting a hundred bucks that you won't."

"Roy's here?" Dean asked, turning and looking at the nearly empty bar.

"He will be," Sam said. "And I'm not taking that bet because Dean wouldn't dare get into a fight here. We can't risk anymore dirty looks from Ellen."

"Give her a little lemon juice and I bet she could curse someone with that look," Lady agreed unhelpfully. "Maybe she already can. Either of you guys been incontinent?"

"Lady," Sam shook his head at her, now wasn't a good time for a joke.

Lady smiled, "If anyone deserves to rough the guy up it is me, and since I don't want to no one will. Right?"

"Right," Sam agreed quickly.

Lady looked at Dean expectantly, her smile fading into surprise when he took a slow drink from his beer. She cleared her throat and Dean nodded. She stared at him longer until he finally said with a forced smile, "Right. I'm going to the head."

Sam reached into his pocket and counted off a few bills, "Changed my mind, I'm taking that bet."

Lady grabbed some of her own cash and put it on the table. "Have faith in your brother."

"Oh, I do," Sam chuckled. "I bet you twenty bucks he's in there checking his pockets to make sure he didn't forget any weapons. Probably making sure he has easy access to them, too."

"I'll take that bet," Lady said, easing herself off the stool.

"Where are you going?" Sam asked.

"Checking to see who won," Lady said, limping to the men's room door and going inside. She limped back out a moment later and bitterly handed Sam twenty bucks.

Dean came out of the bathroom, looking confused. "I think you spooked Ash. Lady, what the hell?"

"I'm trying to protect my bet and you are in there making sure you strapped on the sharp knife," Lady said.

"Don't be silly, all my knives are sharp," he said. "Relax, I'm not going to do anything."

"Better not, I'm trying to fund a grand scheme to stop a coven from feeding a pagan goddess for the next few years," Lady said seriously.

Dean looked around the bar and then smiled at her. The past hour they had been bitterly watching Sam and Ash go over information on the computer, both of them bored out of their minds. "Have you ever hustled pool?"

"Never even played pool," Lady said, even though she knew the surprised look he would give her.

"Oh no, that just isn't even right," Dean said. "C'mon, gimpy."

Lady leaned on the pool cue as Dean went over the rules of the game, taking the triangle off the table. "Are you paying attention?" Dean asked as he set the cue ball down on the table.

"Yup," Lady said. "You know, I'm just not really into this sort of thing. Games with balls and sticks is definitely a guy thing."

"This game is an art," Dean said seriously, not even grinning at her innuendo. Dean glanced up as the door to the Roadhouse opened and saw Roy and Walt stepping in. Tension immediately went into his shoulders and he stood up straight as they caught sight of him and Lady.

Lady tapped the floor with the cue stick, "Okay, game is art. School me, master."

Dean shook his head, "Okay, first is the break," he said. "You know you can only hit the cue ball, you use it to hit the other balls on the table. The first shot in the game is the break."

"Why can't I hit one of the other balls?" Lady asked.

"Like soccer players can't use their hands, it's just the rule of the game," Dean said.

"But goalies can use their hands in soccer," Lady said.

"The cue ball is the only ball you hit," Dean said firmly. "Alright, check the tip of the stick. Rub some chalk on the end."

Lady caught the small blue cube and rubbed it on the small end of the pool cue. "And this is for?"

"Keeps the tip from slipping when it hits the ball," Dean said.

Lady smirked, "So this is a case where slippery isn't good?"

"Yeah, just take the shot," Dean said, shrugging out of his leather jacket as she got in position. Lady listened to his instructions on how to set up a shot until he got frustrated enough to stand behind her and adjusted her hold on the cue stick. She took the shot and watched the balls ricochet off of each other when she completed the break. "Not bad, but nothing went in. It's not always easy to get a few in with a break. Now it's my turn."

Lady watched as Dean smugly showed off his skills, knocking one ball after another into a pocket. "Nice," she said, commenting more on the appealing way his arms and torso fit in his t-shirt than how he played the game. She sighed and went to the jukebox, feeding it five dollars and selecting some songs from the touch screen display.

"C'mon, really?" Dean complained as Nirvana's 'Lithium' began playing.

"What?" Lady protested.

Dean rolled his eyes, "You aren't into this at all, are you?"

Lady shook her head as he cleared off the table. "Sorry. I don't get pool, and I occasionally like grunge rock."

"You've lost so many points in just two minutes," Dean muttered as he finished hitting the remaining balls into the pockets.

"Well, you seem to be good at this," Lady said.

"Told you, it's an art," he said as he replaced the cue sticks. He smiled a bit as Led Zeppelin's 'Black Dog' began playing.

Lady grinned at him, "Did I earn any points back?"

"A few," he admitted.

"How many will I lose when the next song comes on country?"

"All of them," he rolled his eyes again.

"You are such a snob," Lady muttered.

"I'm going to check on Sam and Ash, see how much longer."

"Okey dokey," she said happily, watching as he walked away. Her eyes shifted to Roy and Walt that were making their way to her now that Dean was gone.

"Hey, Lady," Roy said. "How you feeling?"

"Still can't wear jeans," she said bitterly, the skirt she wore showed the bandage hiding the healing wound. It was feeling better but it felt better without being hugged by snug jeans. "How's your leg, Walt?"

"Not bad," he said, he was barely limping anymore. "I never got a chance to thank you. If you hadn't been so quick that thing would have ripped me apart."

"No problem," Lady said.

Roy smiled, "So, looking for a game of pool?"

Dean tensed when he looked over his shoulder to see Lady speaking with the two idiots, but he looked at Sam and said, "We about ready to go?"

Sam shook his head, "Ash's search is pulling up a ton of hits. I'm working on narrowing it down, but so far nothing even close to manageable." Sam glanced at Lady and back at the computer, "Everything okay?"

"Don't worry, Sam, I'm not stupid enough to get in a brawl…as much as I am aching for it," Dean muttered.

"Lady doesn't seem to have any hard feelings, you just have to let it go," Sam said helpfully.

"Hey, Dean! Come over and play a game," Roy called across the bar.

"Dean…" Sam wanted to say it wasn't a good idea.

"Sure," Dean called back, putting on a forced smile and walking back to the pool tables.

Roy and Walt looked pleased. "Lady said you might be willing to play pairs," Walt said. "What do you say?"

"Why not?" Dean said, grabbing a stick. He'd seen Roy and Walt play before and they were pretty good. If he couldn't kick Roy's ass literally at least he could do it in a game of pool, and it wasn't like it was for money. Dean frowned as he saw the bills folded on the side of the table and looked at Lady, "You put money on this?"

"Well, you seem to be good at this game, and I watched you pretty closely," she said brightly.

"Lady, you shot once," Dean shook his head. It didn't matter, let her lose her cash and beg him to loan her money to fuel up her ugly car when they got back to Bobby's. "Fine, it's your money." Lady looked away and pressed her lips together. He glared at her as he pulled out his wallet and found it was empty. "You didn't." He stuffed his wallet back and glared. He badly wanted to know when she had managed to rob him but he was too furious to ask.

She looked at him innocently and said quietly, "I thought this was how you made most of your money and if I convinced these guys to help you double it you wouldn't be upset. I guess I was wrong."

"Yeah," he said. "That is over three hundred bucks. Pissed, is more like it. You and…"

"We going to play?" Walt asked.

Dean turned with a forced smile, they had probably watched him teaching Lady the game earlier and knew she was clueless. His best chance was going first and not giving them a chance to take a turn. "Yeah. Why don't we flip a coin to see who goes first? Lady, call the toss." He glared back at her, "and call it so we can go first."

"Tails," Lady called as Roy flipped a coin in the air.

"Tails," Roy nodded. "Lady's first?"

"No, I'll break," Dean said.

Lady grabbed his arm before he went to the table, "I'm sorry, okay? If we lose I'll pay you back."

"Yeah, you will," he said firmly, shrugging away from her grip and moving to take the first shot.

Dean let out a curse when he took the first shot and no balls went in. Walt wasted no time in claiming solids and taking advantage of several easy shots. All went in before he narrowly missed a shot. Dean let out another swear as he saw the cue ball stuck in a tough corner with no stripes nearby.

"Okay, here is what you do," Dean said, leading Lady around the table.

"I thought coaching time was over," Roy laughed.

"You shot her last week, give her a break," Dean said sharply, his mood had gone from pissed to nearly ready to explode. But now instead of being pissed at Roy he was pissed at everyone around the damn table.

"Not my fault she walked into it, man," Roy said.

Lady already had an elbow in Dean's gut, "Let it go. Just tell me what I should aim for, okay?"

"You don't want to hit the purple, one nudge and it is going into that corner pocket," Dean said angrily. "Just aim for the yellow stripe."

"How am I supposed to get it in a hole?" Lady asked anxiously. "It's against the wall over there."

"It's not a hole, it's a pocket," Dean corrected. "And it isn't a wall, it's a bumper. Lady…Just aim for it, it will get the ball in a tougher position for Roy," Dean muttered, but he had played with Roy before and doubted it would slow them down. Once the game was over he was going to punch someone, he just really hoped he wouldn't be angry enough to hit Lady for this but damn it, her and her big mouth.

"Okay," Lady said, easing into position.

"You're holding it wrong," Dean said through his teeth.

"Okay, I'm going to screw up," she said. "This might just be easier for you if you turn around and not watch."

Dean didn't argue, he ran his hand through his hair and pulled it in his fists as he turned around. "God, I hate you so much right now," he snarled, and let out a frustrated breath when her next song came on the jukebox and Robert Palmer's 'Simply Irresistible' began filling the saloon. It was irresistible not to grab her and shake her. Most of this was because of pride, he knew that. He didn't want to lose to Roy and Walt because those two dicks hadn't given her proper backup in Texas. He wanted to throttle Roy for a reason he couldn't quite explain to himself. And after all the trust he had extended to Lady, even helping care for her while she was hopping around on one leg the past few days, she had picked his pocket to steal his cash.

He heard the strike of the stick hitting the ball, the click of it hitting another ball and the thump of a ball hitting a bumper and the thunk of a ball falling into a pocket. He turned, seeing the yellow striped ball was off the table.

"Pardon me, Roy," Lady said as she attempted to strut with her limp around the table. Dean watched as she took another shot. Three more striped balls went into pockets. Lady applied more chalk to the tip of the stick and blew off the access with a short breath before leaning down to take her next shot. "Am I doing okay, Dean?" she asked, wiggling her butt in time with the music in his direction and looking over her shoulder at him. Her pale blue eyes were wicked and amused.

Dean was still getting over his surprise, "Never played before, huh?"

"I'm a fast learner," she said. "Mind giving me some elbow room?"

"Sure thing," he said, swatting her rear and stepping out of the way to watch her sink another ball. His frustration was put to the back of his mind and he let a smile spread across his face. Lady met his smile as she wiggled around the table and called the last shot that finished the game.

As they counted their winnings she said, "Should have let me break, you would have saved yourself the blood pressure spike." She tucked her half of the cash into her bra.

Dean smiled, "You are a pain in the ass."

"I can't believe you fell for it," Lady laughed. "C'mon, Dean. You know I work in a bar sometimes. You have to know I can see my shot before I take it. Man, if you are this easy you should teach me darts next." She cleared her throat, "You see, this game, is really an art, and..."

Lady stopped talking as Dean reached into her bra with two fingers to take out her money. "You aren't getting this much."

"Don't I get a bonus for sinking the eight-ball?" she asked.

"Since I know what you spend your money on, no," he said, tucking the remaining cash back into its place with a smile. "Feed your shoe addiction some other way."

"Don't I get a bonus for hustling you?" she arched an eyebrow. She cleared her throat and said in a sweet voice, "I've never played pool before. Why is the eight ball last?" She batted her eyelashes and grinned wickedly at him.

"How about a spanking?" he offered. "I was ready to strangle you, you know that, right?"

"Throw in a hair pull and it's a deal," she teased and wagged her eyebrows.

"Well, one hell of a game," Roy said. "We'll see you guys around, we're heading out and it looks like we'll be sleeping in the truck the next few nights."

Dean shrugged, "Sorry, man." He wasn't sorry at all, of course. But he was having a hard time finding his anger at that moment.

"Just the risk of getting tangled up with Lady," Roy said with a bit of a nod before he and Walt left.

Lady let herself lean against Dean, "Your brother owes me a hundred bucks."

"Yeah. And you are splitting that with me," Dean said.

"Am not," she said. She frowned but didn't try to stop him as he invaded her bra to pull out her cash and take a few more bills. "Guess I did."

"Hey, guys, come over here," Sam called.

Lady and Dean listened as Ash told them what he found.

"I searched those strange weather patterns on all the previous black moons for the past thirty years. It's been steadily declining but every year some places don't light up again, or new places go active. Thirty years ago there were forty locations, numbers kept declining. Ten years ago there were over twenty, the last one a few years ago only ten."

"Does that mean there are only ten groups of witches left?" Dean asked.

"Doubt it," Lady said. "They all work to stab each other in the back but look at the map, how the locations are spread out." She pointed. "I wonder if they don't group up for this ritual. I mean, a black moon isn't a selfish quest for power like a full or blue moon, it's like Christmas morning, except the presents bleed and make a big mess." She snorted a laugh.

"What?" Ash asked.

"Just thinking in the past ten years since I started this their force has been cut in half," Lady said.

Dean rolled his eyes, "Yeah, you are all bad ass and stuff. How do we know where they are going to be next month?"

Ash shook his head, "I set my baby to search for any sort of pattern, but nothing. We figure out how many rituals they will set up and I might be able to figure out how they want to space them out on a map, but right now one spot is as likely as the next."

"Well I know where my next stop is," Lady said, hopping off her stool.

"North Dakota?" Dean guessed as he put his jacket on, sure Lady wanted to see if Max had any insight.

"Um…sure," she said.

"What? I was wrong?" he asked.

Lady glanced at Sam who was taking an extra minute to thank Ash for his help and let her hand slip over Dean's waist before giving his rear a pinch. "How about you drop the kid off at the arcade or something and we go find somewhere so you can give me that spanking you owe me?"

"Sam, move your ass!" Dean hollered.

They returned to Bobby's the next day, Sam and Bobby were going over Ash's data to see if anything new could be deciphered.

"Not seeing much, but a few reports of a black dog being sighted in Mississippi," Bobby said.

"There is a new moon less than a week away," Sam said.

Lady chewed on her lip, time was being eaten up and soon she'd have less than a month to the black moon. She wanted, very badly, to stop at least one part of the coven from completing whatever they had planned. "Think you two can handle it alone?"

Dean nodded, "We're on it. Get to Max and figure this out."

"Thanks," she said, unable to look up at them. She never thought she'd see the day where she let such an obvious witch-hunt go to anyone without her at least tagging along, but she had to gather her priorities. Sam and Dean could handle what was going on down there and she still wasn't moving the fastest. "Be careful, okay?"

"We got this," Dean assured her.

**A/N** - _Just a quick note, Sam and Dean are now going to handle 'Crossroad Blues' episode, just so you know where we are as far as the timeline in the canon. I'm taking a short break from posting chapters (everyone who has been faithfully reading I thank you and you are welcome for the multiple posts I did today) so I can get a bit farther ahead on some future chapters. I'm afraid I got so excited with all the positive comments and everyone adding the story to their alerts that I just wanted to keep sharing what I have already written and edited that I'm almost out of chapters to post! I just want to get a bit more ahead of myself and give all the new readers a chance to catch up. Until then please take the time to review, critique, share this story with your friends or communities and spread the word for when the story continues!_

_And yes, I promise it will continue. I have several more chapters ready to be posted, I just want to spread them out so the story stays at the top of the list when others are looking for Supernatural fics to read. If you check my profile you'll see all my stories but this one and another are complete. I do not post and ditch.  
_


	27. Preparing for Black Moon, Nov 2006

**A/N** - _Okay, so I can't keep my chapters a consistent length. I'm paying better attention in later chapters. Thank you everyone for being patient and I will assure you there is loads of goodness still coming. I'll return to updating once a day or every other day.  
_

**October 18 – November 15, 2006**

Lady juggled her time between earning cash at the casino, haggling for information with Max and reading her evil book of spells. The brothers gave her a call to let her know the black dog in Mississippi turned out to be a hellhound. Demons instead of witches, she really hated both but at least the job was taken care of. They had another job lined up but assured her they'd be ready to roll on the black moon if she could find out where they needed to be.

Once the calendar turned to November Lady began to feel a bit more anxious. She stopped going to the casino and gave up on Max's cryptic bull shit and went through the book of spells and rituals without much of a break. She looked at every page at least once, able to translate it fine but unable to decipher the extra code it had been written in.

It was November fifth when a snowstorm hit North Dakota hard, she barely looked up from the book to see the snow falling and accumulating to nearly a foot of powder. Normally she loved the first snowfall, eager to join Freddie in some winter fun. It was still autumn and the snow would melt before winter but at the moment the temperature was staying at an unusually cold ten degrees. She got up long enough to let Freddie outside so he could play without her, go to the bathroom and then return to the book. She didn't feel well, how could she after spending days locked up with the disgusting book?

Research wasn't Lady's favorite thing to do. There had been more than one occasion where she had shrugged off the chore and just relied on her extra sight to give her enough warning time. But when she became determined she knew her way around the mind-numbing data that involved the coven. She had a few plans to work out with Bobby, but for now she had digested more knowledge from the black book than she felt comfortable with. She called it a day and took a shower in an attempt to wash the black magic off of her and went to bed. Freddie was either still playing in the snow or he had given up on gaining attention from her and ran to Mason's house to be fed. She curled up in physical pain. Part of it was from being hunched over the book for long hours on end, but part of it was the black magic that leaked from the book into her. She knew the emotional stress she felt was because of it and the longer she spent away from the book the better she would feel, and that since she had made some serious progress she should be celebrating. But the darkness in her head only reminded her that she had less than fifteen days to figure anything out, and no matter what she had discovered there just wasn't enough time for her to pull it off.

Lady woke up in the middle of the night at the sound of a loud engine outside her trailer, figuring it was Mason or one of his kids coming to check in on her. She was prepared to get out of bed, but the cold of the trailer hit her more furiously than she thought it would. "Fuck it," she mumbled to herself and wrapped the blankets tighter around herself. It was hard to give a damn about much with the black book still making her feel like crap. Mason sure as hell didn't need an invitation to come inside and unless he brought hard liquor, which she ran out of the day before, she didn't even want to see him.

She heard the door open and footsteps, but the voice she heard was one she didn't expect. "Lady?"

"Dean?" She called back, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from her eyes as the footsteps came down the hallway. "What are you doing here?"

"Me and Sam have been at Mason's most of the day," he said. "Phone lines have been down all day and the power went out about two hours ago."

"Oh," Lady mumbled, that explained why the trailer was cold. "Why are you here?"

"Checking on your progress. We have two weeks," he said. "It's freezing in here. Come on, Mason told me to bring you back."

Lady fell back in her bed, "No," she muttered, pulling the blanket over her head.

"It looks and smells like all you've done the past week is drink. Have you even been working?"

She groaned, "I have. I'm so sick of that book I feel like my skin is crawling and the only way I am moving is to put a fucking match to it."

Dean was quiet for a moment, remembering months ago when she told him about the nastier affects the book caused with long term exposure. It probably didn't bother a black witch but it obviously bothered Lady. "Okay," he said. Lady closed her eyes, enjoying her fetal position and what had sounded like Dean giving up. Her eyes opened as the bed shifted with his weight. "You have two options. Either you get out of bed and come with me willingly, or you can do the same thing kicking and screaming."

"You are lucky I don't sleep with my knife," Lady muttered.

"Live and learn," he said happily. "What's it going to be?"

"Please, Dean, I don't want to be around people right now," she said in a small pleading voice that was muffled under the blankets. Dean was quiet for a few moments and then the bed shifted again and she felt his weight against her through the blankets and his arm over her. "So help me god if you pat my back and tell me everything is going to be okay I will kick you so hard in the groin you'll be choking on your own testicles."

"Cut me some slack, Sam is the one good at making people feel better," Dean said in a low voice. "You want to stay here freezing, fine. But I'm not letting you stay alone if that book is getting to you like this. Either I stay, or I go back and send Sam here and he _will_ pat your back and do that touchy-feely crap. Even make you hug."

Lady let out a breath and shrugged some of the blanket over him. He took the invitation and slid under the blankets with her. "You're hands are cold," she whined.

"Wow, you are a royal pain," he said as he kicked his shoes off the edge of the bed.

"Shut up," she complained as she rolled over to wrap an arm around him. He went still for a moment and then settled in closer to her. He smelled cold like the snow but felt warm. He was right, it was safer if she wasn't alone. Not like she would allow the book to affect her badly enough to do something stupid, but it just felt better to have someone there. The hopeless feeling that the book had driven into her didn't feel as drastic anymore. She began to relax a bit and the urge to curl up was fading away.

Lady's face rubbed against Dean's neck, taking in the smell of leather and gun smoke and...frybread? "Greta made you frybread?"

Dean chuckled, "Hell yeah. It was awesome."

Lady let out a huff, she didn't feel that hungry but all she had eaten lately were pop-tarts. "You suck," she muttered. "No, I'm not ready to leave," she said before he could ask if she wanted to go.

Dean closed his eyes, she was being stubborn like a child but the situation wasn't half bad. After he and his brother handled a rough job in Arizona they drove up to check on her progress and see if there was anything that could be done to help. They stopped at the casino first to see if Mason could get in touch with her when the snow had started to fall. Mason told them they could stay at his house, he had several spare bedrooms since all but his teenage daughters had flown the coop. Dean didn't like the idea of Sam being so close to Max but the storm was promising several inches of snow that would end up stranding Lady out in the boonies and she hadn't been returning his calls. Dean wasn't known for his patience, he wanted to hear if she had anything and if not lend a hand. He and Sam weren't going to take any more cases until after the black moon but he had no intention of sitting on his thumbs until Lady came up with something, or nothing.

"I'm glad you are here," Lady said. "With what Ash gave me I think I narrowed down two locations."

"As soon as the roads are clear we'll go," Dean said.

"I can't, I still have more work to do," Lady said. "But I'm glad you are okay with checking it out."

Even better in Dean's mind, scoping out ritual sites wasn't as productive as killing witches but he preferred it over research. "One is in Canada, I was thinking Bobby could get across the border without much trouble. The other is in New Mexico."

That would be nearly a week of just driving, not to mention searching for the damn site and checking the area. "How sure are you we have time?"

Lady was quiet for a long time, "Not very."

Outside the wind howled and blew hard enough to make the trailer tremble and sway. Perfect god damn time to get snowed in. "What happens if we can't stop this?" Dean asked.

Lady sighed and raised her head so she could look at him. "I haven't stopped it the last few times it happened, never could find them in time. The world won't blow up, but a few people will die. This is the first time I've had any sort of real advantage. If I can just stop one of the groups I'd be thrilled. If I can't, business as usual but I will be in a real fucking bad mood for a long time."

Dean smirked a bit, "Your bad moods don't usually last long," he said.

"Bite me," Lady said, going to lower her head again. Dean caught her chin in his hand, looking into her pale eyes that looked miserable. Part of him wished he'd allowed Sam to come with him to her trailer to help talk her through her bad mood, but as he pressed his lips to hers he was glad his brother was at Mason's. His kiss ended with him catching her bottom lip between his teeth in a gentle bite and he saw some of her fire return in her eyes. "Mm, what happens if I say eat me?" Lady breathed.

Dean wrapped her up in his arms and kissed her again, his soft tongue moving against hers expertly. The sheer pleasure and joy she received with his kiss seemed to break away any of the remaining darkness the black magic from the book in her head and for the first time in days she felt like herself again.

She raised her arms so Dean could free her of her shirt, letting them fall on his shoulders and kissing him again while running her fingers through his short hair. His hands were still cold but as he moved them over her body they warmed up. She giggled as his fingertips ran up her ribcage in a light tickle. Dean could drive her crazy in bed and she loved him for it.

If her life was different, as in if she wasn't putting herself in physical and emotional pain studying a black book in a rather hopeless attempt to thwart a coven's black moon ritual that was drawing too close for comfort and had a curse in her blood, in other words if she was normal...well, she didn't know what the hell normal was. If things were different she thought that she'd rather like to keep Dean. In her mind it was okay if her feelings had grown beyond the casual boundaries she had made sure were in place months ago, after all he wasn't the one who would die within seven months. She had only seven months if Max was correct in saying she had experienced her last summer. If Max was right then she was going to make every month worth it, starting with getting Dean's pants off. She adored the guy for several reasons but using him to get her kicks while she was still alive was a perk for both of them.

Lady woke up when cold drops of water began falling from the ceiling onto her face. Under the blankets next to Dean was the perfect temperature, so she covered her head with the blankets and wiped the cold water onto his chest. He shied from the cold as he began to slowly wake up, his arms moving around her and tightening. After a few moments he made a noise to signal he was fully awake and covered his head with the blankets. "Your ceiling is leaking," he said, his lips running down her face to her mouth.

"I don't think the power is back yet," she said, pressing her face into his warm neck. "Just go back to sleep."

"I can't when you do that," he said happily, and Lady chuckled as she continued to kiss his throat while her hands moved over his arms and torso.

Lady grinned at the pulse she felt within his morning erection. She giggled at the sound that rumbled from his chest, "Well good morning, Dean," she said happily as his rough hands pulled her closer to him.

"You know that isn't for you, I just have to pee," Dean kissed her chin. "And it way too damn cold to get out of bed."

"You know we're going to have to get out of bed and get dressed," Lady said bitterly. "Soon."

"Says who?" he questioned her. He let out a groan as he heard the front door open.

"Dean? Lady?" Sam called.

"I hate him," Dean sighed.

"No you don't," Lady said.

The bedroom door swung open as Freddie trotted in, Sam not far behind. Lady pulled her head out of the blankets and Dean did the same. "Oh, god, sorry," Sam said, turning around and stepping back into the hall.

"Sorry? What the hell did you expect, Sam?" Dean asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I, uh...Greta was worried and said I should make sure everyone was okay," he said. "You know it's really cold in here."

"Not where I am," Lady said and giggled when she got a grunt out of Dean.

"I'm leaving," Sam said, and his heavy footsteps went down the hallway.

"Take the dog!" Dean said as Freddie was trying to get his cold nose under the blankets. "Get outta here! Go!"

"I think we need to make a warning sign for Sam," Lady said, going under the blankets to teasingly kiss Dean's chest.

"You think he'd know by now any time we are alone, we're naked," Dean said, joining her under the blankets.

"That's not true," Lady said, Dean's breath quickening as her lips went down to his stomach. "Okay, maybe it is. But you are just too much fun." Dean held his breath as Lady kissed around his navel slowly and then suddenly stopping. "Well, I have to pee."

He let out a groan as she slipped out of bed. When she returned she was shivering from the cold but Dean only let her steal his warmth for a minute before he took his turn in the bathroom. When he returned he gathered her up in his arms and kissed her fiercely for leaving him. "How long do we have until the roads are clear?" he asked.

"Probably until this afternoon," she guessed.

"Good," he breathed. Perfect god damned time to be snowed in. "Where were we?"

"Oh, I was about..." Lady ran her tongue down his torso teasingly slow until she reached where she had left. "Here," she said, kissing and licking the skin below his navel while her hands rubbed his thighs. She was becoming giddy just listening to his anxious breaths.

"You waiting for an invitation? I'm more than happy to see you, Lady."

Lady giggled, "I could wait to hear you beg for it."

Dean let out a groan and she knew she wasn't far from getting that. "I'm going to remember this when you are on the receiving end."

"Oh, good point," she said, letting her hand take him firmly before kissing it slowly and moving her tongue around the tip of his erection.

Dean moaned and breathed heavily as she took him into her mouth, her hand stroking what was left while his fingers ran through her hair. Her mouth licked and sucked on the sensitive organ until she gave him release. Dean breathed heavily as she kissed back up his stomach, her hand still rubbing his thighs and sending pleasurable shivers up his spine.

"You're welcome," she said happily. "You deserved it."

"I won't argue, but what did I do to survive that?" he asked, pulling her up to give her a grateful kiss.

Lady shrugged and rested beside him, "I wasn't right in the head last night. I'd probably still be curled up and pulling out my hair if you hadn't shown up."

"You are rarely right in the head, but last night you were sort of scaring me," Dean said.

Lady threw the blanket over their heads as a few drops of cold water fell down on them from the ceiling. "Little me scared the big bad hunter? Wimp," she snorted.

"You are a brat," Dean said.

"Yeah, I'm also starving," she said. "I'd kill for some of Greta's frybread right now."

"You missed out last night," Dean chuckled. Lady frowned at him and tugged firmly on the blanket to expose half his body to the cold air of the trailer. Dean playfully fought with her to get back under the warm blankets, securing them and holding Lady tight and keeping her occupied so she couldn't torture him. He let out a please sigh as they settled down into soft and long kisses. "Mm, I could do this forever," he moaned as he felt about ready to take her again.

"Mmhm," Lady mumbled as her fingers traced a scar on his shoulder and her mouth stayed on his.

"I mean it," Dean said as he ran his hand up her leg and hip to stroke her back while his mouth moved around her jaw. "After this black moon, this is what we're doing. Just, in a Comfort Inn, or something."

Lady's head dropped to his neck as she laughed, "Wow, a Comfort Inn? My gosh, Dean, I just don't think I am classy enough to be in a place like that."

He laughed with her. "After all of this I think we deserve a vacation. A break. You want to?"

Lady kissed him, closing her eyes and breathing in his scent. "God, yes," she breathed and kissed him again. "Want me to bring the stripper heels?"

"God, yes," he answered roughly as he moved between her legs and entered her slick opening. They both let out shuddering moans as he started slow, keeping his mouth on hers and breathing with her as they moved together. If the black moon ritual was stopped or not he had plans, a week or two where the only thing he had to worry about was running out of stamina instead of bullets. He could almost picture it already, snuggled in a decent hotel room catching up on bad television and eating pizza between making out and making love.

They were curled next to each other, hands still groping each others sweaty bodies while they were half dazed with ecstasy. "Think we got all the windows in this place fogged up yet?" Lady asked breathlessly.

"I don't know but if it doesn't steam when we lift this blanket I will be disappointed," he muttered. "It's time we find out, I bet."

"Wait," Lady said, "Listen." Dean was quiet for a few moments and heard the heater start with clicks and hums as the power returned. "The power is back. Give it an hour and we can have a hot shower. Or moderately warm, at least."

They got cleaned up and dressed before they made their way over to Mason's house. The temperature had risen to forty degrees before noon and the snow was already melting. Carrie and Erin were outside playing with Freddie while trying to clean the snow off their cars. Greta was inside and had a hot meal ready for both of them when they got out of their jackets.

Sam sat with them and Lady went over some of the information she had uncovered. "I think I found the ritual they are going to use, if I am right it means they will be sacrificing their own. The big dogs cutting up the small dogs that either are idiots or pissed Garrett off. We're talking witches level with Angie being sacrificed by witches the level of Ian."

"How sure are you?" Sam asked.

"Never sure," Lady said brightly. "I'm a big fan of winging it, but since I'm sending you guys to New Mexico I just want you to be careful. Don't make the same mistake I did in Texas and free a witch."

"You think we'll run into anything down there?" Sam asked.

"I'm almost positive you will," she said. "You missed the full moon ritual, if they did one, but they only have two weeks to set up for the black moon. Some serious preparation has to be done. You'll know it if you see it."

"What will you do until then?" Sam asked.

Lady took a breath, "I need a break from the book. But I'm hoping Max might have something for me. I have Maxine leaning on her, too."

"Boys, Mason just called, the roads are clear," Greta said. "Should be good from here all the way to South Dakota."

"We don't have time to waste," Dean said. "Thanks for having us, Greta."

"Anytime, Dean," she said happily. "Give me a few minutes, I'll pack you boys a lunch."

"You are amazing," Dean said as Greta pulled out paper plates and began to fill them.

Greta laughed, "See, Lady, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. You need to learn how to cook."

"Never was very interested in the heart of a man, Greta," Lady said, grinning at the uncomfortable look that was returning on Sam's face. "Behave yourself, Sam. I know how rowdy you get."

He laughed as she gave him a hug, "Yeah, I'll do my best."

Dean held two plates covered in tinfoil in one hand and wrapped his free arm around Lady's shoulder, giving her a kiss before he left. "We'll call you if we find anything. You call us, keep us updated."

"You got it," she said, walking them to the door.

"Bye, Lady. Thanks again, Greta," Sam said with a wave.

Lady returned to the kitchen. "I really appreciate you letting them stay here. You didn't have to."

Greta smiled, "I'm glad to. Look at that," Greta pointed out the window where Carrie and Erin were rolling snow into a ball that was already three feet wide. "Those girls would be gone if it wasn't for you. When I imagine my life without them it is an incomplete life." Greta turned and went back to her work in the kitchen. "Sam is a good boy. Very polite, very respectful. Doesn't eat enough, though." Lady smirked, unless someone managed to eat a whole cow they didn't eat enough for Greta.

"Sam is a great guy," Lady agreed.

Greta looked at her and smiled, "And I like Dean. He seems like a good man."

Lady nodded, "He is."

"You love him," Greta said.

Lady had saw the comment coming and was already shaking her head, "Not like you are thinking. I love him like I love you. He's a good friend, with some extra benefits."

"Its okay, Lady," Greta said, turning her back to her again. "I know your life is difficult enough. I worry about you, your fate. I don't want it to happen, and if there was a way I could stop it I would."

"You and Mason have given me a lot over the years," Lady said. "Whatever happens, just know a lot of my favorite memories are being here. If these have been my last years you've helped make them worth living."

Greta smiled happily at that, "Thank you, Lady. That means a lot to me to hear."

"Okay, that is one snowman I have to be a part of making," Lady said, looking out the window as Carrie and Erin got their massive snowball nearly five feet wide. And she wanted to get out of the kitchen before Greta's eyes got misty and she decided she wanted a hug. "Thanks for lunch."

Lady spent the afternoon unwinding and making it up to Freddie for being a crappy owner the past week. She had called Bobby and he was going to stop in town on his way north into Canada, he didn't have nearly as far to go as the brothers. When the sun began to set she drove into town to meet him and give him more details and a map. And to get his opinion on a ritual.

"There is some coordination to these rituals," Lady said. "I found a ritual that is going to take place one week before the black moon. Any active ritual site will be able to handle it, it allows Garrett to communicate across the lines to his coven, the ones that participate in the black moon ritual with him."

"And you want to do it? Lady..." Bobby grimaced.

"Yes, it came from the book, but it isn't as black as you'd think. Look through it," Lady said. "There is one issue. Garrett is telepathically linked to anyone listening in."

"Then there is no safe way to do it," Bobby said.

Lady smiled, "I think I know a safe way to do it. I'll wait until you are back from Canada, you should be by then. But think, if I can do this I can listen to everything. Not only will I get at least one of those bastards, but I might hear enough that will let us do the most damage."

Bobby didn't like it, but nodded. "You wait until I get back before you do anything stupid."

"Of course," she said brightly.

Lady was in Kansas two days later, knocking on Missouri Mosley's door. The woman looked at her with wide eyes before smiling. "Lady, it's good to see you again. You look good."

"Missouri, I need help," Lady said, she didn't have time to skirt around it.

"Come on in," Missouri stepped to the side for her. "You look bothered."

"I am," Lady admitted.

"You're not in trouble, are you?"

Lady had to laugh, "No. I mean, no more than usual. Just, uh, well, yeah at the same time I am. I need to find out where the coven is holding a rather important black mass where they sacrifice an unknown amount of people to a pagan god through mystical lines of energy and I only have twelve days to find out where at any point in the country, possibly throw in Canada and Mexico, too."

Missouri looked at her with wide eyes, "That's all?"

Lady thought about it and nodded, "I think I touched on all the important parts."

"Oh," Missouri frowned.

"I know how I can find out where," Lady said anxiously. "And it's dangerous. And I need your help."

"My help? Honey, I wouldn't know where to begin," Missouri said.

"I just...I need the help of a psychic to protect my head," Lady said. "I need, like a psychic shield. Psychic condom, actually. Yeah, that works real well. Let's call it that."

Missouri's face fell, "Come in here and sit down, explain to me what is going on."

Lady rubbed her hands together as she explained the ritual with Missouri. "Garrett has to plan it out with the witches, and I found a ritual that I remember Ananda doing. It allowed them to telepathically communicate across thousands of miles. While they are within it Garrett has complete control, he can hear their thoughts. I need to get in there without them knowing. I need a psychic I can trust."

Missouri was still for a long time and before she decided to shake her head Lady's shoulders slumped in defeat. "I'm sorry, honey, that's just too risky. For either of us. Too many things can go wrong. You need to find another way."

"Yeah, I guess so," Lady said. "I was just hoping, just this once, that maybe the easy way would work, but it's never that easy."

"Let me help you another way," Missouri said. "What if..."

"I, uh...I appreciate it but now I wasted a day I should have spent searching the old fashioned way. Just, uh...if I come across anything that is more your speed I'll give you a call. Thanks for seeing me."

Lady got her car in gear and called Bobby. "You know any good psychics? Not Missouri, she didn't bite."

"Got one I'm a little hesitant to reach out to," Bobby muttered. "She's good, but...well, she's a bit like you."

"I like her already," Lady said happily. "Hook me up."

Lady was in Illinois two days later knocking on Pamela Barnes' door. Pamela was younger than Lady expected. "Nice dog," she said. "Freddie, is it?" Pamela chuckled, "You have a pretty high wall around your thoughts, but I'm not afraid of heights."

Lady smiled, "How willing are you to risk turning into a drooling heap for the sake of destroying a coven of witches?"

Pamela studied her face, and probably her thoughts, "Let's have a beer and talk this out."

Lady and Pamela went over the ritual, spoke tactics and possibilities, had lunch, dinner and then hit the bar for some fun before passing out. The next day Lady grudgingly allowed Pamela to test out a few psychic tactics she thought would benefit them. Lady felt nothing as Pamela sat there with her eyes closed, however she felt rather naked knowing that whatever Pamela was doing she may have access to some of her guarded secrets. Lady had practice with Missouri and Max, and just having moderate psychic abilities herself, at keeping her mind busy to avoid people from hearing her thoughts or digging too deep. Maybe it was Pamela's over confident attitude or that she randomly commented on interesting tidbits she saw in Lady's mind, but Lady suddenly didn't feel that safe in her own mind with Pamela nearby.

Bobby reached them that evening to go over what they had. Pamela and Lady were both confident that they could pull off the ritual safely. "Bobby, you know I wouldn't do something this dangerous unless I was sure it would work. Lady is in safe hands with me," Pamela said in a soothing voice.

"I still don't like it," Bobby said.

Lady grinned, "Bobby, will you like it when we find a way to stick it to those sons of bitches harder than we ever had before?"

Bobby frowned until he couldn't fight her smile, "Yeah, yeah, I will."

Lady crashed on Pamela's couch, there was a ritual site only a few hour drive away that they would go to the next day. Bobby and Pamela sat in a large dining room and shared a bottle of whiskey while Lady slept. "I like her," Pamela said. "But she is two steps from falling off the edge of crazy." Bobby looked down. "I'm sorry, I know you don't like hearing that but...I think if she doesn't get this, she might lose it. How hard she's been working for it, it is a real obsession. You know, if I couldn't help her she would have done this anyway."

Bobby nodded, "Yeah, I sort of figured. But you are sure it's safe?"

"Positive," Pamela said.

The next night the three of them were shivering in the cool autumn wind as Lady set up the ritual site. The site was still on active ley lines but a highway had been constructed within view and it was no longer a good place for sacrifices. Lady and Pam sat on the ground and held hands. Lady invoked the spell to complete the ritual with the waning moon above them, and involuntarily clenched Pamela's hands as her head was suddenly full.

"_Be quiet_," Pamela's voice was a tiny whisper. They had practiced this, what it would be like to communicate telepathically. Pamela had Lady's thoughts shielded to keep Garrett from detecting her presence, but she needed to make it easy on Pamela.

"_Gather information, think about it later, got it_," Lady thought.

"_We're so screwed_," Pamela's thought in her head sounded amused. "_You're doing fine, Lady. Sh, listen_."

It was starting. There were voices, more accurately thoughts, being passed around and moving around each other incoherently. It lasted for several moments, Lady only caught a few tidbits until a big booming thought sounded. "_Welcome_." It sounded like it was speaking directly to her and she panicked for a moment thinking that they were caught, but Pamela's soft thoughts quieted her panic.

"_It's Garrett_!" Lady realized the booming thought was the leader. "_So that's what you sound like you son of a bitch..._"

"_Shut up_," Pamela almost sounded bored in Lady's head.

Lady focused on keeping her mind clear and empty, listening only to Garrett and his instructions to his coven.

Lady and Pamela opened their eyes at the same time and after a few moments let go of each other and got to their feet. Bobby had watched them sit in silence for nearly half an hour and looked at them with wide eyes as they brushed dirt from their jeans. "Well?" he finally asked.

Lady grinned, "One week from now, this coven is finished."

While Lady had been working with Bobby and Pamela the Winchesters had finished in New Mexico and were on their way to answer an urgent request.

"I get we should help Missouri if she's asking for it, but this thing Lady has going on is pretty damn important," Dean said as they drove into Lawrence.

"She said she just wants to talk. It's on our way," Sam said. "Lady said we have time, she's going to meet us at Bobby's tomorrow."

Sam and Dean smiled at Missouri as she opened the door. "Thank you boys for coming," she said. "Come on in. Don't mind the mess, I've been...well, I've been busy."

"We came as quick as we could," Sam said.

"I'm sorry for calling you here, if I thought I had time maybe I would have waited," Missouri frowned. "Maybe I waited too long."

"What is it you needed to see us for?" Sam asked.

Missouri sat them in the living room, "It's about Lady." She looked between the brothers, sensing their feelings about the woman. Earlier that year their feelings had been superficial. Curiosity, not much more than that. Things had changed drastically since then. "I'm worried about her."

"We talked to her on our way here, she's fine," Dean said.

"For the moment," Missouri said. "She was here last week asking for my help, and it's been bothering me. She wanted me to help her with a ritual to eavesdrop on the coven. To sneak in on their telepathic conference to find out where they plan to meet for their big ritual. Doing something like that is unpredictable, though. Reckless in the way of trying to take a starving lion's steak away from them."

"You didn't help her, right?" Sam asked.

"Of course not," Missouri said. "As much as I want to help I wouldn't let her do something that dangerous. Even if I thought there was a chance it would work. But since I saw her last week I've been shaken up, if she would even consider doing something this reckless...what else is she doing?"

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"I don't know," Missouri said. "I understand why she wants to stop this coven, and I've been praying for her ever since she decided to start. But the woman who I saw last week was so far from the girl I met years ago I don't know if they are the same person. She knows she's close to the end, and I'm afraid for her. I'm afraid she'll do anything to not lose. I sensed some desperation from her, she wants this so bad she'll do anything for it." Missouri looked at her hands. "I think if you two spoke with her it would help. She trusts you, just as you trust her."

"No offense, Missouri, but...well, we're sort of in this with her," Sam said. "I understand that you are worried for her, but we want to help her finish this, too."

Missouri looked up and stared at Dean, "Are you willing to help her finish this if it means her life? Because if she has to jump into the fire to finish it she will. She says it isn't about revenge, but it is because she gave up on survival long ago. I'm afraid she's going down a dark path to achieve her goal. Someone needs to stop her. Before it is to late."

Dean looked away and felt a pulse drum in his ears. "We'll talk to her," he said, standing up.

"Dean, you need to talk to her," Missouri said, meeting his eyes again.

Sam and Dean left her house and continued their drive north. "Weird," Sam said. "You think Missouri caught Lady thinking about using black magic?"

Dean shrugged, "The old crone Max said that's what Lady has to do if she wants to stop Garrett. I know Lady is damn sketchy but I don't think she ever would. The way she talks about black magic is like it repulses her."

"You think even if she was desperate?" Sam asked.

"I don't know," Dean admitted. "Should it be getting under my skin that she didn't tell us about this? I feel like I'm always in the dark and keep getting blinded by flashes of information."

"We were sort of busy in New Mexico, that witch wasn't going to kill himself," Sam said.

"Or burn his own corpse," Dean nodded. "We get to Bobby's, we talk to him first and then we'll corner her on this."

At Bobby's lot Lady was working with a few maps, several markers and a few notebooks while listening to the radio. Dean wasn't sure if she was aware of her surroundings enough to notice they had arrived, but that was okay. He motioned for Bobby to come outside where he and Sam told him what Missouri told them.

"Sure, I knew about it," Bobby said. "I helped her set it up the other day, too."

"You...you mean she did the ritual?" Sam asked.

"It wasn't a black ritual, I checked it myself. It worked. Did you see her in there? She's working out a plan to get it all organized. Because of your work in New Mexico she knows what ritual from the book will be used, she knows the location, the strength, and even better knows there won't be any innocents in the crossfire." Bobby looked between the brothers and had to chuckle a bit. "Did Missouri make it sound like she was doing some disgusting black ritual?"

"Sort of," Sam frowned.

"Listen, it was dangerous but Lady knew what she was doing, and so did the psychic. Missouri is a good psychic but she doesn't always interpret things correctly. Lady went to her first because she trusted the woman, she didn't want to go to someone she didn't know."

"Something else Missouri said has me a bit worried," Dean said. "How desperate do you think Lady has to be before she resorts to some of the black magic she knows?"

Bobby frowned, "That's a concern for anyone who's looked at black spells. As for how far Lady will go, I don't know. What I do know is she's had the knowledge to do it for years and she hasn't. She's also had a ton of opportunity and a lot of reasons to do it, and she hasn't." Bobby shrugged, "I trust her. And five days from now we got four rituals to shut down, and it's because of her we have a chance. Not to say we didn't have to bring in a little extra help."

Sam and Dean turned as a truck pulled into the lot. Dean turned back to Bobby, "What the hell are Roy and Walt doing here?"

Lady looked up happily as the men came into Bobby's house. "Hey, guys! I didn't hear you pull up," she said as she shut off the radio. "Good job in New Mexico, Garrett is pissed!"

"He's not the only one," Dean said forcefully. "I'm not working with the guy that shot you," Dean pointed at Roy.

"You won't be," Lady said, clearing off the table to show a map of the States under her mess. There were four circles spread out from east to west. "We're splitting up, we need a team at each site. You and Sam. Roy and Walt. Me and Freddie. And then Bobby."

"Who is Freddie?" Walt asked.

Lady smiled, "He's my partner, afraid you won't meet him."

"Bobby, you're going alone?" Sam asked, looking concerned.

"Nope," Bobby said. "Spoke to Ellen, I'll be picking her up on my way."

"Ellen? Are you sure she can handle this?" Sam asked.

Bobby nodded, "I knew Ellen back in the day. Lady has this planned well and she trusts Ellen."

"Well this doesn't sound like it will blow up in our faces," Dean muttered.

"I have everything worked out perfectly. Well, except for one itty bitty hiccup," Lady said. "One of the locations is going to have a special guest, but I don't know where. If Garrett shows up...I don't know how to kill him. He's a warlock. I don't know if just shooting him will work. I know if I see him I'm sure as hell going to try. But if he is there it, uh...might be safest to run."

"We don't run," Walt said.

"Dean," Lady said sharply before he could speak, and he returned her glare. "Can you save it for when they leave?"

"Let him speak, Lady. I've felt this brewing since we saw him last month," Roy said, catching Dean's glare move over to him.

"You don't get to talk at all," Lady said. "You are here because you are lucky enough to have the tiniest bit of experience handling this coven and I needed a fourth team. Unless you want me to hand you coordinates to the middle of the Grand Canyon you'll shut your god damn mouth and so help me if you don't I'll shoot you." Lady gave him a hard stare. "I've put way too much into this to be second guessed by idiots, I haven't slept in two days, and I'm feeling rather fucking trigger happy. Now without opening your god-damned mouths does everyone understand who is in charge?" Everyone nodded once and Lady's face lifted into a grin. "Yippy! This is how we're going to kill some witches."

Lady went over the plan with all of them.

"Here is where the coordination gets tricky," Lady said at the end. "These rituals are all in different time zones, and they will start shortly after midnight in their own respective time zones. Roy and Walt, you are going to be the first ones to go through it in Delaware. The second it is safe I want you to try and call Bobby and Ellen in Missouri. These locations are remote, they might not have cell phone reception. Even if they do things may be too turbulent for them to answer. If they don't answer call Dean and Sam in Wyoming, let them know how it went. If anything was not how I explained it, they need to know. Bobby, you and Ellen might be in the dark before you are up to the plate, even if you don't hear from them don't stray from what we went over, you know how to switch things up if you have to." Lady looked at Dean, and then spoke to Sam. "If you guys don't hear anything from Roy or Walt how do you want play it?"

"Figure them for dead and have a beer?" Dean said even when Lady gave him a warning glance.

"Okay, that's it. Dean, would you like to step outside?" Roy asked. Roy was a bit shorter but a bit heavier than Dean.

"God, I would love to," Dean said, starting to set his weapons on the table. "Just give me one minute."

"Will you two idjits stop!" Bobby shouted at them. "We're dealing with something serious here! Any issue you have with each other can damn well wait until after we're done!"

"Roy, if you don't step down you won't like what I will do to you," Lady said in a soft voice, looking up at him from under her eyelashes.

"Shut up, Lady," Dean said, pulling a knife from his boot and patting his pockets to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything. He wanted to nail Roy good, but he didn't want the temptation to do anything serious.

"You think I'm scared of your wrath, Lady?" Roy asked, amused as he turned to take a step toward the door. Dean wasn't far behind him but saw Lady grab the knife he had just set down and dodged back before she threw it. The knife went right past Roy's nose and stuck in the doorway. Roy jerked a bit in surprise and looked at Lady with wide eyes.

The room went silent as Lady brought out her butterfly knife and twirled it open. "Either you want me to give you the location of this hunt, or you want to do something really stupid to piss me off and test my aim. Which is it?"

Roy tugged the blade out of the wood. "Just tell us where the hell to go so we can get on our way."

Lady folded a map and handed it to him while taking back the blade. Sam put a hand on Dean's chest to keep him from following them out and didn't let him go until he heard their truck start and pull out.

"Sorry, Lady," Sam said, striking his brother in the chest and giving him a glare. Dean returned the glare and hit his brother twice as hard in the shoulder.

"Stop it! What are you two? Four?" Bobby asked. "Jesus Christ. What the hell is wrong with you, Dean?"

"I hate him!" Dean said, as if that explained it all. It was one thing for him to restrain himself at the Roadhouse, but at Bobby's? Bobby's place had been like a home to him when he was kid and was like a safe haven to him now. It was like Roy was getting invited to all the places he liked to be in and he didn't like it.

"Get over it," Sam said.

"If the coven doesn't kill him I'm sure as hell going to try next time I see him," Dean said hotly.

"You are acting like a child!" Bobby snapped at him. "I'm the one that had to put up with Lady for a week after he shot her! If anyone should be pissed off at him it should be me."

Lady frowned, "Hey!"

"You are a pain in my old ass, kid," Bobby said without apology.

"Whatever," Lady shook her head. "I have to get to Malibu in five days. I'll call you guys the morning before the ritual so we can get organized."

"Lady, wait," Sam said. "I didn't want to say anything in front of Roy or Walt, but...only Freddie? I'd feel better if you had someone with thumbs go along with you."

Lady let out a breath, "To be honest I sort of would, too. But let's face it, there isn't anyone else I'm trusting with this. Freddie and I have done a lot of solo jobs before and I have advantages you guys don't. Bobby is the one at the biggest disadvantage having Ellen as back-up. I'm sure she can handle herself but he just isn't used to working with her." Lady smiled a bit, "After this the only coven members left will be low ranking bottom feeders, and that's only if some of them managed to hide to keep from being used as sacrifices."

"Where is Freddie?" Sam asked.

"I'll be picking him up at a kennel on my way there," Lady said. She looked at her watch, "I should probably get out of here. This drive is going to kill me as it is."

Lady knew Dean was following her outside to her car but he was quiet while she checked her trunk to make sure she had everything. "You still aching to hit someone?" Lady asked.

"Sort of," he admitted.

She turned to face him and held out her arms, "Want to take your best shot?"

He frowned, "That's not funny."

"Listen to your brother, get over it," Lady said.

"Yeah, well, that's the thing, I can't," Dean said. "The guy gets under my skin."

Lady slammed the trunk of her car, "I don't know what to say that I haven't already said, Dean. I don't like him, either. I really hate the scar he left me, but I can't change any of it. I know it was an accident, a stupid one, but it wasn't like he did it on purpose and I should have been more careful myself."

"You still think this is because he shot you?" Dean asked.

Lady narrowed her eyes at him, "Yeah. What, did he scratch your car?"

He let out a laugh, "No, never mind."

"Something I need to know?" she asked.

"You know..." Dean stopped to think about it, and continued. "You know he bragged to everyone at the Roadhouse about nailing you, right?"

Lady arched an eyebrow, "No, actually I didn't. Although I don't know why the hell he would be bragging. Still doesn't matter, Dean, it isn't like I have any virtue to protect or I really care what those people think about me. Is that what has been getting under your skin?"

"Yeah!" Dean answered forcefully, hoping she had finally gotten it.

Lady rolled her eyes, "Jesus Christ! I thought you were smarter than to get into a dick measuring contest over something so stupid."

"You mean over you?"

Lady stared into his eyes for a long time before blinking. "Yeah. Pretty stupid. What do you want me to do? Stop at the Roadhouse and declare you 'the man' in bed to make Roy lose some credit?"

"What? No...well..." Dean began to think about it and since the only woman who was there frequently was Ellen it didn't really help him much, "No."

Lady let out a breath, "You figure something out I can do to help you get over it, let me know. I need to get out of here."

"Okay," he said with a shrug, pulling her in for a kiss. There was nothing they could do. He knew they weren't exclusive but that didn't mean he wanted to share. "Where you want to meet for the victory sex afterward?"

"We'll meet back here," she said, giving his butt a squeeze before she got in her car.

Lady drove for two hours, her eyes drooping from lack of sleep. She found her first stop on her long drive, a lonely motel in a small town. She parked near the motel office and looked around until she saw a door open and Freddie come out. Lady got out of her car and moved to the passenger door to open it. "Get in the back, buddy. I hope she didn't feed you anything too greasy."

"We ready to go?" Jo said brightly as she ran up to meet her.

Lady nodded, "Yeah, but you have to drive. I'm almost dead on my feet."

Jo put her bag in the trunk and got into the driver's seat. "I can't believe they were going to let you take this on with just your dog."

"I had a bit of a scare. I almost got out of there without them mentioning it but Sam nearly ruined it," Lady said as Jo began driving. "Believe me, it is easier for them all to accept me being alone than it is for me asking for your help. Bobby almost didn't let me ask Ellen."

"My mom is tough as nails, she can definitely handle this," Jo said. "I'm real excited."

Lady had a lazy smile on her face as she let her eyelids slid closed, "Me, too."

**A/N** - _Songs for this chapter are as follows:_

_Animal, by Neon Trees_

_Gypsy Woman, by Anarbor  
_


	28. Black Moon, November 2006

**November 20, 2006**

**Lady, Jo and Freddie. California**

Lady had called each of the teams in the morning and so far everything was looking good. It was nine in the evening when Jo and Lady began to get anxious, knowing that on the west coast things were getting started for Roy and Walt.

It was half past ten when Lady answered her phone. "How'd it go?" she asked, turning it on speakerphone so Jo could hear.

"We finished them," Roy said, sounding tired. "It was nasty, but we got it done. I couldn't get in touch with Bobby or Ellen, I'm not sure if they're properly prepared."

"Did you call Sam to let them know?" Lady asked harshly. Concerned that Dean's temper at Bobby's would make Roy leave them out of the loop.

"Yeah," Roy said, but Lady didn't believe him. The issues between Dean and Roy were not resolved and they could both be stubborn dicks. This was why she stuck with one-night stands, men were idiots when it came to sex. "Lady, this whole place is burning to the ground. We nailed those witches exactly when you said and this blue flame kept descending on them, burning through nearly three acres. The fire's gone orange now but for a while there we were almost goners."

"Anything else happen?" Lady asked.

"No," Roy said, and she hung up on him.

Lady was dialing Dean, he had less then half an hour.

"Yeah?" Dean answered.

"Change of tactic, hit the coven hard and fast. This ritual they are doing went nuclear with Roy and Walt," Lady said. "It means they'll be running as soon as you get a shot off, but it's better than letting them get started."

"We heard from Walt," Dean said. "Lady, the clouds have been spinning like crazy all day. We're on our way there right now. I'll call you the second it is done."

"Call Bobby first, I'm worried how things went."

"Sure," Dean said, there was an edge to his voice and Lady had a feeling he was just saying that to appease her.

Lady gathered her stuff and Jo followed her lead. "Lets get out there, this ritual is reacting differently then I thought it would."

"You think my mom is okay?" Jo asked, worried.

Lady's lips pressed together, "I really hope so."

**Bobby and Ellen, Missouri**

Ellen hadn't been on a hunt in while, but that didn't mean she was out of practice. For a woman of her age she was in superior shape and she went out target shooting at least once a week. Since Lady had called her over a week ago asking for assistance she'd made that every day. "Will you stop looking at your watch?" Ellen asked.

Bobby tapped his fingers on the steering wheel of his truck, they weren't far from the ritual site, they were just waiting for midnight to grow near so they could brave the chilly run reaching it required. He knew Ellen had some talents, but he hadn't teamed up with her in a long time. He was worried, but thankfully when the coven started their ritual they would be unable to defend themselves. The chances of getting any return fire were next to nothing, even if the witches were strapped with guns. "Just getting anxious for this to be done with," Bobby said. "You can't imagine how it feels, finishing this after so many years."

Ellen smiled a bit, "Lady's been sort of like a daughter to you, hasn't she?"

Bobby shrugged, "More like a damn apprentice that I never wanted. Putting a gun in that girls hand when she was still just a kid ain't my proudest moment."

Ellen nodded, "I know the feeling. Teaching Jo and letting her hang around the Roadhouse definitely doesn't put me up as mother of the year...but it does give me piece of mind. The girl is so much like her daddy it scares me half to death. But at least she knows, and she knows how to take care of herself." Ellen let out a breath. "Your Lady is a good one, though. She's been keeping tabs on Jo better than Ash can."

"Yeah? Where is Jo now?"

"Malibu, with Lady," Ellen said grimly.

Bobby groaned, "Are you serious?"

"Why else do you think I'd be doing this?" Ellen asked. "My little girl is in this, Lady said she needed more help." Suddenly Bobby connected the dots, Ellen's sudden availability for a hunt and warming up to Lady, Lady's insistence that there be two hunters per site while assuring them her and Freddie could handle the west coast. "She made sure her and Jo were the last ones in case anything needed to be changed around. As soon as we're done we'll call and let them know how it went, and if anything goes wrong she's going to get Jo out of there."

"We better get up there," Bobby said. The icy wind hit him as he got out of his car. He had a bag on his back with what they would need immediately afterward, anything else they would have time to go back to the car for.

They were in the dark shadows, silently moving around as they watched the coven. Only three and no sound of black dogs. There were two people standing in the center, they were untied and calmly waiting for the leader to sacrificially kill them. Ellen glanced through binoculars, able to see one of them had the mark of the coven. "What do you think? Willing sacrifice? They aren't tied up," she whispered to Bobby.

Bobby took a look and shrugged, "The others might be powerful enough to keep them from running. Another spell to hold them there?" He held up a hand, "It's starting."

Ellen and Bobby waited, listening to their own heartbeats as the sacrifices willingly raised their arms and allowed their forearms to be slashed. They waited for two beats until one of the witches started off the ritual by reciting a verse in Latin, and when the others joined in they moved into position. There was a torch burning blue fire between each of the witches arranged in a triangle, and the flames began to grow taller and swayed until they were over six feet tall. Bobby signaled to Ellen and they both began taking out the coven. As Lady had promised they didn't flinch from continuing the ritual, as if they were in a trance and didn't hear the gunshots or feel them. When the last one was down and they were quiet they both ducked down and covered their ears, prepared for the possible backlash of energy Lady warned them of. There was no shock wave, but the torches continued to burn higher and higher. The flames swayed and began to swirl, touching each other and spinning into a cyclone.

"Ellen, we need to go!" Bobby shouted.

"Oh god! What is that?" Ellen cried out as a tornado of flames began to tear apart the ritual site, setting everything ablaze.

"Not what we expected! Come on!"

Bobby and Ellen ran, the fire growing and consuming everything in its path. By the time they reached the car the flames were turning from blue to orange but the fire wasn't running out of things to burn. "Call Dean, you need to warn him," Bobby said as he started driving.

"I'm calling Lady," Ellen said breathlessly. "You call Dean."

Bobby pulled out his phone and tried Dean's phone, it went straight to voicemail. "Damn it. You get Lady?"

Ellen's face was drawn tight, "She's not answering. Why isn't she answering? We were supposed to be able to reach her."

"Try Walt, see if they had the same thing," Bobby suggested, his heart still pounding as he saw the growing out of control burn they were running from in his rear view mirror.

**Dean and Sam, Wyoming**

"We made it here faster than I thought," Dean said.

"Not fast enough? I see a bit of a glow," Sam pointed.

"They can't start until midnight," Dean wasn't concerned. "Locked and loaded?"

"Yeah," Sam said.

They walked together as near as they dared until they could get a view of the coven. They were too far to start shooting, since they didn't have the convenience of having the coven occupied by their ritual they had to use tactics to make sure to end them as quickly as possible and avoid them from using any mojo on them.

There were two men and a black dog, all chained trees. The dog was snarling and fighting, but the men appeared to have given up. Dean and Sam exchanged a look, and then both looked around warily. They could barely see each other in the darkness, let alone a witch that may have seen them coming.

They both jumped slightly as a burst of blue flames appeared in the center of the ritual site, when the flames vanished a man was there. His back was to them, but they could see he was average height and build with dark hair. His posture was tense. He let out a roar of frustration and threw his arms up, when he did so the sacrifices that were chained up were immediately consumed in blue fire. Their screams and howls went on for a full minute before they died from the fire. The next instant the witch that appeared in a burst of flames disappeared again in the same fashion.

"What the hell?" Dean's mouth hung open.

"Dean, I think that may have been Garrett," Sam said.

"Where the hell did he come from and where the hell did he go?" Dean asked. "You have the spell Lady said that would bind his powers?"

"I memorized it, you?" Sam asked.

Dean shrugged, "I have it written down."

"Dean, look," Sam pointed. The blue torches were dying and flickering to orange flames, and above them the moonless sky with the swirling clouds was clearing up to show stars. "It's over."

Dean was digging in his pocket for his phone. "No signal. Come on, we need to get back and call Lady. This was definitely not in the plans. Something is seriously wrong."

**Lady, Jo and Freddie. California**

"Maybe we should hang out here for a while and hit the beaches when we're done," Jo suggested as Lady drove through secluded hills.

"I can't," Lady said with a smile. "I have a date."

"Yeah? Like a real date?" Jo asked. "Or a hump date?"

"What do you think? Dean and I are going to take shelter somewhere for a while."

"What is it with you two?" Jo asked with a laugh.

"I don't know," Lady admitted.

"Do you want something to be there?"

Lady shrugged, "I can't really have anything. Even if he did, there is a good chance I'm not going to live much longer."

"If I were you I think I'd want something special before I croaked," Jo said thoughtfully. "What if you find that cure?"

"That is a big what if that I'm not ready to make plans for," Lady said. "The way I'm living I don't think I can afford to live much longer."

Jo laughed, "I told you not to buy those shoes."

"I know, but I couldn't help it," Lady whimpered. Freddie joined her whimper and she reached back to scratch his fur. "Alright, this is as far as we'll take the car. On foot from here."

Jo and Lady checked their weapons and Lady strapped the spiked collar on Freddie in case he got into a dog fight. She knew at least one witch had a black dog remaining, she hadn't heard if Bobby or the Winchester team had come across one. There was no reception in the location they were in, and since they had left early they weren't going to get a report from Bobby or Ellen.

The position wasn't favorable for them, they had to hike over a large hill and slide down the other side to a long stretch of private beach. Even in the darkness they would stand out against the pale sand. Already they could hear waves of the ocean crashing and see the glow from blue fire. The clouds over them swirled but the lightening earlier had faded to dull flashes once every few moments.

Lady had found the best location they could to enter from, she just had to hope the witches were too preoccupied with their preparation to catch them the few times they could be discovered.

"This is good, only three," Lady whispered to Jo as they crouched down in the distance. She handed Jo the binoculars so she could look. "I don't see a black dog, Freddie would have ran off if he had smelled one."

Freddie was just as silent as the girls, standing at alert with his tail down and ears up.

"Two tied down, they are struggling like mad," Jo whispered. "You are positive they are witches?"

Lady nodded. "Garrett said if they wanted to keep their power they needed to appease the Goddess with more powerful sacrifices. He didn't like losing more of his numbers, but I bet there are some of these that he had been aching to get rid of."

"We can't flank them properly, just not enough room or cover. How about..." Jo was saying but Lady held up a hand and jerked. Jo went quiet.

At the ritual site the coven all made startled movements as a burst of flames appeared. When the flames faded a man was standing there.

"Holy shit," Jo gasped, and Freddie shifted anxiously.

Lady's lips parted in surprise as the new witch began speaking angrily, loud enough for them to hear across the distance. "We've been ambushed!" Lady swallowed hard, recognizing the voice as the same one she had in her head a week ago.

"Garrett," she breathed.

Jo tensed. "How do you want to play this?" she whispered.

Lady held up a hand to tell her she needed a moment.

The other witches said something in low respectful voices, and Garrett shouted. "Who is it? Is it Gardner? Donovan? Which of them is trying to disrupt our way of life? SPEAK!"

One of them said something that Garrett did not appreciate, and with a flick of a wrist the witch was thrown at least fifty feet toward the ocean.

Lady looked down at Freddie, and at Jo. "I need to get on that ley line. I'm pretty sure he'll see me, whatever you do don't move. If I can't manage to bind his powers there is no way we can take this on without getting ourselves killed."

"We have to stop them," Jo said firmly.

"Not at the cost of our lives," Lady said. "If those were innocent people tied up, yes, but tonight it is more important we live to fight another day than die. I'll try to bind him, but if it doesn't work we have to run." Lady swallowed. If it didn't work Garrett would discover her and kill her. She corrected herself, "You have to run."

Jo grabbed Lady's hand and gave it a brief squeeze. They nodded to each other and Lady ran out onto the sand. Brief flashes of lightening in the clouds illuminated the beach, and all it would take would be for the witches to glance at the right time to see her moving in dark clothing over the white sand.

Lady felt more than saw the diamond hanging from its cord begin to sway and signal she was on the line. She went to her hands and knees and looked directly at Garrett that was standing on the same line of power as she was. Letting out a calming breath she began to recite the Latin verse she had memorized, one that she had given each team to memorize or at least keep so they could read if Garrett showed up. She was torn between being happy he had chosen her spot and feeling like she had been damned. Last month if she had been given access to Garrett she would have run in with guns blazing, but now...she wanted to end the coven but she wasn't ready to give up her life for the cause. She wasn't ready to risk Jo or Freddie for it.

Lady didn't stop reciting the verse even when she saw she was about to be discovered, she just started speaking faster hoping that enough of the spell would dampen Garrett's abilities. She sucked in a pained breath as she began being dragged through the rough sand, her feet digging in and leaving a dark trail until she fell at the center of the ritual site. Without being touched by hands she was flipped onto her back before she could finish spitting out sand.

And then she was looking up into the eyes of the man that for years she had heard about, and wanted to kill. Garrett.

He was handsome. Though rumors declared him over a hundred years old he didn't appear to be much older than thirty. His face was smooth and clean shaven, his dark hair styled, and when he smiled he showed dimples. "Lady," he said in a gentle voice.

"That's me," she said, grunting as she was pulled to her feet by invisible hands. She casually brushed herself off as her heart began to jackhammer in her chest. "Just Lady, like Eminem but with a badder attitude." She flashed a nervous grin.

Garrett laughed and looked at the other witches that he hadn't thrown into the ocean yet. "My apologies, children. It wasn't one of our own who betrayed me, but the clever Little Lady." Lady leaned back as Garrett reached a hand to her but she was frozen in place. It felt like the air around her was becoming solid and it was difficult to breath. Garrett's fingertips felt warm and soft, even human, when they touched her cheek. "My goodness, you are more beautiful than I remember." Garrett shuddered and took his fingers back. "I can't see your mind," he said, sounding surprised. Then he smiled again, showing her his dimples. "I'm undecided what to do with you, Lady. I want, very badly, to hear how you managed to survive, not only survive but take out two of my rituals in one night. But I also want, very badly, to get a proper sacrifice to fix what you have disrupted."

"Yeah, I bet," Lady said softly, trying to find a way to move but the telekinetic hold he had on her was more secure than ropes. She was concerned, he said only two other rituals were disrupted, but that might mean he hadn't heard about one of them. She hoped, at least. Her thoughts went out to Bobby and Ellen, what if they failed? Or Sam and Dean? "I don't remember ever meeting you before. I've heard a lot about you, though. You should really teach your minions not to blab."

"You were never in the right state of mind when I saw you," Garrett said. "However Ananda was a favorite of mine, and I visited her frequently. I helped her prepare you, she was so very proud of finding you."

"I bet you wished she had killed me, too," Lady said.

Garrett nodded, "It was cute, at first. Your little quest for vengeance. But you've officially become a nuisance that can no longer be tolerated."

Lady avoided looking around his shoulder to see the two black masses down on the beach, not wanting to tip the witches off by a movement of her eyes. Lady looked at Garrett fearlessly, "You think killing me will help your case any? This ritual isn't about getting rid of the weak witches, it's about getting rid of the ones that are a threat to you."

Garrett chuckled, "No one is a threat to me."

"You sure? What was all that screaming about earlier? Gardner and Donovan? Where have they been during these rituals?"

"They'll be dead before the next new moon," Garrett said. "Not you concern."

"But it is yours," Lady said, smiling slightly. "Those students of yours trying to become the new masters? You might be a warlock, but you are losing your followers. I'm just curious if it is because you've waited so long to deal with me, or if it is because you haven't been able to keep the ley lines from shifting."

Garrett looked interested, "You even know about the ley lines? You don't do things half-assed, do you?"

"Most things I do, but when it comes to fucking with you I tend to go all out," Lady said. "You know, you have me to thank. Some of the witches I've killed were aching to kill you. And I'm willing to bet if I had let them go, they would have managed it." Lady stayed still as she felt the squeezing around her body ease up. She watched Garrett's face closely to see if it changed, any notice at what was happening. She knew Jo was trying to bind his abilities, instead of running like she told her to. "You are just lucky that Ian pissed me off."

"So you did kill Ian? For that favor...I'll put a flower on your ashes in the morning," Garrett said gently.

"I'll be pissing on yours," Lady said with a smile.

Garrett glared at her and raised his hand. Lady grinned at the look of pure shock on his face when whatever he had attempted to do didn't happen. Far down the beach Jo was moving in closer now that she had completed the binding spell so she could get a shot. And Lady felt herself become completely free of Garrett's previous hold.

Garrett pulled one of the witches in front of him for protection when Lady pulled out her gun, she shot twice and turned to the second witch when they began to utter in Latin. She left the ones tied up and began to chase Garrett, firing several shots into his back until her gun clicked empty.

"Lady?" Jo called.

"Get the sacrifices, make sure they are witches! Freddie!" Lady shouted as she ran into the pitch black night after the warlock. She had hit him five times, she hadn't missed. The binding spell wasn't going to last forever, and damn it that warlock could run.

Freddie was barking and snarling ahead of her, it was so dark away from the pale sand that she could barely see her hand in front of her face. Her gun had a fresh clip and she was straining to see any movement.

A flash of lightening above gave her enough light to see a dark figure running and she was already chasing it down. Lady let out a shriek and dove out of the way as the lightening that had been flashing in the clouds struck the earth. She began rolling down the hill she had been climbing, coming to a skidding halt at the bottom. She was disorientated and wasn't sure if the lightening had damaged her eye sight or if it really was that dark.

She was still, listening for Freddie or sounds of footsteps. She gave a start when she heard the future-sound of an unidentified noise, but then she had hands around her neck. She could feel Garrett's breath on her face but couldn't see him. She pressed the barrel of her pistol against his chest and emptied the clip.

"You think I am a mere man? That my flesh and bone commands my life?" Garrett snarled, and she could picture his handsome features twisting into something nasty.

Silently Freddie lunged through the air, jaws clamping onto Garrett's neck and knocking him off of Lady. Lady loaded her last clip and pulled out a small flashlight to make sure she didn't hit her dog. She emptied the last clip right in Garrett's skull as he struggled with the large dog, and then he went still.

Freddie whimpered as he backed away, and Lady wrapped her arms around him. Joyful tears were stinging her eyes as she rested against her dog. It was over.

Well, almost over. She had to burn the bastard.

Jo found Lady and helped her drag Garrett's body back to the ritual site so they could burn them all together.

"Check this out," Jo said tapping a smooth circle of glass that had been created in the sand when Garrett arrived in a burst of flames. "What was that?"

"I'm guessing some sort of teleportation?" Lady shrugged. "I've heard of demons being capable of it. Warlocks can be just as powerful, and Garrett was no lightweight." Lady pulled out a jug of lighter fluid as Jo grabbed dry driftwood to use for kindling. "Jo, you should have run."

Jo looked up at her, "Would you have?"

"No," Lady said. "But this is my hunt."

"We do the job how it has to be done," Jo said. "Think we can torch these guys and get out of here? I want to hear that my mom is okay."

"Yeah," Lady said, eager to hear from Bobby and the Winchesters, too. If even one of them had gotten hurt it would be on her head. No matter how well this job had gone, if she lost one of her friends she'd never forgive herself.

Jo and Lady worked together to lift the bodies on top of the kindling. There were the two sacrifices, that Jo confirmed were witches and had executed, along with the two Lady had killed before running after Garrett. "What about the one Garrett threw into the ocean? You think he is dead? Or swimming?" Jo asked.

Lady looked at Freddie, trusting him to know if there were any beating hearts nearby besides theirs. "I don't think we have to worry about him."

"Good, because these bodies aren't going to be easy to burn without adding a soggy one to it," Jo said brightly as they went to grab Garrett, the fifth and last body.

"Hold it," Lady paused, and Freddie began barking angrily. "I'm out of ammo." Lady straightened and began looking around.

"I'm loaded," Jo said, pulling out her pistol and squinting into the shadows.

Lady sucked in a shocked breath, "MOVE!"

Lady wrapped her arms around Jo and ran a few steps before they tumbled into the sand. Behind them a burst of blue flames erupted, bright enough they had to shield their eyes. When it was gone only dull orange flames from a few torches remained.

"Lady...he's gone," Jo gasped.

Lady looked at where Garrett's body had been, the sand that had turned to glass with his arrival was now scorched black and glowing red hot with his departure. "He was dead," Lady said. "I saw his fucking brains! HE WAS DEAD!" she screeched.

Lady and Jo took the hike back to the Beetle in bitter silence, behind them a funeral pyre for the witches was still burning and they had thrown enough drift wood on it to keep it going a long time. They had stayed long enough to make sure none of the flames continued to burn blue. There was the loose end of the witch that had been flung into the ocean but Lady knew if he was dead the purifying salt in the ocean would scrub away the nastier magical residue he might leave behind before he washed ashore. If he wasn't dead she'd find him again, one day…maybe.

Once they got into a service area Lady called Bobby who picked up immediately. It was nearly two in the morning where she was and he had left her half a dozen messages she hadn't listened to yet. "We're okay," Lady said instantly. "Everyone else?"

"Yeah, we're good. Sam and Dean, too." Bobby said. "Jo is okay?"

Lady grimaced, Bobby was going to be pissed at her. She had told no one but Ellen that Jo was joining her, but apparently Ellen tattled. "Yeah," she said. Jo didn't know that Lady was feeding information to Ellen, Jo thought she was secretly in on the hunt. "Ellen is fine?" Lady nodded to Jo when Bobby confirmed it. "I had a rough night but I want to hear from Sam and Dean. I'll call you back in the morning with details."

Lady waited until she reached the motel to call Dean. Jo was in the shower when Lady called.

Dean told her what had happened in Wyoming. "Unfortunately the guy pulled a Wicked Witch and vanished."

"Yeah, he found out that we were stopping the rituals," Lady said. "He showed up here."

"Yeah?" Dean said, sounding confused. "That is over a thousand miles in, what, half an hour?"

"I guess," Lady muttered. "I emptied almost three clips into him. Dean, I blew half his damn head off and he wasn't dead. I was getting ready to burn his damn body and he pulled a Wicked Witch on me, too."

"You're kidding me," Dean said.

"No," Lady said in a small voice. Lady looked at her clothes which had blood and other bits of him on her. "So I'm royally pissed. I'm going to start heading back to Bobby's in the morning, how about you?"

"We'll do the same and figure it out from there. You sure you are okay? He can't follow you?"

"I'm far from okay. I'm not worried about him trying to follow me. He managed to vanish in flames with half his brain, if he wants to find me he'll find me. Whether or not I leave him a trail of breadcrumbs."


	29. After Black Moon, November 2006

**November 22-30, 2006**

Lady dropped Jo off in Salt Lake City, from there Jo was going to take the train back to Duluth, Minnesota where she was currently living, and made it to Bobby's.

Freddie beat her to the door, barking eagerly with his tail wagging as he waited for someone with thumbs to let him inside. The door opened and Freddie happily jumped on Sam. "Hey, boy," Sam said, holding Freddie's head back to keep from getting licked. "Lady, you need help?"

"No, I'm good," she said, a heavy bag in each hand. "Just move your fat asses so I can get out of the cold."

"There she is," Bobby said, giving her a smile. "Damn good work, kiddo."

Lady nodded, accepting the verbal pat on the back. "Thanks."

"You don't get to be a grump about this. You did damn good," Bobby said. "Maybe Garrett got away but you showed him what we're capable of."

"Roy and Walt didn't want to join the after party?" Lady asked bitterly as she took the beer Bobby offered her. She was really just looking forward to curling up on the couch with Freddie and catching some much needed sleep, she didn't feel like celebrating and she sort of felt like ruining other peoples good moods.

"That's funny," Bobby said. "I ought to make you sleep outside, but that was funny."

"Dean and I just got in a few hours ago," Sam said, rubbing Freddie's belly. "We were thinking maybe we should come up to North Dakota with you. You know, in case Garrett decides he wants to find you. Or any of us."

"Who says that's where I'm going?" Lady asked, taking a seat at the table.

"I sort of know how you think," Dean said. "You lost the white whale, you're going to go to your best source of information, and the safest place you know."

Lady nodded, it was what she had been planning to do. Recharge her batteries at Bobby's and then see if she could hit up Max for information. But she knew what Max would tell her, the way to kill Garrett was in black magic. "Yeah, I suppose that will be what happens."

"Alright, well I need to get some sleep," Bobby said.

"Yeah, me too," Sam said, giving Freddie one last scratch. As Sam walked to the back of the house Freddie followed him, still aching for more attention.

"Your brother is stealing my dog," Lady said with a frown, but didn't call Freddie back.

"Give the kid a break, he hasn't slept with anything but his hand for a year," Dean said.

Lady made a noise, "Oh, I didn't have to hear that."

Dean raised his beer bottle. "To witch genocide," he said. Lady smiled and tapped her bottle to his. "You know, this was still a pretty big victory," he said as she was taking a long drink.

"Maybe," Lady said. "Still a bit of a bummer at the same time."

"Yeah, I suppose," Dean said. "But like I said, this is still a victory, I still get something out of this."

Lady chuckled, "Ah, I see where you were going now." She moved fluidly from her chair into his lap. She ran her hand through his hair as she tasted his mouth. In her mind this moment was the perfect reward to coordinating the biggest attack on a coven of witches the United States had seen since the Salem Witch Trials. Dean let out a breath as his hands rested on her thighs while they kissed slowly. Lady let out a pleased sigh and rested her forehead against his, "You know, any other time I'd be dragging you somewhere Sam would have a hard time walking in on us so we could get down to business, but to be honest I am way too damn tired and I'm in a crappy mood."

Dean laughed, "Thank god, because I am ready to pass out." He kissed her shortly and rubbed her leg as she got off his lap. "I'll take payment tomorrow and I won't charge interest if you share the couch."

"Deal," Lady said. A good nights sleep and a little more time to get the bad taste out of her mouth from losing Garrett and she believed she'd be ready to show Dean some real gratitude for stepping up and helping her out.

Lady was only asleep a few hours before there was a crash from the back of the house. Dean jerked awake at the same time, knocking her on the floor from the narrow couch and nearly stepping on her when he stood up. Lady was right behind him as he rushed to the back of the house where Sam and Freddie were sleeping.

Sam was on the floor, clutching his head in pain and groaning while Freddie was whimpering and licking at his face.

"Sammy?" Dean said roughly.

"I think he's having a seizure," Lady said, putting her hands on Sam's shoulders and elbowing Freddie away. Sam's jaw was clenched tight and his teeth were grinding.

"No, he's not. It's one of his visions," Dean corrected her bitterly. "Shit."

After several minutes Sam's eyes opened and he sucked in a breath. He looked around with wide eyes for a moment, and then began to take slower breaths to calm himself. "What'd you see?" Dean asked.

"I need a minute," Sam said as he slowed his breathing. "Dean, we have to go."

Dean rubbed the remaining sleep from his eyes, "I'm going to need coffee."

Lady stepped into the hallway with him. "You sure you can't wait until morning?"

Dean shook his head and shrugged, "Probably not. Uh, do me a favor and..."

"No problem," she answered. Her heart was still hammering in her chest from the shock of being rudely awakened from her warm and comfortable spot on the couch with Dean, but now a bit of fear was slipping in. These visions always led the brothers to something dealing with their yellow-eyed demon.

Sam and Dean got dressed and packed their bags while Lady made a pot of coffee. Dean found something to eat while Sam looked on his computer. "There was a guy tied to a chair...and you killed him," Sam told them about his vision as he searched for the town it was in. Unlike her visions he didn't get a sense of direction with them, but he believed he saw enough to find out where it was.

"Why?" Dean asked.

"I don't know. You thought something was inside him."

"Like a demon?"

"I don't know," Sam said. "Oregon. That's where we have to go. That's a long drive, we should go now."

"Fine. Go pack the car, I'll be out in a few minutes," Dean said, sliding the keys across the table to his brother.

As soon as Sam was out the door Dean slumped over in his chair. Lady hated the concern that twisted in her stomach and before she could stop herself had her hand on the back of his neck with her fingers stroking the messy hair there, "You want help on this?"

He shook his head, "I just wish it would stop happening. But it is happening more now. How is that a good thing?"

Lady held her tongue, that was how her visions started. Rare and infrequent, then more and more. But she didn't have to remind Dean how different her visions were from Sam's. She knew the source of her visions, when someone was about to die on one of the ley lines she got the memo. Whenever their yellow-eyed demon was playing Sam got his own memo. "You and Sam will figure this out," she said quietly.

Dean sighed, "As much as I enjoy having a cheerleader I just can't believe that anymore."

Lady stepped back as Sam honked the Impala's horn outside. Dean stood up and pulled on his jacket. "Let me know how it goes, okay?" Lady asked.

"Yeah, sure," Dean said. He looked at her intently as she stepped to him for a hug and he bent his neck to meet her for the kiss she stretched up for. She pulled back before Sam honked the horn again.

"Be careful, okay?"

Dean nodded, "You too. Uh…yeah, just watch your ass."

Before they got out of Sioux Falls the thermos of coffee was empty. Sam had offered to start driving, he was jittery and wide awake from the vision but Dean insisted on taking the wheel. It had only been a few days since they had made the trip to Wyoming just to watch Garrett throw a temper tantrum and immolate a few of his coven members and now he was driving halfway across the country to possibly kill someone?

They weren't even halfway across South Dakota when Sam finally spoke, "I'm really sorry about this, Dean," Sam said quietly.

"Not your fault," Dean said, his eyes watching a sign declaring the next town was over twenty miles away and he hoped they had an open gas station so he could get some more coffee.

No, it wasn't Sam's fault. It wasn't Sam's fault he had the visions, it was the demon's fault. It wasn't Sam's fault that they didn't know why, that was their father's fault. It wasn't anyone's fault that this sort of crap just liked to land in their laps.

Back at Bobby's Lady settled back into the couch, Freddie joining her, but stared at the ceiling in silence until Bobby came downstairs when they sky began to change from black to pale blue. Unfortunately the Winchesters weren't going to get a break, and without Dean to be a distraction there wasn't going to be a break for her either.

She spent the day looking at a book Bobby had been nudging her to read through for a while and he managed to trap her into doing so by offering to tune up and change the oil on her Beetle. Once she got halfway through it she found some interesting things related to her coven and spent a few more days studying it more thoroughly.

The Winchesters had been gone four days the morning Lady packed up her clothes and got ready to leave.

"Where are you going?" Bobby asked casually.

"Roadhouse," Lady answered. "Figure if I can handle mullet-boy checking out my ass for a few hours maybe I can convince him to keep a look out for strange things the next few moon cycles. Garrett has to be pissed and trying to figure out a way to restore the balance and, uh..." Lady cracked a smile as she looked at Bobby, "I guess neither of us has time to wait for the next Blue Moon."

"What about North Dakota? Seeing the medicine woman?"

"I know what Max will say," Lady said. "I've been thinking about it and I want to try to get a bit farther on my own before I try to fall back on her."

"You know maybe it'd be useful if you got to work figuring out how to reverse that other ritual. You know, the one you found but barely looked at," Bobby said. Lady frowned at him, she hadn't told anyone she had discovered the same ritual used to curse her to begin with. "Think I believe that book didn't have it in there? That all the reading you've been doing you wouldn't have come across it by now?"

"I have to go," Lady said.

"You can leave in five minutes and not a second sooner," Bobby said. "Why aren't you working on it, at least tell me."

"I have time," Lady said defensively. "And there are more important things right now."

"Be straight with me, you owe me that much. I let you keep a lot of things hidden but this is really starting to piss me off."

"If...if I don't have this curse I don't know if I'll have the courage to keep doing this until it is done," Lady admitted. "It's stupid, I get it and I don't need you to tell me that. But right now...I don't know, it's like a safety net. Doesn't matter if I get into a tight spot and nearly die because I am dying anyways. It's ass-backwards I know. I'm just not ready to test it otherwise. I just need more time to try and finish this."

"I'll give you until the solstice," Bobby said. "Once winter hits I'm taking over and we're doing this."

"Fine," Lady said. It was less than a month, but that meant she had time to work and come up with a way to get Bobby off of this if she needed more time then.

"Kid, it's okay to free yourself of this and get out of the life," Bobby said as she reached the door. "Hell, if that wasn't what I thought your plan was years ago I don't know if I would have helped you get started."

"Yeah, you would have," Lady said as she stepped outside. "Thanks for dog-sitting."

Bobby let out a breath as Freddie let out a lonely whimper from the corner. "I don't care how much you beg, your ass is going outside until she gets back," Bobby snapped at Freddie, who lowered his head and sighed.

Lady reached the Roadhouse late that evening to a fairly full saloon and cheers. Lady looked around warily as all eyes fell on her and several people offered to buy her a round if she shared her side of the story. She gave them a wave but made a beeline to Ellen behind the bar. "What the fuck?"

Ellen shrugged, "Roy and Walt talk a lot."

"Jesus, couldn't those guys get lost somewhere?" Lady muttered, seeing them in the back by the pool tables.

"What's Jo up to, you know?" Ellen asked.

Lady shrugged, "She's probably home by now. If she has anything in the works she hasn't called me."

"She saying if she's hunting with anyone else?"

Lady shook her head and took the beer Ellen offered her. "No. She knows I'm going to be scrounging for whatever I can on this coven the next few days, but I'll give her a call and dig a bit into her business next week."

Ellen nodded in approval, "Sounds good to me. So you here looking for Ash?"

"Yeah, but all these people here are making me anxious," Lady muttered.

Ellen nodded, "Hang around for last call. When they clear out I'll make sure you two get privacy."

Lady avoided the people looking for a story and sat at an empty table for several hours until Ellen began hollering for people to get out. Lady got some personal time with Ash to make some plans to search the known ritual sites for activity.

"The next full moon will probably be quiet, but the new moon should have something big planned. Not as big as last week, but big enough. But the second you get wind of anything I need to know," Lady said.

"I got this baby doing a search twice a day," he said, patting his computer proudly. "That data I got you help at all?"

"Yeah, it did. Good work, nerd," she said.

"Does this nerd get a little good work kiss?" Ash asked, smiling and wagging his eyebrows.

"You really want to strike out three times in one evening, don't you?" Lady asked.

"I got nothing to lose," he said.

Lady kissed his cheek, "Good work, Ash. You have my permission to watch my ass while I walk away."

"I was going to anyway," Ash said as she turned.

Ellen offered her another beer but Lady shook her head. "You want to crash in back? Ash might walk around naked in the middle of the night but it's free."

"Yeah, I'd appreciate that," Lady said. "I'll be heading back north in the morning."

"Back to Bobby's?" Ellen guessed.

"Yeah," Lady lied. It was off to Max, and just thinking about it gave her a headache.

"What's your next move, darling?" Ellen asked.

"I have enough of Garrett's blood and pieces on my clothes from when I almost killed him," Lady said. She shrugged, "I have what I need to track him, but he most likely has himself cloaked. Even if he wasn't he's powerful enough to know when someone does so, most likely. I guess I'm just back to doing what I was doing."

"You know jack shit," Ellen decided.

"Pretty much," Lady admitted. "I'm going to try as long as I can."

"You going to bring Jo in on it?" Ellen asked.

Lady shook her head, "This is too dangerous. With the coven I know what I'm up against, but Garrett I don't know how to handle. I won't be able to get him bound again, he fell for it once, he'll take precautions for next time."

Ellen studied her face, "What is going on in that pretty head of yours?"

Lady looked up at her with wide eyes, "I've been at this so long and I've jumped so many walls. Fuck jumping, some I just ran right through."

Ellen sighed and nodded, "I know that look, now. Hell, I even know how you are feeling. You want out of this life, don't you?"

Lady shook her head, "Even if I did I don't have many other places to go. After this ritual I'm practically useless, there aren't enough of them left to entertain me for long. I'm really not sure what to do with myself. And I'm wondering if I should really be spending all my time on this anymore."

"How much time you think you have left?" Ellen asked quietly.

Lady shrugged, "At least a day, as much as six months." Lady managed a small smile, "If Bobby rides my ass hard enough maybe a whole life time."

"Not sure what to say but just do what you can," Ellen said. "If this Garrett is too much for you to handle steer clear. Roy and Walt are stupid enough to chase after it."

"And they'll be killed," Lady said with a sigh. "I know, wherever Garrett is right now, someone is probably dying so he can put himself back together."

Lady didn't sleep well in the back of the Roadhouse. Even when it was closed it was noisy with hunters who had twenty-four seven access to Ellen's hospitality, not to mention Ash didn't go to sleep until six in the morning. Lady was about to give up on the possibility and just take her car to a secluded spot to get enough sleep to last her until she reached Bobby's when her phone rang.

"Yeah," she answered when she saw it was from Dean.

"Hey, you hear from Sam? Anytime in the past four or six hours?"

"No," Lady said. "What's wrong?"

"He's being a total dick, that's what," Dean snapped. Lady's mouth went dry. "I told him. Yesterday after we finished the job here I told him. I told him what Dad said."

Lady sat up and began pulling her shoes on, adrenaline spiking through her system. "How'd he take it?"

"Went better than I expected," Dean muttered. "Until last night. After I went to sleep he ran off. I don't know where he is, his phone is shut off, his stuff is gone."

"Where were you at?" Lady asked.

"Oregon. I'm still here," Dean said. "I need to call Ash in case he tries to hit him up for help."

"I'm at the Roadhouse right now," Lady said quickly.

Dean was quiet for a moment, "Why?"

"Hitting up Ash for help," Lady chuckled.

"Okay, do me a favor and stay there in case Sam stops in. Just keep an eye out for him and call me if you hear from him."

"No problem," Lady said. "I'm sure Sam is fine."

"He will be until I find him," Dean said before he hung up the phone.

Camping out at the Roadhouse hadn't been in Lady's plans, but she didn't really have any plans to begin with. That afternoon she was helping Ellen stock the cooler with beer when Sam called her cell phone.

"Hey, Sam," Lady answered.

"Let me guess, Dean's already asked you to call him if you hear from me?" Sam asked.

"Not so much ask as demand," Lady said. "He just wants to make sure you are okay, whatever happened in Oregon really has him worried. Maybe you could man-up and call him yourself."

"Yeah, you are probably right," Sam said. "But you are one of the few people I know that has to relate to me right now. Weird things are happening with me and I need to find out what. Dean is so afraid of what it might be that...that he actually suggested laying low. What happened in Oregon has me really worried, too."

"Yeah, I can understand that," Lady said.

"So you won't tell Dean you heard from me?" Sam asked.

"I never said that," Lady answered. "Whatever you think you are doing you can..." Lady frowned as she listened to the background noise on Sam's end, confused for a moment until understanding hit her and she turned around in time to see Sam walking through the door. "Son of a..." she hung up her phone and before she could get her phone to cooperate Sam had grabbed hold of her and snatched it out of her hand.

"Sorry, Lady," Sam said, pocketing her phone.

Lady smiled, Sam had got one over on her. He kept her on the phone to prevent her from calling Dean and had managed to keep her mind occupied until he was close enough to take away her biggest weapon, tattling on him to Dean. "Nice move," she said.

"Thanks," he said. "Just...let me talk to Ash and Ellen, then I want to talk to you, okay? Just ten minutes." His large brown eyes pleaded with her, and since she had nothing else she could do she gave him a nod.

"Okay," Lady said. She trusted Sam not to keep her phone any longer than he felt was necessary. If he knew that Dean was still a few states away he may not have even done that.

Sam set a beer in front of her and looked at her with large apologetic eyes that made her want to scratch behind his ear. She firmly reminded herself that Sam was not Freddie and while Sam may appreciate the gesture it just didn't have the same affect on humans as it did dogs. "How much did Dean tell you about River Grove?"

"Nothing, really," she said. "What went down?"

Sam took a long drink of his own beer, "Somehow a demonic virus infected the town. Passed through by sharing blood. When it was done all of the infected people just...vanished." Sam looked a bit scared as he opened the collar of his shirt enough to show a cut. "One of them tried to infect me." Lady shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "Dean and I were locked in this room together, just waiting for me to turn and I just begged him to give me my gun so I could finish it myself and for him to run. But he wouldn't."

"Why...what did the virus do?" Lady asked.

"It turned people into maniacs," Sam said. "They attacked their neighbors and loved ones trying to spread the virus." Sam swallowed hard. "But then it was all over. And I wasn't infected. We nearly died, hundreds of people are just gone, and this all started with the vision I received a few days ago. It's connected to the yellow-eyed demon somehow. I have to find out what is going on, what his plans for me are."

Lady put a comforting hand on his knee, "I get it, I really do. And I hope you find it, but you can't cut Dean out of this. You can't do this alone, it isn't safe."

Sam shrugged and before he could come up with anything to say Ash called him. He set his beer down and left her at the bar. Lady pulled out her cell phone she had picked from his pocket and walked to the door as it powered back on. "Son of a..." she snarled as the phone said the SIM card was missing.

Sam walked back to her with a smile, "You always said I was the smart one, now you think I'm stupid?"

"I didn't think you were stupid, I just thought you trusted me more than this," Lady said.

"Now that would be stupid," Sam said. "Ellen isn't going to tell Dean where I'm going, and the only way I can make sure you don't is if I take you with me."

"Wait a second! Are you _kidnapping_ me?" Lady said as he led her outside.

"Lady, please," Sam said. "I have to find out before..." Sam licked his lips, "Dad told Dean before he died that...that something might happen to me. Something bad. He wants to lay low and hope it all blows over, but it won't."

"And how do you plan on keeping me from calling your brother?" Lady asked as she got into the driver seat of her Beetle.

"Lady, you can't even remember Bobby's phone number," Sam chuckled. "All your phone numbers are saved to you SIM card." Lady frowned sourly as she pulled out of the Roadhouse parking lot.

"Where are we going?"

"Start driving east," Sam instructed. "I'll have you drop me off in Chicago and then go the rest of the way on my own."

"You want to put a gun to my head for affect?" Lady asked, and he gave her a hurt look. "Because at least Dean would have the balls to put a gun on me if he thought this was a good idea. Actually, Dean wouldn't be running away."

Sam rolled his eyes, "You have him on some sort of pedestal that he doesn't deserve. Since my father died he's been lying to me. Now I love my brother, but if he had told me months ago that my father thought I needed to be saved, that I might turn evil, then we could have been spending time figuring out why instead of chasing vampires and zombies."

"And witches," Lady said.

"That's not what...we'd do anything we can to help you, I didn't mean to sound..." Sam began to speak quickly, he never wanted to suggest that helping her had been a waste of time.

"Wow, one little outburst and you start stammering to apologize," Lady snorted. "I get that you are angry, and I understand why. Dean is trying to keep you safe, keep you from doing something stupid like this. But you are both being retards. Sam, if you want to be evil you just will be, that's how it is. It's a choice."

"And I'm choosing not to be," Sam said. "And I'm going a step further in choosing to stop this demon from corrupting anyone else."

Lady drove into the night before they switched drivers so she could sleep. When she woke up in the morning they were outside of Chicago. Sam left her there without her SIM card, stealing another car and continuing on his way. Lady went to the nearest AT&T store and flattered the man working behind the counter to give her a new SIM card. Once it was activated a few text messages came up, and she recognized one from Dean. She called the number and he answered quickly. "About damn time, Lady."

"Sorry, I was in custody," Lady said.

"Ellen told me Sam had you drive him out of the Roadhouse," Dean said. "Did he put a gun to your head?"

"I asked him to, but he was actually the nicest capture I've had," Lady said.

"You didn't think about knocking him out and calling me sooner?"

"Right, Dean. He's twice my size," Lady said flatly. "The only trick I have for that is stabbing them in the neck and I'm pretty sure you wouldn't approve of that."

"Point taken," Dean muttered.

"He told me about Croatoan and everything," Lady said. "He's bothered but he seems pretty focused on figuring this out. He left me outside of Chicago but didn't tell me where he's going from here. He thought snapping my SIM card in half would keep me from being able to call you."

"He's on his way to Lafayette, Indiana. He probably used you to get some sleep on the way there. Listen, you are a hell of a lot closer than I am, and I'm running on fumes as it is. Think you can get there and just...I don't know."

"Well, the Ladybug isn't known for being the best car to follow someone in, but I'll find him and make him drag me along until you make it there, okay?" Lady offered.

Lady was dragging from lack of sleep by the time she reached Lafayette that evening. She stopped at a local gas station and asked to use their phone book to begin calling local motels and hotels. Sam wouldn't use his real name and only Dean could begin to guess the numerous aliases he may use.

"Hey, looking for a friend of mine, seeing if he checked in recently. Shaggy brown hair, giant, cute as a button. No? 'Kay," Lady hung up and called the next motel on the list. "What's up, man? I'm wondering if my pal checked in recently. He's six and a half feet tall, roughly. Probably paid up a week in advance? Drove a crappy car? No? Okay," she sighed and looked at the dozens of motels available. And if Sam hadn't checked into a motel first thing she may have to start the list all over again. She dialed the next number, "Yo, I'm calling to see if a young man checked in recently? Tall with..."

"Tall as hell with shaggy brown hair?" The woman said. "Sure, rented him a room half an hour ago."

Lady sang a praising chorus in her head, "That's great, thank you." And hung up so she could call Dean. She gave him the name and address of the motel. "You are lucky it was close to the top of the list because my attention span is really short today."

Dean laughed, "Good work, Lady. I won't make it there until the morning. Just hang back for now, I don't want him to run again."

"Thank god because I need some sleep, hardcore," Lady muttered. "Let me say you two know how to wear a woman down."

Dean chuckled, "Hey, I could say the same about you. I'll see you tomorrow, Lady."

Lady smiled at that good news. She'd get to see Dean tomorrow. She was willing to bet he would be in his pissed-off-at-Sam mood, but that usually didn't last too long. It was sort of like his pissed-off-at-Lady mood, as long as she kept from insulting his car it faded fast enough. She just hoped his mood wouldn't switch to pissed-off-at-Dean because that mood could stick with him for days at a time.

As she settled into a motel across town from Sam's she silently prayed that Sam did find something. Some big clue to get them closer to figuring out their mystery or even better finishing the whole damn thing. If they could have some peace of mind, a bit of accomplishment and get the whole thing taken care of she imagined their lives being a whole lot happier. Maybe instead of helping Dean hogtie Sam and drag him off she'd see if she couldn't persuade Dean to help his brother investigate what brought him to this town. Maybe it would be nothing, or maybe a bomb would explode in their faces, but maybe they could catch the break they were looking for in their demon-hunt. Like she had caught her break in her witch hunt.

Lady woke up in the middle of the night, the type of jerking awake because she was about to be startled. Her hand reached for her butterfly knife on the nightstand and stopped a moment before she heard the tell-tale click of a gun. "Good morning," a man said.

The curtains were closed to keep out most of the light but enough filtered in that she could see the shadowy features of the man she didn't recognize. He was black, his skin so dark that in the dim light the whites of his eyes seemed to glow. "G'morning," Lady said, her hand frozen halfway to the nightstand. "I think you are in the wrong room, drug deal is going on two doors down."

"Get dressed," he ordered.

Lady adjusted herself in her bed and made sure the blankets covered her properly, "Wow, I think that is the first time I've been naked in bed and a man has said that to me. Not sure if I should be offended or relieved. Is it weird I'm more offended than relieved?"

"Don't flatter yourself, Lady," he said.

"Oh my, I didn't know we were on first name basis. I am embarrassed now, I don't even know who you are."

"Name's Gordon Walker," he said in his deep voice. "Get dressed."

"Promise you won't peak?" Lady asked with a sly grin, when it wasn't returned she got out from under the blankets to pull on her pants first. Keeping her back to him she slowly worked on getting her shirt right-side out. She wished her gun wasn't locked in her car, and wished her butterfly knife was easier to grab. She kept her movements steady and worked on calming her racing heart. Her future-sight meant she could have a bit of a warning if Gordon decided to shoot her, but being trapped in a small motel room didn't give her many options of cover or avoiding him. "What's the plan, Stan?"

"It's Gordon," he corrected her. "Nothing funny, Lady. I just want to talk."

"I can talk without clothes on, unless naked women make you uncomfortable," she said, turning slowly. "I do have a problem talking while looking down a barrel of a gun."

"You seem to be doing okay," he said, keeping his distance in the shadows. "Where's Sam Winchester?"

"Why would I know?"

"Word around the Roadhouse is you're his brother's girlfriend," Gordon said. Lady snorted a laugh. "But you left with Sam the other day. Maybe you go with both of them, maybe even at the same time. I don't know, I don't care. But you know where they are."

"Ah, I think Sam is adorable but I prefer guys with a bit more edge and a little less teddy bear. Hell, maybe if I had met you first I wouldn't even bother with Dean. Make this worth my while and maybe you can replace him as my new heavy lifter." Lady looked up at him from under her eyelashes and hoped the effect worked with their limited light.

Gordon began to lower the pistol, "You that quick to turn on them?"

"If you are as good at talking as you are at handling a gun, maybe you can convince me," Lady said, slowly reaching over to turn on the lamp. Gordon's eyes were large and dark brown. Normally Lady associated brown eyes with Freddie, something warm and friendly, but there was something cold within Gordon's eyes and it was difficult to keep a poker face on. If he had showed up three years ago she was willing to bet she'd be trembling in fear, however after the past year there wasn't much that could get her that terrified anymore. Gordon was also built like a tank. About Dean's height but much thicker in the chest and arms. An attractive man when things came down to it, but his eyes scared her. "Talk," she said, leaning back on the bed and trying to look as cute as possible.

"I want to find Sam Winchester, I tracked him but all I found was you," Gordon said. "He covers his tracks too well, but I guess he didn't bother to do that with you or that eyesore you call a car."

Lady smiled sweetly, "I'll call Dean, see if he knows."

"I don't think so," Gordon said, holding up her phone. "You are a hunter, Lady, I can see it in your eyes. Even if I didn't know your reputation I could tell, you've killed. And you've enjoyed it."

Lady shrugged, "Guilty."

Gordon smiled, "You believe that things that aren't human need to be put down. Witches, vampires, demons."

"The whole lot of them, but admittedly my talents are used up before I finish the witches," Lady said.

"I found out that our dear Sam Winchester isn't human," Gordon said.

Lady arched her eyebrow in the appropriate amount of curiosity, "No, I know Sam."

"Not true," Gordon said. "He's a psychic freak with visions. Visions some demon gave him. And that demon gave others like him psychic abilities, created an army of them." Lady didn't have to fake her surprise. "Maybe he hasn't turned yet, but he will. And I'm going to stop him before he does."

"So, uh, you want to find Sam not for an I-missed-you hug, but an I-want-to-stab-you thing," Lady let out a nervous breath and her adorable act fell. "No dice, get out."

Gordon shook his head, "You know, when I met Sam a few months ago I knew there was something wrong with him. I thought maybe he just wasn't cut out for the job, and that's okay if he wasn't. But he convinced Dean to let a coven of vampires go." Lady looked up at him frozen. "See, I noticed the scar on the back of your shoulder, you've been against vampires before. I bet your boyfriend didn't tell you that they let a group of vampires go because they fed on cattle blood instead of human blood."

"I heard about it," Lady said with a shrug. "How they do their job is up to them. I'm not their babysitter."

"See, I bet Dean just keeps you around for a source of easy entertainment. Occasionally bait, is that how you got bit? And you keep him around for some heavy lifting. If the arrangement works, good. But we both know the right thing would have been to kill those bloodsuckers before they could go back to sucking on humans. Right?"

"Doesn't matter what I think," Lady said. "And doesn't matter what you say, I don't know where Sam is. I just know he was heading east, and I got this far before I needed a break."

"You know what, I think he's in town," Gordon said. "Because last month I killed another one of those psychic freaks here. I think he's in town investigating it. And I think you are here helping him."

"Think whatever you want," Lady said. "Problem is, I like Sam. I'd hate to see him hurt something by kicking your ass. Now get out of my motel room before the pretty white girl screams rape at the big black man."

Gordon smiled, "All right, Lady, if you want to play dirty I can do that."

Lady rolled quickly on the bed as Gordon reached for her, narrowly avoiding his grasp while running to the door. She snarled when she saw after he broke in he had put the chain on, that meant two extra seconds to get free that she didn't have.

His whole body slammed against hers, pinning her against the door while putting a hand over her mouth. He dragged her back and threw her on the bed. Lady went still as the cold tip of a knife pressed against her throat, "I don't want to hurt you," Gordon said. "But I will." Lady was tense as Gordon's eyes did a double-take to her exposed tattoo. "You're a witch!" He said in surprise. Lady struggled for only a moment as he shifted, using the handle of his knife to strike her hard in the temple.

Gordon wrapped Lady in a sheet and carried her swiftly from the motel to her own car, going back in to take all of her things to prevent the Winchesters from realizing too easily that she had left against her own free will. He stabbed her arm with a syringe and injected her with a sedative, unsure how powerful it would be on a witch he used more than necessary.

The situation was more serious than he had expected. He knew about the coven of witches, it was hard to be a hunter the past few months and not know with Roy and Walt spewing their exaggerated stories. But he knew enough about Lady's reputation and witchcraft to work a plan out swiftly.

**A/N** - _Imagine that, Dean and Lady didn't get their vacation. LoL, sorry. As much as I enjoy writing the coupling scenes (I am such a sick and twisted Dean Fan Girl) I think it was important to get back to Dean and Sam's story. I'm not going to have access to my main computer tomorrow so I wanted to get an extra chapter posted. While I don't like to leave cliff hangers hanging for long, at the same time I'm sort of enjoying this and have been really excited to post these next few chapters and it is all I can do not to post the next five all together because I've had so much fun writing them. Chapter 30 is going to be a big one! You just have to wait a day or two to read it, sorry!_

_And thank everyone for posting reviews and sending me messages. I appreciate any and all feedback. Every time I see a new review it just makes me want to post another chapter right away to show my gratitude. I'm so thrilled that people are enjoying the character of Lady, and that they are rooting for her and Dean! I have plenty of more surprises in store for her and all readers.  
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	30. Hunted in Indiana, December 2006

**A/N **- _Again, I am writing this story within the original Supernatural Canon. This chapter is based off of the episode 'Hunted'. I tried to fill in the details from the original episode, but this chapter is mostly from Lady's point of view and she is in her own bit of trouble. Enjoy!_

_On another note. Today (March 1st) is Jensen Ackles (the wonderful actor that plays Dean Winchester) birthday! What is even cooler (in my mind but you can ignore it) is that today is my birthday as well! Yay for March 1st babies! And this bit of knowledge makes my Dean fan-girl fantasies all the sweeter.  
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**December 1, 2006. Lafayette, Indiana**

Gordon had created a profile of Lady in his mind, combined from her reputation around the Roadhouse, his short meeting with her, and what he had discovered while she was unconscious. Physically Lady didn't appear to be much more than a pretty face. She was about five and a half feet tall and didn't seem to weigh more than a hundred and ten pounds. Her hair was dark, almost black, and straight reaching just past her shoulders. Her eyes were a pale gray-blue. If a person didn't look close enough she was a good looking woman, but Gordon had been able to see faded scars and fading bruises across her body before she had put clothes on. He'd seen the athletic cut to her arms and back. He'd noticed how her eyes had moved around, searching for tactical advantages against him.

If she wasn't branded a witch, she'd be one damn fine woman.

Her car was interesting. An old Volkswagen Beetle painted like a Ladybug. On the way over he had noticed the car ran well for its age, but it was too easily spotted. He already had plans for getting rid of that car, as well as her. The backseat of the car had an overnight bag with some clean clothes, along with a grocery bag of energy drinks and cookies. The pistol in the glove compartment and a few knives were the only weapons he found. The trunk had a suitcase full of shoes, which he didn't understand. He had ripped each pair apart searching for hidden weapons or other atrocities but had found none. There were several arcane trinkets. Bones bound with herbs, bundles of twigs wired together, a bag of ashes and several other ingredients a witch would want to keep on hand.

When Lady woke up she was able to take in several details shortly after opening her eyes. She was in a different place, from the looks of it a one-room cabin with rotting wood walls. The sun was up, not just the pale light of dawn but really up, she'd been out for hours. And she was securely tied to a chair.

That was the last detail she could make out because she became aware of unbelievable pain in her hands, specifically her thumbs, and her feet, specifically her big toes. She sucked in a few painful breaths and worked to clear her vision and focus. There was something hazy in her mind, some sort of drug.

"Good, you are awake," Gordon said. "You know, the Winchesters thought I was sadistic for what I did to the vampire in Montana, but I used a pretty strong sedative on you to make sure you couldn't get any spells off. I may not be the witch-expert but I know a few things. Pretty hard to work magic with iron nails hammered through your thumbs and toes, isn't it?"

That explained the intense pain, and when her eyes focused on her thumb she saw it had a nail through it below the joint. She wasn't up on her anatomy but it sure felt like it was through the bone. Both of her thumbs were nailed to the wooden arms of an old chair, and from what she could tell with the position of her feet that her toes were nailed to the wooden legs at an awkward position. A thin wire was wrapped around her forearms to keep them from moving or gaining any leverage to free herself, it was wrapped tightly and threatening to cut into her skin. "Torture really necessary?" Lady licked her lips anxiously, her eyes moving around wildly as she realized her future-sight wasn't happening. No future-sounds, no weird flashes of things about to happen in her head. Nothing. The nails in her appendages weren't necessary to keep her from using magic, because she wasn't a black witch and the only thing she could manage required time and things she didn't have. But they were effectively blocking out her normal psychic abilities, which she knew were fed by magic directly from ley lines. For the first time in over nine years she was completely blind to the future.

"Not really, no," Gordon said as he slid a propane tank across the dirt floor. "See, while you were sleeping I looked through your phone history. Last motel you called, I checked it out and seems that is where Sam is staying." Lady tried to hold back the painful gasps that were threatening to turn into sobs. "Now I am interested in you, I wish we had more time to talk, I really do. Now are Dean and Sam both sympathetic to any evil thing that pretends to play nice or do you have them under some sort of spell?"

"I'm not a witch," Lady said. "I never recruited well."

Gordon shook his head, "I checked out your car. You are as pure a witch as I've ever seen. Maybe you only have a pistol and a few blades, but I know enough that all the things you have in the trunk are a bigger arsenal than I would know what to do with. And I know how to do a lot."

"Don't be a hypocrite. You carry a mojo bag, I use folk magic. I hunt witches, I need to know how to handle them and recognize them," Lady said.

"Maybe you are telling the truth," Gordon said. "But from what I heard from Roy and Walt you do a bit more than that. Maybe you really want to get rid of that coven, but at the same time you have been corrupted by them. Only a matter of time before you join them or start up your own, isn't that how it works?"

"Not with me," Lady said.

"Sure, of course," Gordon nodded. "But I'm not taking that chance. You know, I really wish we could talk more but I have to go meet Sam. Introduce him to a friend of mine." He patted the gun at his side.

Lady watched him as he tapped the side of the propane tank so she could hear how full it was and moved to pull a few things out of his bag. "Don't I get a few bullets? Why do I have to get blown up?"

Gordon looked at her curiously, "Are you crying? I thought you were tougher than that, Lady." Lady flinched as he raised his arm, certain it was going to come down and knock her and the chair over, but it didn't. She looked at him as furiously as she could while tears threatened to spill over. He lowered his arm and chuckled, "Your kind are all pathetic. On your high horse, thinking you are better than everyone else…and then when it comes close to your judgment day you piss yourself." Gordon put his hands on hers and she grimaced at the intensified pain.

"Please," Lady said through clenched teeth, and he released her. She let out quick painful breaths. "You can't kill Sam," she said through tears of pain.

"Why? Because he's your friend? Don't worry, you won't be around to miss him," Gordon said as he fiddled with a few wrapped packages and the propane tank.

"Dean will find you," Lady warned. "I don't wish what he'll do to you on my worst enemy."

Gordon nodded, "Maybe he will, maybe he won't."

"Please, you can't," Lady said. "You do this and it will destroy him."

Gordon looked at her with a calm face, "Why do you care? You aren't even human."

Lady felt the tears falling down, the only chance she was going to have to say it to anything other than her own inner ramblings was now. "Because I love him." She let out shuddering breaths as the tears rolled down in streams, her eyes looking up and pleading at Gordon. Since she was a teenager she had wrapped men around her finger with a similar look, but never before had it been as genuine or truly begging.

"Sure you do," Gordon laughed at her tears. "I believe I'm doing him a favor here, getting rid of you and Sam. Maybe when you and his brother are gone he won't be as blind to the truth anymore. See, Sam will die clean. Dean will suspect something, sure, but he'll never be able to prove it. You…you'll die messy. Blue fire from the propane in case there is a witness but a big enough explosion to destroy anything else. Might be an accident, might be one of those spells backfiring on you."

"You are going to let me burn alive?" Lady asked, horrified as she tried to stop the tears from rolling.

"Don't worry, the explosion should kill you before you can really feel the fire," Gordon said as he adjusted the propane. A quiet hiss started as it began leaking into the air. He pulled out a few metal cylinders that reminded Lady of the stun grenade Ian had used in Florida. And then Gordon worked quickly to attach them her cell phone with a wire. "I'll call you when I'm done," he said, the slightest smile appearing on his mouth. "Just in case you don't hear from Sam or Dean before then, I don't want you to feel left out."

Lady was still as Gordon left her. For a few moments she could hear his footsteps walking away, but then it was silent except for the hiss of escaping propane. And she jumped in the chair when an explosion from outside shook the small cabin. "Oh god," she gasped, and she tried to slow her breathing as she could smell the propane leaking from the tank. It would be a blessing if she died from the fumes before the explosion, but neither were a good thing. She could see a cloud of smoke rising outside of a dirty window in the distance. The explosion was close enough that she had felt it vibrate the ground, but it had been far enough away that she probably didn't have to worry about a fire reaching her. She hoped. And then another explosion that made her begin to panic all over again. "Oh god," she cried.

Lady had heard stories of people so encouraged by near death that they had cut their own limbs off to save their lives. Lady had no idea how that happened, she was having trouble just keeping from trembling. The nails were in the bone, and she had never been aware of just how important her thumbs were at that moment. The thin wires wrapped around her arms were cutting deep into her skin and felt sharp enough that they may just sheer the flesh right from her bones. Another thought came into her mind that the wires would probably melt quickly, melt long before her flesh finished cooking, in the explosion and fire.

The propane was leaking steadily into the cabin but she didn't yet feel the effects of it. She was fortunate that propane was heavier than air, she could smell the fumes but the worst of them were below her. Lady sniffed loudly, maybe she wasn't going to chew her own thumbs off to free herself but she wasn't going to sit there crying until someone called her phone to check on her and end up blowing her up.

The left arm of the chair felt loose, not like it was about to fall off but it had a little give. She curled her four free fingers around the end of the arm rest and tried to avoid tugging at her nailed down thumb as she wiggled it around. The wires cut into her skin and soon her arm was bleeding and stinging.

The sky was already growing dark and she could only assume she had been awake an hour, unless she had gone unconscious a few times. The propane leak was small and she hoped as long as her head stayed above it she had more time. Not that more time in horrible pain while waiting for an explosion to happen was pleasant. The arm of the chair was definitely looser with her work and with a scream she pulled it loose. She held her arm, still tied and nailed to the wooden arm rest, close to her as it throbbed in pain and she worked to control her cries. "Three limbs to go," she said, her voice barely a whisper and choked back a hopeless sob.

With her left arm free she held it out for balance as she slowly scooted the chair against the rough dirt floor. Each tiny hop she let out a cry of pain as her toes took the worst punishment. Several times the chair almost tipped, but she managed to get close enough to reach for the propane tank and shut off the leak. She let out a shaky breath, that would keep the propane from filling the entire cabin but there wasn't any ventilation to get rid of the gas that had already leaked out. Next she had to get her cell phone disconnected. The heavy wooden arm she was nailed and tied to was big and made it hard to do it delicately, which was the only way a bomb should be handled.

Lady swallowed hard as the tears ran down her face. Without her future-sight she didn't know what would happen as she looked over the wires. She didn't know if she grabbed her phone if it would set it off or not. If she touched one wire or the other if it would change the outcome. She promised she'd pay attention next time someone wanted to talk about grenades and explosives in general if she didn't blow herself up prematurely, but if she didn't try she'd die. There was enough propane in the air to catch fire and the tank would explode shortly after the phone set off the grenades, not that an extra explosion would be required to kill her.

Lady closed her eyes as she unwound a wire from the exposed part of her cell phone's electronics. For several moments she didn't move, too scared and too blinded by tears. Then she brought the phone back to her slowly, careful not to drop it with her weak grip. She let out shaky sobs of relief and fear as the bomb was disarmed and her phone was still working. She set the phone on her knee so she could find Dean's number and dialed. She knew Dean had to be in town by now, and he had to find Sam and warn him of Gordon. And when his brother was safe he'd find her. Without the explosives all she had to do was stay above the propane fumes and hold on until help arrived. For the first time since she'd opened her eyes she finally felt hope and control return to her as the cell phone connected to Dean's number.

"Hello, Lady," Gordon answered.

Lady's mouth went dry and a new sob of fear came out of her throat as all hope was crushed. If Gordon had Dean's phone, he also had Dean. "You son of a bitch if you hurt him..."

"Dean's fine," he assured her. "Clever woman, how'd you manage to get free? I guess Dean sure knows how to pick them."

"You bastard, what did you do to her?" She could hear Dean in the background and she let out another sob.

"I suppose it doesn't matter if you know anymore," Gordon said to him. "Found your witch, Dean, and I have to say I am very disappointed. You know I liked her, before I knew. Have to admire a woman who has the guts to handle this job. But then I found out she's just another freak. You know, you should be careful who you trust, Dean. It didn't take long for the witch to tell me everything."

"Lady wouldn't sell us out," Dean said.

"Why do you think that? Because she loves you?" Gordon said. "Please, Dean, she practically handed me your brother on a silver platter, trying to save her own worthless hide."

"You are a fucking liar!" Lady shouted at him through the phone.

"I'm afraid I can't talk anymore, Lady, Sam should be here soon. But when I'm done here I'll make sure to visit you," Gordon said.

Lady swore, every word she knew and even made up a few new ones. The only phone number she had in her phone was Dean's. She could call 911, and was trying to figure out if the consequences of it outweighed the benefits. They'd take her to a hospital, and just the thought of it sent her heart racing even faster.

She dialed 411 and got Bobby's number to his house. His answering machine picked up, "Major emergency, Bobby. So help me if you are screening your calls pick up. Please! Bah-NO!" The phone slipped from Lady's weak fingers. Her free arm flailed to catch it but the wood she was attached to knocked it down hard to the ground. The open back fell out, along with the battery. "Oh, fuck me!" Lady sniffed and held back tears as she looked at her phone in pieces on the ground. If she had her extra sight she would have seen herself losing her grip, she would have prevented herself from losing her lifeline, her cell phone.

Lady closed her eyes and tried to keep her mind off the pain by thinking. Gordon had Dean, would have Sam soon, and that wasn't good. The Winchesters were smart, resourceful...she let out a groan as she remembered saving them in Florida. She just had to hope that Bobby was just on the toilet and would get her message soon. He was okay with letting her do her own thing but he would call her back. And when she couldn't reach her phone he would keep trying. He'd call the Roadhouse, Ellen would tell him Sam dragged her out with him, and he'd call Sam. Of course that didn't help any of them because she hadn't gotten the message across. That Gordon Walker was a sociopath out to kill Sam, probably Dean, and when they were done he'd come back to finish her.

"FUCK!" Lady snarled. Lady did what she had desperately tried to avoid earlier, she let the chair fall over.

It didn't hurt her nailed appendages as badly as she feared, but she cracked her head unexpectedly. The propane hadn't ventilated and hung heavily at the floor where she was now. Disorientated from hitting her head and quickly becoming light-headed from the heavy fumes she gathered the pieces of the cell phone. Her free fingers were trembling in pain as she tried to delicately put the SIM card back in. She got the battery back in and watched the phone light up. As hard as she was trying to calm her breathing she couldn't help but suck in shaky breaths. If she could get the message out to Bobby or someone she may have a chance of getting herself upright if she could stomach the pain it would cause, but she was starting to feel very light-headed.

Even put back together the phone wouldn't turn back on. Lady let out hopeless sobs. She knew if she kept panicking and sucking in deep breaths she'd only die faster, but she couldn't help it. Trying not to panic, trying to give herself every second she could squeeze out, she worked slowly in putting her phone back together again. Hoping she'd manage to get it right this time. Her finger hit the power button, and her eyes rolled back and slid shut before she saw the light flicker on.

"Come on, Lady," Dean snapped as his call to her cell phone went straight to voicemail. "Try Bobby, maybe she got a hold of him."

"I'm trying," Sam said, his phone already to his ear. "Bobby! Have you heard from Lady?"

"Sort of," Bobby said. "Had an urgent message from her, I haven't been able to get her on her cell."

"Give me that," Dean said, snatching the phone from Sam. "Bobby, Lady got grabbed by another hunter. We don't know where she is, but somewhere near Lafayette, Indiana."

"I can get the GPS on her phone," Bobby said. "Just need a few minutes."

"A few minutes?" Dean questioned. They'd done that trick a few times in the past, but usually it took several minutes if not an hour or more.

"Yeah," Bobby said. "When I got her last phone I put that child protection thing on it. Just need to log in and find her."

"That…that's actually really smart," Dean said, impressed. "Will it still work if her phone is dead?"

"Should still find her last location," Bobby said. "Got it. North of Lafayette, about ten miles. Let me pull up a map of the area." Dean was already turning, his heart finally calming in his chest. The whole day had turned to shit. He had narrowly prevented Gordon from sniping his brother only to be knocked out and captured by Gordon. Sam had nearly been blown up and they didn't know where Gordon had left Lady. Or in what condition. Lady was tough, though. "Okay, got a pretty good target on her. There is a place called Newman's Nursery, about fifty acres of trees."

"Yeah, I see it now," Dean said, slowing down.

"She's about in the middle of it," Bobby said. "No marked roads on this map."

"Great," Dean said bitterly. "I'll call you back once we find her."

They drove slowly until finding a dirt road that went through the middle and curved around the trees.

"Watch out! What is that?" Sam asked as the headlights fell on a mangled and smoldering blockade on the road.

"Jesus Christ, he blew up the Ladybug," Dean said. He snarled, there was no way his Impala could get around it. Gordon had used Lady's own car to blockade the road, and blew it up so it couldn't be easily moved. He hit the brakes and put the car in park, getting out to run the rest of the way down the road. "Lady!" He hollered as he got out of the glow of the Impala's headlights.

Sam ran up to him and handed him a flashlight. Sam's longer legs gave him an advantage and he reached the door to the old cabin first. He opened the door and the strong smell of propane fumes hit him. His flashlight landed on Gordon's improvised bomb first, and then Lady unconscious on the floor.

Sam and Dean lifted her, chair and all, out of the cabin. "That sick son of a bitch. I'll fucking kill him," Dean said as he saw the nails driven into her thumbs and toes. He had anticipated a black eye or a bloody lip, he probably could have let that go. And much as he adored Lady he admittedly wanted to pop her one a few times himself. But this? Dean actually felt sick with the few breaths of propane he smelled and the grenades he had seen.

Sam didn't take the time to appreciate Dean's urge for vengeance, there wasn't time. His fingers were at her neck, feeling a weak pulse and his ear was near her mouth trying to hear her breathe. "We need to get her flat," Sam said, wasting no more time and breaking the other arm of the chair and one of the legs. "She isn't breathing."

Dean didn't talk, he busted the remaining leg and got Lady flat on the muddy ground. He tilted her head back and pinched her nose while placing his mouth on hers to blow in a breath. The many times his mouth had touched hers it had always been sweet and passionate, but this time was cold. He could _taste_ the propane she had been forced to breathe in. After a few breaths he waited, seeing if she could do it on her own from there. Nothing. He started again. Just as he was beginning to plan a way to break into prison and kill Gordon Walker, like his brother should have let him do just an hour earlier, Lady's breath rattled in the back of her throat.

Dean fell back, panting, but that only lasted a second before he gathered Lady up in his arms and began to carry her back to the Impala.

"We need to get these nails out," he said. Lady was in the backseat while Sam was working to cut the wires free from her arms. Dean opened the trunk for the proper tool to remove a nail from flesh and bone.

"You think we should take her to a hospital?" Sam asked. "We don't know how long she was stuck in there."

"She never would have been in there if you hadn't run off!" Dean roared.

Sam licked his lips and nodded, "You are right. And I feel horrible."

Dean let his temper die down as he decided on a pliers, anything else would crush whatever was left of her broken thumbs and toes. "Call Bobby back, let him know we have her," Dean said as he got to work.

Lady was bandaged and wrapped in blankets as they drove. Dean was in the backseat, making sure she kept breathing, while Sam drove. Occasionally Sam would look in the rear view and Dean's expression would change from a murderous glare at him to a worried expression while he checked Lady.

Lady started trembling before she really woke up. Tears stung and rolled hot down her face before she even realized she wasn't still in the cabin. "Hey, you're okay," Dean said. "Lady, can you hear me?"

Her eyes opened and looked around in a daze. She could have just as easily been trapped with Gordon again, and when she realized she was safe there wasn't the feeling of relief and joy she had expected. She was wrapped up like a burrito and so she just slid over until she fell on her side and began sobbing uncontrollable tears, drifting in and out of consciousness.

As long as she didn't try to move her broken thumbs or toes they didn't hurt much, the throbbing headache from the propane fumes was the worst pain. They stopped at a motel in Illinois and she spent a long time in the dark bathroom just trying to get her wits back. Sitting in the bathtub while warm water from the shower hit her. She felt the wounds on her arms from the wire, only shallow cuts but they throbbed and stung.

"Everything okay, Lady?" Sam asked through the door when she finally shut off the water.

"I need my bag," Lady said weakly. "I just need some clean clothes." She didn't remember peeing on herself, but it smelled like she did. If either of them mentioned it she planned on shooting them, but until then she just wanted something warm, soft and clean.

Sam was quiet for a moment and then said, "I don't have your bag, but here is one of my shirts." Lady reached an arm out of the bathroom to take what was offered. "And, um…I found these in Dean's bag…" Lady took the pair of panties he offered. It was too dark in the bathroom to tell if they were one of hers, and she didn't even care. The t-shirt went down to the middle of her thighs, but with how cold she felt she wished she had her sweatpants.

"Thanks," she said as she stepped out of the bathroom, walking stiffly with her toes in the air. "Can you shut off the lights?" Lady asked as she carefully walked to the nearest bed. Sam shut off all but the farthest lamp. "Where's Dean?"

"He's uh...he's probably breaking into a pharmacy to get some pain meds," Sam said as he shut off all but the farthest lamp.

Lady went under the blankets and closed her eyes to the light, already she was starting to shiver again. "I really didn't think I'd make it out of that alive," Lady said softly, her throat was sore from the whole torturous event and she wasn't sure she'd be able to speak at a normal volume again.

"Lady, I am so sorry," Sam said. "If...if I hadn't made you come with me Gordon wouldn't have targeted you."

"It's not your fault, Sam," Lady said. "He said he followed me all the way from Chicago, I led him right to you. He got my phone and tracked down where you were staying...I'm just glad he didn't manage to get you like he got me."

The motel door opened and Lady didn't move, just flinching at loud noise Dean was about to make when he shut the door. Relief was coming back as her sight had returned but it just seemed to make the headache throb more.

"She awake?" Dean asked as he locked the motel door.

"Yeah, we were just talking," Sam said.

There was a rattle of a shaking pill bottle, "Narcotics and splints. Let me see your hands," Dean said. Lady couldn't help but flinch as Dean touched a tender spot on her shoulder, and he drew back quickly. "Pills first," he muttered.

"You know I didn't tell Gordon where to find Sam, right? He figured it out my looking at my phone," Lady said after swallowing the pills.

"Yeah," Dean said. "Don't worry about it."

Lady turned her face into the pillow as her chest began to tremble with the threat of more sobs. Gordon had made her feel more hopeless and helpless than anyone, or anything, she had ever seen. He had taken away her best offense, her sight, by just four nails. He had taunted her, looked at her with hauntingly calm eyes that were indifferent to her suffering while she pleaded. She had been beaten and abused by witches, ghosts, vampires and a warlock, but she hadn't felt the fear that Gordon inspired in her since she was a teenager. She was a witch-hunter, but he had turned the tables on her and had been ruthlessly cruel and cold.

Before her emotions could take over Sam began talking in his calm and soothing voice, telling her what happened. Some of it she already knew, the army of psychics the demon was creating that supposedly he was a part of, Gordon had discovered that information and that was why he had decided to hunt him. Gordon had originally tried to snipe Sam at his motel, but Dean had stopped him. Gordon had knocked Dean out and got him to an abandoned house to set up an ambush for Sam, which nearly worked if Sam hadn't had another one of the psychic children come to him and warn him of the explosives Gordon had set up for him. Once Gordon was knocked out they left him for the police and had rushed to find her.

"Tell you one thing, if I had known this the police wouldn't have had to call the coroner," Dean muttered bitterly. "Why in the hell would anyone literally nail someone's ass to a chair?"

"Its old torture," Lady said in a tired voice. The pain pills were taking their affect and her throbbing head was blissfully becoming numb. "During old witch hunts it was believed to keep a witch from using their powers. It works. It completely took away my sight." Lady licked her lips, "Thanks for taking them out."

"Yeah, well, hope you are up on your tetanus shots," Dean said as he began to put metal splints on her thumbs. "Feel okay?"

"Mmhm," Lady said, her eyes glazed over and began to slip closed. "Did you guys find my car? Did you bring it with?"

"Oh...uh..." Sam and Dean exchanged a look.

"I don't have any shoes," she said with a slur from the pain meds.

"Afraid Gordon blew it up," Dean said flatly.

Lady's eyes opened and looked at him with as much focus as she could muster, "What?"

"Sorry," he said. "But that eyesore is finally off the road."

"You bastard," she said weakly. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, he is," Sam confirmed.

Lady let out a groan and put her arm over her head, "That sucks," she breathed. "I had everything in that car."

"You have plenty more shoes," Dean said in a low voice.

"No! My counter curses, my gun…even pieces of Garrett." Lady let out a huff of breath, "And my shoes." Lady tried to tuck in her bottom lip but was unable to stop the pout as she went quiet.

Dean let out a breath and paced around the small motel room, "We should keep moving," he said. "Who knows who else Gordon told?"

"We're still a good days drive to South Dakota, and neither of us has gotten much sleep," Sam said. "Listen, Ava hasn't answered her phone. Stay here with Lady, I'm going to Peoria to check on her."

"No. Hell no. You think I'm letting you out of my sight again?" Dean asked.

"It's not even an hour from here," Sam said.

"You know how much heat we have right now? Cops and hunters. Ava can wait until morning. Just...let's catch a few hours of sleep and get the hell out of here," Dean said, getting into bed without bothering to take off his shoes. He removed a few knives from uncomfortable areas and his pistol, setting them on the nightstand for easy access with his sawed-off under his pillow.

"Fine," Sam agreed. It was late and Ava, the other psychic who had warned him and helped him while in Lafayette, was probably asleep. If he didn't hear from her by morning then they could stop in Peoria where she lived.

Dean was awake, staring at the dark ceiling as Sam's breathing turned into snoring. He remembered, too strongly, the short moment when he thought Gordon had won. That he had killed Sammy and would go to finish off Lady. That Dean would lose his brother and...well, he wasn't sure exactly what to call Lady. But for a minute he had been terrified, so terrified he couldn't move. He was going to be alone. No family left, and no one else. Lady wasn't family, but she was something. Maybe having a real relationship was beyond him, probably beyond her, too, but was trying really any crazier than the things they hunted?

Beside him on the bed Lady was shivering and shifting closer to him, moving closer to him in small movements. He slid his arm under her head and wrapped it around her shoulders and she rolled to her side so she could drop her arm on his chest. He frowned as her splinted thumb jabbed him in the nose before her free fingers scratched at his shirt as if he was Freddie. She didn't speak but her breathing was rough for a long time until she finally fell asleep. He had seen a large range of Lady over the past several months, he had never seen her look so defeated and terrified as she had when she woke up in the car. Or near-dead when he had given her mouth-to-mouth to get her to start breathing again. If he hadn't told her to go ahead to help him keep an eye on Sam to begin with she would have turned back to Bobby's or the Roadhouse. Gordon wouldn't have found out about her mark, maybe he wouldn't have found Sam, maybe the whole damn thing could have been avoided.

Dean put a hand on hers as her breathing became slow and deep. He had no idea what she was to him. Gordon had called her his girlfriend, and if that was the case she would be the longest relationship he'd ever had in his life. The most honest, mutually respectful and craziest relationship in his life. And when he knew she was safe he was going to end it. Her life was dangerous enough without pulling her into what he and his brother were into.

The next morning Sam still hadn't heard from Ava and they made the trip to her apartment in Peoria. Lady stayed in the car happily dazed on pain meds, only forcing herself to focus as Sam and Dean hurried back to the Impala.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Ava's gone," Sam said as Dean tore out of the parking lot. "Her fiance was left, murdered. Sulfur was present."

"And we're high-tailing it out of here," Dean said, taking a hard right turn into traffic that sent Lady sliding across the backseat. She adjusted the cold packs on her toes as Dean muttered an apology.

"You don't want to hang around, see if it was the demon?" Lady asked as Dean headed out of town. It seemed like a good idea, but she wasn't very sober.

"It's gone to who knows where," Dean said.

Dean made it across the state line before pulling into another motel and using cash to rent a room for the night. He told Sam to go get provisions, he didn't want to stick around one town for too long and wanted to avoid stopping for anything but gas for as long as they could manage.

"Bobby is on his way to pick you up, he's only a few hours out," Dean said. "Lady, it's going to be for the best if you aren't around us anymore. We nearly got you killed."

"No you didn't," she said. "Don't beat yourself up over what happened, Dean. You saved my life."

"I wouldn't have had to if...so many things could have gone differently," he said. "If it wasn't for us you wouldn't have gotten in that mess."

"And if it wasn't for you guys I'd still be in that mess, decaying," Lady looked away and let out an uncomfortable laugh. "You finally caught me as the perfect damsel in distress and you haven't even taken a jab at me."

Dean nodded, "Yeah, because this wasn't funny. At all."

"You sure? I mean like this I can't even put a bra on," she held up her hands and broken thumbs. "I don't even know whose underwear I'm wearing."

Dean fought back a smile, "They are yours. They, uh, somehow got in my bag."

"Maybe you should let me put a wardrobe of my own in your trunk, I seem to go through a lot of clothes. You might have to give up some guns so I have room for my shoes," Lady said, trying to encourage the glimmer of a smile she had gotten from him, but it was dying out quickly. "I think it's adorable that you want to try and protect me but I can handle myself." Dean gave her a doubtful look. "Gordon was an exception."

"That's the thing, he isn't an exception. Not when we're dealing with other hunters. Maybe they don't know what you can do, but you know damn well if one of them gets too close you don't have a fighting chance..."

"I went toe-to-toe with Gordon," she said almost proudly, but she knew what he would counter with.

"And you lost," he said flatly. "Just, when Bobby gets here he'll take you back to his place. Sam and I are heading the other direction in case any of Gordon's friends are out there. Just lay low and when we have this figured out...I don't know."

"Okay," she said. It wasn't like she was much help to anyone, she couldn't hold a pencil, button her own shirt, or wear shoes. If she couldn't wear her heels after she healed she was going to break into Gordon's jail cell and murder him. "I can't make you let me help, but just remember I'm always a phone call away."

"Yeah, I know," Dean said, looking down at the ground. "I just think it's safest if you stay away from us. And us from you."

Lady was very still as she took that in, understanding what he was saying. She finally nodded after several moments, "Yeah, being associated with a witch has to be bad for your reputation."

"It isn't that. I have a better chance at defending you than I do Sam. But it sure isn't going to help."

"Yeah, I get it," she said with a breath. "Well, what can I say, it's been fun?"

Dean rolled his eyes painfully and nodded, that was one way to say it. "Hey, let me ask you something," and he looked at her face. She was looking at him with curious eyes as she waited, and Dean was studying her face carefully for the slightest change to what he was about to say. He was curious, after all these months, just what she thought they were. Was there anything there besides friendship with benefits? Could there have been if they actually wanted something more? He shook his head, deciding it was better to not know, it didn't matter now. "You know what, never mind."

"What?" She asked, confused.

He let out a short laugh, "Nothing. I'm going to scope this place out, make sure no one shady is around before we leave. Take care of yourself, Lady."

Lady almost let him turn away before pulling him back for a short kiss. "Bye," she said.

Dean held back the urge to make that short kiss into a long one, one last hurrah before he said 'so long' to Lady. "Bye," he said, turning to the door.

Once he and his brother were confident that no one had followed them to the motel they started south, religiously watching the rear mirror for possible tails.

"Something wrong?" Sam asked after several miles were behind them.

"Nope. Why?"

"I don't know, you just...I don't know," Sam shrugged. "Usually you are all pep after seeing Lady, not this time." Sam let out a short laugh and shook his head.

"What?" Dean asked.

"Nothing," Sam said, but Dean gave him a look that he knew meant he wasn't going to let it go. "Just, Lady seems to make you happy. When she isn't riling you up, that is." Dean rolled his eyes. "I have to ask, what is the situation between you two?"

"What does it matter?" Dean asked.

"Because you are my brother, and even if it is just something casual you care about her a lot. You can't deny that. And she's a good friend."

"I mean, what does it matter what situation we have? How can we have anything with what we do?"

"Yeah, I suppose you are right," Sam said quietly. Even if Dean wanted to stop hunting, lay low with Lady in some remote place, he wouldn't. Dean wouldn't abandon his brother, they had already gone over that. For most of Sam's life he thought his family, his brother and father, had held him back from having a normal life. It hit him in the chest that maybe now, after all of these years, it was really the other way around. His father had known that the demon had plans, and maybe it had started out as revenge for their mother's murder but in the end it was to try and protect Sam from whatever those plans were. As the miles went on Sam imagined if things had gone differently the night they had saved their father, and it was a bitter-sweet daydream. If they had managed to kill the demon. He could almost picture Dean, returning to Bobby's, scratching Freddie behind the ears before bounding in to grab Lady up in his arms, declaring the day saved and his life's work complete. The whole thing was very 60's sitcom corny. That wouldn't be their life. He could no longer picture himself doing the 'Honey, I'm home!' routine, Jessica's death still haunted his nightmares. Dean's quasi-casual girlfriend was a witch who was cursed for death if she didn't figure it out within the next few months to a year whose best friend was a giant black dog.

"What?" Dean asked as he caught Sam looking at him with a strange face.

"You know, I haven't thought about it for a while…but our lives are whacked out." Dean laughed harshly in agreement. "Dean, I'm sorry," Sam said quietly. "I don't know what is going on, what this demons plan is, but I'm going to find out. And I need your help."

Dean nodded, "I'm with you."

"Thanks," Sam said. "You know we look clear, once Bobby is sure his place is clear we can head up there. Hang out for a while to clear our heads, give you some time to be with Lady."

Dean shook his head, "No."

"But...you wanted to lay low. I'm saying lets do it, for a week...or so..." Sam watched his brothers face and lost his words.

"We nearly got her killed, Sam," Dean said. "We just need to deal with this and whatever else we come across without dragging her into it. We leave her alone. Don't see her, call her, nothing. Just let her be."

Sam looked at the road ahead of him, his brother's mood suddenly making sense. Whatever Dean and Lady had was over. Didn't matter how casual his brother wanted to shrug it off, Lady had been a friend, occasional hunting partner, had saved their lives, given them shelter and laughs. Cutting off contact with her had to sting. And he was the one who set the chain of events into motion to cause it.

**A/N** - _If anyone can think of a good song to tie-in with this chapter I'd love to hear it. I took some extra time looking through my collection but I just couldn't find anything that fit. But there has to be a good you-saved-me-from-a-sadistic-hunter-and-now-you-never-want-to-see-me-again song somewhere. . . :) Hope you enjoyed it! More is coming, I hope everyone who has been reading has noticed Lady is very capable of getting into plenty of trouble without the Winchester's assistance. And I hope this is a suitable conclusion to the bit of a cliffhanger I left everyone off of. Stay tuned for a new chapter soon!  
_


	31. Cursed, December 2006

**December 3, 2006**

**Unknown Location**

Garrett was still pulling himself together, borrowing bits he left behind from others. He wasn't sure how much time had passed since he had been caught off guard by Lady and her cute little blonde helper and black dog, but enough time that he was almost completely functional again.

Garrett knelt at the intersecting ley lines, he could sense the power and drew directly from them. The Goddess was furious and made the process difficult for him. Unfortunately for Lady she had officially become a problem. He tolerated her quest for vengeance by picking off unworthy members of the coven. It meant less fighting among his children and he had been rather interested in just how long she could survive. He couldn't allow her to survive much longer. She had disrupted something that had been gravely fragile for over twenty years and he had a lot of work to do to repair it.

He was well enough now that he could safely prepare something. There were several strands of dark hair on a white altar cloth. The black candles came to life with brilliant blue flames. There wasn't enough to target something immediately deadly, but he had more than enough to get rid of her before she could find him or more of his coven again. Get rid of her before she brought an end to them all.

**Bobby's House**

"How you feeling?" Bobby asked. Lady hadn't moved from the couch other than to go to the bathroom. She didn't seem to be in much pain and had figured out how to walk without hurting her toes. But she hadn't been eating much, or complaining at all. Maybe that was saving him money on his grocery bill and headaches, but it wasn't like her.

"Meh," Lady shrugged.

Bobby looked at the unfinished hot pocket in front of her, a pool of ranch next to it. Barely touched. "Not hungry?"

"Tastes funny," she muttered. "Do you have a car that could make it to North Dakota? Figure since I'm out of the race for a while I might as well get back there."

"Afraid not," Bobby said. The only car he had running that would make it was his and she sure as hell wasn't taking it. "I think I'd prefer it if you hung around here for a bit. There is something off with you."

Lady yawned and stretched out on the couch, "Yeah, okay."

Bobby frowned as he examined her pill bottle. It didn't look like any of the pain meds were missing, which was strange because if Lady had access she'd take them for a hangnail. Not eating, sleeping a lot, quiet and not arguing. She had finally turned into the perfect roommate and he was worried.

"Kid, I need to head out and get some work done for a few hours. You need anything before I go?" Bobby asked.

"Nope," she answered sleepily. "Thanks, Bobby."

"Yeah, sure," he muttered. "Watch out for her, Freddie."

Lady let her arm hang off the side of the couch to rest on Freddie's head, scratching it lovingly until she fell asleep. When she woke up it was dark outside. Freddie was licking her hand and she continued her scratching. She got up slowly, sitting on the couch in a daze as a wave of vertigo hit her. With a yawn she walked carefully to the bathroom, peeing and then washing her hands. Looking at her face in the mirror she still looked like she'd had a rough couple of days, but she didn't feel all that bad anymore. Her thumbs and toes were mostly numb, and she was being careful not to move them. The biggest issue she had anymore was that everything she tried to eat, even drinking water, had a bad taste to it.

Lady splashed some water on her face and gave herself a quick sniff to see if she could manage to go another day without a shower. While doing this she paused, looking at the tattoo on her wrist. It wasn't technically a tattoo, more like a magical brand. With all the trouble it caused her she wished it could be removed but there was no way to do so without countering the black magic that had burned it there. Right now the blue veins that the mark was over were tinged gray, streaking down into her palm and halfway up her forearm.

"Bobby?" she called, stepping out of the bathroom and waddling as quickly as she could with her big toes in the air. "Bobby!"

Wherever Bobby had gone he hadn't returned yet. She fumbled with his cordless phone, it was hard to hold without being able to bend her thumbs. She dialed his cell phone and waited impatiently for him to answer.

"Yeah?"

"Bobby, are you going to be home soon?" Lady asked.

"I was planning on being out a few more hours, I do have things to do, kid," he answered.

Lady swallowed hard, "Bobby, I think there is something wrong with me."

"Be there in fifteen minutes," he said.

Lady was patient as he looked over her arm. Both of them were unsure if it had been there before he left earlier that day.

"It has to be the curse," Bobby muttered. "I thought that medicine woman had it under control?"

Lady put her other hand on her forehead, "I did, too." When Max had said she wouldn't see another summer she may have just left out that Lady wouldn't get to see spring or winter either. "Any counter-curses I had got blown up with my car. I need to get to North Dakota."

"Let's go," Bobby nodded.

Lady napped half the way there and was yawning again when Bobby pulled into the Casino.

Mason looked over Lady with concern as she walked into his office but smiled happily. "Greta will be happy you are here, she's already starting baking for the holidays."

"Afraid I'm not here for Greta's cookies," Lady said. "I just need to get out to Max's, how is it out in the country?"

"Not much snow, yet, should be good for a few more weeks. Would your friend like a room while you are there?"

Lady shook her head and before Bobby could say anything she said, "He's coming with."

"Lady, Max won't like that," Mason said.

"Mason, I'm dying. Max can kiss my pale ass," Lady said. "Because of her I thought I had more time than I do. If she doesn't fix me now, I'm dead by Christmas. I've had enough of her games."

"She'll see this as a sign of disrespect," Mason warned.

"Good," Lady said, and walking out.

"This really a good idea to antagonize a witch that's a few centuries old?" Bobby asked as Lady drove Bobby's car out of town.

"I've had worse ideas," Lady said. "C'mon, remember that coven in New Hampshire?"

"Point taken," Bobby muttered. "Are you even okay to drive? You look worn out."

"I feel weak," Lady admitted. She didn't use the excuse of Gordon's attack any more, she was aware of what was happening in her body. Her lungs were clear, thankfully, but she felt sluggish. If she had the option she'd gladly curl up with Freddie in the back of the car and take another nap. She knew she should be hungry, but didn't feel it.

"Let me do the talking," Lady said as she led Bobby into Max's tent. The old woman was there, sitting and waiting for them.

"Jesus Christ," Bobby uttered, taking in the old woman's appearance.

"Robert Singer," Max said lightly. "You were not invited."

"He's here," Lady said. "And if he leaves I leave."

"Fine," Max said, and Lady gave Bobby a strange look. She hadn't expected Max to give in so easily. "Something dark is inside of you, it's growing rapidly. Let me see you."

Lady sat across from Max, their knees touching as she gave Max her arm. Max put her gnarled fingers on Lady's mark and recoiled quickly. "Why didn't you tell me it would come back so quick?"

"It wasn't supposed to," Max said. "My work to save you has not been undone. It is the same curse, someone is strengthening it." Max let out a soft noise, "The one you call Garrett. You finally met him."

"Yes," Lady said.

"But you failed to kill him. But succeeded in gaining his full attention," Max muttered a few things that were incoherent. "He has pieces of you."

"You let him get away with something of yours?" Bobby asked.

Lady shook her head, "He had his hands around my neck at one point. Could have grabbed hair or, hell I may have even spit on him."

"He's focusing his power over the distance to affect you, even while you are here," Max said. "I cannot counter his dark magic, not when he has a direct link to you."

"You said all he is doing is strengthening the curse, so lift it," Lady said.

"I cannot."

"Fuck you," Lady said, standing up and leaving.

"Is that the smart thing?" Bobby asked, following her quickly.

"No," Lady admitted. "Either she'll figure something out and call me back, or I do this myself. I'm not holding my breath for her."

Bobby nodded, "Good. Then let's get this thing taken care of our way."

"Quick and dirty?" Lady questioned.

"If that's what we have to do."

Bobby didn't know what to think about Lady's trailer. She had mentioned it a few times but never painted a real picture of it. He looked through her kitchen a bit. "Guess you don't cook here, either."

"I haven't been here in a few weeks," Lady said. "The power isn't too reliable when it starts getting cold, I wouldn't touch anything in the fridge."

Lady brought the book out of its safe and showed Bobby the ritual that was used to put the curse in her years ago. They worked into the night until neither of them could keep their eyes open, and the next morning continued working.

Maxine arrived at the trailer in the morning, bringing breakfast over from her mother's. "You really going to try and counter this thing?" Maxine asked, looking over what Lady had worked out so far. It was all written in Latin. Bobby's notes were in English but were just as hard to read.

"I don't have a choice," Lady said, sniffing the food. It smelled good, looked good, but she didn't have a desire to eat. She sighed and ripped off a chunk of frybread and forced herself to swallow. It tasted funny, bland and a bit off. It was only slightly better than eating paper. "Unless you know what Max is hiding from me?"

Maxine shook her head, "No, I'm sorry."

"The way we're heading isn't doing us much good," Bobby muttered. "We don't have a way to counter this part of their ritual."

Maxine looked over it and frowned. "Are you sure?"

"You know something?" Bobby asked.

Lady moaned suddenly, feeling her stomach begin to churn. "Uh oh," she groaned, getting up and running to the bathroom. She narrowly made it to the toilet before she began vomiting loudly.

Maxine said quietly, "In our ways, there is something similar that was once used. The way to counter it was blood of a living relative. It would be better if it was a parent or a sibling, but something as distant as a cousin may work. Perhaps Lady has one?"

Bobby gathered their notes and closed the black book. "Thank you, Maxine."

Lady was returning from the bathroom, her hand was on her stomach and she looked sweaty and pale. "I don't think I'm supposed to eat anything," she said, not making it any farther than the couch and falling onto it. Freddie whimpered and rested his head on her legs.

"How long you think she has?" Bobby asked Maxine quietly.

Maxine shook her head, "Few days, at most. I can buy her more time, maybe up to a week."

Bobby nodded, willing to try anything. "We'll need all the time we can get."

"All the time for what?" Lady asked from the couch.

"Don't worry about it," Bobby said. "Just rest up a bit."

A few hours later Maxine had returned and provided Lady with a black tea that tasted like tar and only slightly thinner. Within minutes Lady's energy and strength returned, she even felt moderately hungry.

"Alright, back to work," Lady said, getting up from the couch and sipping at water. "Where'd my notes go?"

"I put them in the car while you were sleeping," Bobby said. "We're going on a road trip."

"We don't have time," Lady said.

"Hopefully we will."

"Where are we going?" She asked.

Before he answered her eyes went wide and she went pale. "Louisiana. We need blood from…"

"NO! NO! NO! I'm not going!" Lady said, trying to make a break for it.

Bobby caught her around the waist with one arm. She had her energy back, but she wasn't strong enough to get out of his grip even if she wasn't sick. "Stop being an injit!" He said, dragging her out the door.

"Freddie! Sic him! Get off of me!" Lady squealed. "I'm. Not. Going!"

"Yes. You. Are!" Bobby wrestled her down to the ground. "Get back, dog," he barked at Freddie who took a few unsure steps towards them. "Lady, we have a long drive ahead of us. I expect you to make every damn mile as unpleasant as you can for me, that's fine. Now if going down there to find your father is what saves your life, then that is what we are going to do. Kick and scream all you want, I'll hogtie you. You know I will."

Lady was flat on the ground huffing angry and desperate breaths. "I'd rather die."

"Let's just get down there and then you can point me in the right direction," Bobby bargained. "Stop being stubborn!"

"NO!"

"Oh, for the love of god!" Maxine stepped forward and Lady struggled almost violently as she put a hand over her nose and mouth, forcing her to breath in a dusty mix of herbs. A few moments later Lady went still.

"What did you do?"

"Sleep dust," Maxine said. "Works on babies, big and small."

"You just carry that in your pocket?" Bobby asked.

Maxine shrugged, "I was supposed to baby-sit my nephews this afternoon." Maxine helped get Lady into the car. "You really think you can find what you need?"

"If it's our only shot, I'm taking it," Bobby said.

Maxine looked with concern at Lady. "Good luck."

Bobby had the child locks on for when Lady woke up, which was a good thing because the moment she was awake and realized they were on the highway heading south she flipped out and tried to escape.

"Are you insane! We're going eighty miles an hour!" Bobby shouted at her.

"I'm not going back there!" Lady screeched at him.

Bobby elbowed her roughly back into her seat when she tried to take the wheel, shocking her and making her go still. "Shut up!" Lady looked at him with wide eyes. "Now we're going! Damn it, Lady! We've spent nearly ten years trying to save you, and this is the key. And I need your help! Either we do this, or I've wasted a lot of good time and effort on nothing!"

Lady looked away and was nearly pouting while trembling with rage. Bobby had never been able to get much from Lady about where she came from, but over the years he'd gotten enough hints that she never even knew she had dropped.

"How long have you known?" Lady asked quietly.

"Think I just let Little Orphan Annie take up residence in my spare room without figuring out who she was?" Bobby asked. "Listen, kid, your tracks are covered. If it's any consolation it was damn hard for me to scrounge up anything on your past. I'm not asking you to spill your guts after all this time, I'm just asking you to step up and save yourself. I don't know everything I need to know to find a blood relative of yours. So either we go down there and you die while I try. Or we go down there and you grow a pair, face what you've been running from all these years and live! What's it going to be?"

Lady glared out the window, ignoring Freddie's attempt to comfort her, and said nothing.


	32. Flashback to 1998

**Flashback! March 1998**

"I'm telling you, Bobby, that girl is bad news," John said.

"What would you have me do? Let her go back on the street?"

"That's where we found her," John suggested. Bobby bit his tongue, it was getting harder and harder to let John slide. John wasn't heartless, Bobby knew that, but John did not spare compassion easily. "You have to remember, for a few months she was technically a black witch. I don't care how useful having an in-house Latin translator may be, a lot of those books you have in there are dangerous in the hands of a witch."

"She's just a kid," Bobby said.

"And we don't know where she came from," John said. "She's sixteen and lies so convincingly that we don't know if she's even American."

Bobby smiled a bit, "Seventeen."

"What?"

"She just turned seventeen," Bobby said. "See, considering she's been sleeping in my spare room, hanging around my house, she chats. Let her talk long enough she lets some things slip, I bet things she didn't even think would damn her. Like her birthday. And if when she gets real tired she falls into a bit of a southern accent. Ran a search of missing or presumed girls in the past five years from Texas all the way to Georgia that were born in eight-one. I think I finally found her."

John was very interested, "I'm listening. So what's the little witch's real name?"

"Bernadette LaCroix," Bobby answered.

"And you are sure it is her?" John asked.

Bobby frowned, "Not entirely. No picture, no description. We've both tried finding her before, there were just too many damn missing persons to sift through. This one jumps out at me as something weird going on. So I'm on my way to Indian Bayou," Bobby said.

"And then what?" John asked.

"See if this Bernadette is our Lady. If it is see if the girl has any other family. I don't know how long we can keep her alive with how we're helping her. The girl needs her family, someone to look out for her. Sure, she can take care of herself, but...you have to see what having her around us is doing to her. What she's leading to. Get her away from this life, back into her family, and just keep watch and do what we can. If we don't she's going to turn to hunting or black magic. Either way her life isn't going to last long."

"Okay, let's go," John said.

"You know this isn't a hunt," Bobby said.

"I know. I just put Sam into a new school two weeks ago, Dean can take care of him. Let him stay until spring break," John said. "Hell, it's the deep south. Maybe we'll run into a Voodoo priest."

John left Dean with the Impala, taking shotgun in Bobby's car. Bobby wasn't eager to spend a long drive stuck in the close confines of a car with John, but the benefit of being able to switch drivers was huge.

Indian Bayou was a small town, a few hundred residents most of which commuted to nearby Lafayette for work. It didn't even have its own police station.

John and Bobby stepped into the elementary school that handled grades up eighth, after that children were bussed to a larger nearby town. Bobby walked up to the school secretary, "Good afternoon, miss, we were hoping to get a minute of your time. We're private investigators looking into a former student here."

"I'm afraid confidentiality laws prevent me from speaking about any of our students without their or their parent's permission, unless you have a court order," the secretary said smartly in her hick accent.

"It's Bernadette LaCroix," John said, and she looked up at him sadly. "We're just trying to find out what we can about her. We aren't looking to check out her permanent record, but it's a small town. We're just hoping you'd remember her and fill us in on what you remember."

The woman took her glasses off and looked around cautiously before answering. "Poor girl. There are half a dozen stories to what happened. The smaller the town the bigger the stories, you know?" John and Bobby both nodded. How often had they gone into a town because of outrageous reports sounded supernatural, when in all reality they were just blown out of proportion?

The secretary pulled out a yearbook and flipped through a few pages before turning it to show them. She pointed at a young teenage girl, "That was Bernadette. Pretty young thing, right?" Bobby and John nodded, that was definitely their Lady. "The police say that her mother's death was a suicide. But the rumors go pretty wild from there."

"Her mother's death, happened right around the time Bernadette disappeared, right?" Bobby asked.

The woman nodded, "Oh, yes. Same time, in fact. At first we thought some evil man came in, killed the mother and kidnapped Bernadette. But when the death was ruled a suicide…" The woman trailed off and shrugged.

"We'd like to hear some of those rumors," John said.

"Bernadette was a sweet girl, really she was," the woman said softly. "But her mother was something else. Winifred LaCroix was insane, and it was all Bernadette could do to keep her in line. Some people say it was Bernadette that killed her mother because she was finally tired of taking care of her, defending her to everyone. Or that Bernadette finally went insane just like her mother after Winifred killed herself. Others say one of Winifred's boyfriends did it, then kidnapped Bernadette to...for whatever reason. They go on and on like that."

"You have a favorite theory?" Bobby asked.

She shook her head, "I always felt sorry for that girl. She was new in town, was only here less than a year. She struggled so bad in school, because of it she didn't have many friends. Her neighbor, Leonard Boutte, was the one who found Winifred's body, though. He's still in town and he knew the LaCroix's better than anyone, I bet."

"Thank you, we'll speak to him next," John said.

Bobby waited for it as they drove slowly down roads, searching for Leonard's home. "You think she killed her own mother?" John asked.

"No," Bobby said. "Lady is sketchy, but she's not a killer."

"You sure?" John asked. He didn't have to remind Bobby just how many deadly weapons Lady had access to when she was at his house.

"No, John, I'm not," Bobby said roughly. "I'm here trying to find her family, not investigate her."

"You should be," John said. "I like the kid, I do. Let's face it, she's a charmer. She bats her eyelashes and I want to help her. But that's even more reason to figure out exactly what we're dealing with."

"We're dealing with a seventeen year old girl," Bobby said, coming to an abrupt stop next to a trailer. "This is it."

Leonard Boutte was around fifty. He had rich dark skin, large brown eyes and a good build. He had the look of a man who worked with his hands and did hard manual labor.

"Yeah, I remember the LaCroix's," he said with a sigh. "Any word on Bernadette?"

"Afraid not, but we're looking into every possible lead," Bobby said. "We were hoping you may know about any possible relatives."

Leonard shook his head, "Winifred wasn't married. As far as I know she never was. She came here a few years ago with her kid, moved into that trailer right there. She mentioned Bernadette's father a few times, that he gave her money, but never said his name."

"Were you home the night Winifred died?" John asked.

Leonard nodded, "Yeah, I was. I wish I had heard something, anything, but I didn't. It wasn't until the morning when I went over to see if she wanted me to mow her lawn that I saw the blood on the door." Leonard's face went grim. "Winifried wasn't healthy in the head. Bernadette came over here quite a bit, always apologizing for her mother's eccentric behavior. That poor girl was doing more parenting than her mother was."

"No one called social services to get the girl out of there?" Bobby asked.

"That's how they ended up here, it was supposed to be a fresh start for them. Every now and then Bernadette would leave for a few weeks, go to a temporary home while Winifred was really out of it. Eventually her mother would call her and she'd come running back to help her. One time Winifred went to a state facility for a month, but when she came back she was doing real good. Bernadette came back to live with her. You could see how relieved she was that Winifred was better." Leonard looked at them sadly. "Those girls were happy as hell. Winifred had her condition under control, Bernadette had her mother back. Then one morning Winifred is dead with a knife stuck in her throat, and Bernadette is gone. The police knew Winifred, she'd had trouble with the law so often, I don't think they wasted much time in deciding it was suicide. I don't believe it."

"What do you think happened?" John asked.

"I don't know," Leonard said sadly. "We live on the edge of a swamp, police gave up the search for Bernadette after finding some bloody clothes out there. Anything that dies out in the swamps gets eaten by gators pretty damn quick. Some people say she did in her mother and just ran…but no. I knew Bernadette and she would have died for her mother. Those girls were lost without each other."

Bobby and John went to the police station next, getting the file on Winifred's death and her previous arrest record. They set up in a motel room and looked over things.

"Indecent exposure, child abuse, assault and battery, assault with a deadly weapon, leaving the scene of an accident, contributing to the delinquency of a minor," John read off Winifred's record. He rubbed his forehead, "Whenever this woman went off her meds she became a lunatic."

"Yeah, and Lady was always there trying to reign her in," Bobby muttered, looking at the pictures of Winifred when her body was found. The knife was deep in her neck and he could see that the angle it was in could have been a suicide, or from someone behind. "You got Winifred's height?"

John shifted through pages until he found a copy of a driver's license, "Five-eight."

"Lady is what? Five-six, on a good day?" He muttered. "She didn't do this."

John looked at the photo and his thought process matched Bobby's, "You are right."

"The woman at the school said something about Winifred's boyfriend, you see a report on him?" John asked.

Bobby went through the pages of interviews that were conducted, "Here it is. Juan Corona. He was never found for questioning."

"How'd they come up with a suicide without ever speaking to him?"

"Police concluded since he was an illegal immigrant he wanted to avoid possible deportation and ran," Bobby said. "Of course it stinks of murder, but it's easier to say the crazy woman killed herself than start an impossible man-hunt."

"Even when there is a teenage girl missing in the middle of it all?" John asked furiously. Bobby knew how John got, when lives were on the line was when he got angry and focused. Thing is, they weren't dealing with anything supernatural. They were just trying to find Lady a home. The bodies were already long dead and buried and the only one missing was alive in Kansas.

"The guy is long gone," Bobby said. "Only thing I found on Winifred's parents is their graves are in New Orleans. They died about six years ago, carbon monoxide leak in their house. No other children. Winifred took her inheritance and put them in pine boxes. You find anything about Bernadette's father?"

"Once a month Winifred deposited a large amount of cash into her bank account," John said. "She had a sugar daddy, probably some married guy that didn't want his wife to know he knocked up a crazy woman." Bobby stared at John for a long time. "What?"

Bobby shook his head, "I don't know if all the stupid crime dramas Lady's been watching while she's at my house are getting to me or what…but what if we're looking at some sort of cover up? Not many people can afford to drop five grand, in cash, a month for nearly sixteen years. Someone able to afford it, not only afford it but keep his identity quiet, might have enough money to grease the palms of the locals and keep their deaths quiet, too."

John looked doubtful, "Please tell me you are joking."

"Think about it, John. A teenage girl goes missing and they give up after a few days? Call her gator food and move on?"

"Let's say there is something to this," John said, willing to humor his friend. "Winifred is killed March of '96. Bernadette, fifteen year old girl, hears or maybe even sees it. Why does she run instead of call for help?"

"Scared?" Bobby guessed.

"We didn't find her in Vegas until a year after this," John said. "She had plenty of time to get her wits back. To go to the police and tell them what happened."

"Fifteen year old girls aren't known to be all that bright," Bobby said. "She's scared of what she saw, she gets over the shock. Lady isn't stupid, she made it on her own for a year. Maybe she's scared of who did it."

"She didn't come back because she knew what would happen to her," John said. "Go back to a foster home. Live with strangers until they kicked her out on her eighteenth birthday. She spent all her time and energy taking care of her mother, she had nothing else. No family, no one to take her in," John said as he poured himself a stiff drink. "She gets to Vegas, learns a few tricks to get herself money on the streets. Prime candidate to be recruited into a black witch's coven. Lady isn't stupid," John agreed with Bobby. "She ran because she wanted to, and she didn't come back because she didn't want to. Even after we saved her she didn't come back here, because she'd rather risk being alone. There just isn't anything here for her. Or us."

Bobby nodded. "What the hell am I supposed to do now, John?"

"You can't throw her on the street."

"Of course not," Bobby said quickly. "Am I just supposed to adopt her or what?"

John thought about it and said, "Yeah."

"What?" Bobby snapped. "The other day you were the one saying throw her back on the street."

"Knowing her background changes things," John said quietly. "The girl has been through enough, and with that curse she's going to be through a hell of a lot more. We drag her back here and call social services she's going to die, if she doesn't runaway. And we do that to her she won't come back to us for help. Just, let her be Lady. Let her forget Indian Bayou. Let's just do what we can to find a way to get rid of that curse. If we succeed then we can talk to her about what she wants to do. If we don't..." John just shrugged. "You want to be the next in a long line of people that haven't given a damn about her?"

After dropping John off with his sons Bobby went to Kansas to pick up Lady. She looked healthier than when he had left her, and chatted happily about the many clients she heard Missouri speak with while she was there. When she finally ran out of things to say she asked, "So, where is the next stop in this counter-curse hunt?"

"Back to my place," Bobby said. "Figure while we're doing this you might as well stay close. Plus that Latin trick in your head makes researching this stuff all the faster."

Lady let out a sigh, not sounding pleased but not arguing. She didn't know what else to do, or any other options available. She was depending on Bobby and John's experience, and so far they hadn't dicked her over. She was waiting for it to happen, but until it did she was going to take whatever help they could offer. "Okay."

"I know this ain't fun, and I'm willing to bet there are a hundred things a girl your age would rather be doing then hanging out with an old man like me."

Lady laughed, "Nah, you aren't half-bad, Bobby."

Bobby smirked, "Thanks. You aren't half-bad yourself, Lady."

"You kidding? I'm totally kick-ass," she said with a grin.


	33. Cursed Continued, December 2006

**December 6, 2006. Baton Rouge, Louisiana**

Lady and Bobby stopped at a library in Baton Rouge to use a computer. Bobby respected Lady's tense silence as a need for privacy and didn't look over her shoulder as she searched for who she was looking for. She was eating crackers and drinking water, wasn't fighting and didn't run for it when they stopped to refuel his car, he had a good feeling about their chances but that didn't mean she wouldn't change her mind.

When Bobby had discovered Lady's family was dead he had been left with a lot of questions, and they had just been left unanswered. He'd taken a liking to Lady, and was more interested in saving her than putting together the pieces of her past. He kept telling himself that when they found a way to save her then he could talk to her about getting a real life, a real identity. But now she was twenty-five, any chance at a real life was pretty much gone. Too much had happened, and he'd let too much happen since then.

Lady got up to leave and he followed her. She got into the passenger seat and immediately reached back to rub Freddie's head.

"Where're we goin'?" Bobby asked.

"I have to make some calls, why don't we stop somewhere so you can get some sleep?" Lady asked.

"Sure," Bobby said with a frown. "I understand if you want to handle this alone, but how sure are you this guy won't get upset by you asking him for some blood?"

"He'll piss his pants, he thinks I'm dead," Lady said. She closed her eyes and clenched her jaw, "Bobby, I'd almost rather die than ask him for help."

"I can do this," Bobby said. Lady had a lot of nerve, but she'd held onto her past so tightly for so many years he was afraid he was watching her unravel.

Lady licked her lips, "No, I can handle it. Just, uh, one problem."

"That is?"

"Not a hundred percent he's my real father," Lady said in a small voice.

Bobby let out a breath as he pulled into the first motel he saw. "What happens if we try to counter the curse with his blood and he isn't?"

"It'll kill me," Lady said flatly. "And there are no other candidates that I know of."

"Well...we can test it, or something," Bobby suggested.

"I searched, it takes a week. Bobby, I'm not going to last long as it is. Lets just get some sleep and then I'll ambush the guy so I can cut his wrists."

Bobby got them a motel room and helped her sneak Freddie inside of it. He took off his boots as settled into a bed. "You're going to do this alone, aren't you? You at least going to tell me or were you just going to sneak out once I fell asleep?"

"If I sneak I have a better chance you won't follow me," Lady said.

"Lady, let's get something straight here," Bobby said, and Lady looked down at her feet. "I'm sorry for what happened to you as a kid, I really am. Whatever else you are hiding, I don't give a damn. It can't be half as bad as some of the things you've done since we've met. You want to handle this alone, then do it. Here are the keys to the car. Anything else you need, just let me know. All I want, in all of this, is to do what we set out to do years ago and get that curse out of you. For you to be able to survive and live how you want to. Just remember you can't kill him, he has to still be alive when we do the ritual. If he was bad enough you think he deserves to die, I'll look away after you are cured."

Lady took the keys to the car, "Thanks," she said, and left him and Freddie in the motel room.

Bobby let out a breath and settled into bed. Either Lady would come back, or she'd get arrested for trying to assault a man. Years of research and fighting and struggling was coming down to this. Either she'd be saved, or she'd die. And he was sitting on the sidelines for it.

Louis Fusilier was in his late fifties. Short and portly with thin white hair and dull blue eyes. Tonight he was wearing a good suit, tailored specifically for him and had cost a few thousand dollars. He had just finished a long meeting and now his driver was taking him home.

He pulled out his cell phone and smiled when he saw a familiar number, "Yes?"

"Hey, Louis," a sweet female voice said. "I've been thinking about you, baby."

"Starla, my star," Louis said in his charming Creole accent. "I don't think we had an appointment today."

"I know we didn't, but I know how stressed you get after a long day of work. If you are interested I'm at our regular place, eager and waiting, baby."

"I think that sounds very nice," Louis replied. "Be there soon."

Louis' driver took him into the bad part of town and stopped in front of a cheap motel. He told the driver to keep the car moving until he called to be picked up, and he walked up to a room and knocked twice before opening the door. "Starla, darling, daddy's here," he said, loosening his tie.

A pretty blonde woman was sitting on the edge of the bed, and stood up. "Sorry, Louis." She said.

The door behind Louis slammed shut and a gun clicked. He froze, raising his hands. "Take anything you want," he said.

"Nice shoes. Italian leather?" a woman asked.

Louis frowned, and turned very slowly. His mouth opened and closed in terror as he found himself face-to-face with Lady. He backed up quickly, tripping over his expensive shoes and falling on his back.

"Listen, I don't want any trouble. Can I go?" Starla asked nervously.

"Go into the bathroom, and turn on the shower," Lady instructed. "Don't worry, Starla, no one is going to get hurt."

Starla walked close to the wall and slammed the door to the bathroom.

"Please…please don't…please don't kill me!" Louis was pleading, his face pale and eyes watering.

Lady pulled off one of the metal braces on her thumbs so she could grip the revolver with one hand. "I'm trying really hard not to," she admitted. Saying it almost scared her. Lady had killed many times over, but only witches. Evil witches that were murderers and sociopaths that needed to be put down for the good of the general public and animal lovers. Technically murder in the eyes of the law, but not in hers. What she wanted to do to the man about to wet himself was murder, an undeserved murder…but not in her eyes.

"Bernadette?"

Lady's nostrils flared at the use of her name, "Yeah. Surprise."

"I...I thought..."

"You thought I was dead, yeah, I got it," she said.

"What do you want? Anything, I'll give you anything."

Lady snorted a laugh, "Wow. You know, you always knew how to make a woman feel like a whore. Even when I was a kid. You think I want your money?" Lady shook her head. "You are a coward. Always were. By the time I figured out what you were you were terrified of me. Afraid your skeletons would come out. I bet you were at least a little relieved when you thought I became a real skeleton, weren't you?" Louis shook his head, his round face jiggling as he did so. "Isn't that why you paid off the police to say my mother's death was a suicide? To keep the search for her daughter quiet? To help prevent people from digging too far?" Lady had to look away, suddenly feeling sick. He was probably the reason she was able to stay off the grid so successfully, which ended up helping her out a lot in the life she was now leading. "Jesus Christ, are you even human? I want you to be something not human."

Louis trembled as she walked toward him. She grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled hard. "Please, please, don't kill me," he begged on his knees in front of her.

Lady looked at the strands of white hair between her fingers, "Louis, you are in a fortunate position that I currently need you alive. Good luck running for Senate. Next skeleton in your closet, just might be you. You understand me?"

Lady returned to the motel after several hours, handing Bobby some white hairs in a plastic bag. He looked at her curiously, "Either way I'm dead. If I'm really his daughter I'd rather die than use his blood. If I'm not we have no way to lift the curse. Find somewhere to figure it out."

Bobby nodded, "You need anything, kid?"

Lady crawled into the next bed without saying a word and Freddie joined her. She wrapped her arms around her dog and buried her face in his neck.

Bobby found a local place that did paternity tests and dropped off the samples. Some white hairs, and some dark ones from Lady. He paid a lot extra to expedite the whole thing, but it would still be five business days. Those five days he watched Lady's energy wane, and the day they got results she was throwing up again. Bobby went alone to pick up the results, and felt his hope deflate when there was no possible way that man had been Lady's father.

Lady took the news happily. "Wipe that grin off your face. You know what this means, don't you?" Bobby asked angrily.

Lady nodded, "Yeah, my mom wasn't the first woman to get away with saying 'It's your baby' and get paid for it." Lady's smile vanished as she mentioned her mother. "I guess...I just want to go back to North Dakota."

"Think Max has anything for us?" Bobby asked.

Lady shook her head, "I just...isn't it the right thing to say goodbye to them?"

"Yeah, sure," Bobby said quietly.

They were on the road when Lady asked, "Are you going to stay there?"

"If you want me to," Bobby said.

"I want someone I trust there," Lady said in a tiny voice. "I mean, there is a lot I won't be able to finish. And I have a lot of notes, things that might help you or someone finish Garrett. And, uh...c'mon, Bobby, you've been like my best friend since I was sixteen. Don't make this weird, okay? At least until it absolutely has to be."

"Yeah," Bobby said, clenching his jaw and nodding quickly. Strangest damn thing, she'd been his closest friend since John had dropped out of the picture years ago.

By the time Bobby got her back to Max's territory and in her trailer she was sleeping more frequently and couldn't even keep water down. Lady went over her treasure-trove of information on the coven with Bobby, much of it he already knew from working with her over the years.

Between her naps and their work Maxine came to see her. "You look like shit."

"Weird thing is, other than feeling tired I don't feel so bad," Lady said. Physically she felt fine, but the fear was settling in hard as the veins in her right arm turned nearly black and was extending up to her elbow. "Max have any estimate?"

"No," Maxine said. "Whatever he's doing to you it's messing up her sight. She can barely sense you anymore. So not much longer. A day? Maybe two?"

"That's enough time," Lady said, her stomach clenching.

Maxine looked at her hard, "No, it isn't."

"Maxine, you knew this would probably happen soon," Lady said. "C'mon, it's all I can do to keep Mason from telling Greta. I don't want people coming here crying for me. If I only have a few days I want to spend it making sure everything I've uncovered stays uncovered."

Maxine nodded, "I know. I'm sorry, just...I sort of came to believe you were too stubborn to die."

Lady smiled, "If only that were true."

"You'll let us know if she gets worse?" Maxine looked to Bobby.

"Yeah," he nodded. After she left he said, "Don't you want to spend time with your friends?"

"This is more important," Lady said, pointing at the notebook she was trying to go over with him.

"Sam and Dean changed their phone numbers, but I bet I can get a hold of them. I know you are close to those boys, they'd probably like to know. Have a chance to see you again."

Lady went still as she thought about it. Last month Dean had been with her in her trailer and she remembered looking forward to spending more time with him. She didn't want them to see her like this, she didn't want anyone seeing her like this. When the end got closer she'd try to call them then, say goodbye and tell them one last time it was fun just to know them. But right now she just needed to focus. Lady shook her head, "Bobby, the last thing I want is a big emotional scene. Just let me get through this. I'm having a hard time keeping my wits together as it is." She rubbed at her eyes, her vision blurring and she felt like she was ready for another nap. "To be honest I'd rather be alone with Freddie," Lady said softly. "But look at him, it's like he knows." Freddie was looking at her with large brown eyes, quiet except for the occasional whimper. "You'll take care of him, right?"

"Yeah, of course," Bobby answered quickly. He looked at the dog. Freddie looked up at Lady with sad admiration, unwavering love and loyalty. "I can't do this."

Lady looked up at him with wide eyes. "Can't do what?"

"I can't just sit here reading about witchcraft while you are dying from it!" he shouted.

"Where are you going?" Lady asked.

"Either that witch in the teepee is going to fix you, or she's going to eat lead," he said.

"Bobby..." Lady called after him, but she was too weak to be able to follow him. But a few moments later he retreated back into the trailer, Mason's large frame pushing him back in. Mason was followed by Max and Maxine.

"Lady, come with us," Mason said.

"For what?" Lady asked.

"What do you think?" Maxine said. "Max is going to make you better."

Lady shook her head, "Under the condition that I allow her to bind my spirit? No."

"That is not the condition," Max said. "Please, come with us to the wheel."

Lady slept in the back of Mason's truck on the way up the snowy hill behind his house. It was only ten degrees outside and a light snow was falling down.

"Join me," Max said to Lady from the center of the medicine wheel. Lady stepped inside and faced Max. "

"If I do this, you must destroy Garrett and what remains of his coven. By any means necessary."

"What do you think I've been trying to do?" Lady asked weakly, she wished she had the energy to shout but she just didn't give a damn.

"I have seen your death, Lady, and it is not this soon," Max said. "I do not believe you can avoid it, but I believe you can use your own death to destroy Garrett." Lady studied the old woman's face. "His magic is powerful, more powerful than my own. I will give you back enough life so that you may survive long enough to find the power within yourself to kill him."

"You mean remove her curse?" Bobby asked. "Why didn't you do that for her years ago?"

"There is no magic strong enough to remove a curse as foul as the one inside of her," Max said. "Even with what I plan to do she will only survive if she has the will to." Max took Lady's hands. "Listen to me, child. Stopping the black ritual has caused a disturbance within the ley lines, his source of power. The Goddess he calls upon for power is furious."

"What Goddess?" Bobby asked.

Lady answered, "There are hundreds of pagan goddesses. Hundreds of pagan gods. I hate them all."

"The one Garrett has taken power from is dangerous and very powerful. If you do not defeat him, if you cannot stop him, he will take over all the lines. Including the ones that protect my family here."

"Thing is, Max, I don't trust you," Lady said. "You are leaving something out."

"Don't look a gifted horse in the mouth," Bobby said. "Let her get rid of that curse, then we'll deal with finding the right way to deal with Garrett."

"No," Lady said. "Max, what's going on?" Max was silent so she looked at Maxine and Mason. They both had grim faces. "What is it?"

"I am going to transfer your curse," Max answered. "To myself."

Lady's lips parted in surprise and she backed away from Max. "You'll die."

"I have lived longer than naturally possible," Max said. "I will not die as easily as you, but I will no longer be here to protect or guide my people. That responsibility will now fall on my heir."

Lady looked at Maxine, "You never wanted this."

"It was my destiny," Maxine said. "Can't fight it."

Lady shook her head, "There has to be another way."

"I am doing this of my own free will," Max said. "I know what the future holds, and I have seen the outcomes. This is the way I believe we have the most chance of success. If you do not die now Garrett will have nothing to stand in his way. You must live to face him again. And when you do, you must be prepared."

Lady stared into Max's milky white eyes as tears began to form. The old woman had been a major pain in her ass over the years. Abusive and cryptic, a harsh mentor that Lady never knew if she was going to kill her or save her. And now the old crone was giving up her life so Lady could finish Garrett. All she ever wanted was a chance at living, to keep other people from being sacrificed like she had almost been, to destroy the black magic the coven used. Her quest had always been difficult, and with the last attack on the coven it seemed almost impossible.

"Max..."

"Do not weep for me, white whore," Max said harshly.

"No hug before we start?" Lady asked.

Max grabbed her wrists with more strength than Lady thought the old hag was capable of and Lady dropped to her knees on the rocks in the center of the medicine wheel.

Lady's eyes went wide and she sucked in a raged breath as white hot fire seemed to flow through her veins where Max's boney fingers pressed in and pumped through her body. The pain didn't numb as a vision played through her head. Not one of her own, it was unlike anything she had ever seen. Her visions were calm and clear, this was something Max had seen. It was foggy, far in the future, but clear enough that Lady could see herself hanging above a pentacle. There were other figures on each point of the star that she could not make out yet. Garrett was in the center, she couldn't understand what he was saying. It was garbled. It must have been Latin, Max didn't know Latin and had been unable to hold onto the language while transferring the vision to her. Lady saw blue fire coming down like a cyclone around Garrett harmlessly, before she witnessed it consume her. The hot fire in her veins made her think she was really watching herself be burned alive in a sacrifice, her life being taken to strengthen Garrett's own power and appease his goddess that granted him his abilities.

Bobby wasn't aware Mason was holding him back until the large man blocked his view of Lady. Lady was screaming bloody murder, so loud he couldn't hear what the old witch was chanting. Maxine was in the circle, burning a sickly sweet incense and maybe she was chanting, too. Bobby didn't know, he just knew he didn't trust a damn person besides Lady and her dog in the whole place and right now Lady sounded like she was being tortured beyond what she could withstand.

A flash of blue fire erupted out of Lady's mouth and choked off her screams, making her fall limply in the center of the medicine wheel. The fire hit Max and grew, covering her. The old woman was silent as the fire burned away her hair and singed her leather poncho. Then Max collapsed as well.

When Mason released Bobby he rushed into the circle. Lady was unconscious and trembling, barely breathing.

"If she wakes up she'll be weak, but her strength will return," Maxine said, kneeling next to Lady and putting a hand on her forehead.

"What do you mean if she wakes up?" Bobby snapped.

Maxine looked at Lady sadly, "Lady is strong. She will wake up."

"What the hell did you do to her?" Bobby snapped.

"We saved her," Maxine said, moving to Max. "At a great cost to ourselves."

"You may take her to our house, it is more comfortable there," Mason said gently. "And it is closer. You may stay with her."

"I'm taking her home," Bobby said as he lifted the frail woman in his arms.

**A/N** - _Song for this chapter:_

_Thirty Seconds, by The Generators_

_Too Cold To Hold, by Fake Problems_

_**Another note** - I'm going on a mini-vacation for the weekend and won't be at my main computer, so two posts today. I really like the songs I picked for this chapter, try and listen to them!  
_


	34. Recovery, Dec 06 to Jan 07

**A/N** - _Oh wow, thank you for the reviews! You guys really know how to stroke my ego and you made me all giddy when I got home tonight so I decided to stay up a bit late to get this chapter out. This is really two short chapters in one, considering my average length of chapters this is sort of short still, and I decided to just stick them together. I promise I'll get a new chapter out tomorrow, too! Thanks everyone!  
_

_**Notes: **During this chapter the Winchesters are in episode 'Playthings' _

_Song for this chapter is:_

_Yellow Submarine, by the Beatles (it doesn't really fit in, but I referenced it in and figured I better give it a proper credit)  
_

**December 25, 2006.**

Lady woke up in Bobby's spare downstairs room on one of the cots. It was evening and she wasn't sure how long she had been out but knew if she didn't reach the bathroom quick she was going to pee on herself. Freddie was barking happily and as much as she wanted to give him a hug, the poor guy deserved it after witnessing her almost die, she desperately needed to pee.

Once she relieved herself she tore open two hot pockets and put them in the microwave, and while they were heating up she sat on the floor with Freddie, scratching his belly and chatting happily. She felt weak, her legs were wobbly, but she felt good. Starving, alive and free. For the first time in nearly ten years, she didn't have a curse.

Lady devoured the two hot pockets and was heating up two more when Bobby came in the front door. He looked at her with wide eyes and then grinned, "Merry Christmas, kiddo," he said, walking over and wrapping her up in a hug. "God, I was afraid you weren't going to wake up."

"How long was I out?" Lady asked.

"Nearly two weeks," he said. "Like I said, Merry Christmas."

Lady looked around and out the window. There was a thick blanket of snow outside. She rubbed her stomach, "No wonder I'm so hungry. Damn."

Lady got Freddie calmed down and sat at the table with Bobby. She looked at her smooth and unmarked wrist. The brand of the coven was gone, and while she was happy she also felt naked without the mark. "So this is how it feels to live without a curse," she muttered. She bent her thumbs, "At least it knocked me out long enough to let these heal. I think I can even play Nintendo again."

"Yeah, you were out a long time. You know we have flying cars now."

Lady grinned, she loved it when Bobby tried to be funny. "Something new you can teach me how to drive!" Lady let the laughter die down. Freddie and Bobby were happy she was back on her feet and she felt bad for bringing up bad things but she had to know. "What about Max?"

Bobby shrugged, "Don't know."

Lady pulled out her phone and called Mason. She wished Bobby had left her there, but at the same time having Greta look after her would have been twice as bad. Maybe Greta was a woman and had a motherly touch, but Lady would rather have Bobby there for her. At least Bobby knew what to do with her body if she croaked, and he'd make sure Max didn't get any of the pieces.

Mason was happy to hear she had recovered, he had been concerned like he often was. Lady didn't have to hear it from Mason to know Max was dead. The old medicine woman took the curse that Lady had been suppressing for years, and had been killed. Her heart had kept beating for a few days, but she was gone now.

"You know, it's done now," Bobby said when she got off the phone. "You said yourself finding Garrett and the rest of the witches is going to be hard as hell. We hit those bastards so hard they are going to be looking over their shoulders everywhere they go. You are free."

Lady shook her head, "I'm not." She licked her lips, "Max pushed one of her visions into my head. Garrett wants me dead. I saw him sacrifice me."

"You can hide from him," Bobby said.

"Not forever. But I think Max showed me enough that I can find out what he will do."

"And find a way to survive?" Bobby asked. Lady shrugged. Bobby let out a frustrated breath, "Can you tell when?"

Lady frowned and shook her head. Unlike her own visions she could estimate the time just by a sensation they gave her, Max's had nothing like that. Her eyes widened and her face lifted, "Before the summer solstice."

"You know that how?"

"Because Max said I would not see another summer," Lady said. Lady stood up, "The old bitch always knew. It wasn't going to be the curse, she knew...I got to get to work." Lady took a few steps, "My god! Is that me?" Lady sniffed herself. "I need a shower, oh boy do I need a shower!" My god!"

Bobby nodded in agreement as she went to the bathroom.

**January 2, 2007**

Lady and Freddie got into Jo's wood-paneled station wagon and headed south. "You okay? You look sick," Jo said.

Lady nodded. She hadn't gained back all her weight yet, and her vigorous work with the black book had her feeling a bit drained. Jo didn't need to know how desperate things had gotten for her, though. "Had a bit of a flare up with my curse," she said, not a complete lie. She smiled a bit, "Want to see something?"

Jo frowned at her, "No."

Lady's eyes widened, "What?"

"You have this shit-eating grin on your face, it makes me think you are going to pull out a boob or something. I don't need to see that, keep them where they belong!"

Lady frowned, "I am offended!"

Jo rolled her eyes and looked at the road ahead of them, "Uh huh."

"Serious! Just for that, I'm going to flash you before this job is done," Lady said, and they started laughing. "Serious, though, check it out." Lady moved her wristband to show a clean wrist. "It's gone."

Jo laughed harder, a real grin spreading across her face and her eyes lighting up, "For real? Like…you are going to live another fifty years?"

"Well, considering I'm still working probably not fifty years. Probably not even one. But a while," Lady grinned back. "Thing is, if I don't stop Garrett soon he's going to find another way to kill me."

"How do we handle him?"

Lady shook her head. In Max's vision there were four other foggy people she couldn't make out, she was going to make damn sure Jo wasn't one of them. "We don't. I will handle it however I can." Lady frowned a bit. When she had left Bobby's a week ago she had spent a day with Maxine and Mason's family. Maxine knew how the old woman wanted to be taken care of, and already the body had been put to rest. Max hadn't been well-liked, she had been a pain to just about everyone. But she had been well-respected. She had protected and provided aid to Mason's family for several generations. They all felt lost without the old medicine woman.

The rest of her time in North Dakota was separated between earning some cash at the casino and working on rebuilding her strength while trying to find the ritual Garrett planned to kill her with. If she could find the ritual she could get herself prepared to counter it, disrupt it. She might even be able to direct it at Garrett and use his own magic against him, like Max had suggested. Finding a way to survive would be the hardest thing to figure out.

"I'm back at square one. I have Bobby and Ash watching reports, trying to track down any active parts of the coven. But who knows? Could be months or years before they show up on the radar again," Lady lied calmly. She only knew she had before the summer solstice in June.

"Until then, you ready to dig up some bones?"

"Only if I get to pour the salt on them," Lady said.

"Fine, but I get to light the match," Jo countered, and they chuckled. "So, you and Dean celebrate your victory?"

Lady's laughter was gone and there was barely a hint of a smile left on her lips, "No. After the black moon things didn't quite work out. He had another job, and I got busy. I, uh, I haven't seen him or Sam for a month. Haven't heard from them either." It was a relief that Jo hadn't heard about Gordon or heard that Sam was one of the psychic children of a demon. Jo was quiet in the hunter circles, but she had enough contacts that she would have heard something by now if the news was out.

"Oh," Jo said. "You, uh...break up?"

Lady rolled her eyes, "Nothing to break up. Jo, you have to take the romance completely out of this job. Get your kicks where you can with who you can and watch your friend's back."

"My parents hunted." Jo said. "And, uh, I got a little bit of romance the other night."

Lady grinned, "Yeah?"

Jo nodded and returned her grin, "I've been seeing this guy a few weeks now. His name is Kevin. And he used to hunt, he stopped but he does a lot of research still."

"You hunt with him?" Lady asked, knowing her mother wanted any and all details she could get about Jo. Lady wasn't about to damn Kevin by telling Ellen he was getting frisky with her daughter, but if the guy was going to become Jo's hunting partner as well then he wouldn't be able to avoid Ellen's wrath.

"No," Jo said. "His parents got him into it, he just decided he wasn't up for it. He's the one that told me about this job."

Lady let Jo happily talk about her boyfriend, enjoying that it kept her from having to talk about Dean or Sam. But even while Jo talked Lady thought about the Winchesters. She'd thought about them every day since they had left her in the remote motel. Even if she wanted to call and check in on them they had changed their phone numbers to avoid being tracked, just like Bobby had made her do. If Bobby was in contact with them he didn't say.

She worried about them. And she missed them, too. She'd never had siblings but thought that if she had she'd like a brother like Sam. Smart, easy to tease and easy going enough to let it roll off of him, and at the same time quick to defend. Though she was a few years older than Sam she thought he'd be a better big brother than a little one, not just because of his size, either.

As for Dean, well, definitely not like a brother. She'd never experienced anything like she had with Dean, she wasn't even sure if there was anything there. Thinking about him gave her a swirl of emotions from physical desire and longing to frustration to just calm happiness and amusement.

Jo's hunt was a little too easy. Jo had it figured out the same day they arrived, just a cursed antique table that a spirit was connected to. The family wasn't too happy to have their heirloom burned, but they had been harassed in their own home long enough by the spirit that they were about ready to try anything. However Jo didn't let Lady try and convince them into dancing naked around the table while singing 'Yellow Submarine' backwards.

"Well, that was fun," Lady said as Jo scanned the house for EMF to be sure the job was taken care of, finding nothing. "Can we hit up a bar now?"

"Why?" Jo asked.

"I'm sort of thirsty," Lady said. She pouted a bit, "Please?"

"Are you old enough to drink, miss?" Jo teased her. "Yeah, I could use a beer."

At the bar they had a few drinks and played a few games of darts. Lady let Jo win, people usually wanted to keep playing when they had a chance to win. Jo wasn't aware of Lady's extra sight, though she had suspicions by now, or how easily Lady could cheat at games like darts or pool.

A few nice looking men bought the girls a few beers and Lady took an immediate interest in the one with shaggy blonde hair and brown eyes. Lady went to thank him for the round and when she returned to Jo's side she said, "Don't wait up."

"Where are you..." Jo looked at the guy who was watching Lady like a hawk, making sure she didn't disappear. "Yeah, sure. How are you going to get back to the motel?"

Lady shrugged, "I'm sure Jerry wouldn't mind giving me a ride, after I give him one." Lady winked at Jo and went back to take Jerry's arm.

At Jerry's apartment Lady enjoyed his rough kisses as he led her to his bedroom. Her hands became tangled in his shaggy hair as excitement filled her. It had been a long, long time since she'd been able to have a quick hook up. She tried not to remember her last time, if she did it meant she'd be thinking about Dean and it just seemed wrong to have thoughts of him while she was tugging on Jerry's pants. Her shirt was already half unbuttoned and his pants were falling down when her cell phone rang. Lady clenched her jaw and pulled back from the kiss he was trying to give her, "Hold on," she said, pulling out her phone and looking at the unfamiliar number. She knew if she answered it Sam Winchester would be on the other line. "I have to take this," she said, shoving Jerry away form her so he could fall on the bed. She went into his bathroom and closed the door. "Sam?"

"How'd you know it was...mm, never mind," Sam chuckled.

"What's up?" she asked, quietly wondering if Dean knew he was calling her. Dean had been clear on the dangers, if Gordon had enough buddies they'd all be in trouble. They'd turn into the hunted, and there were dozens of hunters out there. Just being in contact with one another could cause problems.

"I...I need your help," he said.

"Sure, Sam, anything I can…wait a second. Are you drunk?"

"No...yes," he admitted and sniffed.

Lady didn't ask if he had been crying but quickly asked, "What's wrong? What happened? Are you okay?" Her heart was pounding with thoughts of things that may have gone wrong or happened.

"Lady, I need you to...to be there if anything happens to me," Sam said. "If anything happens I want you to promise me you'll look after Dean for me."

"Nothing is going to happen to you," Lady said firmly. "Is Dean there?"

"No. Lady?"

"I'm still here."

"Good," he said. "He's trying, so hard, to keep me safe. To save me. I've just been thinking what happens if I can't be?"

"Sam, nothing is going to happen to you," Lady said. "Where are you?"

He muttered something and then said, "Just, I want you to promise if anything happens to me, you'll look after Dean for me."

"Sam, how much have you had to drink?"

"Can...can you just answer me?" Sam asked, sounding a bit desperate. "I...I don't know if we can beat this demon. And I think about it all the time, and I just need to know...we don't have many friends. If anything happens to me I want to know he won't be alone. He doesn't want to be alone. Just promise me you won't let him be alone if anything happens to me."

"I can't promise that, Sam," Lady said. "I wish I could."

"I know," Sam said, sniffing loudly in the phone.

"I'm guessing you've been hitting the hard liquor," Lady said in a near whisper. "Sam, take a shot of club soda and go to bed." Lady waited for a few moments and the line disconnected. She contemplated calling him back but hopefully the poor guy had just passed out.

"Hey, you coming?" Jerry called roughly from his bedroom.

Lady stepped out of the bathroom and looked at him, undressed and more than ready for her. Five minutes ago she had interesting plans for him. A little physical affection, something enjoyable that would make falling asleep later easier. But now she was thinking about Sam, worried about him. And she couldn't put memories of Dean far enough back in her head. "No," she said.

"What?"

"I said it in English and Spanish at the same time," she said as she buttoned her shirt and looked for her shoes she had kicked off. "No."

Jerry got off the bed and Lady stepped out of his reach, "C'mon, baby. Just give me a little something."

Before he could touch her she pulled out her knife, a rather plain switch-blade knife she'd received from Bobby since she lost her butterfly knife to Gordon and him bombing her car. It wasn't nearly as flashy as her butterfly knife but it was quick to open and got the point across when it clicked open, making him stumble back, "Only thing I'm going to give you is a sex change."

She let him call her a string of names on her way out, which she probably deserved. Not from him, but it didn't matter. Well, calling her a crazy bitch was pretty acceptable for him to say. She accepted that from just about anyone.

Jo looked up at her curiously when Lady entered the motel looking winded from running across town. "Minuteman?" Jo asked, flipping through the channels of the television.

"Yeah," Lady muttered, not willing to go into the details and her sudden emotional distress. "Uh, I think we should leave town."

Jo frowned at her, "What did you do?"

"Nothing," Lady said quickly. "I may have pulled my knife out on the guy." Jo made a face. "While he was naked, and threatened his manhood."

"Let me grab my stuff," Jo muttered. "Are you okay?"

Lady couldn't help but laugh. Was she okay? "Not really."

"What did he do?" Jo asked angrily.

"Nothing, let's just get out of here," Lady said.

"Did he…hurt you?" Jo asked.

Lady snorted. "Like some drunk I pick up in a bar is a threat to me. I'm, uh…please, let's just go."

"No, Lady, really, what happened?" Jo asked. "Are you okay? If the fucker hurt you I'll fucking kill him and drag his body into the woods."

Lady shook her head. Jo was a good friend, surprising that just a few months ago Lady was afraid of her. And now Jo had threatened to kill a strange man and dispose of the body she wasn't even remotely frightening to Lady. "Jo, I'm not right in the head. I've had a rough few months, and maybe coming out on a job wasn't the best thing. Please, just…please, get me out of here, okay?"

Jo nodded, that was acceptable. Jo didn't press for anymore information as they drove out of town. Lady held her phone in her hand, waiting to see if Sam would call back, or maybe even Dean. And wondered if she should call to check in on him.

She closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against the passenger window, her lips tugging into a smile as she remembered the last time her and Dean had been together in bed. Exhausted and trembling with pleasure but barely stopping. And their last kiss before saying goodbye.

She let out a breath that fogged up the window and she opened her eyes to watch the dark countryside go by. She didn't know how long it would take Garrett to figure out she had managed to thwart his attempt to kill her, and if he could manage to do anything else to take her out from a distance. As much fun as it was to think about Dean, she needed to focus on her job and keeping herself alive. There were a lot of things she had to do. Watch Jo's back, spy on her for Ellen, help Bobby and Ash search for signs of the coven to speed her own progress while keeping an ear to the ground to hear if Gordon had sent out the word that Lady and Sam were freaks among them and needed to be put down. She was a very busy little witch-hunter these days.

When Jo dropped her off in North Dakota the next evening Lady hadn't regained her focus. If Lady could dream, which she hadn't been able to since her brain had been overloaded by the failed sacrifice on her years ago, she was sure her dreams would have been full of Dean. She stared blankly at the black book he and his brother had helped her find, not seeing or reading, just wondering what was wrong with her.


	35. In Contact Again, January 2007

**A/N** - _This chapter takes place during the SPN Episode 'Nightshifter'_

**January 10, 2007**

Dean wasn't quite awake, his dream still lingering in his mind. He had Lady's body under his and was trying to kiss her. The way dreams went it all felt sluggish and he had trouble doing what he wanted to. His own snort woke him up fully, finding himself awkwardly making out with the pillow. He let out a breath and wiped his lips as he squinted at his watch, five in the morning. Sam was still asleep on the bed next to his in their latest motel room. Just as well because not even the jeans he slept in could hide the massive morning erection he had after that dream. He wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and return to the dream that had just started getting good, but he got out of bed and went to the bathroom.

It had been over five weeks since he'd let Lady go for her own safety, and theirs. So far Gordon's attack and sending him to jail hadn't backfired on them, but Dean was so damn sick and tired of looking over his shoulder. It was bad enough when they were watching out for the regular monsters and demons, now he had to watch his back against people like him? He couldn't stop at the Roadhouse without fear for his and his brother's life. He couldn't stop at Bobby's for a reprieve because he didn't want to drag their problems to Bobby and Lady.

He had Ellen feeding him information, she and Ash had their ears to the ground so they could hopefully have a warning if Gordon convinced other hunters that Sam or Lady were a danger. So far they were still in the clear, the only interesting information Ellen gave him was that Lady cheerily hopped into the Roadhouse a few days ago. He didn't like hearing that Lady had been chatting up her own contacts at the Roadhouse to get information on her coven, it was dangerous for her, too. But at the same time it was good to hear she was still looking for a fight. Lady was pretty fearless, the benefit of having a curse she knew she was dying from he guessed.

"Dean, hurry up!" Sam pounded on the bathroom door.

"Go away!" Dean ordered, to both his erection and to Sam. _Bowling, fat guys bowling, fat guys in bike shorts, Lady in bike shorts, no...counter-productive. Grannies in housecoats...Max in a house coat. There we go, didn't like that, did you?_ Dean zipped up uncomfortably and he let his brother take his turn in the bathroom. "Hurry up, that shapeshifter isn't going to kill itself."

At least he could find comfort in his work, considering the only companionship he'd had the past month and a half was his moping brother. A haunting in Connecticut, now a shapeshifter in Wisconsin. He was checking his weapons and getting prepared for their work of the day when he glanced at the calendar. It was a new moon next week. They had missed the new moon before Christmas, they had been on high alert after Gordon's attack and he barely even thought of it then. He thought carefully, making sure he wasn't just reaching for a way to see Lady and that it was necessary. And that they could do it safely.

"What's wrong with you?" Sam asked as he stepped out of the bathroom, a towel around his waist and his hair dripping wet.

"The new moon is on the eighteenth," Dean muttered, trying to smooth his face out.

Sam turned around to hide a knowing smile. Dean had been piss and vinegar since he'd given up Lady cold turkey. "Yeah, we should really give Lady a call and have her set up that cloaking ritual."

Dean could hear the smirk in his brother's words and wanted to beat it off of him, but instead he said, "Try and get in touch with her, I'm going to take a shower."

"You don't want to talk to her?" Sam asked.

"You have a mouth," Dean snapped as he went into the bathroom.

Sam happily dialed Lady's new number. It had been just a week since he vaguely remembered calling her drunk as hell. He couldn't remember everything he said but he remembered enough. He was glad he was the one calling, now that he thought of it, it gave him time to beg her not to tell Dean what he had said.

"Hey, Sam," she said. The background was noisy with loud voices.

"Hey, you at the Roadhouse?" he asked.

"No, I'm working the restaurant at the casino," she said. "Hold on, let me..." Lady huffed and he heard more loud voices until a slam of a door. "Sorry, breakfast rush."

"It's cool," Sam said. "You know, last week I was a bit messed up. I'm really sorry about that."

"Don't worry about it," she said in a low voice. "It was really good to hear from you. I've really missed you guys. You know, I was about to break down and call you back against Dean's orders just so I could hear what you've been up to. You guys always have the best ghost stories. Just haven't found a good excuse to break Dean's gag order other than wanting to hear what you are doing. I didn't want to get in trouble. But I'm so happy you called again. Is everything okay?"

Sam laughed as she rambled, "Yeah, its okay. Hey, you know I would love to tell you everything that's happened lately. Why don't you come over to Wisconsin? We'll have a few beers and play some cards," Sam said, but he had an idea the second Lady showed up Dean would order him to dog-sit.

"Mm, you know I really shouldn't. I've been pretty busy," Lady said, it was taking a lot of willpower to just say that. She wasn't sure if she would manage to stay in North Dakota with the invitation to go meet them. Already her mind was working on how many reasons she deserved a break from the book and research so she could drive over.

"Well, thing is we were hoping you'd be able to meet us somewhere for the new moon," Sam said. Lady was dead silent on the other end and he checked his phone to make sure the call didn't drop. "Lady?"

"Uh...hold on," Lady said in a soft voice. "Uh...oh god, Sam, I'm so sorry."

"What's wrong?" Sam asked.

Lady looked at her smooth wrist, the brand of the coven was gone. Everything they put in her, the curse and black magic that had twisted the mark into her was gone. Her blood was no longer cursed. She couldn't cloak them anymore. "Sam, I can't," she said in a small voice.

"Well, hey, we might be able to make it over there in time," Sam suggested. "We're running a job, a shapeshifter. If we nail it quick enough we can jet over and see you."

"No, Sam, I...uh...the ritual won't work anymore. I got rid of my curse," she said.

Sam's lips parted in surprise, "Really? That...that's incredible! Lady! Why didn't you call and tell me?"

"Well, I sort of wasn't supposed to call you guys," Lady said. "I'm so sorry, I didn't even think of this. If I had..." Lady thought about it, the last new moon she was unconscious. "Um...I can find a different cloaking ritual. Or something. I..."

"No, Lady, don't worry about it!" Sam said, unable to hide his joy. "I'm so happy for you. I can't...wow. Congratulations! How'd you do it?"

"Sort of a long story," Lady said. Her mind was working, the last ritual she did for them was in September, the chances that the magic was still active were slim. There were other cloaking spells, dozens of them, but the one John had found had been the most powerful she'd ever seen without dipping into real black magic. She wasn't sure anything else could keep a demon from finding them. "If Dean has lifted the no contact ban I'll call you back when I think of something, okay?"

"Lady, don't worry about it!" Sam repeated. "Come on, tell me what happened?"

"Uh..." Lady laughed a bit. It was thrilling to have someone so happy to hear that she had the cursed removed, but the story was long and she had people waiting for omelets. "Listen, I'm working right now, I should really get off the phone. How about you guys skip over here when you are done? I'll get you a room at the Casino, we can catch up and I'll tell you all about it."

"We will," Sam promised, eager to do so. "I'll talk to you later."

Dean looked less tense when he stepped out of the shower and frowned at Sam's happy face. "What the hell have you been doing?" Dean asked suspiciously.

"I talked to Lady," Sam said, sitting up and eager to share the news. "She can't do the ritual this new moon."

Dean raised his eyebrows, "Why are you happy about that? That cloaking ritual is keeping our asses out of the fire."

"Dean, she can't do it anymore. It requires cursed blood, and she doesn't have it. She cured herself."

Dean's face was surprised for a few moments, and then he nodded. "That's my girl," he said.

Sam couldn't hide his frustration, "That's it?" Sam was prepared to do a back flip he was so happy for Lady. She had a real chance at life now. And Dean just gave a small nod and just a hint of a smile. "You are such a dick."

"What?"

"Nothing," Sam muttered. "I told Lady we'd go see her when we're done," Sam said as he found his uniform they'd be wearing. "She said she might be able to find something else."

"You know, she can finally get out of this life," Dean said. "Maybe we should let her. Just leave her alone."

"Wow," Sam said. "Okay, you know what, Dean? You do whatever the hell you want when we're done here. I am going to North Dakota to see my friend. If you want to tag along, you are more than welcome to."

"What's with the attitude?" Dean asked.

Sam shook his head to get rid of the fantasy of wringing his brother's neck, "She isn't getting out of this life, Dean. She's still hunting the coven. I want to check in on her, I want to hear how she cured herself. I want to congratulate her. And you know what is pissing me off? You want to see her, too, but you won't even admit it. Whatever is between you two is nearly suffocating, and I hope you choke on it."

Dean watched with wide eyes as Sam went into the bathroom to change. "Fine, we'll go! Jesus! What's up your ass?" With his brother out of sight Dean let a smile spread across his lips and couldn't help to let out a short laugh. "That's my girl."

Lady stayed in town at the Casino, if she went out to her trailer she wouldn't be able to get reception to receive a call from Sam when they were on their way. Besides, about five inches of snow had dropped and she really didn't like the idea of going to her freezing and most likely powerless trailer.

"You are in a good mood," Mason noted as they closed up the bar together. Since Maxine had taken residence as the new tribe medicine woman she was no longer working, her time was spent tending to Max's previous duties. Lady had always thought Max's duties were just to be as socially repulsive in all the possible ways and make people hate her. However Maxine was now constantly busy just trying to fill Max's shoes and maintain the protection Max had spent centuries building.

"I am," Lady admitted. "The Winchesters will be coming here in a few days."

Mason nodded, "I'll make sure there is a room available for them."

"Thanks," Lady said brightly as she pulled out her phone. It rang a few seconds later. "Hey, Sam!"

In the background she heard the Impala's engine rumbling, but she frowned because he wasn't going to say what she wanted to hear. "Lady, we aren't going to make it," Sam said. "We, uh...we have a problem."

"How big of a problem?" Lady asked, fearing the demon had already found them.

"FBI problems," Sam said.

"Shit," Lady hissed.

"Yeah, well, check youtube. You can probably find Dean's face while he's holding up a bank."

Lady rubbed her forehead, "What is wrong with you two?"

"It's a long story," Sam said, sounding tired. "We'll handle it, we always do. Just, probably not safe to run right to you. And, uh, if they run our cell phone records they'll find your number."

"You mean I have to change my number again?" Lady complained.

"Give me the damn phone," Dean barked at Sam. "Lady?"

"Yeah?" she said.

"We're on the run from the FBI, and you are complaining about changing your phone number?" Dean snapped at her.

"It's inconvenient!" she snapped back.

"Running from the Feds is pretty damn inconvenient for us, too! You do not want to be caught up as an accomplice. If they find you they are going to find out you don't have an identity. They are going to lock you in a damn cage. How is that for inconvenient?"

"Point taken. Don't yell at me!"

"When the heat is off...we'll contact Mason, okay? He can always find you, right?"

"He usually knows how to," Lady said. "If you get caught, Dean..."

"If we do just...don't worry about it, okay?"

"I was going to say don't drop the soap. With an ass like yours you aren't going to do well in prison," Lady said.

"Bitch," Dean laughed, the sound made Lady grin so hard her cheeks hurt from the strain.

"Take care of yourselves," Lady said. Lady let out a breath after she hung up and grabbed a napkin to begin writing phone numbers she had saved to her cell phone. When she had the ones she needed she shut the phone off and snapped the SIM card before throwing it. Those Winchesters were a pain in her ass. They were lucky she loved them.


	36. Bad Sign, January 2007

**A/N** - _This chapter takes place during the episode 'Born Under a Bad Sign'_

**January 25, 2007**

"Where is your pep, girl?" Ash asked as Lady looked at him with tired eyes.

"My get up and go got up and left," she said with a smile. "Cut me some slack. Give me what you got."

Ash gave her a dirty grin, "Let's head into my office and I'll get to work on that."

Lady returned his smile, "Last guy I got naked I threatened to turn him into a woman."

Ash's smile vanished, "That's just wrong. There is seriously something wrong with you."

"Mmhm," Lady agreed with the same pleasant smile. "Maybe you should help me find some witches so I can vent my anger in another direction."

Ash looked at her apologetically, "Sorry. Things across the board have been real quiet."

Lady let her smile drop, "Yeah, I was afraid of that." It'd been over two months since the black moon and other than Garrett's long-distance attack against her nothing witchy was going on.

"Lady, how long have you been here?" Ellen asked as she came in from the back.

"Just long enough for Ash to tell me he has nothing," Lady said.

"You look beat up," Ellen said.

"Yeah, I'm pretty tired," Lady admitted.

"No, I mean you look like someone kicked your ass," Ellen said. "C'mere, let's put ice on that."

Lady followed Ellen behind the bar, not willing to argue with the woman. She had finished a job a few days ago with Jo, coming to fill in Ellen was just one of the reasons she had stopped at the Roadhouse on her way back to Bobby's. "Yeah, got in a bit of a brawl." Lady took the icepack Ellen offered and put it on her swollen face. Her left eye was bruised and slightly swollen all the way down to her jaw and still hurt like a bitch. "Jo caught wind of a Heeler in Colorado. She wanted to check it out."

Ellen frowned. A Heeler was rather nasty monster. It was able to jump high and long distances, claws and red glowing eyes. Shot to the head or any vital area and it'd die, but they were slippery bastards.

"It's dead, and Jo's already back in Duluth," Lady said. "I stayed a few extra days to check out old ritual spots. I got pissed off when I found nothing and decided to come here."

"Jo got out without a scratch?" Ellen asked in concern.

"She got out with three gorgeous claw marks across her shoulder," Lady said. "She got herself stitched up and everything looks good."

Ellen let out a breath, "I hate to hear it, but thanks," Ellen said. "Think that injury will slow her down?"

"Knowing Jo, probably not," Lady said with a smile, and Ellen nodded. "I think it's about time for me to start running into random dead ends on my witch hunt, I'll see if she wants to tag along for them."

"What if those dead ends turn into something?"

Lady grimaced, "Then I would have led your daughter and myself into certain death since I still haven't figured out how to kill Garrett." She was narrowing down the ritual, without being able to hear his spell she just wasn't sure what he was invoking. It was a work in progress that had been interrupted by Jo's request for back-up.

"So have you been helping Dean in his latest great Sam hunt?" Ellen asked. Lady's confused look made Ellen quickly realize she hadn't heard. "Dean's been calling here every day, Sam ran off again. He's worried sick. I figured you'd be one of the first people he'd call."

Lady shook her head, "Obviously not. I haven't heard from him in a while. He and Sam have been steering clear of me and Bobby." Ellen was already aware of what happened with Gordon shortly after the black moon in November, but Lady wasn't sure how many details she had been given. And considering how loose lips were in the Roadhouse, there were always others that had sharper ears than they should, they couldn't talk about it. She didn't know if Ellen knew about the newest FBI problems the Winchesters were in, and Lady didn't want to mention it. "We're just giving each other space in case something comes back to bite either of us in the ass."

"Well that's stupid," Ellen said. "First rule of combat, divide and conquer. Those boys are your best allies and you are one of theirs. You need to stick together."

"This is just how it worked out," Lady said, keeping the bitterness out of her voice.

Ellen let out a breath, "I have to say I'm worried about Sam. Just found out one of our guys, another hunter by the name of Steve Wendell, was found killed in his home."

Lady's eyebrows rose, "What did it?"

"No one knows, but he was found with a slit throat. He has a lot of buddies trying to figure it out," Ellen said. "Happens, now and then. One of them does a job, and something follows them home to bite their head off while they sleep. Just can never be too careful. What makes me worry more is it was over in Wisconsin. That ain't far from Jo, you know?"

Lady smiled, "Jo is safe. I promise you, nothing we've gone after can follow her home because we kill it, twice. We can put a neon sign over her head declaring her a hunter and nothing will come back to find her."

Ellen returned Lady's smile, "Thanks. You know if anything ever does I'm going to personally take it out of your ass, but thanks."

Lady's smile became forced, "Wow. You have a way of making me feel like I'd rather be surrounded by a coven of witches, you know that?"

Ellen chuckled, "Why don't you head on back? Get a few hours of sleep."

"No, I have Freddie in my truck. I just wanted to stop in before you got busy. I'll call you later."

Lady got into her large pick-up truck, on loan from Mason. It was white, which she hated. It had no personality. It did have heated leather seats, which she adored in the winter. It had four-doors and a large cab, which she liked if only because Freddie took up so much damn room. She felt like a toothpick riding in a shoebox, though. And thinking about that just made her wish she had more time and money to head to New York to go shoe shopping.

Lady and Freddie parked in a secluded spot for a nap in the truck before making their way north to South Dakota. It was nearly six in the morning when her cell phone rang.

"Hey, Jo," Lady answered.

"Hey, where are you?" Jo asked.

"South Dakota, driving to Bobby's right now."

Jo let out a breath, "Have you seen Sam?"

"Winchester? No," Lady said. "I was at the Roadhouse earlier, Ellen told me he ran off again. Or might be missing. Is Dean trying to recruit your help?"

"No," Jo said. "No, Dean just rescued me from him."

Lady's heart was pounding. Not long ago Sam had been begging her to be there for Dean if something happened to him, if he turned into something like Gordon thought he would. "What do you mean?"

"Sam's possessed by a demon," Jo said. "He nearly killed me. He shot Dean!"

"Is Dean okay?" Lady asked, pressing down on the accelerator of the truck.

"Yeah," Jo answered. "Just, let me talk! Okay?" Jo took a calming breath. "The demon in Sam is going after hunters. I was afraid you were on your way home, if you were you would be real close to be attacked. Dean said he thinks the demon is going to South Dakota. You think Bobby's place?"

"I'll call you back," Lady said, dialing Bobby's cell phone. It went straight to voice mail. She tried his house phones next, the calls didn't go through. Lady called Jo back. "Tell me what happened, I'm only an hour from Bobby's right now."

Jo told her that while she was closing up the bar she worked in Sam showed up. They talked for a while before he knocked her out and tied her up. When Dean arrived they found out Sam was possessed and Dean ran after the demon. The demon escaped in Dean's Impala, and Jo had to fish Dean out of the freezing river and dig a slug out of his shoulder. While he was being patched up he told Jo the demon seemed to be going after hunters. His first concern had been Lady, if she was in New Town she wasn't that far at all, but Jo knew she was too far away to be home already.

Lady pulled into Bobby's lot before Jo could finish, moving her pick-up truck to block the large Impala's exit. Freddie was howling and snarling in the backseat. Lady couldn't hear Jo but said into the phone, "He's already at Bobby's. Call Dean."

Lady didn't bother to pull out a weapon, it wasn't like she'd shoot Sam. He had no control over his own body if he was possessed.

Lady entered Bobby's house quickly, Sam was already black-eyed and seething under the devil's trap in the living room. Lady let out a breath of relief and put a hand on Bobby's shoulder, "How'd you know?"

"How'd I know?" Bobby looked at her. "Kid, I've been around a while. And I've known that boy since he was a pup. You think a demon can fool me?"

"Looks like he can make you out of breath," Lady grinned at him.

"He's a heavy son of a bitch," Bobby complained. "Help me get him tied up."

"You should call Dean," Lady said, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket. She saw it was a blocked number and that Dean would be on the other end if she answered. "Never mind, that's him, take it," she tossed her phone to Bobby. "I'll grab the chair."

Lady slid a chair under the devil's trap for the demon as Bobby talked on her phone. He muttered a few words before handing her the phone back. "Dean is on his way, be an hour or so. He wants to talk to this thing, though."

"Good, I can't wait," the demon said through Sam's mouth.

Lady looked at Sam, the black eyes of the demon had retreated and he just looked like Sam. Gentle brown eyes, shaggy brown hair. The only thing that didn't look correct was the wicked twisting smile on his lips. Somewhere in there Sam was trapped by that demon. "Do we really have to leave Sam like this?" Lady asked as Bobby returned with rope.

"Dean wants to take care of it," Bobby said. "Get his other arm, be careful."

Sam looked up at her and stayed still as she tightly wrapped the rope around his wrist and the armchair. "That's right, do it quick. You should be gone before my brother gets here."

"Don't listen to it," Bobby said roughly as he secured Sam's legs.

"You know he just sees you as a useful witch," Sam said. "And all of this is going to be your fault. You couldn't hide Sam anymore. You know how easy it was to find him?" The demon used Sam's laugh to chuckle at her. "So easy it wasn't even fun to wiggle my way in here. You aren't even worth the air you breathe now that you aren't cursed, Lady. Without being able to do that ritual you are useless."

"I hope you enjoy yourself when you get ripped out of that cozy little place," Bobby said in her defense, but Lady was letting it roll off of her, or at least she was trying. The demon hit the nail on the head, when she had spoken to Sam on the phone and told him she couldn't help them any more she had felt useless, she had actually wished to be cursed again, just to help them prevent something like this.

"Hey, Bobby, your wife says hello," Sam said with a sick grin.

Lady put her hands on Bobby's shoulders and pushed him back. Bobby's wife had died years ago. Bobby never spoke of her, and Lady never pried, but John had told her that his wife had been possessed by a demon. Bobby had been forced to kill her, back then he hadn't known any of this. It was what had sent him into this life. "Remember, Sam is in there," Lady said as she held Bobby back from slugging him. "Dean will be here soon and he'll take care of it."

Sam chuckled again, "You have so much hope in Dean, Lady. You must have some serious daddy issues if you fell for Dean knowing what you do."

"You know what, black witches and demons aren't that different," Lady said in a harsh voice. "Neither of you know when to shut the fuck up."

"You know Dean couldn't love something like you, right?" the demon said, and Lady tried to tune it out as she got Bobby into the kitchen and began grabbing jars and vials of things from his collection. The demon continued, more loudly so she could still hear him from the kitchen. "Come on, you are one wart from being something he'll have to kill. He has to use all his energy to keep his brother from becoming evil, he can't waste that time looking over your shoulder, too. Let's face it, you were fun for a time, but he'd kill you the instant he believed you went too far. Sam, on the other hand, I showed Dean a video of his little brother slitting an innocent man's throat and still he wouldn't shoot his own brother. To Dean all you are is a tool. You have uses, but the second you become too greasy to keep in line he's going to throw you in a bucket of gasoline and burn you like the witch you are. He'll be the gentleman you think he is and make it as quick and painless as he can, of course, but he won't think twice about it."

"You ready to see what this witch can do?" Lady asked angrily as she stepped out of the kitchen with a wooden bowl in her hand, her fingers sifting through the powdery ingredients inside.

The demon grinned again. "Sam here thinks the world of you, Lady. He prays for you, did he ever tell you that? He prays for you, that you stay safe, that you and Dean will be together. If he only knew."

Lady waited, and waited, before finally asking, "Knew what?"

"Well, I already told you, didn't I? Dean doesn't care about you, Lady. Dean knows what you are. A witch. A whore. The only reason he was even interested was because you were cursed, dying. Now that isn't the case you aren't nearly as interesting, and not even a bit useful."

Lady held a handful of the powder and the demon struggled as she covered his mouth and nose with her hand until he was forced to take in a breath. His head slumped down immediately.

"What was that?" Bobby asked as she walked away. "Was that…sleep dust?"

"Yeah," Lady said. "Maxine told me how to make it."

Bobby was quiet as Lady put things away and cleaned up her quick spell. It was unnerving how quickly she had managed to mix that up, but he had other thoughts. "So you and..."

"Bobby, don't dig," Lady interrupted. "I haven't seen Sam or Dean since the whole thing with Gordon. There isn't anything there. I don't want anything to be there. And you aren't going to repeat a damn word of it."

Bobby nodded once, "Just demon chatter, kid. Don't get worked up over it."

Lady leaned against the sink as she tried to take Bobby's advice. It was hard, though. Demons lied a lot, but their lies were mixed with harsh truths. She finished cleaning up and helped herself to a hot pocket to quiet her rumbling stomach. She checked on Freddie, he had quieted in the truck but she wasn't ready to let him out. It was too likely he may try to attack the demon inside Sam, and so far Sam seemed like he wasn't physically hurt.

"I think I'll head out," Lady said. Dean couldn't be far now and she wasn't sure anymore that she wanted to see him. She knew the demon's words would be echoing in her mind and she'd be trying to figure out what had been true and what had been said to get under her skin.

"You ain't going to wait?" Bobby asked.

Lady shook her head, "Why should I?"

"I have a demon inside our friend in my living room. Dashing out doesn't seem like the best thing."

Lady shrugged, "I have things to do." Lady paused and frowned at the sounds outside, "Besides, Dean is here. You don't need my help."

Lady stood at the door, knowing she'd be unable to avoid seeing him and wanting to get it over without having Bobby there watching her. Dean stopped in the lot and looked over his car with concern before rushing to the door. "Is he in there?"

"Knocked out," Lady nodded, stepping out of his way. "Sam doesn't look like he was hurt."

"You?" Dean asked, and she froze as he touched her face where her bruise from the hunt a few days ago was. He took his hand back quickly and curled it into a fist. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm made of tough stuff," she said.

"Come on, let's get that thing out of my brother," Dean said.

Lady turned to step aside as his hand reached to touch her waist and lead her inside, "I'm actually out of here."

"Lady," Dean said as she was walking into the lot. "Lady, wait." She looked back at him with wide eyes. "Just...hold on, okay?"

"Sam needs you, Dean," Lady said. She flashed him a big smile as her insides turned and twisted painfully. "I got a lot of things going on, I need to get back to them. Just call me later...if you want."

It wasn't a hard decision, convince Lady to stay for ten minutes or get inside to get that foul evil stinking sulfurous bastard of a demon out of his brother. He stomped into Bobby's house and into his living room. Sam's chin was in his chest. "What'd you do to him?" Dean asked.

"Lady hit him with some sleep dust He should wake up fairly easy," Bobby said.

"Let's see," Dean said, slapping his brother across the face.

Lady got into her truck as Dean and Bobby began their exorcism, behind her was a piece of junk car Dean had driven and the truck was too big to get around it. She had wanted to block the demon from using the Impala as a quick get away if she had to, but her truck had prevented the car Dean drove there from getting into the lot so now it was blocking her in. She turned the key to let the truck warm up. She was going to move the car herself. Dean was rather protective of his vehicle but she doubted he would mind if she just moved the car he had arrived in just three feet back. It wasn't like it was _his_ car. If it bothered him he could kiss her ass because she wasn't going to skip inside and interrupt an exorcism to have him do it. Before she could do anything Freddie began howling and barking furiously again.

"Shit," Lady muttered, as she saw Bobby's house actually shudder. She jumped out of the truck and ran inside.

Once inside she couldn't see Bobby, but the demon was still in Sam and had Dean pinned on the floor, beating the crap out of him. Lady didn't think, just saw herself reacting with her future-sight and followed it. She took quick steps forward and before the demon even realized she was there her foot connected with his chin, knocking him backwards.

"Lady, the demon did a binding link to Sam," Bobby said, throwing himself on Sam to hold him down. "On his arm, how do we get rid of it?"

Lady saw a burned brand on Sam's forearm, a circle with a line through it. Bobby got thrown off and Lady let the demon grab her and wrap an arm around her. "There is no getting rid of it. I'm in here for good," the demon said.

Lady found the rough skin of the mark and bit down while holding his arm in both of her hands. He threw her off the second he realized what she was doing, but she had already tasted blood and broke the skin. The demon howled and fell to its knees before smoking out of Sam's mouth.

Bobby put his hands on Lady and pulled her to her feet as Sam collapsed. "You okay?" He asked. "What the hell did you do?"

Lady spit, "I bit him."

"Sammy?" Dean looked at his dazed brother.

Sam groaned and looked around in shock. "What'd I miss?" he asked, taking deep breaths.

Dean scowled before leaning over and slugging his brother back to the ground. "Son of a bitch."

"C'mon," Bobby said, helping Dean up.

"How'd you know what to do?" Dean asked Lady, using his shirt to dab at his bleeding nose.

Sam was looking at the bite mark she had left that was still bleeding. She shrugged, "Just seemed like the thing to do."

Dean turned to his brother, "Sammy, you okay?"

"Can someone just tell me what happened?" Sam asked as he got to his feet.

"Yeah! I can," Dean said roughly. "You were possessed!"

Sam looked horrified. "Did...did I do all this?" Dean's eyes widened as he nodded. Sam looked at Lady, "Lady, I'm...I'm so sorry, I..."

"This isn't from you," Lady said, pointing at her black eye. "I'll get you something to clean your arm. Uh...sorry for biting you."

Dean let Sam in on what had happened while he was possessed while they got cleaned up and looked after their injuries, and there were a lot of injuries. Sam had teeth marks and a swollen jaw. Dean had a busted lip and a bullet-wound in his left shoulder. Lady let Freddie inside, now that everyone was together and had control of their bodies she didn't want to leave. It had been too long since she'd been able to see her friends, and even if she couldn't meet their eyes she didn't want to leave them.

"I have a bit of a concern," Lady said quietly while Bobby was getting ice for Dean's swelling face. "I was at the Roadhouse last night, Ellen told me a hunter in Wisconsin was killed." Dean's eyes looked away quickly and that told her he was already aware of it. "His buddies are out for blood, everything is covered, right?"

Dean nodded once, "Yeah, yeah, it is."

"Dean..."

"It's covered, Sam," Dean said roughly.

"But..."

"Sam, I've been spending a lot of time at the Roadhouse lately. A lot of them are like Gordon, they only see black or white," Lady said firmly. And they went quiet as Bobby returned. "And we're pretty gray."

Wanting to change the subject away from his brother's possession and the possible ways it would come back to bite them in the ass Dean asked, even when Lady glared at him, "How'd you get the shiner?"

"I fell down some stairs," Lady lied.

"That's cute," Bobby muttered.

"Jo said you had just run a hunt with her," Dean said. "What'd you take out?"

"A heeler," Lady answered.

"Is it dead?" Dean asked.

"I'm alive, aren't I?" Lady answered. "Bobby and I have kept ourselves pretty busy the past few months."

"Any luck tracking Garrett?" Sam asked.

"No," Lady said, looking at her bare wrist. Now that the topic had turned to her Sam had noticed the mark was gone. She let him take her arm in his hands so he could look at the smooth skin. "I feel sort of naked without it. Weird, huh?"

"You had it a long time," Sam said. "How does it feel to be free?"

"Far from free," Lady said, taking her hand back. "I don't think I'll need to track Garrett. Eventually he's going to find me. I'm just trying to prepare myself for when he does."

"Max helping you?" Dean asked.

Lady shook her head sadly, and explained how Max removed the curse. "She couldn't get rid of it, but she took it all herself. I'm hoping she gave me enough information to take Garrett down, but it is still feeling like Mission Impossible right now."

"You know the second you have a plan we're ready," Dean offered.

Lady smiled a bit, "Yeah, I know."

"Bobby, thank you, for everything," Dean said earnestly. "You are the man." Bobby smiled and accepted the compliment. "We should keep moving, though. Everything that's been going on it just isn't safe to stick around. We don't want this coming back to bite you."

Bobby nodded, "Yeah, when you boys do something you don't do it half-assed. That includes getting in trouble."

"If you guys want you can hole up at my place," Lady offered. It wasn't a great offer, considering her place was barely habitable during the winter, but it was secluded and safe.

Dean shook his head, "With all the trouble we have we can't risk it going to hit you or the Masons. Especially after this."

"Good point," she said. "Well, Bobby, I'm heading out, too. I'll call you later." Lady gave Bobby a brief hug as she and Freddie followed the brothers out.

"Nice truck," Dean said as they walked into the lot.

"It's Mason's," Lady said. "On loan until I find something I like."

"You aren't going to get another Beetle, are you?" Dean teased.

"You know what, my Beetle had character," Lady said defensively.

"Lady, you are a character," Dean said happily, and she laughed. "It's been a crazy few months, hasn't it?"

She nodded, "Yeah, you have no idea. But it's been good to see you guys again."

"Hey, how about I get rid of this stolen car?" Sam offered. "I'll find somewhere to ditch it and you can come pick me up."

"Good idea," Dean said.

"Bye, Lady," Sam said, giving Lady the best hug she had ever had. There was a lingering smell of sulfur on him, but she didn't care. "We'll see you again soon, I hope."

When Sam got into the car Dean took a step toward her. "You know, my face hurts like hell, but I feel like if I don't kiss you I might turn into a woman."

Lady's heart thudded as he bent his neck to touch his lips to hers, and she remembered to be gentle against his swollen lips and jaw from the beating the demon had given him earlier. It was hard to pull away. "Manhood in tact?" she asked, licking her lips as they tingled.

"Mmhm," Dean said, his hands comfortably resting on her waist. He let out a breath, "The only sleep I've had the past few days is from when I was knocked unconscious, otherwise I'd prove it to you. Between being knocked out, shot and having the crap beaten out of me, this didn't turn out so bad. I've been thinking about you a lot." Dean looked into her eyes, fatigue from the past week hitting him harder than a bottle of whiskey would have.

"You know, without being able to cloak you guys I'm pretty much useless to you," Lady said, staring back into his eyes and wondering if the demon had been telling the truth about that.

"You kidding?" Dean scoffed.

Lady shrugged, "I guess I am an easy source of entertainment, but I tend to get on peoples nerves after a while."

Dean grinned as he pulled her into a hug, "You owe me a vacation." His hand moved gently down her bruised face and brought it up for another kiss. "Now get this eyesore out of my way," he said, rapping his knuckles on the truck.

"I'm never going to have a vehicle that meets your expectations, will I?" Lady asked as he walked to his car.

"There is only one car that does," Dean said as he patted his beloved Impala. He gave her the best smile he could manage with his beaten face, "Call me when you have Garrett."

Lady nodded as she climbed into her truck, Freddie was already waiting in the passenger seat.


	37. A New Vision, February 2007

**February 1, 2007**

Freddie whimpered and as if he was embarrassed hung his head. "You should be embarrassed," Lady scolded him as she tugged his leash. He was on a leash as punishment. He had woken her up in the middle of the night, nearly scared her to death. He was barking and howling as if someone was gutting him. "This is what happens when you try to eat a porcupine!" she snapped at him and he whined in pain. Lady let out a breath and rubbed his neck. Freddie hadn't let her even try to get the quills out. There were half a dozen in his snout, but worse were the few lodged in his mouth.

Thomas sighed as he looked at Freddie. "Seriously?"

"That's what I said!" Lady threw her arms up.

"Okay, big guy, let me..." Freddie snarled and Lady grabbed onto his collar. She saw Freddie wouldn't actually do anything, he just really didn't want to be touched, however the snarl was enough to spook Thomas. "Let's get you something for the pain," Thomas said gently.

Lady stayed next to Freddie, rubbing his back soothingly as his breathing calmed down and the painful whimpers quieted. "I don't think he's going to be able to eat for a few days," Thomas said as he looked down Freddie's throat. "A few of these are far back there. You find the porcupine?"

"No," Lady said.

"Is he up on rabies shots?" Thomas asked.

Lady's eyes widened, "I don't know, that's something I ask you about."

"I'll check his record," he said as he reached in to get another quill out of Freddie's tongue.

Lady felt Freddie take painful breaths and whimper, the sound made her stomach clench and she curled her fingers into his thick fur. She was coming down from the adrenaline now, her body feeling worn out and numb. She closed her eyes to his whimpers and focused on rubbing his back. "I'm here for you pal," she said, her own voice sounded strange.

When Lady opened her eyes she wasn't in Thomas's office with Freddie. Her eyes shifted over the new location, a bedroom. Soft pastel colors, the only light coming from a small plug-in nightlight. There was a woman on the bed dressed in an over-sized t-shirt and nothing else. She was silently watching someone, and a shadow was approaching her. Lady felt her heart stutter as something with red-raw skin and claw-like hands approached the woman. The woman greeted the thing warmly, pulling it into bed with her, letting it ravish her without once crying at its grotesque appearance. Cries of passion rose quickly, and when it was over the woman was on her back staring blankly at the ceiling, dead.

"...I'm a little concerned about the ones in his mouth. But it's your call, Lady."

Lady blinked as she returned to Thomas's office, "Huh?"

"He chewed some of these off, I can't get them out without making a few incisions," Thomas said. "Either way, he's going to need to stay in the kennels for a few days to make sure he doesn't get an infection. At least that is what I would tell anyone else."

Lady let out a breath and buried her face in Freddie's fur. She had just received a vision, a vision that included a monster she had no clue how to handle, and now her dog was not only injured but Thomas recommended him being locked up. Freddie was a good dog, he'd stay locked in a small car with her for days at a time, but without her he'd tear up Thomas' kennels in a day or two. "Thomas, I have to leave."

Thomas frowned, "I don't think you can take him. He's going to be fine, Lady, I'll make sure of it, but he needs at least a few days of care."

Lady looked sadly at her dog. She wanted to be mad, but shouting at him wouldn't make either of them feel better. "I really hope you feel stupid," she said as she said goodbye to Freddie and hooked her charm bracelet on his collar. "Be good."

"I'll take good care of him," Thomas promised.

That evening she was at Bobby's, telling him about her vision and tapping her foot anxiously as she waited for him to tell her what it was.

"You aren't even going to try and guess?" Bobby asked, walking slowly around his living room looking over his books.

"Tell me in two seconds or I'm beating it out of you," Lady said. Hyper and anxious with the vision playing over and over in her head. "I'm tired of watching monster sex, I want to stop this."

"Okay," Bobby said. "It's an incubus."

"Oh," Lady said.

"A type of one, anyways," Bobby continued.

"I don't need the history. How do I kill it?" Lady asked.

"You don't," Bobby said as he pulled out a few daggers. "Silver does the trick, but you need help."

"Fine, lets go," Lady said, clapping her hands and snapping her fingers to make him hurry up.

Lady left Mason's truck at Bobby's and rode shotgun in Bobby's car. Bobby drove while Lady navigated, on the way he explained more about the creature. "There are several versions of these things out there. The one you saw is probably the oldest version. Not really a demon. Related to wraiths. Hard as hell to track down because they can put the illusion that they are something else in a persons head, but they have to be fairly close to do it. You probably saw its true form because you were all the way in North Dakota. Where is this happening anyway?"

"We'd find out faster if you let me drove," Lady said. Bobby, typical man, wouldn't give up his spot behind the wheel until he was about to fall asleep. "You know I don't get a map along with these things. We're going the right way, south is the most important direction right now."

"There is one big problem here, kid," Bobby continued. "As soon as you are within range of an incubus, there ain't much you can do. They mess with your head."

"Then how do we kill it?" Lady asked.

"I do," Bobby said. "Fortunately an incubus doesn't have much power over a man."

"Oh," Lady said shortly. And then it hit her, "Ooohhh. So, I get in the same room with this thing and I'll be the one getting banged to death. Got it."

"Glad you are catching up," Bobby said with a roll of his eyes. "Idjit."

Lady took over driving when Bobby got too tired, hyped up from the vision playing in her head she didn't feel the need to sleep. Bobby had trouble sleeping in the passenger seat as she made his car's speedometer tip over a hundred but once she had the wheel she wasn't giving it up until she finally had to stop for gas. The next evening they were in El Paso, Texas and Lady was getting jittery as the vision played more urgently in her mind.

Bobby parked his car outside of a nightclub. "This is where it was?"

Lady shook her head, "No, this is just where she is right now." She frowned. If they wanted to get rid of the incubus they had to wait until the victim went to where Lady knew it would attack. She wouldn't make the same mistake she made in Oregon.

"You wanna go in and watch her?" Bobby asked.

Lady shook her head, "I don't think I should interfere. We'll just hang close by."

"You know these things are hard as hell to track," Bobby said. "They only attack their victims when they are alone, don't always leave a body and if they do it appears to be from natural causes. Heart giving out, or something."

Lady and Bobby watched the time, Lady switched from tapping her foot to drumming on her knees with her thumbs to tapping the glass of the window with her fingernails. Just when Bobby felt like he was about to snap Lady went still, "She's leaving. Moving. That-a-way," Lady pointed.

"It's a one way street, I can't go that-a-way!" Bobby snapped.

"It's not my fault that's the way she's going!" Lady snapped back. The clock said it was one in the morning. The way the vision felt it seemed like they had at least another hour. Usually her visions were taken care of by now, but this one she'd have to ride out the anxious feeling to the near end.

Bobby parked his car outside a house in a nice residential area. The woman was in the house, and her bedroom was on a ley line. That was fortunate for her, she would be saved from an early death by orgasm.

Lady felt like she couldn't stand it anymore as the vision drew nearer, "I think you need to go in," she said to Bobby.

"Got it," Bobby said, getting out of the car. "Stay here, no matter what," he ordered.

Lady let out a breath of relief as the vision stopped playing in her head. Bobby had taken her order and his action was going to prevent the woman from dying. Lady trembled with fatigue, but she stayed awake to see Bobby running out of the house five minutes later. He got in the car and punched the gas.

"What?" Lady asked, looking behind them.

"I sort of ran into a naked woman's bedroom, it didn't go over very well!" Bobby snapped at her. "And uh..."

Lady forgot about her fatigue and screeched, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DIDN'T KILL IT!"

"I got away! The ugly bastard was quick!" Bobby shouted back.

Lady slammed her head back against her seat, "Oh fuck."

Bobby checked them into a local motel and Lady went to bed. The next day around noon Lady went back to the woman's home to check on her and get some information while Bobby researched the thing they now had to find the hard way.

The woman was about Lady's age with dark brown hair and rich blue eyes. She still looked shaken and it didn't appear she had gone to sleep. "Hello, Miss Richards, I'm here regarding the call to the police you made early this morning," Lady said gently. "May I come in?"

"Are you an officer?" the woman asked, already stepping aside so Lady could enter.

"Not exactly," Lady said. "Not at all, actually. I'm more like a private investigator…yeah, we'll go with that."

"I don't understand," the woman said.

Lady smiled as she watched the future with every thing she almost said and found something that looked promising, "Something weird happened, right? Not just a guy coming into your bedroom with a gun, something else."

Bobby looked up tiredly when Lady returned to the motel a few hours later. "Get anything?" he asked, closing a book he had been looking through without success.

"A bit," Lady said. "Sherry told me she was pretty buzzed and her ex-boyfriend showed up, tried to make-up with her. You showed up, stop him with his hand down her undies, and he jumped out her window. She called him, he said she was nuts because he had been with his new woman all night."

Bobby nodded, "You knew that. The incubus shows up as someone they want to see, flees if anyone else shows up. Runs pretty damn fast, too."

"I think I know this things flavor, though," Lady said. "Sherry's been pretty much abstinent for about two months since her boyfriend dumped her. Pretty, petite, mid-twenties, dark hair..."

Bobby groaned, "You think you are going to bait this thing? Lady, they only need to feed once a month, if that. And there are a lot of women that fit that description."

"What have you found?" she asked smugly.

"I actually did find a bit," Bobby said. "Past several months three different women have gone missing. No bodies found, so this thing is cleaning up after itself. Or it is just random women disappearing. Blonde and two brunettes, mid-twenties."

"Single?"

"One was married," Bobby said.

"She definitely wasn't getting laid then," Lady smirked.

"Best part, two of the women were last seen leaving the same place," Bobby said. "Little place called the Yellow Rose Nightclub. Couple of the other ones had visited it least once before."

Lady nodded, "Where I originally sensed the woman."

"Where are you going?" he asked as Lady reached for the door.

She flashed him a smile, "I got to get dressed up if I'm going out tonight."

**February 3, 2007. El Paso, Texas  
**

"You sure you are up for a job?" Dean asked, for the tenth time.

"Yes, Dean," Sam said. After they had gotten some rest and made sure their tracks were covered they had returned to El Paso to get to work on the hunt that had been interrupted by Sam's demonic possession. "Now four missing women, they all had the same place in common."

Dean nodded, "Crappy nightclub, yeah, I know. Let's check it out."

They gained access to the club before it opened, scanning the whole place for EMF and coming up empty handed. "You know what the next thing we have to do is," Sam said as they went to find a motel.

"We hang out in the parking lot and scope out suspicious lurkers," Dean said. "If this pattern stays the same someone is going to go missing again soon."

"We still have no clue what we're dealing with," Sam said flatly. "It might not even be something in our neighborhood."

"We need something to do," Dean said. "Come on, we've hung around towns for less."

"Okay," Sam said, not willing to press his brother too far so soon.

They got a motel, Dean paid in cash for two nights. With how things were going, being hunted by the FBI and possibly other hunters he wasn't going to risk using anything that could be traced. Even his stolen credit cards. It meant a crap load of work hustling pool and playing poker, but it eased his mind a bit.

That night the Impala was parked outside the Yellow Rose Nightclub, even across the street they could hear the steady pulse of bass from dance tracks playing. They watched people gaining entrance, exiting, people loitering in the parking lot, the shadows. They watched anything and everything they could without stepping into the club. While watching out the front window of the car they didn't see a dark figure stepping up behind their car and they both jumped and reached for their pistols when the back door behind Dean opened and someone got in their car.

"Jesus! Bobby, you scared the hell out of us," Sam gasped and laughed. "What are you doing here?"

"I bet I'm doing the same thing as you two," Bobby said. "Actually a bit relieved to see you two here, I wouldn't mind some extra back-up. From what I've figured out with this things pattern it's going to snatch up another woman any day."

"So there is a job here," Dean said, sounding relieved. "You know what we're dealing with here?"

Bobby's eyes widened, "I think you should follow me back to my motel."

Bobby got out of their car and they watched until they saw his car pull out. Bobby sent Lady a text to end her night early and meet him back at the motel.

Dean and Sam sat on the available chairs as Bobby sat on the edge of his bed. "You know what we're dealing with here?" Dean asked.

"What do you know so far?" Bobby asked.

"We've looked back far enough to find four women have gone missing," Sam said. "There are a few others that don't quite fit the description, but if it might be closer to eight in the past year."

Bobby nodded, that was more than he'd been able to find out earlier in the day. "Not bad. I'd like to see your notes."

"Sure," Sam nodded. "But can you tell us what we're looking for?"

"I'm trying to track an incubus," Bobby admitted bitterly.

Dean nodded, immediately impressed. Tracking down those suckers was near impossible. It was hard as hell to figure out what kind of prey they were looking for, and they only came if their prey was alone. Killing the suckers was easy. Finding it was the hard part. "How close are you to it?"

Bobby shook his head, "I hope we're pretty far from it."

There was a knock on the door only an instant before it swung open. Lady walked in, her eyes already bright and a large smile on her face as she saw the Winchesters. She was dressed in a short skirt, high heels and a skimpy top. She immediately wrapped her arms around Sam to give him a hug, "Hey, big guy! Oh! I've missed you!"

Dean looked at Bobby with wide eyes as Lady let Sam go and wrapped her arms around his middle for a hug that he had a hard time returning. "You are using Lady as bait?"

"It was her idea," Bobby said, glaring at her.

"Well if someone had killed the incubus when I knew where it was, we wouldn't need to use anyone as bait now, would we?" she asked cheerily.

Bobby let out a breath as Lady crossed the room to look into the bathroom mirror, running her fingers through her hair and checking her make-up. "I found the boys scoping out the nightclub. They're looking into the same thing."

"How'd you guys figure it out?" she asked.

Sam shrugged, "We were investigating it before, well…before I got possessed. We came back down to finish."

"How did you get into this?" Dean asked.

Bobby pointed at Lady, "Lady had a vision. We kept it from feeding last night, but now we have no way to track it."

"We have me," Lady said brightly.

Bobby turned to Dean, "Maybe you can tell her she's insane."

"You are insane," Dean said flatly. "You have no idea how nasty these things are. There is a tone of lore on them, different versions, they are dangerous. This isn't a witch-hunt, Lady."

Lady rolled her eyes, "You can't beat your chest and say 'you can't do this.' Well, you could, but it'll be about as effective as Bobby doing it and only slightly more amusing. You'd have a better chance of asking Sam to talk sense into me."

Bobby and Dean both looked to Sam, "Get her to stop this. There are other ways to track this thing than her putting her ass on the line," Bobby said.

Sam made an uncertain face. "You are not okay with this," Dean snapped at his brother.

"We've gotten help from less reliable people," Sam said. "I don't like it, but…she understands it. And she has three of us watching out for her."

"And Sam, so reasonable, thank you," Lady said as she sat on one of his legs and put an arm around his shoulders. She looked at Bobby with wide eyes, "Everything is going to be fine. I can see this thing coming, you are next door and you'll hear if I get in trouble and I'll know I'm in trouble before trouble happens. It is perfect, Bobby. Please…don't worry so much."

Bobby shook his head, "Yeah, guess we'll have to hope so.

Dean rubbed his forehead, "Well, since we're here, how would you like some extra back-up?"

"I'd like it," Bobby admitted.

Lady stifled a yawn and crossed the room to open a pizza box. She grabbed a cold piece of pizza and jumped to sit on the bed next to Bobby, bouncing both of them. For a while she let the men compare notes and tactics, Dean finally warming up to the idea of using Lady as bait compared to letting someone else die. Lady painted her finger and toenails and gave any insight she had when the opportunity struck but was mostly quiet.

"I look up incubus or succubus and I get a bunch of porn sites," Sam sighed as he closed his laptop.

Lady smirked, "Well, sex is popular. Even when dealing with magic. Especially when dealing with magic, actually. You would not believe how many rituals can be spiced up by a little nookie."

"Can you keep the Dr. Ruth down, please?" Bobby asked.

"Sorry, Bobby," Lady said.

"Some versions of the incubus have it as showing up in dreams or nightmares," Sam said. "Are we..."

"I had the vision, the woman wasn't being attacked by a dream," Lady said.

"Be nice if it was," Bobby muttered. "I probably wouldn't have to worry about you then."

Lady thought about it and shrugged, "But we're lucky we have something to stick a knife into."

"What do you mean you wouldn't have to worry about her?" Sam asked, confused.

"Oh, uh..." Bobby looked at Lady.

"I can't dream," Lady said. "Haven't since I got the mark on my wrist. Haven't started back up since it got taken away, either."

Dean and Sam looked at each other and at her, "Seriously?" Dean asked.

She shrugged, "Yeah. Just another weird thing in my brain. Probably for the best, to be honest."

Dean nodded, he had enough nightmares to agree with that. The garnet charm she had given him seemed to help when he remembered to take it out of his car, but he still had some weird dreams.

"So where is Freddie?" Sam asked when the details were worked out.

Lady scowled, "The idiot tried to eat a porcupine and so help me if you laugh I will stab you," Lady glared at Dean. She frowned, "I had to leave him at the vet."

"Sorry. I know you don't like being without him," Sam said.

"Smells better without him," Dean smirked, and Lady didn't return it. "How'd you get that dog anyway?"

Lady looked down as she checked her fingernails, "I rescued him from being turned into a monster. He was supposed to be turned into a familiar, a black dog. He was just a puppy then."

Dean frowned now. He understood it, she had rescued Freddie like she had been rescued in a way. But at the same time, "Is that even safe?"

Lady met his eyes, "It probably wasn't safe for Bobby to keep a black witch alive, either, but that turned out okay."

Dean looked away, he understood it more, now. Freddie was meant to be something evil, a black dog. Lady had been working towards becoming a black witch. But both of them had beat the odds against them and survived, even thrived. "Sorry."

"I think it's about time for me to be alone. Goodnight," she said.

"You are so smooth," Sam said once Lady had left.

"Eat me," Dean snapped. "Okay, we'll hang out until Lady is in the clear."

The night dragged on, the men playing cards as they listened through the thin wall that separated Lady and Bobby's rooms. There wasn't a sound, not a peep, the whole time.

Sam sighed and rubbed his tired eyes as he began to count the minutes until dawn, "She hasn't even got up to go to the bathroom."

"Maybe one of us should take a look inside," Dean suggested.

"If there was someone in there with her, we'd hear it," Sam said.

"You don't know that."

Sam glared at his brother, "Yeah, actually, I do."

Dean was confused for a moment, and then understanding crossed his face and he chuckled. "It's not me over there, not the same thing." His laughter died quickly at the disapproving glare from Bobby, quickly making him remember that Lady had been with Bobby for several years as a friend and maybe even like a daughter to the old man. "Sorry," he muttered and looked away from Bobby.

"Maybe this place isn't secluded enough," Sam suggested. "We aren't exactly sure where the other women went missing from."

"This is what we have to work with," Dean said. "It's just as likely that this thing found someone else."

**A/N** - _Just want to say a big thank you to Anonymous. I love reading your reviews! I'm tickled that you are catching a lot of things that I wasn't sure were coming out, so I'm glad the emotions and things I wanted to hint at but not be too obvious about at the same time are coming through in the writing. And I, too, enjoy screwed up characters. And as much as I loooove the Winchesters, one of the reasons I love them is because they take a beating, go to hell and back, and just don't stop. So, staying true to the story so far and the SPN canon, I assure you that yes, their pain and suffering will continue. But I plan to give them as many rewards for what they do as possible. And a quick note, we see 'domesticated' Dean in S6, and see that he is a rather sweet guy. And Dean has always seemed like the rather playful sort, and I enjoy writing him in that mood._


	38. Incubus Part 1, February 2007

**February 4, 2007. El Paso, Texas**

When morning came the brothers rented the only available room several doors down from Lady's and got some sleep. In the afternoon they gathered to iron out more details, have a bite to eat and check their weapons and wait for Lady to get ready to go out again.

"Bobby, can you tie this in the back?" she asked, holding a red halter top to her front and turning to show the ties that were dangling down her back.

Dean had seen more interesting parts of Lady than her bare back, but it had been a long time. He forced himself to look at his pistol and continued loading silver bullets.

"Lady, is this really necessary?" Sam asked.

Bobby finished tying the strap across her back and Lady turned to face him. "Hey! You were on the Lady-bait train last night!"

"No, I am! I mean…this?" Sam motioned towards her skimpy clothes.

Lady grinned, "Give me a chance to dress up and I'm all over it, Sam-my-man."

Sam looked skeptical, "You enjoy looking like…" Sam rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"A tramp?" Dean finished.

"Hey!" Bobby snapped.

Lady just snorted a laugh and leaned against the table he was sitting at. "I'm trying to be the best bait I can be. Through years of studying the small male mind I have discovered several tricks to reel them in. This outfit alone is guaranteed to give me a few phone numbers, and hopefully a sex-demon."

"Incubuses don't…" Dean began.

"Incubi," Sam corrected.

"What?" Dean snapped at his brother.

"The plural for an incubus is incubi," Sam said.

"Who cares?" Dean snapped. "The thing isn't human, it doesn't think like your average guy."

"I watched the thing in my head for a long time, it's a guy," Lady assured Dean. "Come on, I'm practically wrapping myself up for this thing and all I'm missing is the Christmas bow." Lady looked thoughtful, "Hm, a bow would look really cute, actually."

"Just remember this thing isn't interested in the wrapping, Lady," Sam said.

Lady grinned, "Oh, come on, Sam, unwrapping the present is half the fun!"

"And will take two seconds," Dean said. Before he could prove his point by tugging one of the strings of her top she moved away from him. "Do you have a weapon on you?"

"Of course," Lady said, sitting on the bed and pulling on knee-high boots. Once they were on she tucked a silver dagger inside the right one.

"Well, no sense waiting around. Let's go," Dean said, tucking his loaded pistol into his jacket.

"I'm not ready," Lady said, getting up and walking to the mirror. Fixing her hair and applying make-up took an additional hour.

As Dean drove to the club he told himself it wouldn't be so bad. Sit at the bar, have a few beers while looking for something he could stab or shoot. And then he actually got inside the club.

The pounding bass drowned out all but the loudest voices, the drinks were ten dollars a piece, and even the scantily clad women couldn't distract him from his frustration of the whole thing. He and his brother had been researching the hunt for days before making it into town and Lady got a vision that told her exactly what they were hunting. It seemed a little unfair. They had done a lot of legwork, but now they were relying on Lady whose ass was hanging out and on the line to pull in this monster.

He went to the bar, the music muted enough that it didn't hurt his ears and he had a good vantage point of most of the club. The lights were dark and there were flashing strobe lights on the dance floor. Sam and Lady sat on either side of him.

"You two do not fit in," Lady said. And they didn't. Dean was in his brown leather jacket with a plain black t-shirt underneath with worn-out jeans and his usual biker boots. Sam had worn-out sneakers, comfortable jeans and a plaid button-down shirt over a white t-shirt. Lady had to tip the bouncer an extra fifty dollars just to let them in with her.

Lady fit in by standing out. She was wearing black knee-high boots with spiked heels, a tiny black skirt and a red halter top that left her back and midriff exposed and would come undone with a tug of a string. Her black hair was down and touching her bare shoulders, framing her pretty face that was painted to perfection.

"Ready, Sam?" Lady asked.

"For what?" he asked as he paid for the first round of beers.

"Get out there," she nodded toward the dance floor.

Sam laughed and shook his head, "Yeah, I don't think so."

"C'mon! Haven't you ever gone fishing before?" she asked, and he looked confused. "The best bait is one that wiggles a bit." Sam rolled his eyes as she wiggled her butt in his direction. "Please?" she pouted.

"No," he laughed. "We're here to watch."

"Fine," she said, her eyes glinting wickedly.

Sam and Dean both watched as she moved into the flashing lights of the dance floor and disappeared in the crowd. Dean was liking this less, now he couldn't even see her to tell if anyone was stalking her.

"You okay with this?" Sam asked.

"No," Dean admitted. "But we need to do it."

Sam cleared his throat as he caught sight of Lady dancing to fast hip hop with a man, "I mean, are you okay with that."

Dean's face was hard, only seeing Lady for a moment before other people blocked her from view again. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" He lifted his beer, furious that it was almost empty already. He could manage a few and still be more than ready to work, and sitting at the bar without at least drinking made him look suspicious. The people on the dance floor shifted and Lady had found a new dance partner already. He finished the last of his beer without a thought and waived to the bartender for another one. "That's not even dancing," Dean let out a frustrated breath as he dug out cash.

"Nope, that's dry humping," Sam said flatly while turning to hide the smirk that was forming. He didn't enjoy seeing his brother get worked up, but when it came to Lady he found it amusing. He thought it would be so much easier if Dean just gave in and went to her, and it was almost hilarious that they were hunting the one thing where his brother not only could not have fun with Lady but he was also practically useless. Lady was prepared enough that if their plan worked out he wouldn't even get a shot at the monster himself.

For nearly half an hour they lost Lady completely until she appeared at the other side of the bar taking shots with a few different guys, laughing and chatting happily. By then Dean looked close to actually losing his temper so Sam got out of his seat and went to bring Lady back to them.

"Having fun?" Dean asked with a forced smile.

Lady shrugged as she leaned against the bar, there were no stools available to sit in.

"Come on, this isn't fun for her," Sam said, trying to give his brother the image that Lady wasn't enjoying herself as much as she looked like she was.

"You know, there is nothing wrong with going out and having a little fun," Lady said, crushing Sam's plan to calm his brother down. "Even while you are working." Lady patted Dean's shoulder, "Right?"

Dean tensed as the shoulder she patted was the one he had been shot in a week ago and was still rather tender, "Right," he nodded. "Don't forget why you are here."

Lady studied his face, looking perplexed. Then understanding seemed to show, "I get it, not your scene. What if..." Lady was rubbing his shoulder now and he couldn't hide the pain in his face. "What's...oh, I'm sorry, I forgot," she said, moving her hand across his back to rub his other shoulder. "I'm sorry the monsters had to pick a place with a live DJ that was really into Jay Z."

"How late do we need to stay?" Sam asked. If he couldn't get Dean calmed down maybe he could at least brighten his mood that they didn't have to stay any longer.

Lady grabbed Dean's left hand and squinted at his watch, "At least one more hour. I say we stay until closing, no reason to do this half-assed."

"You know half your ass is hanging out," Dean said.

She smiled at him while running a hand over her skirt to make sure. "No it isn't. Do I look okay? The scar really bothers me." she said, looking over herself and her hand moving to cover the scar from the bullet Roy had shot her with months ago. It was old but paler than the skin around it.

It didn't take much to make her look appetizing to Dean, "You look fine," he said casually, barely giving her a glance.

Lady gave him a quick bump with her hip, "Thanks. You'd look great if you'd smile." Dean gave her a forced smile. "I take that back. Well, I'm off to earn more free drinks." Lady went back to the dance floor with a slight wave.

Lady admittedly enjoyed the attention she got. It was almost too easy to attract guys, and it was even a bit thrilling to be able to get whoever she wanted to dance with her with just a teasing smile. So often when she worked she had to stay low-key, be forgettable and blend in. Standing out, wrapping people around her finger, drawing in half the men and hopefully a sex-demon to her presence…it was fun. If she was going to do the job, she was going to do it right. But she was eager to finish the job. Sam and Dean were in town, but not for long. And Dean was in a foul mood that made her want to crawl into his lap and make him feel better.

The pulsing bass was only fueling Dean's frustration at the whole situation. He watched Lady slither against half a dozen men before a few led her to the bar again.

"Dean, you look ready to punch someone," Sam said anxiously. At first it had been amusing but now he was concerned.

"I'm focused on the job," Dean argued without looking at his brother.

"So am I. The only person stalking Lady tonight is you," Sam said.

Dean barely heard his brother, he was watching Lady while she waited for a drink to be poured. The man she was with was leaning towards her and she turned her head so all he did was kiss her cheek. Lady was saying something to him, leaning away from him while his hand was on her shoulder. "It's been an hour, we should go," Sam said. Dean nodded and got up.

Dean stepped between Lady and the guy who was paying for her drink, "We're out of here, let's go."

"Hey, man," the guy nudged Dean aside to hand Lady her drink. "She's with me."

Dean turned and said, "No, she's with me."

"You have a boyfriend?" the guy looked a little hurt by that information.

"No," Lady said quickly. "Can't I finish my drink?"

"No," Dean said. "We're leaving."

"You can leave without me. I'll get a cab," she said.

"Hey, bro, she wants to hang out with me," the man said happily.

"Fine, whatever," Dean said, throwing his hands up and walking away. "C'mon, Sammy."

"Maybe I should stay," Sam said as they walked outside into the cool night and he wished he had brought his jacket.

"Yeah, because you were having a blast," Dean said sarcastically.

"I was watching you to make sure you didn't knock someone out," Sam said. "You know what, this was amusing before, it isn't anymore. Whatever you and Lady are you need to figure it out because it is messing with your head."

"I know exactly what..." Dean stopped as Lady came out of the club. "Change your mind?"

"I don't know if I want to be in a car with you, you are scaring me," Lady said as she wrapped her arms around herself. "Holy fuck it got cold."

"Let's just go," Dean said.

"What's wrong?" Lady asked. "What did I miss?"

"Nothing," Dean said sharply.

"Are you so uptight about your music that you couldn't handle a few hours of that?" Lady asked.

"It would be nice if you treated this like a job instead of a playground," Dean said.

Lady raised her eyebrows, "I'm serious about this hunt, Dean, I'm trying do everything the last woman who was nearly killed by this thing did to give myself a chance at drawing this thing to me so it doesn't go after someone else. You guys go screw yourselves, I'm going to find me an incubus." Lady threw up her middle finger as she went back into the club.

"We should..." Sam began but Dean was already going to the parking lot.

Lady stayed another hour, but her mood had soured. It was lonely and even a bit scary knowing the Winchesters weren't there. After everything they'd been through together she wished they'd give her a bit more credit. Sure, they'd witnessed her get into some of her worst jams. But they'd also saw some of her better triumphs, too.

Lady stepped outside of the club and shivered at the cold gust of wind that hit her. She pulled her cell phone out of her shirt and was working on dialing a cab when a big black car pulled up. She hurried and got into the warm Impala.

"We may be in Texas but it is February," Dean said as she rubbed the goosebumps from her arms.

"Unless you are in a better mood you can just drop me off and I'll walk," Lady said, only saying it because he looked like he was in a better mood. Still bitter, but not angry. "Or at least don't talk until we get to the motel because I really don't want to walk."

"Have fun?" he asked in a tense voice. Almost ready to pull over and let her walk the mile or so in the fifty degree weather if she had.

"Not really," Lady said. "And faking it all night has left me pretty worn out."

Dean was quiet until he pulled up to the motel. Lady turned to look at him sharply a few times as he was about to speak, her hand going to the door handle and going back before glaring at him. "What?"

"I haven't said anything," he said.

"You are about to but every time I move you stop and it's confusing me," Lady said.

Dean turned to look at her and even as her eyes grew wide he asked, "Just what the hell am I to you?"

Lady looked away and ran a hand through her hair but didn't try to escape the Impala. "Jesus Christ," she muttered as she realized his bad mood. It hadn't been the music or her being bait, though that possibly contributed to it. Jealousy. She'd rubbed up against probably twenty men or more and while she partly enjoyed it, dancing and flirting was fun, she would have been happier lounging in her trailer with Freddie. She sort of understood his mood toward Roy, but now just for dancing? "Dean, I thought we were both pretty clear. Months ago."

"That's all there is for you? A lot has happened since then," he said.

Lady pulled at her lip with her teeth, "I have fun with you, Dean. And don't twist my words, I'm not saying I'm messing with you or trying to in any way." She rubbed her forehead as she had trouble finding a way out, but there wasn't one. She knew how she felt for Dean. She knew she liked being with him, and wished she could be with him more often. And it wasn't just the sex. Everything they did together, from arguing to joking around, she enjoyed. And she had missed it.

"Just tell me that's all there is for you," Dean said, impatient and needing to have it over with. When he had left the club he had dropped Sam off and gone back to wait for Lady, all he could think about was what Sam had said. It was messing with his head in a way he did not like. He just needed her to tell him there was nothing else there. If she said differently he didn't know what the hell to do. She had been a rare constant in his life for nearly a year now. A constant sketchy little thing that popped in and out, but when she was there he enjoyed it. When she wasn't he missed it. "That's all I need to hear. I'm a big boy, I don't need you to sugar coat it."

"Of course that's not all there is...Dean, I am going to get out of the car," she said calmly. "It isn't because I'm avoiding the conversation, it's just because it is a bad time. I'm trying to seduce a freaking incubus and I have a lot of crap in my head. I'd appreciate it if you just let me go to my motel room alone so I can go to bed and wait for a monster to try and sex me up instead if holding me in this car." Dean reached across the seat as her hand went to the door handle and pulled her across the seat to him so he could kiss her. The sweet taste of alcohol on her tongue mixed with her own familiar taste and took away the bitter taste of beer he had in his own mouth. She kissed him back, but made sure it didn't last too long. Nothing more than a goodnight kiss. "And this isn't helping the job either," she said, gently pushing him away but letting her fingertips linger on his neck.

Dean watched as her short skirt swayed back and forth as she walked with those high heels. He never wanted a monster to enter a woman's motel room so he could kill it so badly in his life. He ran his hand through his hair as he let out a breath, trying to calm his nerves. It was a bad time. Adrenaline was running high from the hunt, he had been on edge most of the day, but he knew he wouldn't change his mind. He'd been without Lady for months, dreaming about her and longing for her. Lady had been a spark of interest since he had met her. Maybe trying for something real was stupid, for either of them, but he wanted it. He didn't think he had ever wanted something so badly in his life. It was a relief just to know there was something there, he'd figure out what to do with it later.

Lady leaned against the door of her motel room, slowly pulling off her boots as her mind raced while her lips still tingled, setting her silver knife on the nightstand. Her fate wasn't sealed anymore, she didn't have the curse, but Garrett's way of sacrificing her still worried her. She could hear Dean entering Bobby's motel room and muffled voices, even laughter. She hoped by the time the job was done she could figure out what to say to Dean, that was if he even wanted to think about it further. What was wrong with how things were before Gordon sent them their separate ways?

Lady let her club clothes drop to the floor and pulled on a t-shirt and comfortable underwear. She wasn't even sure what the hell he was asking for. As tired as she was she couldn't sleep as her mind worked.

"You okay?" Bobby asked Dean as he came into the room.

Dean worked on reducing his smirk as he shrugged out of his jacket, "Fine. Why?"

Sam smiled, "That shade of lipstick doesn't go with your shirt."

Dean's smirk returned as he rubbed his lips, "Don't be jealous."

Sam shrugged, "You and Lady are either hot or cold it seems. I give up."

"How do you guys want to do this?" Bobby asked. "I'm going to need a few hours of sleep at some point. Sam and I take the first shift, Dean comes and relieves one of us in a few hours?"

"I'm not really tired," Dean said. "But yeah, you know what, that sounds good." Maybe he could get an hour or two of sleep, but at least he'd get a few hours alone to think, too. He walked down the row of motel rooms and entered the one he and his brother were sharing.

Lady was relieved when the voices from Bobby's room went quiet, but now there was no distraction to her thoughts and no way she was falling asleep with her busy mind. Lady was working out things to tell Dean, coming up with nothing. For so long she had enjoyed Dean, appreciating his no-bull approach to what she had wanted from him...but he was right. A lot had happened since they had met. For years she had ignored the typical relationship and emotional connections, and she was clueless now. Frustrated she got out of bed silently, not wanting to cause Bobby to run in ready to shoot at any noise, and left her motel room to knock on Dean's door.

**A/N** - _Songs for this chapter are:_

_Bad Girlfriend, by Theory of a Deadman_

_Circus, by Britney Spears_

_Dirrty, by Christina Aguilara_

_I Like It, by Enrique Ingelsias_

_OMG, by Usher_

_Bad Time, by Grand Funk Railroad_

_Punch Drunk Love, by The Summer Set (I prefer the acoustic version of this one)  
_

_Pretty much anything fun to dance to fits into this chapter nicely. And ooo, emotional cliffhanger. :)_


	39. Incubus Part 2, February 2007

**A/N** - _So I can't leave cliffhangers hanging for long...enjoy!_

**Early Morning February 5, 2007. El Paso, Texas**

Dean had the TV on mute and lights off as he lounged on his bed. He had an alarm set for when he'd return to Bobby's room to give them a break, but he didn't think he'd fall asleep. He'd only been in his room fifteen minutes when there was a light knock on the door. He grabbed his pistol and opened the door far enough to see it was Lady standing there, and he opened it slowly for her to enter.

"Aren't you supposed to be in your room?" Dean asked as Lady walked through the door.

"I want to be here," she said, sitting on the edge of his bed. "With you," she said, her pale eyes looking up at him with need.

Dean shut the door and said nothing as he went to her. His left hand ran through her hair as he kissed her, moving her onto her back. He kept his right hand on the bed next to her to hold his weight. This he could do, kissing and more had always come very easily with Lady and was hard to resist when available. While being with her this way had definitely been on his mind but the memory of her looking ready to be taken home by half the men in the club made him pull back, "I just need to know..." She forced his mouth back to hers, her kisses were urgent and needy and he couldn't help but return them. It had been so long...

Dean broke the kiss again, groaning slightly as her hands were trying to pull him back down. He could do this, he wasn't sure if he could stop himself, but he couldn't keep doing this without knowing what she wanted. If they'd never be anything but friends with benefits he'd deal with it. If this was her way of answering him he just needed her to be a bit more clear. "Wait, just, wait," he breathed, his hands fisting the blankets under them.

"Oh, Dean," she breathed, her hand running up his chest and he couldn't even remember what he was doing in Texas.

He moved her up on the bed while kissing her as desire pulsed almost painfully through him. He paused, taking quick gasps and trying to clear his head. As much as he wanted this there was something wrong. Dean clenched his jaw as his hand moved over Lady until his right hand touched her face and he pressed the silver ring he wore to the soft skin there. Lady suddenly squealed in pain as the silver burned and cracked her skin.

Dean couldn't make a sound as the incubus pinned him down, holding the painful silver he wore away from her while straddling him. He tried to see through the illusion, through the fog it was making in his brain that was intoxicating and thrilling. He couldn't make any sound and lost the will to fight as its hands went to his jeans.

Lady had her hand ready to knock on Dean's door when she heard a sound inside, and she didn't bother knocking when she saw the door would be unlocked. She even saw what would be in there when before she opened the door. "Dean!"

The red and scaly thing was just like she saw in her vision, and it looked at her. Actually uglier, and it was hissing and snarling.

Lady grit her teeth as the monster flung itself at her. She saw herself moving out of the way, and it moving just as quickly to catch her movement. Its clawed hands gripped around her arms and slammed her into the wall. It wasn't extraordinarily large, and Lady pushed it right back, falling onto it and rolling around. "Dean! Kill it!" She grimaced as she got her hands around its neck.

Dean moved sluggishly as he reached his pistol but when he turned to take aim all he saw were two Lady's wrestling on the floor. They looked and now were even dressed identical as the succubus adjusted her illusion in his head to fool him. Dean had the pistol in his hand and was aiming uncertainly as he looked at the two Lady's wrestling on the ground. "Lady?"

"Dean, kill it," Lady gasped.

Lady's eyes got wide as her voice came from the things lips, "Don't listen to it, Dean!" she said, holding it down.

"It's an illusion. It's in your head. Kill it! Or it will kill me!"

"We can't let it get away. Just shoot something! If you get it wrong shoot the other one!" Lady snapped. She grunted as she kicked the incubus off of her and scrambled to grab Dean's jacket that was hanging on a chair. Her hand slipped into the pocket and pulled out a silver dagger. As the incubus made a move to flee Lady threw the knife, striking it right in the chest. It wailed once as it collapsed. Instantly the illusion failed, and soon the heap was shriveling up.

Dean lowered his pistol as Lady caught her breath on the ground. And they both made a disgusted noise as a putrid smell started to come from the dead incubus. "Come on," Dean said, grabbing Lady and pulling her to her feet. "Oh, that's ripe."

Lady nodded in agreement. "Watch it, I'll grab Bobby and Sam."

Lady returned a minute later with Bobby and Sam.

"I thought this thing was an incubus," Dean said. "Why did it come after me?"

Sam shrugged, "I guess it can make you see whatever you want, man or woman."

"I'm sorry," Lady said. "I…I didn't know. I…sorry," she muttered.

"We'll get this cleaned up," Sam said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"I'll help," Lady offered.

"Lady, you're standing here in your underwear," Bobby said. "Just go back to your room, we got this."

She nodded, "Okay, thanks." Walk back to her room and taking the opportunity to get away from the dead incubus that was letting off a rotting animal sex smell.

Dean went to the bathroom to splash water on his face. He had been completely powerless. He had even figured it out quickly enough, but it had him paralyzed and aching for whatever it was going to do to him.

"Dude, you okay?" Sam asked with concern.

"I'm fine," Dean said roughly.

"You were almost raped by an incubus," Sam said.

"Don't say that!" Dean snapped. "If you, either of you, ever repeat that, I'll kill you."

"Maybe it was because of your cheekbones," Sam joked.

"Funny," Dean said angrily.

Quietly and without humor Sam asked, "So, who'd you think it was?"

Dean glared at his brother, "You two got this covered?"

"Yeah. Take a break, Dean," Bobby said. "Come on, Sam, help me out here. This thing is heavy."

Dean walked away from the smell and looked between Bobby and Lady's motel doors, and tested her door first. The handle turned easily and the door swung open. Lady was sitting at the table with a beer and didn't look at him as he stepped in. "You okay?" she asked.

"No, not really," Dean admitted. "How'd you know?" he asked. "You were four doors down, did you have a vision?"

"No," she answered quickly. "If I had seen it I would have warned you, you know that."

"How did you know to be there?"

She shook her head, "I didn't know. I was just going over to talk to you." She finally looked at him. "Dean, what we have is all we can have. I mean, I have too much going on as it is." Dean rolled his eyes away, suddenly wishing that when he had her in his car he hadn't let her leave. That he hadn't let her think about it. Or that maybe he didn't go see her right after she had narrowly saved his ass from an incubus sex toy and given her more time to think. "I don't want to hurt your feelings and..."

"Like I said, I'm a big boy," he answered bitterly. He didn't feel like one at that moment.

"It'd be nice, for a change, to have something," Lady continued, looking at her beer. "But I just have to be realistic. I don't think I'm going to be alive much longer."

"You are still using your curse as an excuse? It's gone!" Dean said angrily.

"That's not it," Lady said. "If I can't find a way to kill Garrett, he will find me. I've seen my own death, and I don't know if I can avoid it. I got so lucky last time...you weren't there, you didn't see what he could do with just a thought. I came really close to dying, a few times recently. What it comes down to, Dean, is...I care about you a lot. I like being with you. But after this we're going to go our separate ways. I have my work, you have yours. And I know we'll keep running into each other, and I want to, it's just in the end I am not something you should invest time in."

"You think my life isn't dangerous?" Dean countered. "Any second I could have other hunters after me and Sam. There is a demon out there I still have to find. And the FBI is looking for me. I get what you are saying, Lady, believe me I do. And it's bullshit."

"When you put it that way, sure," she said, meeting his eyes again. Her face was hard and even. "You don't know me, Dean. You don't know my name, where I come from, nothing. And you are curious, you have asked before and you will ask again. I lie to you, everyone really. I'm never going to be close to anyone. And I haven't wanted to in a long time. Sorry."

Dean shook his head, "Whatever," he said, leaving the room and slamming the door angrily. A few moments later the Impala started up and tore out of the parking lot.

Lady let out a breath and slumped in her chair. She wasn't sure what would happen the next time she saw Dean, if a friendship could survive something like that. Her life was full of superficial relationships and she didn't know what was supposed to happen next. Times like these she wished her future-sight gave her more than just a few seconds. She wondered if Dean would be there in the morning, if he'd even look at her let alone talk to her. She sniffed and pulled out her cell phone to call North Dakota. Thomas answered sleepily. "Hey!" She said in her best happy voice. "Just calling to check in on my favorite man. How's Freddie?"

"Lady? It's three in the morning," Thomas mumbled.

"Yeah, I know. I just...I really needed to check on Freddie," Lady said, finding it hard to keep her happy voice on.

"He's at the clinic," Thomas answered. "He's fine."

"Is anyone at the clinic?" she asked. "Think I could call there?"

"Lady, it's three in the morning," Thomas repeated.

"Okay, I get it," she said, wiping at her eyes and hanging up. It didn't matter if Dean was still there in the morning, she wouldn't be. She'd be on her way back home. Freddie was still locked in a kennel but she'd be locked inside it with him. She didn't have to explain herself to him, he didn't care about her past. He wouldn't judge her or even ask her why she was in a sad mood when she arrived. He'd just be happy to see her and let her hold onto him until she felt better.

Bobby and Sam were still cleaning up the incubus when she got out of the shower and started packing her bags.

She froze in the middle of the room a few seconds before the door opened. "Just leave, okay?" she said as Dean stepped in.

"I'm not going anywhere, Lady," he said, closing the door with a well placed kick and grabbing her.

As horrible as she felt she wanted something to lift her up, and Dean's kiss did that. She didn't know if it meant he had rethought what she had said and agreed with her, deciding to keep their original arrangement. But she wasn't even sure she could handle that arrangement anymore.

She let out a soft moan as he got them on the bed. She could feel his frustration still there in his kiss as he left rough marks from his stubble across her lips and jaw. He was angry with her still, teasing the line between pleasure and pain because of it. And she saw him grabbing her arms and holding her tight enough to leave bruises, holding her down.

"Whoa, wait," Lady said, pushing him back. "Something isn't right."

"No talking," Dean breathed roughly, bearing his weight down on her.

Lady went to push him back again, and started thrashing about as he pinned her down with one arm across her chest and the other clamped over her mouth. Dean bared his teeth at her and hissed, "You killed my daughter."

Lady let out a muffled cry as a forked tongue slipped through the illusion of Dean and moved to fight harder.

"I was going to wait until you gave up the chase," the incubus hissed as she fought against his weight. "But she couldn't wait, she needed to feed. She got his scent, his need…she needed him to survive and you killed her. I'm going to tear your soul from you….slowly."

Lady struggled, and with a rough movement the incubus slammed her head against the bed's headboard. She let out a moan of pain and went weak as she fought to stay conscious from the hit.

The real Dean paused outside of Bobby's motel room, ready to grab his brother so they could get the hell out of Texas, when he heard the noise from Lady's room. She was the last person he wanted to see but he pounded on her door and called, "Lady? You okay?" He glanced down the row of rooms and saw Sam coming out of it with a garbage bag of dead incubus.

The incubus let out a low growl and then in an unfamiliar voice it said, "We're busy!"

Dean's lips parted in surprise and for a moment he believed Lady had called one of the several men she had met that evening. But he looked down the row of rooms, Bobby was coming out of the motel that had held the dead incubus. But that wasn't right. It had a dead succubus, because it had gone after him.

Dean took a step back and kicked the door in, not surprised to see the red-scaly monster struggling to keep Lady down. It looked at him with feral eyes and a deep growl. Dean grabbed his gun from his side and aimed, "Get off of her, ugly," he snarled back.

There was only one way out of the crappy motel room, and Dean was blocking it.

The incubus snarled as Lady managed to sink her teeth into its hand, and it moved its forearm into her throat to choke her. He wrestled with her a moment to keep her too close for the real Dean to shoot him, and then pulled her off the bed to stand in front of him as a shield. "She killed my daughter, she is mine," the incubus growled at him.

"Lady, you okay?" Dean asked.

"Not really," she said hoarsely, bruises already forming around her neck. Lady's eyes moved around the room, and he waited. Her eyes fell on the table, and he saw out of the corner of his eye a beer bottle and a silver dagger. Lady's hands were free, and he knew they were quick. He didn't even have to reach the dagger, he had a silver knife up his sleeve.

Dean lowered the pistol with one hand as he felt his blade slide down to his palm. He studied Lady's face, it appeared calm and ready. As fast as he dared throw the dagger he did, and it aimed right at her free hand. Lady snatched it by the handle and stabbed the incubus in the leg. It snarled in pain and let her go, and she turned to stab it in the chest.

"I'm fine," Lady said before he could ask, backing away from the dead shriveling thing.

Dean grimaced at the smell the body was making, it was worse than the succubus from earlier.

"What the hell are you two…oh god," Sam grimaced as he stood in the doorway.

"Yeah, this one is _really_ ripe," Dean said, cleaning his bade off.

"That looks horrible. What happened," Sam asked, going to Lady who was leaning against the wall.

"My wish of being incubus bait came true. Don't touch me," Lady said. "God, my skin is crawling. Where the fuck is Bobby?"

"Lady, are you okay?" Sam asked seriously. She nodded, then shook her head, then nodded again. He pulled her into a hug that she didn't return or fight. "Hey, it's okay," he said gently.

"Great job," Dean said. "Two of the suckers in town."

"We missed it too, Dean," Sam said. "I'll get this cleaned up. Lady, are you sure you are okay?"

Lady pulled herself out of his hug and resisted the urge to break down, "Yeah. Just, uh…a little freaked."

Lady grabbed her bags she had been ready to leave with and went into Bobby's room, needing a second to breathe. Sam and Dean were cleaning up the mess the incubus had left, and as soon as it was done all of them needed to leave. Put as many miles between El Paso and them as possible. Her and Bobby would go north, and she had no idea what direction the Winchesters would take.

The incubus had looked like Dean, the perfect double. For a few moments she had been fooled by it, but that was only because it was giving her what she wanted. She didn't want to go back to not knowing where Dean and his brother were, not hearing how they were doing, no chance of seeing them. Maybe she was even tired of having the closest people in her life be an over-the-hill grumpy hunter and a two-hundred pound dog. She may live for several more years, and those years were going to be rather lonely if she didn't put herself out there.

Sam and Dean worked together to carry a heavy garbage bag full of dead incubus to the dumpster while Bobby was working on getting rid of some of the stench. Lady stood next to the Impala. Sam smiled happily at her, so far he had managed to ignore his brothers most recent foul mood. "It was a bit messy but we got the job done," he said.

"Sam, grab your stuff. We're leaving," Dean said.

"Yeah, just be a few minutes," Sam said.

"Dean, hold up," Lady said.

Dean waited until his brother was in his motel room and glared at her, "Job is done, Lady. Go back to your dog."

"I plan to," Lady said. "Listen, I'm a bitch, I know. And I'm sorry because I..."

"I don't need a pat on the back, Lady. I'm going to be just fine," Dean said. "In fact, better this way."

Lady looked at him painfully, "Dean, I'm a freak. I am so twisted that I don't even believe there is a way for me to even resemble someone normal anymore. It never really bothered me, but with you I am, uh, it's just a relief not to have to pretend. You knew more about me the first day I met you than I ever give up to anyone. I'm scared to death what the next few months are going to hold for me, because for the first time in years I'm actually looking forward to staying alive. Don't get cocky, it isn't just because of you. But the thing is, that incubus came after me looking like you and for a moment I let it. But I knew it couldn't be you, because with you I feel something. I don't know what, I can't explain it. Thing is I don't know what I'm doing half the time. I wing it, like I am now...thing is, when I'm with you, I'm with you. I don't want to be with anyone else. When I'm on my own, when you aren't around, I think about you, I look forward to seeing you again." Lady swallowed hard, Dean's harsh glare and set jaw hadn't softened. She licked her lips and nodded, "Well, guess that's it. Drive safe," she said, walking back into Bobby's motel room and shutting the door. She got halfway to the bathroom when the door opened and Dean was slamming it shut.

"That's it?" he snapped at her. "What am I supposed to believe, Lady? I watch you wrap people around your little finger all the damn time and I've been trying to figure out if I'm one of the suckers here."

Lady looked at his angry face, "You want me to say I'm sorry? I am. I was just supposed to meet you once. Check in with you and report to John, get out and never see you again. Instead it's turned into the craziest damn ride since I found out witchcraft was real and easier to pull off than a card trick. What I said before, it's true...mostly. You don't know me, Dean. Anything closer than what we already have, you are going to want to know. I don't see how I can be anything more than what I already am. But I also know whatever is between us nearly got us killed tonight."

"There are a lot of things I don't know about you, Lady, but I know a hell of a lot," he said. "A lot more I bet I can make a real good guess on. Anything else, I'm more than happy to roll with. I don't care where you came from, but I like knowing where you are so that if you are close by maybe I can see you." Lady studied his face as it softened. "And I'll give that you are a good liar, but I had that figured out the day I met you...and like you told me there isn't much you can lie about to me anymore. I don't give a damn about who you used to be, never have. You want to leave that person dead and buried, I'm not planning to grab a shovel." Dean studied her tense shoulders and the almost scared look on her face, and again he wondered just what was so horrible in her past that she had ran away from it. But it didn't matter, none of it did. "I don't care what you're real name is, because you are just Lady. Like just Fabio, with smaller breasts."

Lady looked down and tried not to smile, "That's a good one. I'll have to use that one day." She looked back up and said softly, "What do you want, Dean?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "I'd say the normal stuff, but you just killed two sex-fiends in one night. We're far from normal, Lady. But…let's give this a shot. Classic let's be together. Even when we're in different states."

"I can do that," she said. "I don't know if I'll be around for long. But I don't want to be alone if I survive."

"Me either," Dean said, stepping into the middle of the room with her. "We'll figure this out," he said as she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her face on his good shoulder.

Lady let out a breath as he put his arms around her shoulders and held her against him. She would have rather been up against the incubus again than have to go through that roller-coaster, an incubus wasn't half as terrifying as this, but it was over. "You'll let me know where you are, what you are doing? Call to check in, that sort of thing?"

"Yeah," he said. He could feel his heart pounding and the smile on his face felt good. "When you stop at the Roadhouse and Roy tries to pick you up are you going to let me nail him?"

Lady moved her hand up to cup his face and kissed him slowly before saying, "No."

"No? I want to be able to nail the son of a bitch," Dean snapped.

She kissed him again and looked at him seriously, "Let it go."

Dean looked into her eyes, he was going to do it anyway if he had the chance but it didn't matter. He had her. He smirked a bit, "We go out together and a hot woman comes onto me will you get in a catfight?"

She grinned, "Dean, I often carry a knife, frequently a gun and always fight dirty. That's not a good idea."

He thought about it but before the thought could process she kissed him again. The kiss only stopped when there was a loud knock on the door. His hands had only made it down to her hips and he gave them a bit of a squeeze in frustration before going to see who was at the door. Sam was standing there with a bag over his shoulder, "Ready to leave?"

"The room clean?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, we got that thing out of there before the smell could soak in," Sam said.

"Give me your key to the room," Dean said, holding out his hand. Sam dug it out of his pocket and handed it over. He pointed at Sam, "You call me or knock on that door for any reason but the world collapsing in on itself, I'll kill you." Dean wrapped an arm around Lady's waist and walked her down to Sam's room.

"Where am I supposed to sleep?" Sam asked.

"I don't care," Dean called back.

Lady returned Dean's kisses happily once they were locked inside the room. "Not to be a killjoy, but both of us were nearly raped within the past hour. This is sort of in bad taste."

"Yeah, but watching you kill those things was sort of a turn on," Dean said, making her grin.

She ran her hands over his chest and under his jacket to pull it off and gave him room to carefully pull off his t-shirt. The gunshot wound to his left shoulder was still healing, ugly and red with a dark bruise around it. Lady pushed him on his back and kissed him slowly while his hands moved up her shirt. "Oh, careful," she muttered, pulling back a bit. She pulled her shirt over her head and pulled a thin silver dagger she had hidden in her bra before getting rid of that, too.

Dean grinned as he pulled her back to him for another kiss, and unable to help himself started to laugh. Knife in the bra, he had struck gold in his mind. He ran his hands up her bare back, his fingertips running over old scars he knew were there. Gently he rolled and she moved with him, her legs rubbing against his eagerly while he worked on her jeans. His pants were only around his knees before she pulled him to her. Dean's breath caught in his chest as her hot wetness wrapped around him. Lady's eyes closed as her hands squeezed his arms and she moved her hips to his and met his rhythm. Dean's breath exhaled in a moan and he kissed her firmly until she was gasping his name. Every dream of his she had starred in put together did not match what they did together. The feelings she brought out in him acted out when they were making love, from the frustration of their bickering to the longing love he'd been harboring for her mixed and was sending them both over the edge as they moved faster in a race for ecstasy they gave each other. When they reached it they could barely move, and neither of them wanted to.

"Wow," Lady finally said with a dopey smile spreading across her lips.

Dean wrestled with the blankets that had been pushed to the bottom of the bed until he got them over them and held Lady close.

Lady woke up, still smiling. A look at the clock on the nightstand said it was nearly nine in the morning. She stretched slowly as she looked at Dean on the other side of the bed sleeping on his stomach. He made a noise as she moved a hand over his lower back and a quiet chuckle as she covered his back with her front and went to kiss his ear. "I haven't slept that good in months," he said in a low voice.

"We have to get out of here," Lady said, running a hand across his back before swatting his butt. Before she could jump out of bed he had an arm around her waist and pulled her down.

"Are you coming with us?" Dean asked.

"I have to get Freddie. I can't," she said in a small voice, and Dean let out a breath. "I've been thinking," she said, running her fingertips through his hair.

"I don't like the sound of that," Dean said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and looking at her seriously.

"We want to try this," she said. "We are doing this, but, c'mon, if I want to have a chance at nailing Garrett you know I have to lock myself up at home and research this. Next few months we aren't going to see each other that much."

"Yeah, I know," Dean said, rolling onto his back. "Pretty much like normal."

"I guess," she muttered. "But when there are no more witches to hunt I'm going to be really bored." Dean's mouth stretched in a grin. "I'm actually very serious, Dean. If we're going to try a serious relationship, and I have nothing to keep me busy, you might have me and Freddie following you around job to job."

"I sort of like that idea," he said. "We'll figure it out." Dean let out a breath as his cell phone rang and he reached off the bed for his jeans to retrieve it from the pocket. "Sam, what did I say? Just go pick up some breakfast, we'll be ready to leave in an hour."

Saying goodbye in the parking lot almost led to renting the motel for another night, their kiss continued for several minutes until Sam finally laid on the horn of the Impala impatiently.

Lady was flushed and fighting back the smile as Bobby drove them out of town. There were so many concerns in her life that she was trying to forget so that she could hold onto the feeling. There were so many things wrong with her, and Dean knew a good portion of them, and he didn't give a damn. This was better than finding a treasure chest full of designer shoes.

**A/N** - _I super enjoyed writing the whole incubus 'episode' and I have a few more songs for this specific chapter. Songs are:_

_Staplegunned, by The Spill Canvas_

_Speaking in Tongues, by Eagles of Death Metal  
_


	40. Tall Tales, February 2007

**A/N** – _This chapter and the next few take place during the episode 'Tall Tales'. Please reference chapter 5 of this story for a recap of Lady's first meeting of The Trickster if you feel the need. And I hope that doesn't spoil anything for the readers, I am assuming everyone has seen this awesome episode already and there is nothing to spoil. But I found a way to twist it a bit to include Lady. And I hope you enjoy it._

**February 12, 2007**

Sam and Dean were dressed as electricians and were pulling into a college campus in Springfield, Ohio. A few nights before a college professor had taken a nosedive out the fourth story window, and there was a rumor the building he'd jumped from was haunted.

"You sure you wouldn't rather be with the girlfriend?" Sam asked, grinning as they walked toward Crawford Hall, the building they were going to check for a ghost. Since Texas Dean had been in the strangest damn mood Sam had ever seen him in. Sam thought if Dean and Lady had stopped skirting around what they meant to each other that it would solve some issues. Such as Dean's constant frustration whenever Lady was mentioned or thought of and the near-seething rage he still carried towards Roy. However Sam did not think, never in a million years, that his brother's happiness would actually unnerve him.

"Wow, gets funnier every time I hear it," Dean chuckled as they entered the building. "You think I'd rather be sharing a room with you? Come on, she's working. We need to work. Lady and I laid down the rules. We're together, but we aren't attached at the hip."

"Sure you don't even want to spend Valentines with her?" Sam asked, slightly taunting his brother.

Dean scoffed, "Lady doesn't buy into that crap."

"Hey, fellas, can I help you?" the janitor came up to them.

"Yes, you can," Sam said, stepping forward and shaking the man's hand. He told him they needed to go up to the fourth floor to examine some faulty wiring that had been reported.

"No problem, I'll get you in," the janitor said happily. "I'm Nathan, by the way."

"Sam, and Dean," Sam introduced themselves, leaving out their last names.

"Follow me," Nathan said with a smile, leading them up the steps.

They reached the second floor and Dean nudged Sam. "What?" Sam looked at him, confused.

"Am I really supposed to so something for Valentines?" Dean asked seriously. When Sam laughed Dean glared. "Come on, man!"

Nathan chuckled, overhearing Dean's question, "Not sure what to do for the girlfriend? How long have you been with her?"

"We're just trying to get some work done. Not going into this," Dean said as they reached the steps going to the fourth floor.

Nathan gave him a friendly smile, "I bet she's pretty."

Dean had to smile and nod, "Yeah, she is."

"Got a picture?" Nathan asked. "It's okay to show her off a bit."

"Sorry, no picture," Dean said, actually a bit disappointed he didn't have something.

"You are serious," Sam laughed. "How can you not have a picture?" Dean looked away and his smile disappeared, again he felt like he was doing something wrong and that his brother was enjoying it far too much. "I have one. I have a few, actually," Sam said, pulling out his phone and going through pictures he had taken. "There she is."

Nathan kept his face even as he saw Lady on Sam's phone, smiling and happy. Her cheek was pressed against Sam's and he was smiling as well. "She's a looker," Nathan said, smiling at Dean. "You really should do something special for her. Take her out to a nice dinner. You call Luigi's and tell them I sent you, they'll get you a nice table."

"I don't think she's really into that sort of thing," Dean said. "And she's working out of state right now, so she won't be around."

Nathan looked personally offended by that, "She can't make it here for a few days? All women enjoy Valentines. We give them a little box of chocolate and it drives them nuts. But we are really the ones who benefit from it, if you know what I mean." Nathan gave him a knowing grin and a nod of the head.

"Well, I'll take that into consideration," Dean said, looking slightly uncomfortable.

After checking out the professor's office Sam and Dean descended the stairs quickly. "Why the hell do you have a picture of Lady?" Dean asked.

"She's my friend," Sam said in an obvious tone. "Why don't you?"

Dean was quiet for a few steps and said, "Well, any I do aren't of her face."

"Oh…oh! Man! Keep that to yourself!" Sam complained as Dean let out a mischievous chuckle.

Dean grabbed his phone as it rang, "Hey!" he said into the phone, grinning at Sam.

"Hey, just got your message," Lady said.

"Been working at the trailer?" Dean asked.

"Yup," she answered. "Just finished translating a ritual, on my way to Bobby's so he can look over it."

"How's the research going?"

"Not sure. Either I hit the jackpot or a dead end," Lady said. "Bobby is better at deciphering possible codes in the text than I am, but it's still tricky. I'll probably be there a few days."

"You know, Ohio isn't that far. Why don't you and the dog come over?"

"You are busy with your job."

"Sam and I should have it figured out in a day or two. Maybe if you come over when we're done we can come back to Bobby's with you. Help him look over that ritual."

"Not that I'm doing much but I'd feel sort of bad leaving Bobby when he's doing all this work for me," Lady said.

"Come on, we said we're giving this a real try," Dean said. "Not that I'm a Valentines Day kind of guy, but this is my first year it's come up that I've actually had a girlfriend. From a reliable source this holiday works by me giving you chocolate, and you give me wild sex."

"You know the only holiday I really celebrate is the Fourth of July, and that's just because of the explosions," Lady chuckled. "But what the hell, this seems like our sort of holiday."

"That mean you are on your way?"

"I need to stop at Bobby's, but I can probably be there tomorrow night."

Dean got into the Impala, his smile growing as he turned the key. Sam looked his brother over, "What are you so happy about?"

"Lady's coming over," Dean said, not hiding his grin.

Not that Sam wasn't looking forward to seeing Lady, he liked having her around if only to have someone new to hang out with besides his brother. However when she showed up he'd be getting kicked out of his motel room and probably left to handle the job on his own.

Sam understood why Lady appealed to Dean. There were the obvious things that any heterosexual man with working eyes and sex drive would find appealing about Lady. She was adorable, flirty and often showed teasing amounts of skin. But attractive women were a dime a dozen. She was someone Dean didn't have to lie to. Not only did she know who they were and what they did, but she knew where they came from. She had proven herself to be trustworthy even to their father, and that had to earn her a lot of points from Dean. She sharpened knives while she watched TV and always made sure to clean her pistol before she planned to use it and after she used it. While she worked in blood and witchcraft she was definitely feminine.

Sam let it go, wanting his brother to enjoy his high. He just really wished Dean would enjoy it when Sam didn't have to watch or listen. It was awkward.

After dealing with the incubus and succubus in Texas Lady had returned to North Dakota immediately. Retrieving Freddie had led to being tackled and several bruises from the overenthusiastic two-hundred pound pooch. She spent the next few days working in her trailer, translating a ritual she had found in the book.

Translating Latin to English or English to Latin was as easy as breathing for her, but writing in English was painful. If she thought taking the book out of the protection of Max's territory was safe she would have brought the book directly to Bobby. Her handwriting was horrible and her spelling wasn't much better.

After making plans to go to Ohio to see Dean she hurried to South Dakota. She gave Bobby her handwritten notes and any instructions she thought were necessary. Bobby hating reading Lady's writing as much as she hated writing it. He had mentioned it once years ago, and her sour look and immediate defense made him never complain about it again. She got a nap in, and then got back on the road toward Ohio.

She knew, even though she wasn't much help until Bobby worked on deciphering the coded ritual, that she should stay and try to help. But at the same time she felt that a break was very well deserved. Not just for her, but Dean as well. She was still riding on butterflies from what happened in Texas. She wanted what they were trying for to work.

A day after speaking to Dean on the phone Lady stopped at the first gas station she saw when she got into Springfield. She hoped Mason didn't mind the extra miles on his truck, but at the same time she was too excited to care. Once things cooled down in her life she'd make it up to him by working at the Casino. Hell, maybe she'd swing down to Las Vegas and earn an easy few grand for him.

"How's the hunt going?" Lady asked when Dean answered his phone.

"Running into a few walls but it's going," he said. "You almost in town?"

"Freddie and I just got in," she said. "I'm at a convenience store, you want me to pick you up anything?"

"No, we're pretty well stocked," he said. "I'm going to be an hour or so finishing something. Why don't you find the two of us a hotel room and I'll meet you there?"

"Not even going to buy me dinner?" Lady teased.

"I'll bring pizza and beer," Dean offered.

"I'll make sure to wear my pearls," Lady giggled. "I'll see you later."

Lady let out a breath to cool her excitement. She loved Dean, she didn't understand how it had happened but whenever she heard his voice she was happy and the only time she was happier was when she had him with her. At some point since they had met he had become a dependable rock that, while occasionally she wanted to take a hammer and chisel after it, she could always lean on. Everyone she was close to, from Bobby to Mason's family, she always kept herself at an arms-length as well. It was to protect herself, being close meant losing certain freedoms she wasn't willing to give up. But with Dean, and even Sam, she liked being close to them. Maybe it was because they were closer to her age, or maybe because their childhood was more insane than hers. Maybe her childhood wasn't normal, but she knew how screwed up theirs had been.

Lady drove around town seeing a pattern of no vacancy signs until she finally pulled into a hotel and went inside. Though the man behind the counter declared no rooms were available she had worked for Mason long enough to know hotels always kept a few rooms empty and managed to sweet talk her way into one of them. She paid for three nights and the extra pet deposit required because of Freddie. It was painful letting go of her cash these days. While she could gain easy cash a lot of places working at the Casino had been her main source of income for years and she hadn't had time to spare to work lately.

Lady was outside in the parking lot late in the evening when the Impala rolled in. Sam got out of the car and greeted her with a warm hug, "Hey, Lady," he said. "Hey, Freddie!" Lady grinned as Freddie happily greeted Sam. Sam checked Freddie's muzzle to see the scars from his porcupine accident.

"Any chance Sam can take the dog?" Dean asked as he leaned down to give Lady a kiss that she turned her head to.

"No," Lady said, sounding offended. "I barely got him back."

"I have too much work to do," Sam said. "I'll keep checking out the history of the building, call me in the morning when you are ready to get back to work." Sam got into the driver's seat of the Impala and left.

As promised Dean brought pizza and drinks, Lady took the six-pack from his hand and gave him a quick kiss, "About time, I'm starving," she said as she led him into the hotel and up a flight of stairs to her room.

Once inside the pizza was put on the table and forgotten as Dean wrapped his arms around Lady and kissed her firmly. "Mm, I missed you, too," she breathed before pulling him back to continue the kiss. She chuckled as he lifted her feet off the ground and shuffled to the bed. "I don't get to eat first, do I?"

Dean grinned, "You want to?"

"No," she said, returning his grin as he dropped her on the bed. She laughed as Freddie jumped on the bed to join them.

Dean made a face, "I like Freddie, I really do, but can we at least lock him in the bathroom? He watches, and it creeps me out."

"Yeah, okay," Lady said as Dean tugged Freddie's collar to put him away.

The bed bounced as Dean rejoined her. He pulled out a small box of Valentines chocolates and offered them to her, "Before I forget."

Lady laughed as she set them on the nightstand, "Thank you. And I have a little something for you." She slowly unbuttoned her shirt as she kissed him until a white lacy bra was visible and made him growl happily. "See, it matches my shoes," she said as his hands began to explore his gift. He laughed as he noticed the white heels with a lace design.

Dean pulled her into his arms, kissing down her chest as she unbuttoned her jeans. He grabbed the legs of her jeans to pull them off to reveal the matching white panties, and then he was hastily getting out of his jacket and t-shirt. His mouth went back to her chest, kissing around the lace bra while his hand slid over her underwear. Lady sucked in an excited breath as his mouth moved down her stomach, his tongue slipping out to leave wet trails around her navel until he was kissing down her leg. His rough stubble scratched gently on the inside of her thigh as he teasingly kissed and dragged his teeth against her skin toward her groin as his fingers moved up and down the thin fabric of her panties. Her muscles quivered with the anticipation he was letting build up in her, and the wicked glint in his eyes told her he was enjoying her reaction. Lady let her head fall back and tried to contain herself. His fingers moved to hook the sides of her panties and began to slide them down when she jerked suddenly. Eyes alert and confused while looking around. "Oh, come on!" she shouted angrily.

"What?" Dean snapped back at her, and the next instant the fire alarm in the hotel went off. He let out a groan, "Ignore it," he said roughly.

She gave him a hard look, and then her eyes widened again, "Sprinklers."

"Crap," he muttered, and the next second stagnant ice cold water began raining down on them and the whole room.

Within seconds they were drenched and Lady was struggling to get her wet jeans on. "This is freaking ridiculous," Dean snarled, the ice cold water wasn't doing much to quench what they had been trying to lead up to. "Lady, let's go!"

Lady jumped up and down until her jeans went over her hips, "Grab Freddie," she said as she worked on getting at least a few buttons of her shirt closed.

The hallway was full of people exiting their rooms, a few other sprinklers in the building were going off and already the alarm was being shut down as a false alarm. But the damage was already done.

"I'm afraid we have no other rooms and it will be at least a day until we get your room cleaned and dried," the man behind the counter said apologetically. "Because of the circumstances I can give you a voucher..."

"Come on," Lady said in a charming voice while batting her eyelashes. "There has to be another room available."

While that had worked earlier that was no longer the case. Lady, Dean and Freddie went outside in the freezing cold, soaking wet and shivering. They got into Lady's truck and drove to Sam's motel.

Sam was awake researching the job and had to laugh when Dean and Lady appeared at the door in wet clothes and frozen wet hair, "A little cold for swimming, isn't it?"

"Shut up," Dean stepped inside the warm room. "Some dickhead pulled the fire alarm at the hotel, we got washed out. We looked, there is some sort of pansy-ass curling convention in town and every hotel and motel is booked."

Sam sniffed, "What is that smell?"

"Sprinkler systems have tanks to hold water," Dean said as he pulled off his dripping wet shirt and dried off his torso with a towel. "I'm guessing that one hadn't been cleaned out for ten years. And then of course wet dog."

"Hey," Lady said as she rubbed a towel on her wet dog. Freddie didn't seem to mind the cold as he looked around with wide eyes at their new temporary home. It was a large motel room with two beds and a small kitchen, better than the usual places. His tongue hung out of his mouth and his tail wagged as Lady dried him off, ignoring her own dripping clothes and chattering teeth.

Sam sighed. The motel had two queen-sized beds, originally it was going to be him and Dean, and Lady didn't take up much room. Lady was shivering as she went through her bag trying to find some dry clothes but everything she pulled out was soaking with stinking water. "This is disgusting," she said, looking at a yellowing white t-shirt.

"This motel has a laundry room," Sam said, digging in his own bag and handing her a dry t-shirt, "Here. At least it's dry."

"Thanks, Sam," she said. "I'm going to get cleaned up."

"I'll be there in a minute," Dean said. Once the bathroom door was closed he looked at his brother, "You are sleeping in the car."

"Like hell I am," Sam countered. "It's ten degrees outside."

"C'mon, man," Dean said, glancing at the bathroom door as the shower started. "Just, do me a favor and do laundry for a few hours. Just enough so I don't have to walk around naked tomorrow, because you know I will."

"One hour," Sam said. "And stay away from my bed."

"Take the dog?" Dean asked.

"Fine," Sam muttered.

Dean grabbed a few pieces of dry clothes and flashed his brother a grin as he entered the bathroom.

Lady had the water hot enough that already steam fogged the room and she had finally warmed enough to stop shivering and was starting to feel clean. She could hear Dean struggling to get out of his wet jeans and join her. "Sam is gone for one hour, that's all he's giving us," he said as he stepped into the shower and under the hot water with her.

"You're freezing," Lady recoiled from his touch while she wrapped her arms around him to share her warmth.

They finished off the small bar of motel soap while Dean warmed up. He would have rather had her in the hotel, get her under the blankets and spend all night tangled together, but things didn't turn out half bad. Knowing they had a time limit if they wanted privacy, and if they wanted to keep from making Sam feel awkward, Dean switched to the fun of getting each other warm and clean to getting them ready for a little love. Lady's hand gave his rear a slippery squeeze as he went to kiss her neck, getting both of them under the water. Dean jerked as the warm water turned suddenly cold, flinching until Lady couldn't take it anymore and pushed them to the other side. She laughed, "It will get warm again," she said, keeping herself pressed to him and kissing his neck.

The cold water sprayed them and for several long moments they waited, but the warm water never returned.

"We have half an hour," Dean said, braving the freezing water to shut the shower off. "Here, bed, table, I don't care," he said as he reached down to kiss her.

He stopped when he saw she was fighting a laugh, and he waited until he heard her stomach growl. He laughed with her, "Okay, tonight is a bust. Let's feed you."

Sam knocked on the door before entering, finding Dean and Lady in bed watching TV and sharing a bag of chips. Lady was wearing the t-shirt Sam had loaned her and Sam hoped that under the blankets his brother was at least wearing his shorts. "You manage to make any progress on the job?" Lady asked as Freddie jumped onto the bed next to her. Dean made a face but didn't say anything.

"Not sure," Sam said. "We came here because of an urban legend, that a college building is haunted. A professor there supposedly entered his office with a young co-ed, and then took a nose dive from the fourth story, and the woman was never seen leaving. But we checked the building and there was no EMF. I have to go down to the library in the morning to check the history of the building, see if anything happened that would justify a spirit to haunt the building and throw a man out a window. With you here it might go pretty fast."

Lady snorted a laugh, "Nice try, you aren't getting me to read old newspapers and dusty books."

"As soon as we get some sleep we're finding a new place until this job is done," Dean said, reaching for the bag of chips between them. He picked it up and looked inside and then at Lady. "Seriously?"

"I was hungry," she said with wide innocent eyes. Dean crumpled up the bag and as he got ready to throw she said, "You're going to miss." She waited for a moment, "Still going to miss."

Dean threw it anyway and it hit the rim of the garbage basket and bounced off to land on the floor. "I could give a damn," he muttered as he reached over to shut off the lamp on the nightstand between the two beds. "Tonight has gone to hell, let's just go to sleep."

"Hey!" Lady complained as Dean gave Freddie a shove off the bed. "Hey!" she giggled as Dean's arm wrapped around her and pulled her close.

"Hey!" Sam snapped. "No! I'm right here."

"You can be somewhere else," Dean said in a muffled voice.

"Don't be like that," Lady said. "Let's just get some sleep."

Sam put away what he had been working on earlier before shutting off the remaining lamp and getting into his separate bed. He kept his back to Dean and Lady's bed, reminding himself that he liked Lady and he was happy his brother and her were taking their relationship seriously. He tried to ignore how small the motel room felt with Lady and Freddie joining them. How awkward it was having Dean in bed with a woman three feet away from him. The smell of wet dog. How every one of his pet peeves seemed to be getting triggered.

**A/N** – _Song for this chapter:_

_Higher Mathematics, by Splithabit_


	41. Tall Tales Part 2, February 2007

**February 14, 2007**

Lady woke up at least once an hour, noises from neighboring rooms or loud noises outside disturbing her. She was awake when Sam got out of bed and went into the shower. She gave Dean a firm pinch to wake him up, and covered his mouth with hers before he could complain. Dean let out a low moan as he kissed her back. "Sam's taking a shower, I bet we can…" she giggled as Dean's hand went up her shirt eagerly. And he stopped when she let out a huff of breath and pushed him away. Before he could ask what they heard the shower stop. "Fastest damn shower I've ever heard of," Lady muttered.

"Yeah, well," Dean began, but stopped and jerked when Freddie began licking the back of his head. "Hey! Hey! No!"

"He's just being friendly," Lady said in her dog's defense.

"I don't care!" Dean said. And then he grunted as Freddie jumped on the bed, walked over Dean, to stretch out between Lady and Dean. "This isn't friendly."

"Give him a break," Lady said, wrapping an arm around Freddie's neck and laying back down with a yawn.

"Ugh, he still smells," Dean complained.

"He can't help it! Be nice to my dog!" Lady said sharply.

Sam stepped out of the bathroom. He'd been able to hear the whole argument about Freddie, and he was eager to just get out of the motel room. "I'm heading out for coffee and…breakfast, I'll get breakfast. I'll, uh…yeah."

Lady snorted a laugh as Sam left, "Are you going to help him today?"

"Yeah, I should," Dean said, giving in and scratching Freddie's back. "But I know we have time for something."

Lady tugged Freddie's collar until he took the hint and jumped off the bed, and pulled Dean to her for a kiss, that was cut short when Freddie whimpered and scratched at the door. "I need to take him outside."

"He can hold it," Dean argued.

Freddie let out a louder whimper, telling them he couldn't hold it.

"Five minutes," Lady said, getting out of bed and pulling on her jeans. They were stiff from getting wet but had dried overnight. She found her leash for Freddie and left the motel room.

Lady returned fifteen minutes later, angry. "I had to walk all the way around the block for a patch of grass," she complained, unhooking Freddie and kicking off her shoes. "Sorry."

"Sam will probably give us another half hour," Dean said. "Let's try again. Happy Valentines Day, now let's get naked."

Lady giggled as he pulled her into a tight embrace and kissed her. She held on tight, not wanting to end the kiss even when she heard the knocks on the door. Dean let out a frustrated breath, "What?"

"Dean, are, uh…can I come in?" Sam called.

"No!" Dean shouted.

"Hey, something happened last night. At the college," Sam said. "Just, uh…"

Dean went still, then walked to open the door for his brother. "What happened?"

"I wasn't able to get a straight story," Sam said. "Something really weird, I heard half a dozen stories just waiting to get coffee."

"Anyone hurt?" Dean asked, grabbing a t-shirt and pulling it on.

"I haven't heard for sure," Sam said, handing Dean a cup of coffee.

"We better check it out," Dean said. "Lady…"

"I'll be here," she promised.

"Sorry, Lady," Sam said, handing her a cup of coffee and offered her a donut he had picked up.

After the brothers left Lady got Freddie into the bathtub and spent an hour bathing him. His size usually required a yard and a garden hose to get the job done, but to make things easier on Sam and Dean it seemed only right to give her smelly dog a good shampoo. "No, you stay in there," Lady said as the shower ran, rinsing the dog off. She closed the shower curtain as he shook water and shampoo from his fur. "You'll thank me when Dean lets you sleep in the bed because you smell like a flower."

Once Freddie was clean Lady was soaked and pulled on a new pair of jeans and another shirt. All her clothes smelled stale from getting drenched the previous night, but she'd get around to washing them later. She took Freddie for a walk and wondered if this was how things might end up being in a few months. Hanging out at random motels with Freddie while the brothers did their work and continued searching for their demon. Well, either something like this or she'd be dead.

Lady had just returned from her walk with Freddie when Sam called and asked if she could make it to the college campus. When she arrived Sam led her to a blackened circle in the grass.

"Our job just got a hell of a lot weirder," Sam said. "Dean's inside, trying to find anyone who may have seen anything."

"It's a circle," Lady said, confused. She watched Freddie, sniffing around the circle. He seemed confused but not repelled by it, and she trusted her dog's instincts. Something strange had happened, but whatever it was had left.

Sam looked hesitant before he said, "A guy said..." Lady burst out laughing and he frowned at her as he continued, "That he was abducted by an alien."

Lady's laugh died down quickly when Sam remained serious. "And you think..."

"To me, this looks like it was created by a jet engine," Sam said. "We're not sure what caused it, but I'm wondering if you have any insight?"

"You're thinking witchcraft now?" Lady raised her eyebrows, then she shrugged. "Okay."

"You are okay with this?" Sam asked, concerned.

"Sam, I see witchcraft when I sneeze. I'm sort of useless unless there is a witch around, but if there is I am the first person you want to be on the scene." Lady stepped into the middle of the circle and knelt down, examining the bit of burned grass and blackened earth. She took a handful and let it sift through her fingers.

"Well?" Sam asked as she stepped out.

"Hell if I know," she admitted. "If it is a witch it isn't Garrett's coven, this is too public for them. But if this was my job I'd look for other strange deaths and missing persons." Lady looked at the many college students walking between buildings, young men and women with books and bags. She shifted into a working frame of mind and had to look away when each person became a potential witch. "What about the person who was abducted?"

"What I hear he is hanging out at a local bar," Sam said. "Want to come with when we talk to him?"

Lady smiled as she saw Dean quickly crossing the manicured lawn toward them. "How about you guys give me the cliff notes when you get back to the motel?"

"Hey, find anything out?" Sam asked as Dean joined them near the blackened circle.

Dean put an arm around Lady's waist and she leaned against him, "Nada," he said. "You find a room anywhere?" he asked Lady.

"Nada," she mimicked. "Not for a couple of days. Besides, you are going to be busy. You guys get to work, I'll get lunch. What do you guys want? Pizza, sandwiches, Chinese?"

"I don't care," Sam said.

"I'm up for anything," Dean said. "Hey, when you get back to the motel why don't you get on the computer and check for other mysterious deaths or missing persons."

"Hey, I just barely fixed my laptop," Sam countered.

"C'mon, I'm just trying to get this figured out as quickly as we can," Dean said.

"Lady thinks Hewlett Packard is in competition with Tommy Hilfiger," Sam said.

"Hey!" Lady protested in offense.

Sam looked at her apologetically, "I'm sorry, but before you got here Dean screwed my computer to hell and I spent hours getting rid of viruses. Its okay, the laptop is on my bed, just be careful with it, okay?"

"Yeah, of course," Lady said.

"I'm sorry, Lady, this isn't how it was supposed to work out," Dean said.

"I could be sitting on Bobby's couch eating hot pockets watching Little Shop of Horrors, this isn't half bad," she said, kissing his chin and squeezing a handful of his butt until he grinned. Being separated from him for so long, she'd take what she could get. "I'll see you in an hour."

They went separate ways, Lady going back to her truck while Sam and Dean went to the Impala. Sam bit back a bit of laughter as he saw Lady's handprint was black on the back of Dean's jeans. "What?" Dean asked, catching the snicker Sam couldn't hide.

"Nothing, man," Sam said. He'd rather have Dean walk around with that dirty handprint on his butt then say anything. "Just, this job is weird."

"I know, right?" Dean agreed as they got into his car.

Lady found a local restaurant downtown and got a few to-go boxes. At the motel she didn't find Sam's laptop on his bed or anywhere in the motel, figuring he left it in the car she let it go and called Bobby to hear his progress.

Sam and Dean returned after an hour. They looked in the Styrofoam boxes at what she had brought and took what they wanted before sitting down. "What is this? It smells great," Sam said as he grabbed a plastic fork.

"Cajun chicken," Lady said. "They don't make it right this far north, though. Not spicy enough."

Sam was chewing his first bite. Lady looked concerned as his eyes grew wide and watered. He swallowed quickly and opened his cold beer to try and cool the burning in his mouth. "Wow, that's hot," Sam coughed and took another long drink.

Dean chuckled, "Wimp."

Lady looked at Sam with concern, "Good thing you didn't take the spicy wings. Sam, are you okay?"

Sam nodded and sucked in a few breaths, "Oh god, that burns." Sam put the box on the table and grabbed the remaining one. "You manage to find anything?" Sam asked while he tried to get rid of the spices still making the inside of his mouth burn.

"I think you must have your computer in the car, it isn't here," Lady said.

Sam frowned, "No, it was here."

Before Sam could begin his search Lady asked, "What'd the guy who got abducted say? He seem genuine or is this a whole prank?"

"The guy is pretty messed up, and I don't blame him," Dean said. "Said they did tests on him, including the oh-so-popular probing. They seemed to really like the probing."

"Something really weird, though," Sam said. "He said the alien made him slow dance."

Lady looked between the brothers, trying to see if they were messing with her. Her eyes focused on Sam, "Slow dance?"

"Yeah," Sam nodded. "That's what he said."

"You check this guy for shrooms?" Lady asked.

"We should have," Dean mumbled through a mouthful of food. He washed it down with a long drink of his beer. "I think we have a connection though."

"They both happened at the same building, right?" Lady asked.

"Well, yeah, that. But both these guys were total douchebags. A philandering professor gets a dead girl. The pledge master gets hazed."

"That's your connection?" Sam frowned at him.

"You have anything better?" Dean asked.

"Not yet," Sam said. "I'm going to grab my laptop."

Lady waited until Sam was out the door before moving herself onto Dean's lap, "So, ghosts and aliens," she said as her hand went around his neck until she could move her fingertips through the short hair at the back of his head. "You guys always so lucky?"

"I try really hard," Dean kissed her.

Lady giggled as one of his hands went up her shirt, "You know your brother is going to be back in two minutes."

"And it will take me one minute to kick his ass back out," Dean said.

"Come on, you know that isn't fair," Lady said. "And I need to take Freddie outside for a bit."

"You are the one who sat on my lap," Dean countered. "You started this, I get to finish it."

Lady was laughing when Sam came back into the room. Sam made an annoyed sound, "Okay, Dean, where is it?"

"Sam, get out," Dean said while Sam went to his bed and began looking for something. "Sam, seriously."

"No," Sam snapped. "Where is my laptop?"

"I don't know," Dean said.

Sam lifted an empty bag that had been on his bed, "I left it in here."

"You obviously didn't," Dean snapped.

Lady sighed and moved off of Dean's lap and began picking up the empty food containers while Sam looked around the motel room for his laptop.

"Okay, hilarious, where did you hide it?" Sam asked.

"Why would I take your computer?" Dean asked.

"Because no one else could have, Dean!" Sam snapped. "We keep the door locked. We don't let any maids in! Lady wouldn't..." Sam turned to Lady and looked like he was rethinking what he had just said. Lady was a thief, sure, but he didn't think she'd steal from him. However she had, on several occasions, picked their pockets for a laugh. "Lady?"

"I haven't seen it," she said. "I locked the door when I left, everything was the same when I got back."

"Looks like you lost it, point-Dexter," Dean said with an amused smirk.

Sam turned back to his brother, "Dude, you know something? I put up with a lot from you! All I ask is that you don't mess with my stuff! How would you feel if I messed with the Impala?"

"It'd be the last thing you ever did," Dean answered seriously.

"You are such a jerk," Sam snapped.

Lady made a face and turned her back to the brothers. "We'll be back a bit later. Come on, Freddie."

Lady looked around at the small patch of grass she had found for Freddie. He looked up at her and she felt like she could read his mind right then. _You are seriously going to make me poop while you are holding a four-foot long leash?_ Lady looked away. Freddie was a good dog off a leash, but in towns and cities it was often required he be tethered to her. The other bonus of having a dog in a city was the fun of disposing of their presents. "Come on, buddy. You drop it, I bag it and toss it. Not rocket science, we've been through this before. I don't like it. You don't like it. Let's just get it over with."

When she returned to the motel Sam and Dean were giving each other steely gazes, so she and Freddie left to go to the laundry room.

Sam let out a huff of breath once the door closed. He was putting his bed back together after his failed search for his laptop. He paused in his work and turned to glare at Dean as he picked up one of Lady's bras. "Hey, put that back," Dean said.

Sam dropped it on Dean's bed, "Okay, listen we just need to get this taken care of. I'll start going through some of the books I got from the library until I find my computer. Can you find something productive to do?"

"I'll get right on that," Dean said, leaving the room.

Lady was playing Pac-Man on her cell phone while the washing machine ran. She looked up when the door to the small laundry room opened and Dean entered with a bag of clothes. "Sam is going to smother you in your sleep if you don't return his computer," Lady said.

"I didn't take it," Dean said seriously, lifting the lid off a free washer and dumping in a bag of dirty whites. He let the lid slam and fed it quarters until water began to run. "Did you?"

"Why would I?" Lady asked. "Don't look at me like that. Anything I steal from you two I always give back, usually before you notice it's even missing."

Dean gave her a charming smile, "You know if you wanted to pull a prank on Sam, you could do better than hide his laptop on him."

She frowned at him, "I didn't take it."

"Okay," Dean said with a shrug, sitting next to her. "Where were we earlier?"

"You just accused me of robbing your brother," Lady said numbly, going back to her game of Pac-Man.

Dean leaned towards her even as she leaned away. One arm went around her waist to keep her close while his mouth found her ear behind her hair. Lady fought the grin he was pulling out in her and her eyes looked around the small laundry room to gauge its privacy. She let him pull her onto his lap and she kissed him back happily for a moment before pulling away, "You are lucky I am nuts about you," she said before covering his mouth with hers. "Lock the door, I need to put my clothes in the dryer."

Dean hurried to the door of the laundry room and locked it before wedging a chair underneath the door handle to ensure no one walked in. Freddie was sitting in the corner, looking at him curiously but wasn't moving. He'd just have to deal with dog-eyes watching them. Lady jumped to sit on a washer and Dean leaned against her to kiss her hungrily. "Your clothes are almost done," Lady said. "Think we can be done before the dryers stop?"

As long as he had been waiting for them to have a chance alone, and how many times they had been interrupted he felt fortunate that he hadn't combusted. "Can you get your pants off before I get the clothes in the dryer?" he asked, giving her a quick kiss when the washer signaled it was done. He went to grab the wet clothes while Lady went to unbutton her jeans. "What the fuck?" Dean muttered as he pulled out a handful of wet pink socks. "Damn it."

"Wow," Lady said as Dean pulled out t-shirts, shorts and socks, all a pretty in pink color. "You know Easter isn't too far away, pastels are in. Not a big deal."

"You think this is funny?" He asked seriously.

Lady had immediately thought it was hilarious. And now that she had a few extra seconds to imagine Dean wearing pink socks under his biker boots it was even funnier. "Yes, yes I do," she said, only able to hold back her laughter because Dean was obviously not amused.

Finally Dean pulled out a pair of red panties and held them up, frowning at Lady, "I think you left these in the machine. Great."

"Those aren't mine," Lady said seriously, her smile fading and her urge to laugh dying.

Dean's eyes grew wide and he looked more closely at the underwear. His mouth opened and closed a few times, "Well…some...other...uh, person must have left them."

Lady nodded, "Uh huh."

Dean put on his best smile, "Because they obviously aren't mine." Lady was watching his face seriously, no sign if she was angry or amused, and no sign that she was buying into his quick attempt at a cover-up.

Before he could determine if there was a problem her eyes moved to the door, there was a knock and someone shouted, "This door is supposed to stay unlocked. Nothing funny in there!"

Dean let out a breath as Lady went to open the door and spoke to the motel manager to assure him nothing funny was happening. "I don't even know how these got into my bag," Dean continued.

Lady rolled her eyes and let out a laugh, "It doesn't matter, Dean."

He threw the red panties into the trash and moved the pink load of whites into the dryer. "Right, because wherever they came from happened a long time ago."

"I am curious about something," Lady said. "Why the hell do you steal panties?"

Dean let out a chuckle with a shrug. He'd dated more women than he could remember names for and Lady was the first woman he wanted to be serious with in years with the added benefit that he didn't have to constantly lie to her. "Hell, I don't know. Mementos? Reminder of a good time?"

"That's weird," Lady said. "That also explains why I can't find a few of mine."

Dean nodded and smirked. "Because we always have a good time." His smirk faded a bit and he let out a tired sigh, "Well, almost always."

Lady leaned against him, "I'm not having a bad time, but I sort of feel like I'm getting in the way."

"What? Don't be stupid."

"You and your brother are ready to throw punches," Lady said. "You keep trying to ditch him to spend time with me, you are leaving him doing most of the work."

"Give us one more day and we'll all go to the next town and then give him some time alone. And us some time alone. And then I'm going to..." Dean tensed as his phone rang. "I'm going to kill him, that's what I'm going to do." Lady smiled and kissed him before he answered his phone. Unable to help herself she held onto him and lightly kissed his neck as he talked to his brother on the phone. When he hung up the phone he quickly returned her kisses, "You are making this really hard."

"I know," she said, softly moving against the front of his pants.

"That too," Dean let out a laugh. "I have to go. Sam may have found something, I'm going with to make sure he doesn't screw it up." Dean kissed her longingly. Glad she was there to lighten his mood but each time they got close to anything they were interrupted and it was frustrating the hell out of him.

"Relax, Dean. As soon as this job is done I know just how to make everything better," Lady said in a promise. "I actually know several ways, if it helps you can think about that."

Dean swallowed and nodded before licking his lips and laughing, "You are in trouble when I get back."

Lady gave him a quick pinch as he left the laundry room, and as the excitement settled she decided to go back to her game of Pac-Man only to find her cell phone wasn't in her pocket. She checked the floor of the laundry room, chairs, and came up empty handed until she began to wonder if it hadn't ended up in Dean's pockets. She let it go as she finished laundry, until she pulled the load of pink clothes Dean had left and found her cell phone in pieces among the clothes. "Son of a bitch," she hissed.

The anger that flared up was immediate and if her cell phone wasn't in pieces she would have called Dean and ripped into him. By the time she was back in the motel room putting her clean clothes into her bag she had calmed down. It had been an accident. Dean had been rather distracted, mostly by her. And she should have been paying more attention to her things, although she had been rather distracted by him. She'd get another phone, another SIM card, and have to go through the process of finding phone numbers she needed again. Pain in the ass, but it wasn't going to kill her.

**A/N** – _Song for this chapter:_

_Higher Mathematics, by Splithabit (this will be for all 'Tall Tales' chapters)_

_Pac-Man Fever, by Buckner and Garcia_


	42. Tall Tales Part 3, February 2007

**February 14, 2007**

Sam and Dean returned to the motel early that evening. "Hey, we've been calling your cell," Sam said.

"It broke," she said stiffly. Her and Freddie were lounging on the bed and she made certain Freddie was comfortable on Dean's pillow. "You guys bring supper?"

"No, we were hoping you'd go get something," Dean said. "What happened to your phone?"

"Someone put it in the dryer," Lady said. Dean laughed at her until she glared at him and said, "You did, Dean."

"What? No I didn't," Dean said.

The anger she thought she had given up on returned in an intense flare, "Yes, you did. I know you didn't mean to, but that phone is the only way I can check in with Bobby and Mason."

Dean licked his lips and let out a frustrated breath, "You know there is a phone three feet away from you."

"Yeah, so?" Lady said.

"Maybe you could extend a little energy memorizing those phone numbers, or even writing them down so you have them considering how well you treat your cell phones. You've gone through at least ten since I've met you," Dean said forcefully.

Sam made a face and silently went to the table. "Don't worry, Lady. If you need to use my phone just let me know."

"Thank you, Sam," she said gratefully. She let out a breath and asked, "Did you guys dig anything up?"

"Maybe. A few nights before the professor died another person who worked at the building was mutilated. We came back to get ready to break into the morgue," Sam said. "Did you want to come with? See if there is anything you can give us insight on?"

Dean was about to say no, that while Sam was off working he was going to use the time alone to finish what he and Lady had started the previous night and earlier that day. But before he could Lady hopped out of bed, "Yeah, I'd love to help. Believe me, I'm getting stir crazy in here." Without looking she said, "You shove, yank or do anything to disturb my dog and I will order him to bite your face."

Dean's hand stopped three inches from grabbing Freddie's collar and dragging him off the bed. "Lady, I get it, the dog is your best friend. That's great. But he's drooling on everything! It's disgusting." Freddie whimpered and climbed off the bed himself, trotting over to Sam who rubbed his ears gently. "Instead of spending the night breaking and entering into a morgue so we can check out a mutilated body, wouldn't you rather hang out here for a few hours?"

"Right now? No," Lady said. She let out a breath and gave Dean a bump with her hip to show him things were okay. "Listen, this job is more important than having fun right now. I want to help you two finish it so we can all get out of here."

"Sam can…"

"Sam can do a lot of things, but two heads are better than one. But we are all frustrated as hell, let's just get it taken care of before you end up stabbing each other and I let Freddie chew on what is left."

Dean nodded and smiled a bit as she kissed his jaw. While Lady got dressed into something she could work in he grinned at his brother. "She's actually going to break into a morgue with us. How awesome is she?"

Sam let out a laugh, if only to ease the tension. They all had, at one point during the day, been ready to throw something at one another. He liked having Lady around, but it wasn't working well. He was on the wagon to finish the job and get the hell out of Springfield, though.

Lady parked her truck beside the Impala and gave Freddie a quick scratch before leaving him in the backseat. "Surveillance cameras?" she asked as they walked toward the building.

"We have a clear spot," Dean said.

"Crap, I forgot my flashlight," Lady said.

"I'll grab it," Sam said, running back behind the bushes where they had parked their vehicles.

"What are you grinning at?" Lady asked.

Dean just shrugged, "You're awesome."

She grinned back and kissed him, "You are pretty awesome, too. Not many guys I know will let me break into building with them."

"Not many women will make out with me before we break into a building," Dean said, leaning down to continue the kiss.

"Hey, really? Guys, we don't have time." Sam asked to break them up as he jogged back. He handed Lady her flashlight.

"Aw, thank you, Sam. You are so sweet," Lady said, hooking arms with him as he led the way.

"We checked, this is a clear spot to get in," Sam said, moving low to a window. "It goes into a basement. Lady's first."

Lady went in feet first as Dean lowered her in. Once inside she moved a table over to the window so the brothers had an easier time getting in. They pulled out the drawer where the body was being held.

"Wow, when you said mutilated you…you really meant it," Lady muttered. There was part of an arm, with a few fingers missing, and a leg from the knee down.

"Looks like someone took a chainsaw after him," Dean said as he moved the flashlight over the pieces.

"Nah, something chewed him up. See that," Lady pointed at the rough edges of a limb. "Where were these pieces found?"

"Outside the same building as the alien attack and the nose-diving professor," Sam said, grabbing a magnified light and putting it over the remains.

"You see something?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, something is stuck in there," Sam said, focusing the magnified glass over a piece. "What…is that a scale?"

Lady went to her tip toes to see what they were looking at, and her lips parted in surprise. "That's from a gator."

"That's what I was thinking…but in Ohio?" Sam looked at her.

"Like Lady is an expert on reptiles?" Dean countered.

Lady looked unhappily at Dean, "I know alligators, Dean. I also know there is no way in hell one would be living in the wild up here, and the closest zoo is at least twenty miles away."

"And this guys pieces were found near a drain that leads into the sewers," Sam said.

Lady shook her head, "Gator's don't live in sewers."

"I know," Sam said. "It's an urban legend."

"Urban legend like how your building is haunted by a ghost that kills anyone who sees her and frat-boy getting abducted and probed."

"Everything is connected to that building, happening in or near it," Sam said. "I have no clue what we're dealing with."

Lady let out a breath, "Me either."

"How about we call Bobby? Have him come over and help us out?" Sam suggested.

After a few moments they all nodded in agreement. They got out of the morgue and as they walked back to their vehicles they talked about the job, things that might be causing it. Mostly the brothers talked and discussed it, they had a far wider knowledge base than Lady when it came to this level of weird.

Lady stopped when she reached her truck, frowning. She opened the door and looked inside. "Sam?"

"Yeah?" he asked, smiling at her. While they were all confused by the job they were in high spirits that Bobby was on his way to give them an extra hand.

"You let Freddie out of my truck," she said angrily. Slamming the door and looking around. It was after midnight and with Freddie's black fur she couldn't see if he was nearby. She put two fingers into her mouth and whistled shrilly. "Freddie!"

"Lady! Sh!" Dean hissed. They had been very careful when breaking into the morgue but they still had to get away.

"He was in there when I left," Sam said.

"You didn't lock the door!" she shouted at him.

Sam looked confused, "Freddie knows how to open a door?"

"Of course not, he's a dog!" Lady snapped. "Someone might have taken him, or let him out."

"Lady, I'm sorry," Sam said, his eyes going wide with concern.

"He probably just went to drop a load somewhere, give him two minutes," Dean said.

Lady looked around. Two blocks over was a busy road with speeding cars, a few more blocks the other way was a nice residential area. The city had its own animal control vehicles, Freddie had a collar but no tags. While in towns it was important to keep him on a leash if only to keep other people calm around the unusually large dog, but since Freddie was accustomed to not being leashed up he didn't need much of an invitation to go exploring on his own.

"Freddie!" Lady called again, abandoning her truck and searching on foot while calling his name against Dean and Sam's wishes. It was after midnight, she was loud and attracting attention. "Go back to the motel, I'll go back when I find my dog."

"We'll help you search," Sam said. "Freddie is smart, he'll find his way back to us, Lady. But we have to ditch this area, and quick."

"I'm not leaving my dog!" Lady argued.

Dean clenched his fists. She'd already spent fifteen minutes stubbornly ignoring their pleas for her to shut up and her voice just kept getting louder. "You're being a bitch!"

Lady glared at him for a long time until she bitterly said, "Fine, let's go."

Lady followed the Impala for two blocks before turning off and ditching the Winchesters. She wasn't going back to the motel until she had her dog back.

"God damn it," Dean muttered as he saw the truck turn off. He took the next turn and searched for over an hour. He even tried her phone once before remembering it was busted. He gave up and returned to the motel, hoping she had just taken another route there, but the truck wasn't in the parking lot.

"She just wants to find Freddie," Sam said. "She doesn't like being without him, you know that."

Dean checked to make sure her things were still there, and once it was certain she hadn't returned to the motel to pack up and leave completely he relaxed. "Yeah, I get it."

"No you don't," Sam said. "You hate Freddie."

"No I don't," Dean argued as he grabbed food out of the fridge. "Freddie's great," Dean couldn't hide the bitterness in his voice. He sniffed a container of food in a paper container and reached for a fork. Before he could take a bite the bottom of the container fell open and dropped a mess on the floor, right on top of Lady's white-lace heels.

Sam's eyes widened and his jaw dropped before he started laughing, "Oh! Oh no! You are dead, now."

Dean's eyes grew wide and met Sam's. "Dude, you have to take the heat for that," Dean said in a low voice.

"No, hell no," Sam said.

"She's still pissed at me for the phone, she might actually shoot me for this," Dean said.

"No! She tried to attack a vampire with her bare hands for just scuffing a pair of boots," Sam said.

"Exactly!" Dean hissed. "Dude, you've been cock-blocking me since she got here, you owe me!"

"Like hell I do!" Sam said, walking quickly away from the stained shoes.

"Son of a bitch!" Dean snapped and picked up the evidence to clean it off. A mix of red sauce and orange grease had already stained them. "Damn it, I can't believe I'm standing here trying to clean a pair of high heels," he said roughly before letting them fall to the ground. Lady had admitted to dropping over five-hundred dollars on some of her shoes, this was going to cost him a lot of money, it didn't need to cost him his manhood.

Lady was driving slowly around the area Freddie ran off in, calling his name out the open window until her face was red and frozen numb from the cold before giving up on the traditional way of searching. She found an empty and fairly secluded spot and dug in her bag for what she needed to do for a tracking spell. It was a very simple one, she knew Freddie couldn't be very far and she had plenty of his hair in the truck to search with. Sheltered from the wind by the truck she lit a small white tea candle next to a map of the city and did the short ritual. Lady frowned when the location became burned in the map, Freddie was at the college campus that was at least five miles away from the morgue.

Lady parked her truck behind Crawford Hall, the building where all the incidents had taken place near or inside of. "Freddie!" She called and whistled, wondering what her chances were that it was just a coincidence Freddie was at the same place as the attacks had been happening. She was reaching in her pocket for her cell phone before she remembered it was broken. Lady was turning back to her truck, she had to go back and get Dean and Sam. As much as she wanted Freddie back she was getting a seriously bad vibe.

But then she heard barking.

Lady broke a window with her flashlight and got into the building, following the sounds of barking until she reached a basement lab with a sign that said 'Animal Testing' on the door. Her blood nearly boiled as she opened the unlocked door and saw Freddie sitting in a cage. "Oh, baby!" She said, running to him and shining her flashlight at the cage. Her hand was on the clasp to open it but she froze. "Oh, no."

"Hey, Lady," Loki said.

She turned slowly, everything clicking in her mind. The urban legends, ironic twists to snuff arrogant jerks, tricks by a Trickster. The Trickster she had narrowly avoided being killed by and had let go in order to spare Bobby and her own life last year.

He smiled broadly, "I have to say, you look real good. You look surprised, too! You really didn't know I was here?"

"No," Lady admitted. "You changed your game."

"Same game, just new players," Loki said. "Those two men you are with now, very nice fellows. I met them a few times, afraid they are getting a little too close for comfort."

"Let me just take my dog, and I'll go back to them. I can get them to leave," Lady bargained quickly.

"You really think so?" Loki sounded doubtful. "Nah, I think its best if I wait it out a bit. See, I've been watching you, Lady. Oh, always a bundle of fun."

"No messing with my head this time? No making me see visions or jumping through ridiculous hoops?"

"Well that's too soon. You can only pull off the same trick every few centuries," Loki flashed a smile. "Besides, I'm running a theme here. You know it took you longer than I thought it would to make it to this building. The way you treat your dog better than you treat your friends. Tsk tsk."

"I've already been through your game, Loki. I know, I'm an arrogant little bitch," Lady said flatly.

Loki chuckled until she became uneasy, "Exactly!"

"Wait, no, Loki!" Lady cried out before Loki snapped his fingers.

The next instant everything was black and blurry. Lady wobbled on her hands and legs, being smothered by something. _What…_ she tried to say, but the only thing that came out was a yapping bark.

Lady struggled out of what she was smothered in, looking around warily she saw a pile of clothes that had to belong to a giant is what she had crawled out of, and she felt naked herself. And then she saw her silver charm bracelet was on the ground as well, looking far too large. Looking up she saw Loki, happily chuckling as he unwrapped a candy bar. "Aren't you just the cutest little thing?"

_What? No! NO!_ Lady let out a series of yaps and tried to get her limbs coordinated before Loki could crush her with his hand. Instead of crushing her he lifted her easily.

"See, aren't you just adorable?" Loki cooed as he held her in front of a reflective metal surface.

_Adorable? I'm a fucking Chihuahua!_ Lady yapped. Loki had turned her into a small, even by Chihuahua standards, tan dog. _Couldn't I at least be a golden retriever?_

"We'll just put you in here, and in the morning I have some friends who will be in to play with you and Freddie," Loki promised as she struggled in his hand. He shoved her into a small cage and latched it. "There is water and kibble, even a little squeaker toy if you get bored."

_YOU SON OF A PAGAN BITCH I WILL KILL YOU! I WILL…ah, what the hell am I saying. I'm a fucking Chihuahua._

**A/N** – _Song for this chapter:_

_Higher Mathematics, by Splithabit (this will be for all 'Tall Tales' chapters)_


	43. Tall Tales Part 4, February 2007

**February 15, 2007**

Loki had shut the light off and left Lady in the cage. Lady hated the sound of the pitiful whimpers she was making, and when Freddie began to join her she felt even worse. _Okay, I'm so regretting that little bitch comment right now. Man-up, Freddie. We aren't getting tested on. I might be at a severe disadvantage but I am not completely hopeless. At least I hope not…_

Lady got her tiny paw through the bars in her cage and hit at the latch that kept it closed. Between her sight and her advantage of being the tiniest damn dog in the world with the IQ of a human she got the latch open and the door swung open. Her paw was caught in the bars for a few moments and was carried out of the cage before falling several feet to the ground. _Ouch_! She whimpered.

She shook her head and tried to coordinate her four legs over to Freddie. Freddie had, since he was eight months old, weighed more than she did. But never, ever, had she felt intimidated by her loving dog. But now she was something smaller than his favorite chew toy and she was suddenly wary about standing in front of him. _Oh boy_, she thought grimly. _Okay, Freddie…I'm not sure if you get that it's me in here, but even if you don't please, please don't try and eat me._

If she was anything interesting to Freddie he didn't seem to show it. She worked on his latch for several minutes before managing to get enough weight pressed down on it to make his door swing open. _Haha! Who needs thumbs? Whoa! Freddie, please! Please don't!_ Lady yelped as Freddie nudged her with his nose, sending her toppling as her little legs tried to work together in an effort to run across the smooth floor. Instead of being picked up in his mouth he sniffed her curiously and licked her head in a friendly way. Lady was very still, waiting to see if he'd decided she tasted good or not. When he just looked back at her she relaxed and bumped his leg happily. _Come on, pal, we're busting out of here._

It was harder getting Freddie to push open the doors for them than it was getting their cages opened. But after work and several yaps of encouragement they got outside.

Lady was, besides for the thin covering of tan fur, naked. She was very aware that as a dog she shouldn't care, but the freezing temperature had her trembling within a minute. She huddled under Freddie's belly for any warmth at all as they made the long journey on foot back to the motel. Freddie could have run the distance within minutes, but he kept a slow pace for Lady.

As they made their way Lady tried to think of ways to tell the Winchesters what they were up against while the only sound she could make was an annoying yap. They were smart. Out of the weird things happening in the town it wasn't a far stretch that their psychic friend got turned into a dog…right?

By the time they reached the motel Lady had the new obstacle of getting Freddie to pull open a door instead of pushing it. As soon as it was wide enough to get through she dashed inside, her whole body trembling from the cold. If she didn't get warmed up soon she'd just fall over. Freddie joined her soon and left her behind as he dashed up the stairs ahead of her, eager to be back. Lady wasn't as quick going up the stairs that were taller than she was, but as soon as she reached Freddie she huddled under his body again while he scratched at the door and let out a bark of his own.

Sam opened the door at the sound of Freddie's bark and let out a laugh of relief, "Freddie! Where did you go? You had us so worried," Sam said, getting on his knees and rubbing Freddie's head.

"Thank God, this should get me out of the doghouse," Dean said, patting Freddie.

"He just found his way back, Dean. It isn't like you found him," Sam countered.

"Hey…what the hell is this," Dean said, looking at the shivering Chihuahua.

Sam chuckled as he scooped the tiny thing up, "Freddie made a friend."

_Hey! Sam, that's inappropriate!_ Lady complained in a series of yaps as Sam held her with one hand around her torso and examined her rear.

"It's a girl. No collar or tag," Sam announced.

"A stray rat," Dean said. "Get it out of here."

"Dean, its ten degrees outside. Look at her, she's half frozen," Sam said, and Lady stopped her yapping as Sam tucked his arm around her and pressed her to his stomach, his other hand scratching head gently.

_Oh god, don't stop,_ Lady let out a sigh as she began to feel her blood warm and circulate again as she was against his warm body.

Dean glared at Sam coddling the ugly yappy dog, "Dude, don't."

"What?" Sam asked.

"We aren't taking in a stray dog! Drive it to an animal shelter if you have a soft spot but otherwise get it out of here. We already have one damn dog in here," Dean said as he popped the lid off of Freddie's food container.

Lady started a series of furious barks, _Dean! It's me! Listen…Jesus Christ why am I wasting my breath they don't understand dog…_

Sam laughed, "Come on, Dean. Check her out, she's actually kind of cute. You sure you don't want your own four-legged companion?" He rubbed her head gently, "Look, her tail is wagging! I think she likes me."

_What the…_ Lady turned her head to see. _What the hell?_ She twisted her body to get a view of the tiny tail and nearly toppled off of Sam's lap. He caught her easily and laughed at her clumsy movement.

"I'm surprised Freddie let it follow him here instead of eating it," Dean said as Freddie began to chomp down on his food.

"Hey, give me a handful of that," Sam said. "Let's see if she's hungry."

_Hell no, I'm not eating that crap,_ Lady said as Dean put a handful of giant dog food bits on the table and Sam held her up to it. Lady turned her nose away. Not only were the pieces too large for her to even manage to bite into it stank. Oh god did it stink. _Freddie, I am so sorry. I never knew. My god, how do you eat this? Never mind, I forget you eat your own poop. Well, I am not eating this._

"You name that thing and I'm kicking you both out," Dean said as he popped open a beer and called Lady's cell. He let out a breath when it went to voicemail. "I hope you are checking your messages. It's me again. I get it, you are pissed. Freddie is here, we're keeping him inside until you get back."

Lady hopped off Sam's leg, aware that she was being watched carefully. She walked slowly up to Dean and scratched at his pant leg. She sat and wagged her tail a few times while looking up at him. "No," he said.

_Dean! Come on!_ Lady whined and tilted her head. _It's me!_

Dean picked her up with one hand, looking her over and making a face. "God, you're ugly." He sighed and put her against his chest. "Do we have anything to box her in? We'll let Lady decide what to do with it when she gets back."

_Box me in! Oh hell no, I will…Oh my god, you smell good,_ Lady sighed and rubbed her nose against his chest and moved to lick his neck.

"Uck," Dean pulled her back.

"She likes you," Sam chuckled as Dean dropped her back in his lap. Sam put a large hand on her back, rubbing it gently.

Lady hopped off Sam's leg and nudged Freddie and barked a few times, _C'mon, pal, help me out. We need to do something and…Freddie no!_ Lady was pinned down as Freddie gave her a long lick from the top of her head to her tail.

Dean scooped Lady up in one hand, "Trust me, Freddie, more bones than meat."

_Don't manhandle me!_ Lady began yapping. _That feels weird!_

"Shut up," Dean muttered, dropping her on the floor of the bathroom and locking her inside.

_Dean! YOU BASTARD! LET ME OUT!_ Lady yapped maniacally behind the closed door, her tiny paws scratching and she whimpered.

"Don't let it out!" Dean snapped.

"Dean, that might be someone's pet," Sam said, opening the bathroom door. Lady darted out and jumped at Dean's leg.

She looked up at him, his face so far away that it was blurry with her poor dog vision. She scratched at his leg and whimpered for attention, for him to see through what Loki had turned her into. _Please, figure this out! Do something!_

"Just shut up," Dean said, nudging her with his foot and sending her toppling.

_Hey!_ Lady yapped angrily. But then she darted across the motel room and shoved her head into her bag that was on the floor.

"Hey! Get out of there!" Dean snapped. Lady pulled herself out of the bag, a pair of her panties in her teeth. "Give me those!" Dean snatched the underwear, pulling her with them and making her dangle off the ground until she released her grip.

_Don't you get it? C'mon, man!_ Lady darted out of his reach and skidded on the linoleum of the small kitchen in the motel room. She began tugging on one of her heels. _Get it, guys? Lady! I'm Lady!_ She paused when she saw the red and orange stains on her white shoe. A tiny whine came out of her. _Which one of you did it! THIS IS SUEDE! You bastards!_

"Stop that!" Dean said as he reached for her. The little bitch of a yap-dog wasn't going to go around destroying their things.

Lady only saw a hand almost as large as her body coming down and she latched onto a finger with her tiny teeth. "OUCH! Son of a!" Dean lifted his hand, but Lady held on. Not that she intentionally wanted to hurt Dean, but she had bitten off more than she could chew and his finger was stuck in her tiny jaws. And the only sound she managed to make was a not-so-threatening growl. "BITCH!"

With a flick of the wrist Lady lost her grip and went flying into a wall. She got up on uncertain legs, quickly running under a bed as both the men were trying to grab her now. _Ouch_, she let out a low whine.

"You hurt her," Sam said.

"I'm bleeding! What if it has rabies? I'm taking that thing to the vet to have it checked. If I have to get rabies shots I'm sure as hell biting you so you have to go through it, too!" A hand squeezed her body firmly and dragged her out from under the bed. "Gotchya!"

_Freddie! Freddie, stop him! Bite him! Jump him! Please, Freddie! _Lady barked anxiously. Freddie whimpered, not understanding what was going on. He barked loudly.

"Quiet!" Dean ordered, holding Lady in one hand and letting her dangle.

"Dean…" Sam started.

Dean held up his bloody hand, "Rabies, Sam! I am not dying because a little rat-dog bit me!"

_Dean…_ Lady whimpered.

Freddie stood up and barked defensively and even growled at Dean.

"Dean, it's after three in the morning," Sam said. "It's just a little dog, scared to death of you."

"Just find something to shove her into," Dean said, roughly handing her over so he could go to the bathroom and take care of his bleeding hand.

Sam chuckled as quietly as he could and looked at the dog with a smile, "That was a nice one. You want a treat?"

Lady got into her best behavior as Sam carried her to the fridge, grabbing some sandwich meat and tearing off small pieces. Hungrily she ate them. Dean glared as his brother treated the dog for chewing up his finger. "Check her out," Sam smiled as Lady started on the second slice of sandwich meat. "She was just hungry."

"Yeah, and going after Lady's shoes," Dean said.

Lady swallowed quickly and barked at her name. She looked at Dean and tried to pull off her sweet look while wagging her tail. _Please don't kill me for biting you. Look! I'm cute and I'm sorry!_ She walked to the edge of the table Sam was letting her sit on and let her tongue fall out of her mouth while she tried to look as happy and sweet as possible while looking at Dean. _Come on, don't try and resist the tail wag! It is wagging, right?_ Lady craned her head to see if the tail was moving. _Wow, that is really weird. Just sort of has a mind of it's…OH! Gravity!_ She let out a fearful whimper as she lost her balance and toppled off the table. This time Sam wasn't quick enough to catch her and she didn't notice if Dean even made an attempt.

"Clumsy little thing," Sam laughed, picking her back up from the floor. "What do you think Lady will want to do with her?" Sam asked, ignoring the little bark the Chihuahua let out when he spoke Lady's name.

Dean shrugged, "Lady doesn't like the annoying type of dogs."

Lady carefully jumped down from Sam's knee to the floor, and trotted over to Freddie before jumping on giant dog. _Help me out! Do something!_ Freddie yawned widely and nudged her with her nose and caused her to topple off of him. She landed with her limbs sprawled out and both the men laughed at her. _Dickheads._ She sighed, she was out of ideas for the moment. The best she could do was hope Freddie would protect her and keep her from being separated from him. She tucked herself under one of his paws and watched the brothers warily as they sat at the table having a beer and a snack.

"You sure you want Lady to come back? You know she's going to chew your ass to hell for her shoes," Sam said quietly.

_I already got his finger. You guys take care of Loki and all will be forgiven,_ Lady thought. _Well, help me get my thumbs back and then we'll talk about forgiveness. And compensation! They were expensive…damn it._

Dean rubbed his tired eyes, "You know, I just was hoping for something nice for a few days. Then all this crap. After we finished in Texas she hightailed it out of there to go get Freddie. You ever get cock-blocked by a dog before?"

"Can't say I have," Sam chuckled.

_Well that's just not fair! Freddie is my best friend!_ Lady let out a huff of breath.

"I don't know, man, I can't explain what it is about Lady," Dean said quietly. "She has these crazy quirks that I can't get over."

"Like her shoes?" Sam guessed.

"Yeah," Dean chuckled. "She's interesting. And what we do, it doesn't scare her. I mean, sure it does, but she can handle it."

"No, I get it," Sam said. "You love her."

Dean shrugged. Sam was quiet as a grin spread across his face. "Shut up," Dean muttered before Sam could say anything.

"I'm just happy for you," Sam said. "To be honest I would buy her flowers just for getting rid of you now and then…but I'm afraid you'll try to knock me out."

Dean laughed, "No, you're fine. Lady thinks of you as a coherent version of her dog. Big and cuddly, but neutered."

"Oh! Ouch!" Sam laughed with his brother. "Well, Lady is definitely interesting. I mean, we've known her a while but what do we really know about her?"

"I know the important stuff," Dean said.

"When is her birthday?" Sam quizzed him.

Dean shrugged, "Hell if I know. Is that important?"

Sam laughed and nodded, "Yeah, sort of."

"See, I don't know what the hell I'm doing," Dean admitted. "Maybe I'm stupid for thinking something would work."

Lady looked at him with sad eyes, _Well, yeah, but…you dick! You are the one who opened this door! You can't be thinking about going back on what we agreed on. I can't go back to how things were!_

"Dean, if there was any woman, in the world, that could put up with you. It's Lady," Sam said seriously. "I mean, come on, she's just like you."

Dean nodded and smirked, "Yeah, but with indoor plumbing."

Sam rolled his eyes. "The last girl I know you were serious about was Cassie. She's nothing like Cassie," Sam said.

_Who the hell is Cassie?_ Lady lifted her head slightly.

"That's for sure," Dean agreed. He let out a sigh and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "We should get a few hours of sleep before Bobby gets here."

_Wait a second! Who is Cassie?_ Lady watched as they got up from their chairs.

Dean turned to glance at the dogs, two pairs of brown eyes staring at them. "God, that is creepy."

_Can I have some more sandwich meat before you…okay, never mind,_ she sighed as the lights were shut off.

The room went quiet as the brothers settled into their separate beds. Freddie didn't try to climb into a bed, falling asleep with a heavy paw protectively over Lady on the floor. Lady managed to sleep on and off, but her advanced hearing meant she jerked awake more often than usual. She sighed as she crawled out from under Freddie and hopped from a chair to Dean's bed. He was on his side with an arm under his head and pillow. Her tiny weight didn't even disturb him as she looked him over. And she held back the sad whimper as reality hit her. _You've destroyed a pair of my shoes, thrown me, squeezed me, nearly stepped on me, kicked me and have been rather STUPID all night. And I still want to cuddle with you more than chew your damn nose off your face in revenge._ With a quiet sigh she tucked herself against his chest. She closed her eyes, happy with the warmth next to him. _I'm sorry. I want this to work out. The sane part of my head tells me there is no way in hell it will. I mean, the things we do. I got turned into a dog for crying out loud! If I get turned back to normal I'll…well, I want to try harder. I do. Have a little patience with me, and let me get my lips back, and I'll try harder. Oh, wow, you warm. Oh, there goes the tail again._ She made a soft noise and snuggled in closer.

And then she was struggling to get out of his way before he rolled over on top of her. Unable to move fast enough she let out a yelp as she became pinned and unable to breathe. "What the…" Dean grumbled as he pulled her out from under him. He looked at her, confused for a moment. "Hell no," he mumbled.

_DEAN! YOU BASTARD!_ Lady yelped as she was thrown off the bed and onto Sam.

Sam jerked when she landed on him, and with a sweep of his hand he knocked her down off of the bed and onto the floor. On unsteady legs she retreated back to the safe spot under Freddie's paw. _Jerks. Fine! I'd rather sleep with my dog anyways!_ Lady let out an uncomfortable whine as Freddie gave her a few lazy licks.

Lady refused to eat the broken up dog food Sam offered her in the morning and scratched at the fridge. _Come on, give me something decent,_ she whined. _If I get to be human again you'll never let me live down eating dog food!_

Lady went hungry when Sam didn't comply. And soon she was leading Dean on a chase to avoid having a rope around her neck so she could be taken outside to go to the bathroom. She failed, her and Freddie were led outside on leashes. Freddie was accustomed to going to the bathroom outside and wasted little time.

_Stop watching me,_ Lady glared at Dean as he waited for her.

"Hurry up before someone walks by, I'm not cleaning up after you," Dean said, looking at his watch. "Bad enough I'm taking care of Freddie. Where the hell is Lady?"

_With a rope around my neck while you are watching me pee. This is humiliating,_ Lady internally complained as she was without privacy just to go to the bathroom. But she didn't have a choice, if she went back inside and peed on the carpet she was willing to bet Dean would rub her nose in it. There was only so much abuse she could take.

"Still no word from Lady?" Sam asked when they returned, and Lady barked at her name. She'd given up hope that they'd figure it out with that hint, but she had to try.

"Nope," Dean muttered. "I'm getting a little worried."

"Lady can take care of herself. It's more likely she's going around to each animal shelter trying to see if Freddie was found," Sam said.

"You are right," Dean said, scooping Lady up in one hand. "Which reminds me, time to get rid of this thing."

"I thought you were going to let Lady decide what to do with her," Sam said.

"I thought about it, either Lady is going to take it to an animal shelter or she's going to keep it. I already have Freddie to compete with for bed space, I'm not adding this thing to it."

_Oh, God! Sam, save me!_ Lady pleaded with large eyes and a few hopeful whimpers.

"Okay," Sam said without argument.

_No! No! No! You ASS!_ Lady yapped. _Dean! Please don't give me away!_

"Ah, don't worry," Dean laughed at her. "I'm sure you'll be adopted in no time. After all, who wouldn't love that noise every minute of every damn day?"

_DEAN!_ Lady begged as he carried her out the door. _Freddie! STOP HIM!_

Freddie tilted his head and let out a low whine as Dean left with the small dog.

Dean held the yapping dog against his chest with one hand, trying to keep her from squirming out of his grip, while he dug in his pocket for his keys. As he reached his car he stopped, his eyes going wide. All four tires were flat. Lady barely got to see that as he shoved her in his jacket pocket so he could have both hands free. On the ground next to the car he found Sam's money-clip with his initials on it. "Sam!" he snarled angrily and stomped back into the motel.

_No! Dean, it's the Trickster!_ Lady yapped from inside his coat pocket, trying to adjust herself to at least get her head out. _Oh, it smells nice in here. It actually smells…god I'm hungry._ She began chewing on the tough leather of the jacket. _Oh, this feels so good. Oh, I should stop, Dean will get pissed…oh, I can't stop! Mmm._ She let out a pleased growl until Dean swatted the top of her head and shoved her back down into his jacket pocket.

"Stop it, you little rat!" he snarled.

_Sorry!_ She yelped.

Sam jerked as Dean angrily entered the motel room. "You think this is funny?"

Sam closed his book, "Depends. What?"

Dean wanted to smack the innocent look on Sam's face. "The car!"

"What about the car?" Sam asked, confused.

"You can't let the air out of the tires you idiot you're going to bend the rims!" Dean shouted.

"Whoa! Wait a minute, I didn't go near your car," Sam got on the defensive.

"Oh yeah? Then how'd I find this?" Dean asked, holding up the money-clip with Sam's initials on it he had found next to his deflated car.

Lady yapped. _Hey! I'm still being carried around like a kangaroo, here!_ She struggled and tried to get out of the pocket. Maybe she could get far enough under the bed to hide before he got another chance to donate her to an animal shelter.

Sam patted his pockets, "Hey, give me back my money."

"No, hell no. Consider it reparations for emotional trauma," Dean said.

"Very funny, Dean, now give it back," Sam followed Dean as he walked away.

Lady saw what was about to happen, and struggled madly until she fell out of Dean's pocket and landed hard on the carpet. She struggled to get out of the way of their giant feet, yelping in fear as she tried to avoid being crushed.

Sam tried to reach for his cash but Dean pulled it back, and soon they were wrestling and fighting until they were both on the ground.

Lady jumped up and down from a safe distance, _Are you trying to kill me! What the hell is wrong with you two?_ But she knew what. Loki had his hooks in them, slowly taunting them and they didn't even know it.

"Stop! Stop! This is ridiculous!" Sam grunted as he shoved Dean away.

"Damn right it is!" Dean snapped as he got back to his feet, ready to start again.

Sam let out a breath and straightened his shirt, then his eyes fell on the mess they had kicked up. "Just…stop it," Sam breathed, stomping back to his chair and grabbing a book.

Dean glared angrily for a while, before going to the fridge and grabbing something to eat. Freddie had taken up residence on his bed with the rat-dog, so he grabbed a magazine and ate his food on Sam's bed. Lady looked at the distance between the beds and launched herself. Her front paws caught the edge of Sam's bed and she scrambled to pull herself up before gravity could take her down to the floor. She looked at Dean with wide eyes, and then at his food, before back at him and wagging her tail. _Please, please I'm starving!_ She pleaded with her eyes.

Dean tore off a piece of greasy pork and tossed it on the bed for her. She nearly inhaled it, _Oh, thank you! More? Please? More?_

Lady wasn't sure if her mind was starting to be affected from being a dog for so long, but all she really wanted to do was beg for food and sit on a warm lap. The first part was because she was hungry. The second was because she was so damn cold. Dean was fine with feeding her scraps but the second she tried to get close for warmth he nudged her away.

"Do you mind not eating that on my bed?" Sam asked in annoyance.

"No, I don't mind," Dean said, tossing Lady another scrap.

"Don't feed her that! You'll make her sick!"

_Shut up, Sam!_

Dean seemed intrigued by the idea of a little Chihuahua hurling on Sam's bed, and tossed another scrap to Lady. "How's research going?"

Sam slammed a book shut, "You know how it's going? Slow! You know how it'd go a hell of a lot faster? If I had my computer!" Dean made a noise through a mouthful of food as Sam grabbed another book. He threw the book down when Dean turned up the radio. "You know what, maybe you should just go somewhere for a while," Sam suggested.

"I'd love to! That's a great idea. Unfortunately my car is all screwed to hell!" Dean shouted.

"For the last time, Dean, I didn't touch your car!" Sam shouted back.

Lady let out a huff of breath and bounced off of Dean's stomach and off the bed. She raced to the door before there was a knock. Her claws scraped against the linoleum as she slid and she hit the door headfirst with a small clunk. _Ouch…_ she shook her head and wobbly moved from the door. _I have to stop doing that. Ouch, oh, ouch!_

Sam was opening the door to Bobby who had just got into town. _Bobby! Bobby! Notice me! I'm not your average dog! Look!_ She bounced up and down happily at her old friend. _At least adopt me! Don't let Dean put me in a shelter. Please?_

Bobby laughed at her, "You're kidding, right?"

"Long story," Sam muttered. "She came home with Freddie and Lady hasn't stopped by to figure out what to do with her."

"I say throw her back, a bit scrawny," Bobby laughed.

_Hey!_ Lady yapped in protest and retreated back to Freddie for protection before Bobby could start throwing her around, too.

She listened from the bed to the Winchesters going over the job with Bobby. When they were through Lady bounced up and down on the bed excitedly as Bobby figured it out.

"If you guys took the time to pull your heads out of your asses it'd be clear you're dealing with a Trickster!" Bobby snapped.

_Yes! Bobby you are the bomb-diggity! I said it! Well…I barked it,_ Lady said, jumping off the bed and wagging her tail happily at Bobby. She scratched at his pants and he nudged her away with his foot.

"A Trickster?" Sam asked.

"A Pagan God. There are a few of them," Bobby explained. "Oh boy. When is the last time you heard from Lady?"

"Over twelve hours now," Sam said. "But she doesn't have her cell phone."

Lady clawed her way back up on the bed. _I so don't care. THEY GOT IT! Freddie! C'mon, baby!_ Lady jumped up and down happily and Freddie, taking the hint, got up and happily swayed and bounced with her. His weight jumping on the bed sent her flying and sprawling on the floor. _Ouch, bad idea._ Lady whimpered and let out a breath when she heard the men let out a few snorts of laughter at her expense.

Bobby took a chair and frowned, "Not quite a year ago Lady had a run in with a Trickster (**A/N-again, see Chapter 5**). She might have gotten close to putting the clues together."

Dean and Sam went tense. "You mean we've been sitting on our asses when Lady might be this things last trick?" Dean asked.

Lady jumped up and down, barking. _Yeah, pretty much! _Lady backed up and took a running leap onto Bobby's lap, making him jump. She clawed up his chest and rubbed her nose against his face in a kiss. _Bobby! You genius old man! Don't let them screw up! And don't let them put me in a cage again._

Lady let out a yelp as Bobby threw her off of him. "Lady's clever," Bobby muttered. "Thing is she's exactly these things type. Cocky, sure of herself. The one we came across last time was actually Loki."

Lady jumped up and down, cheering Bobby on. _You got it! It's Loki! LOKI!_

"He strung her along for a few days, messing with her head. Powerful enough to mess with her visions," Bobby continued. "Killing one isn't easy, but a stake dipped in his victim's blood will do the trick. Hard part is cornering it."

Dean rubbed his forehead, "What does this thing look like?"

"As human as you or me," Bobby said. "But he'll be at the center of where it's all happening, he likes to watch his tricks play out."

Lady dashed across the room and dug in her bag, finding a bra and tugging it out. She dragged it across the floor. The hint hadn't worked with Dean or Sam but Bobby was sharp and wasn't infected with the chaos Loki brought out in people. "Hey! Stop that!" Dean shouted, getting out of his chair to get Lady's underwear from the dog.

Lady locked her jaw as Dean grabbed the bra and lifted her off the ground. She could feel the lace tearing, _Damn it! This is Victoria's Secret! You're ripping it!_ She growled. _Last time I buy special underwear for you!_

Dean shook it, but the tiny dog just hung there.

"I say we start searching for Lady's truck," Sam suggested, watching Dean try to pull the dog off of Lady's bra. "First thing we need to do is find her."

Lady let go and ran to Sam, barking and yapping and jumping up and down. _I'M RIGHT HERE!_

"Get over here!" Dean snarled, trying to catch the dog so he could lock it in the bathroom or drop-kick it out the window. He hadn't decided, but hearing that Lady may actually be in trouble meant his last bit of patience had officially left.

Lady yelped and ran full throttle to hide behind Freddie. Once Dean tried to reach for her Freddie let out a protective growl. _That's my boy!_

"Dean, stop!" Bobby said.

Dean gave Bobby a frustrated glare, "This stupid dog has been a pain in the ass all night!"

Bobby tilted his head as he walked to Freddie. Freddie was letting out threatening growls that he rarely did, and never did to Bobby. "Wait a second…Lady?"

Lady let out a bark from underneath Freddie's belly.

"Kid, three times," Bobby said. Lady barked happily three times and crept out from Freddie's protection. Bobby stared down at her. "Oh god."

"What?" Dean asked.

"C'mere, kid," Bobby put his hand out, and Lady let him pick her up.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked.

"Hold on," Bobby snapped as he thought. "Two," Bobby said to the dog. Lady yapped twice and stared at him, her tail wagging insanely in excitement. "Three." Lady barked three times. He let out a sigh, "Either this is the smartest damn dog alive, or this is Lady."


	44. Tall Tales Part 5, February 2007

**February 15, 2007**

Lady let out a series of happy barks and laughs as she wiggled in Bobby's hands until he set her on the table. She couldn't contain her happiness and jumped up and down excitedly. _You the man, Bobby! I love you!_

"That's a Chihuahua," Dean said. "An annoying one at that."

_Screw you!_ She barked and growled angrily, all four paws on the table as she stared at Dean. _I've been working all damn night trying to hint at what is going on and all I've gotten from you is abuse! Bobby shows up and an hour later he has it all figured out! So. Screw. You!_

"Wait, Dean…oh god," Sam's face fell. "All night, she's been trying to tell us. Grabbing Lady's things, her shoes. Biting you." He got his face level with Lady but not close enough for her to snap at him, "Can a Trickster really do this?"

"They can alter reality," Bobby said. "I say this isn't a far stretch."

"Wait…if that's Lady…" Dean pointed at the dog and his mind searched for what had been done since the dog had come in with Freddie. "Oh, shit."

Lady began yapping and barking ferociously at him, _Yeah! That's right! You nearly crushed me a half dozen times, tossed me around and threatened to have me tested for rabies before trying to give me away!_ Lady let out a pant and sprawled out on the table, exhausted. Finally, they knew!

"Lady, is it Loki?" Bobby asked. "Twice for yes."

Lady barked twice.

"What I want to know is where in this does Lady go back to normal?" Dean asked.

"Might be able to bargain with him," Bobby said. "Loki sort of liked her, he might turn her back if you ask nicely. Otherwise we stake him and once he's dead his illusions go back to normal."

"You are sure?" Dean asked.

"In theory," Bobby said.

Lady let out a groan and rested her head on her front paws.

"Aw, kid, it's not that bad," Bobby said. "They make really cute collars for dogs your size. Even little outfits. You can still accessorize."

Lady snapped and yapped at him furiously. _I don't want to be a dog! YOU JERK! That's not funny!_

"That's not funny!" Dean said, scooping Lady up before she could topple off the table in an attempt to snap at Bobby.

_And damn it! Stop manhandling me!_ Lady let out a growl as Dean tucked her into his arm. _On the other hand, oh thank god you are warm._

"Lady, we'll get you back," Dean promised her. "You are going to lead me to this thing, and then we'll fix you, okay?"

"Wherever it is, it'll be at the center of all these things," Bobby said. "Since it's been messing with you two I'd say you've met him already."

Sam let out a sigh, "We've spoken to and interviewed dozens of people."

Once Lady calmed down Dean set her back on the table. She sat quietly and listened as Sam and Dean retraced their tracks and the people they had spoken with. She tried to help them but so far all she'd been able to help them narrow down was that it was a man. She hadn't joined them on any of their interviews so any names they mentioned meant nothing.

"Nathan works in the evening when most things happened," Sam said, and Lady raised her head and made a soft noise.

"Who's Nathan?" Bobby asked.

"Uh, the janitor," Sam said.

Lady tilted her head as she thought about the brief moment she saw Loki. Blue overalls, ring of keys. He was still using the same alias he had when she originally met him. She began jumping up and down while barking.

"It's the janitor?" Dean asked her, and she barked twice as her final answer. "It's the janitor."

Lady walked to the edge of the table as the men worked out a plan. _Guys, can someone let me down? It's a long drop. Guys?_ Lady let out a whine and looked obviously at the floor.

"You want down, girl?" Sam asked.

She let out a series of yaps, _Stop talking to me like I'm a damn dog!_

"Don't talk to her like she's a damn dog!" Dean snapped, picking Lady up and setting her on the floor.

Lady scratched at the fridge again and let out a painful whine. _Feed me, please god feed me._

Dean reached over and opened the fridge, and she hopped in quickly. As soon as she pulled at the bag of sandwich meat he took it down and opened it up for her. He listened to the plan Bobby was working out as he tore off small pieces that Lady could manage to eat. His day with Lady was supposed to be clothing optional while feeding each other chocolates and heavy petting. Not feeding her scraps of sandwich meat and literal petting.

"Alright, Sam and I'll take care of the car and get what we need. Dean, you just get ready and don't let Lady out of your sight," Bobby said. He looked at Lady and shook his head, "Idjit."

_Cut me some slack, man!_ Lady barked.

"Why am I stuck dog sitting?" Dean asked.

"It's your girlfriend that is a bitch," Bobby said.

_Eat me! No, wait…I'm actually bite size. Never mind._ Lady let out a breath.

Dean stared at the Chihuahua for a long time before looking away and shaking his head, "This is too weird, even for me."

_I'm the one learning to walk on four feet, pal_. Lady awkwardly rubbed her head against a chair leg as an itch grew in her ear. _If that is a flea I'm killing someone. Or at least chewing their ankles raw._

"What?" Dean asked, watching her and trying to decipher what she was doing.

_Stop looking at me! This is weird enough without an audience!_ Lady awkwardly tried to take her rear leg and scratch at her ear. _Oh, right there, oh god yes! Oh! Wait, no!_ She toppled onto her side and let out a whimper.

"Please don't ask me to scratch your ear," Dean said.

_And just how would I manage to ask you to do that? If you have a problem with giving my ear a scratch you won't like this. _Lady walked over to the door and looked at Dean.

"No, you can't go with them," Dean said. "We're staying here."

_Please don't make me make the sound. I'm hanging onto every shred of pride I have left, man._ Dean shook his head and looked away. Lady let out a whimper and scratched at the door, _You idiot! I have to go to the bathroom!_

"You got to be kidding me," Dean groaned. "Can't you hold it?"

_No! Don't make this awkward!_

"Just use the toilet," he said, motioning towards the bathroom.

_Hey, genius! I'll fall in!_ Lady yapped angrily. _Just open the god damn door, Dean!_

"Fine!" he muttered, grabbing the length of rope he'd used as a leash on her earlier.

_Hell no!_ Lady snarled when he held it out to her.

"Yeah, like I'm letting you outside without a way to keep track of you? No," Dean said. "You'll run off."

Lady complied, but was unable to stop the low growl in the back of her throat as Dean put the rope around her neck before picking her up to carry her outside. He at least let her lead him to some bushes and looked away this time.

"We never tell anyone about this," he said as he carried her back inside.

_If you do, I'll kill you,_ Lady agreed as they entered the motel room. _Don't suppose I could convince you to let me sit on your lap? I'm cold._ She tried to shiver for the affect but Dean set her on the floor. _Fine, too weird. I get it._ Lady trotted to Freddie who was lounging on Dean's bed, taking a running leap to get up. She just wanted to huddle next to him for warmth, but she retreated quickly when Freddie decided he wanted to lick her. _Freddie! I'm already covered with dry drool! I don't need another coat!_

Dean was watching her unsteady balance on the bed until she sat down. "I can't believe it is you in there," he said, staring at her. "Wow, you have to be pissed."

_In all honestly, I'm pretty damn tired. I wore myself out trying to keep you from accidentally killing me!_ Lady let out a few yaps before she yawned and let her limbs sprawl out so she could rest.

"You know we'll get you back, right?" Dean said.

Lady gave a slight nod of her head. _I really hope so. Not looking forward to being Bobby's lapdog the rest of my life_._ Although Carrie and Erin have been begging Mason for a dog for years…no. I definitely wouldn't survive long that way._ She yawned again. _So, what? We going to stare at each other all day?_

Dean looked away, shaking his head as he turned on the TV. Lady barked, _I don't want to watch this._

"Cartoons?" he asked.

_Oo, Spongebob!_ Lady barked twice for yes.

"Think you can stay out of trouble for ten minutes so I can take a shower?"

_Normally I would find that offensive, but I am currently in dog-form. No promises,_ she thought as he grabbed his clothes.

"God, this is weird," he muttered as he saw the two dogs watching Nickelodeon together. Lady had crawled onto Freddie's back and had most of her body on his massive head. Freddie just seemed to be lying there passively while she was intently watching television. He shook his head and went into the bathroom.

_Oh, who lives in a pineapple under the sea,_ Lady sang along in her head, and sighed. _Blah, I've seen this episode._ She looked around curiously and saw the plate of food Dean had left on Sam's bed. _Hm…_She launched herself across the space and helped herself to the food. She nearly bounced off the bed when Freddie jumped over to join her. _Hey! You have dog food! Get back!_ She yapped possessively. Freddie's mouth was open wide enough to swallow her whole as he took a bite, and she backed off. She whimpered and almost managed a pout. _Freddie!_ She whined hungrily.

When Sam and Bobby returned Lady was napping, curled up under Freddie's paw, and Dean was more than ready to go. He snapped his fingers to wake her up.

"Listen to this," Sam said. "Last night someone broke into Crawford Hall. Nothing was reported missing, but there was a pile of women's clothing in the animal testing lab."

Dean nodded, "Makes sense. She goes in to get Freddie, gets turned into the Taco Bell dog while she's there."

_Taco Bell sounds good,_ Lady thought.

"We got everything we need," Bobby said, scooping up Lady.

_C'mon, if you are going to carry me at least don't let me dangle! Cuddle me a bit, old man!_

"I left her truck at the building, I didn't want to tip the guy off," Sam said. "But I did grab her clothes and this." Sam held up her charm bracelet.

_Thank you!_

"You know, Lady, I think it would fit you right now…" Bobby said with a smile as the bracelet dangled from Sam's fingers.

She looked at him with wide eyes. _Are you fucking kidding me?_

"Stop it!" Dean snapped, snatching the bracelet from Sam's fingers and sticking it in his pocket. "So Lady basically ran here naked as a ten pound dog all the way from the college?" Dean asked.

_Yup. And Bobby has cold hands. Awkward._

"She's tough," Bobby said. "Let's go ambush a god."

Lady sat in the back of the Impala with Freddie. _Cold vinyl! COLD VINYL!_ She whimpered as she tucked into Freddie for warmth. But with each turn Dean took Freddie shifted enough she felt like she might be crushed and she let out a whimper of fear.

"Come here, Lady," Sam said, reaching back and grabbing her.

_Oh, don't squeeze. I don't feel good,_ Lady whimpered as he put her safely on her lap.

"You okay?" he asked.

_I'm a freaking dog!_ She yapped.

"Of course she isn't!" Dean snapped. "She's a freaking dog!"

_Ugh, and I don't feel good,_ she began coughing.

"What's wrong with her?" Dean asked urgently.

_Oh god, I think I'm getting car sick,_ Lady got off of Sam's lap and was on unsteady feet in the moving car. _Carpet or vinyl, carpet or vinyl, carpet or…_

Dean and Sam both let out groans as Lady vomited on the seat between them. "No, oh no!" Dean groaned as he checked his mirrors and pulled over and braked.

Lady let out a yelp as she toppled onto the floor of the car. _Ugh, you shouldn't have let me eat the greasy pork._

Sam talked quietly, rubbing her back as she shivered in the cold car while Dean quickly wiped up the mess. "Its okay, Lady."

_I guess it's a good thing you didn't go for leather,_ Lady groaned.

"Good thing I didn't get leather," Dean muttered bitterly as he started driving again.

Lady started letting out short breaths of laughter as Dean's thoughts matched hers. "Oh god, she isn't going to puke again, is she?" Sam asked anxiously, hanging her over his leg. "Oh, that's weird."

"What?" Dean asked anxiously.

"Her…tail's wagging," Sam said.

_Heh, yeah, it does that._

"Because she knows soon she is going to have thumbs again," Dean chuckled, and let out a sigh. "And that she'll be able to kick our asses."

"Our?" Sam snorted a laugh. "I think Lady will remember who took care of her last night."

_Yeah…I remember who tried to feed me dog food,_ Lady said, and snapped at his hand once. _And knocked me off the bed._

"Okay, I get it," Sam said, putting his hand on her back to keep her in place as the car turned. "At least when we get you back your bark will be worse than your bite."

_Nope, I'll have my gun and knife back, then,_ she thought.

"Just have to make sure to hide the weapons," Dean muttered as he parked the Impala. He let out a breath and looked at the dog in Sam's lap. "Just assure me that you were paying attention before." Lady bobbed her head once in a nod.

The first stage of the plan was to convince Loki he had the brothers so frustrated that they couldn't stand to be around each other. Dean and Sam went into the building together, and outside they staged a loud argument before Sam stomped away and tore off in the Impala. He would be gone only half an hour, enough time for Dean to get in and get Loki talking and hopefully get Lady back to normal. With Loki's guard down Sam and Bobby would return as back-up, helping Dean corner the god and stake him.

After waiting several minutes Dean went inside the building, with Lady in his coat pocket. _Couldn't you at least clean this out first?_ She scratched at gum wrappers in boredom.

"Stop that," Dean hissed, patting his pocket gently. "Focus. Now isn't a good time for your ADD to kick in."

_I'm focused! You are lucky I don't pee in here! Hey, is that cinnamon? Can I have a stick of this later?_

Dean searched the building for signs of Loki, and cautiously approached the auditorium of the building. It opened into a theater-like room with high ceilings and a stage up front. There was music playing and on the stage were a pair of scantily clad women on a large bed, a brunette and a blonde. "We've been waiting for you, Dean," the brunette said, crawling to the foot of the bed seductively.

"You're not real," he said, more to himself than to them.

"Trust me, sugar, it's gonna feel real," the brunette promised.

"Yeah, I'm gonna have to pass," Dean said. "I have a girlfriend, and she's about ready to shoot me in the kneecaps as it is. Or at least bite my ankles."

_Funny, a short joke. Original,_ Lady thought silently. _I wonder if he knows I've been tempted to do that all damn day. I bet he knows._

"They are a peace offering," The Trickster said from behind. Dean turned to see the Trickster sitting a few rows back. "I know what you and your brother do. I've been around a while. I've run into your kind before."

"Well, then you know I just can't let you keep hurting people," Dean said.

"Come on!" the Trickster scoffed. "Those people got what was coming to them. But you and Sam, I like you! I do! So treat yourself, as long as you want. Just long enough for me to move on to the next town."

"Yeah, I just don't think I can let you do that," Dean said apologetically.

"I don't want to hurt you. And you know that I can," the Trickster said, pulling a candy bar out of his pocket.

"Look man, I got to tell you I dig your style," Dean said with a smile as he glanced back at the attractive women that were still beckoning him over to the bed on the stage. "And the, uh, the slow dancing alien."

The Trickster threw his head back and laughed, "One of my personal favorites!" The Trickster agreed.

"Yeah," Dean laughed with the monster. "But I can't let you go. You, uh, literally put me in the doghouse with the girlfriend."

Loki's eyes widened as Dean pulled the Chihuahua out of his pocket. He laughed and clapped, "Ah, Lady, you clever little minx. Or, dog. I was worried when you escaped." He broke off a piece of the candy bar he was eating, "Hungry, sweetheart?"

_I'm pretty sure I shouldn't take candy from Pagan gods. But that smells good…no, no I really shouldn't._

"I get it, really I do," Dean said. "I mean, couldn't you at least do a golden retriever, or something?"

_Hey! That's what I said!_

Loki smiled, "She is fun, isn't she? You sure know how to pick them!"

"I like to think so," Dean said through clenched teeth.

"You know, Dean, me and Lady used to have a thing," Loki said with a grin.

_Uh oh,_ Lady thought, glancing at Dean's tense face.

"The woman moves fast, too. What was it, sweetheart, two hours after knowing each other before you were forcing yourself on me?" Loki laughed at the tense look on Dean's face.

_Forcing myself? Hah…uh…okay, yeah, I was a little forceful. Wait a second! Hey! I wouldn't be bragging if I were you!_ Lady yapped furiously.

Loki shook his head, "Even when her and I were dating she just wouldn't shut up. Just constantly yap yap yap! How do you put up with it?"

"I prefer her the other way! Change her back," Dean ordered angrily.

"I suppose being a firecracker in the sack helps her slide by," Loki said with a grin and a wink at Lady. "Am I right?

"You know, I've almost forgotten," Dean said bitterly as he pulled the sharpened stake out of his inside jacket pocket with his free hand.

"Really?" Loki was surprised. "I'd hate to have to kill you in front of Lady, I mean…I promise I'll be there for her to fall back on…" Lady let out a series of angry yaps and Dean held her a bit more tightly to make sure she didn't slip from his hand. "I'll make sure to give her lots of doggy treats." Loki chuckled at her furious barks, "You really shouldn't have come alone, Dean."

"You are right," Dean nodded in agreement as Lady went compliant in his hand and backed off the yaps.

Loki sat up straight and looked behind him as Sam and Bobby came in, blocking the exits and cautiously moving down the aisles toward them. Freddie was a few steps behind Bobby, stalking the door with his tail down. Loki turned back to Dean, smiling slightly at how he had been fooled. He clapped for Dean and pointed at Lady, "You know how to pick them, sweetheart," Loki said as Lady let out an angry snarl. "But how is this for a trick?"

Dean shoved Lady back in his pocket to keep her safe as a man wielding a chainsaw appeared behind Sam. He was focused on that as the blonde on the stage grabbed the back of his jacket and pulled him up on the stage.

"Shit," Dean grunted as he was clocked across the face by the brunette while the blonde held him.

_Shit! SHIT!_ Lady yelped as she was bounced in his pocket. _Let me out! Get…EEK!_ She narrowly escaped Dean's pocket before he toppled. She panted as she looked around, her near-sighted dog eyes sucked but her future-sight allowed her to evade the brunette that was trying to snatch her up. _This isn't going as planned!_ She yapped as she ran as fast as she could, until the edge of the stage was nearly there. She stopped, her claws scratching at the smooth wood floor of the stage as she slid and toppled off the stage. _Ouch_, she shook her head and wobbly got back to her feet.

Bobby and Sam were repelling the chainsaw wielding man as Dean was thrown off the stage into a row of seats with a painful grunt. And through it all she could hear Loki's laughter. _Dick,_ she ran silently under the seats and found Loki's ankles. He laughed harder as her tiny teeth bit into his sock, he didn't even try to kick her off.

"Dean, I said it once and I'll say it again, you sure know how to pick them," Loki said, grabbing Lady by the tail and lifting her up. She let out a series of painful yelps as all of her weight was pulling on the tiny piece of her tail. Dean was on the floor with only one row of seats separating them. At some point Dean had lost his stake he had brought to kill the Trickster, but Sam still had his. They met each other's eyes and with a short nod Sam tossed the stake to Dean. Dean stood up and reached across a row of seats to stake Loki in the chest. Lady was dropped back to the floor immediately.

Loki's eyes went wide, and slowly went lifeless as Dean jammed the stake as far as it would go into his heart. The two women who had attacked Dean vanished, a few moments later the man with the chainsaw vanished. And then Lady was on the ground naked. "Oh thank god that worked," she breathed, and then shivered. She got on her knees with an arm around her chest, looking around to make sure everyone was okay.

Dean shrugged out of his jacket, "You banged Loki?"

Lady took the jacket he offered her with a rough tug and quickly slipped into its warmth. It was long enough that it covered her rear so she stood up. "Shut up!" she let out a breath and walked unsteadily as she got reacquainted with her own two legs. She met Freddie at the end of the aisle. "You okay, buddy?" she said, rubbing his head. "You did so good," she said. He was the only reason she hadn't frozen to death or crushed under Sam or Dean's feet.

"Let's just get out of here before someone finds this body," Bobby said urgently.

"I'll grab my truck, I'll meet you guys later," Lady said, walking quickly on the cold floor in her bare feet.

"Hey, uh, Lady," Sam said. "Everything that happened, I'm so sorry."

"A word of this, ever again, and you will be," she promised him.

"Got it," Sam said quickly and looked at Dean, expecting him to apologize as well. Dean had, after all, been the most antagonistic and abusive to the tiny Chihuahua she had been.

"I can't believe you banged Loki!" Dean snapped again.

Lady let out an angry breath and walked ahead of the men. Dean ordered Sam to take the Impala and he followed her to the truck. She didn't argue. "You say it one more time and I will bite you again," Lady warned as reached her truck. She grabbed a pair of jeans from her bag and slipped them on while giving Dean a deathly glare when he went to get in the driver's seat. Dean seemed to measure her mood and took the glare seriously enough to get into the passenger side. She shivered on the cold leather seat and adjusted the heater as her teeth began to chatter.

"You nailed a god, Lady. Were you ever going to mention that?" he asked.

"Dean, I'm almost twenty-six and I don't live a slow life," Lady said through chattering teeth. "I've been a lot of places, met a lot of people, done a lot of things."

"And Loki!" Dean snapped again.

"He was screwing with my head," Lady said flatly, and explained shortly what his trick had been on her. "It was a major blow to my ego, it's still sore even now that he's dead."

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked curiously.

"I didn't know you that well back then," Lady said. "And it never really came up. And even if it had I probably would have lied about it because I'm a sore loser." She studied his face. "I had sex with Loki, the Norse God of Mischief. And you know what, he wasn't very good." Her lip twitched in a smirk as the heated seat warmed below her and the heater started pumping out hot hair. "You totally blow him out of the water."

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around this," Dean said, fighting the smile she was bringing out in him.

"We've all had a rough couple of days. Best thing we can do is laugh it off, give ourselves a pat on the back for killing that thing. If me stroking your ego a bit helps it along then that's what I'll do."

"These past few days have sucked," Dean said. "It isn't my ego I need stroked."

Lady laughed with him and got ready to put the truck into gear. She let out a sigh and without a word switched places with him so he could drive. That he wanted Sam to drive the Impala so he could ride with her was something impressive, and his tolerance for her driving just may send them both over the edge again.

They were quiet until they reached the highway, planning to get a few towns away before the body of Loki was discovered. The headlights of the Impala were behind them, and behind that were the headlights of Bobby's car. Dean set the cruise control just a few miles over the speed limit, adjusted the radio station to his liking, and even reached in the backseat to give Freddie a few friendly pats.

"It's the eighteenth," Lady said.

"It's still the fifteenth," Dean said, glancing at the clock on the dash.

"No. My birthday is on the eighteenth. It isn't important, but that's the date."

Dean looked at her seriously, "What month?"

"February," she said. "I couldn't talk so I had to listen. You know, between you kicking me, throwing me, and trying to step on me. I lie about a lot but I can't say I was never born. February eighteenth, in eighty-one. It was a blue moon. I was pretty much damned just because of the day I was born. So I don't celebrate it, I don't mark the calendar, I don't even really like the day. So it isn't important, and I'd prefer if you'd forget it. But there it is."

Dean was quiet, understanding she had given him a piece of her history that she kept secret. Several miles went past and Lady let out a laugh. "Being a dog, man, one hell of an experience."

"You can laugh about it?" Dean looked at her with concern.

"Heh, more of the new perspective I got on you when you thought I wasn't there," Lady grinned. "You don't have to try so hard with me, Dean."

"Yeah, well, you say you want something but...it doesn't feel like anything has changed," Dean said.

"Mostly because I don't know how to do anything different," Lady said. "Dean, I don't want to lose you as a friend or anything else. I can handle the work we do. Being a dog for a day is actually one of the easier jams I've been in."

He chuckled, "You do make a convincing Chihuahua."

Lady smiled, "Not mad I bit you?"

Dean looked at the tiny bite marks still on his finger and laughed, "No."

"Hey, I'm willing to do just about anything to make this work. Whenever you need me, I'm there, because I know you'd do the same for me. Just, uh, remember I'm trying to stop an evil coven-leader who wants to sacrifice me within the next few months."

"Yeah, I know. I suppose calling you for an across-state booty call wasn't the best use of your time."

"Sometimes we all need a break from work, too," she said. She was still wearing his coat and dug in the pocket for the gum she had found earlier and helped herself. "We're cool?"

Dean nodded, "Yeah. I mean, this was still the weirdest damn thing that has ever happened to me. But I'm just glad it's over and we made it out alive."

They drove until after midnight and stopped in a town. Dean dropped Lady and Freddie off at a motel and went out to pick up something to eat. They'd get a few hours of sleep and then continue on their way to Bobby's in the morning.

Lady spent a long time in the shower. Her feet and hands were filthy from being a dog, and all she could smell was dog. When she got out of the shower Dean had returned with fast food. "Where's Freddie? I got him some treats," Dean asked, holding up a bag of dog treats. He figured the big mutt deserved it, since he had been the only one of them that hadn't abused Lady when she was a tiny dog.

"Sam picked him up," Lady said, wrapping her arms around Dean's middle and kissing him slowly.

He looked surprised when their lips parted, "I'm still waiting for you to impale me with a heel," he said cautiously.

Lady tugged the towel she had wrapped around her and it fell to the floor, "Shut up," she chuckled, kissing him again.

Dean slowly returned it, his hands running down her bare back and stopping at her waist, "If you are just going to get me worked up and stop…"

She grabbed his face and held it against hers to quiet him before saying, "One night. No dog. No Sam. No job. Shut up, Dean." He nodded and kissed her eagerly while pushing her back to the bed. "Don't say anything stupid," she warned him as she pulled him onto the bed with her.

"Like what?" he asked, getting out of his pants.

"Like what you were going to say," she said. "Don't."

He grinned as he pulled his shirt off, "You sure you don't want to do it doggy style?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure I can sleep with a guy who wears pink shorts," she said, pulling away from him and covering herself with blankets. But she went still and put a hand on his shoulder to turn him slightly, "Oh, god," she muttered at the massive bruises on his back.

"Yeah, I'm surprised you don't have more marks on you," he said, tugging the blankets back so he could get under them with her.

"Don't laugh, but my tailbone feels bruised," she said, holding back her own snicker.

Dean didn't look amused, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply before he could think about their battle with Loki for too long. He'd taken a pretty good beating. He'd gone into speak to Loki, a freaking god, by himself in an attempt to get her back in her preferred state. He'd rescued her from a life of going to the bathroom outside and fearing feet that could crush her. But he had saved her ass a few times now. And he never asked for any sort of gratitude, just considered it part of his job and did his job with pride.

Gently she ran her hand down his bruised back, "Thank you," she said as his mouth ran down her neck.

He paused and looked at her in confusion, "I haven't done anything. Yet," he flashed a grin and continued kissing down her neck to her chest.

She giggled as his mouth fell on the tattoo on her ribs. "You know what I mean. If it wasn't for you I'd still be on all fours begging."

"I can still make that happen," he said in a low growl that made her squirm and giggle.

"Get up here," she ordered, kissing him until she was breathless. She do anything for him, if only so she didn't lose him. And if he could get over the fact that she had been a dog for a day and forgave the hysteria Loki had inspired in them, then there was no reason their relationship wouldn't work. She knew how she felt, and believed Dean felt the same way.

Her life had changed dramatically in the past year. She'd gone from accepting her curse to getting rid of it. From barely caring to how or when she died to desperately trying to prevent it. Her biggest concern six months ago was who would look after her dog when she was dead. At that moment her biggest worry was how to show her gratitude to Dean properly without hurting his bruised back.

**A/N** – _Phew! Tall Tales is still one of my favorite episodes, I'm a huge Trickster fan! I had so much fun writing these past few chapters that it expanded from two parts to four. I hope every found these chapters funny. As much as I loved writing them I'm glad I'm done. Now that they are published I feel like I can stop editing/tweaking them and focus on future chapters. Which brings me to this announcement._

_Upcoming chapters are on a halt. I'm so tickled to have several devoted readers, especially with a story this long. Especially when I warned in the first chapter that it was going to be a long story. I have a few more chapters that are ready to go, but I don't want to take a break from posting at a cliffhanger. All devoted Supernatural fans know what is coming up shortly in the Winchesters future (but sshh, they don't know yet). I'm not going to change up their story at all, and I already know what direction Lady is taking. I just need to polish it up and get myself a bit ahead again. So give me a week or so to update. I don't use a beta-reader so I do all the editing myself without anyone proofreading before I post. While I'm not a perfectionist I want to make sure I'm posting something that is coherent and easy to read._

_That being said, a HUGE thank you to everyone who reviews. Wizziewoo, Phoebe lou-la, Kinthinia, BlueEyedPisces, Stephanie Salvation and Anonymous who've reviewed multiple times. I know when a story has more reviews more people are inclined to view it and your support is huge! And I also get extremely giddy which each review alert I get. Seriously, it's like my cocaine. It's actually rather sad._

_That being said, while I'm working on polishing up the future chapters if you have an thoughts, suggestions or anything please let me know by review or message. I hope you have enjoyed the story so far, and I can't wait to share the next bits and pieces with everyone!_


	45. Bobby's House, February 2007

**February 18, 2007. Bobby's House**

Dean barely even thought of the day as Lady's birthday. Considering just her day of birth had damned her to being targeted by the coven got under his skin and he was happier to quietly celebrate it with her by trying to help her figure out Garrett's ritual.

But whenever he and Sam tried to help all it did was earn an impatient look from Bobby and a long explanation from Lady who was trying to educate them, but only left them more confused. But watching her and Bobby work together was interesting. After so many years the two understood each other thoroughly. Lady pushed certain tasks to Bobby, and he did the same to her. Bobby rarely had to finish a sentence before Lady was answering him. Dean and Sam were ten years behind Bobby and Lady's knowledge on the coven.

"How's it coming along?" Dean asked, taking a seat next to Lady and looking at how far they had gotten since the last time he had checked in. Sam was busy looking into possible jobs for them, and Dean had been mixing up watching TV with Freddie to looking through Bobby's massive library of supernatural texts that he really had no interest in reading. There was a heavy blizzard happening over the Dakotas and they were all trapped at Bobby's. The snow was so bad there wasn't even hope of going into town.

"Meh," Lady shrugged.

"Meh," Bobby agreed.

"This looks right," Lady said while tapping a recent translation from Bobby with a newly manicured fingernail. Her day as a dog had ruined her nails and she had held them back a few hours so she could stop at a salon to have her nails done. Bobby and Sam had gone on without them and Dean had threatened if she told anyone he had even waited for her in the truck while she did that he'd shave her dog naked. But she had spent the rest of the drive lightly dragging those nails against his neck until they had to pull over. Dean wouldn't give up his Impala for the world…but damn those heated leather seats in the truck had given him an experience to cherish. "It just doesn't feel right to me, and when it comes to this stuff my gut is usually right. I think I'll head back north once the roads are clear and go over some of this with Maxine," Lady continued, pulling him out of his memory.

"No 'ah hah' moment?" Dean asked.

"I was hoping for that, but this is pretty complex black magic," Lady said. "Maxine is a lot more willing to give me straight answers than Max ever was. If she knows some things to counter this she'll give them up."

"Some obvious stuff, five sacrifices to power," Bobby said. "One at each point of the pentagram, contained within a circle of blood, the center is the witch, or in our case the warlock, performing the ritual. There is some specific details for each sacrifice, each one is different and part of the ritual."

Before Dean could ask she said, "Different types of sacrifices give off different results, have different meanings or tastes. You want to steal someone's youth, you sacrifice a young person of your liking. But it isn't that clean most of the time. Some sacrifices require a very specific person. A person born on a certain day with a left-handed parent who died on their birthday, something like that." Lady tapped her fingers on the desk and looked thoughtfully at the paper. She frowned a bit, "Days of birth are usually pretty popular. The stars or moons align the right way...well, read your horoscope if you want a run-down. Most of its bull, but there is a certain weight to it. For example, I was born on a blue moon and I was supposed to be sacrificed on a blue moon. Black magic is pretty nice in its balancing act that way. But there won't be another blue moon until next year." Lady pulled out a calendar that had the moon phases marked on it, frowning again. "Even if we had an idea of what culture Garrett likes to base his rituals off of it would help. The pentagram he will use for the ritual has different meanings depending on which pagan worship you are basing it off of."

"Garrett is probably the guy who originally wrote those black books, right?" Dean asked. Lady nodded. "What if this is just his religion? What if there isn't any other method to his madness besides what he originally wrote?"

Lady shrugged, "It mostly has Roman influences, maybe some Greek but the two are so similar it doesn't matter." She sighed and grabbed a clean piece of paper and drew a pentagram on it. It was slightly out of shape but she just needed something to get her thoughts down. At each of the points she scribbled notes in Latin.

Bobby sighed, "We'll figure it out. You boys got anything in the works?"

Dean shrugged, "Sam's been looking for leads, I'm not in any hurry. Even though it'd be nice to get the hell away from this snow." Dean frowned as Lady continued until the page was nearly full. He shook his head and looked away, "That's just creepy."

"What?" Lady asked, already rolling her eyes to his answer.

"Can you at least write in English so we can try to help you?" he asked.

"I think faster this way," Lady said. "Breaking down a pentagram in just about any culture it stands for five elements, if we're going with standard Roman or Greek mythology let's say they are talking about fire, water, earth and air. Air might be substituted for metal. Or we could be dealing with different Pagan gods, ones that represent each element. Like Zeus for air, Ares for fire..."

"Whoa," Dean said, sitting down. "Those are big ones, like Xena big."

"It could be thousands of different ones," Lady said flatly. "I'm just using the popular big names to help you follow along. I doubt those gods are still alive."

"Are you onto something or not?" Bobby asked her.

Lady shrugged and put the tip of her pencil at the top point of the star she had drawn, "In the vision I am here, and Garrett is in the center. Usually the top of the star is either meant for a major deity, represents spirit as an element or just magic in general." Lady tapped her pencil and frowned.

"Garrett still uses necromancy, right? He binds spirits?" Dean asked.

"This wasn't a binding ritual for spirits, it's too complex for that," Lady muttered. She rotated her stiff neck, "Maybe I'm over-thinking it." Lady leaned back in her chair, looking slightly angry and very tired, as her mind bounced around different ideas. She let out a breath and leaned forward again to continue scribble on her paper.

"Any clue if this is a new or a full moon?" Bobby asked.

Lady chewed her lip for a moment, "I'm leaning toward new. The new moon is June fifteenth, that's close to the summer solstice. And how it reacted was similar to what you saw during the black moon."

Bobby let out a breath, "That's comforting. So we got a warlock who keeps spirits around for entertainment, or guard dogs, who wants to set you on fire, and we have no idea how to kill him."

"Yup," Lady muttered. "Spirits are the last thing to worry about, though. With how powerful he is it doesn't even make sense to keep them around. I mean..." Lady went still and silent, and for a moment Bobby thought she was having one of her visions until she started laughing. "I know why the other sacrifices aren't visible in the vision. They aren't alive, they were spirits. They may not even be sacrifices, just tools to contain the ritual."

Bobby looked over their combined notes, "I don't see how that's possible."

"Imagine you are an old crusty warlock whose coven is aching to suck your power, who do you trust? Your spirit slaves," Lady said. "Even a warlock needs help from time to time. So instead of these points being sacrifices, let's consider it an actual coven ritual. Um...compared to the ritual done on the black moon it's about three times as ugly. More focused, harsher magic."

"Well, that's comforting," Bobby muttered.

Lady smiled as she felt things clicking into place in her head. Her gut told her she was right. Garrett didn't have any members of his coven left he could trust, he was going to use spirits to assist. It would be on a new moon, before the summer solstice. It also meant that the direction she had been taking the past few months was completely wrong, and she was starting over in how to disrupt the ritual. But at least this time she was on the right track.

"How is this going to help us kill Garrett?" Dean asked. "You said yourself, there is no way to track him before the ritual. And there is no way you will be able to bind his powers again."

"You are right," Lady said. "But this is still helpful to know. Maxine knows a decent amount about necromancy. She'll be able to give a bit more insight." Lady let a small smile spread on her lips as she felt a bit of confidence build up in her. She stood up and stretched her stiff back, "No worries. I'm all over this like Freddie on a steak."

Bobby let out a breath as she retreated into the kitchen and began rummaging in his freezer for a hot pocket. "What do you think, Dean?"

"I get the feeling every time I pry into this I'm holding you two back," Dean said.

Bobby shrugged, "I've been working with Lady on this since she was sixteen. What can I say? I've learned to work with her and tolerate her."

"Hey! We're out of ranch!" Lady complained from the kitchen.

"Boo hoo!" Bobby called back to her. He looked back at Dean and said in an obvious tone, "You just need to know how to handle her."

Lady appeared back in the room, "You have any tiger eye?"

"Literal eye or gemstone?" Bobby asked, earning a curious look from Dean.

"Gemstone," Lady said, looking at Bobby cautiously.

"I'll look," Bobby said, getting up from his chair.

Dean glanced back at some of the things they had left out. He barely saw Lady appear in his peripheral before she fell into his lap. "Sneaky little thing," he said, putting an arm around her waist and grinning as she began to smile.

"Not my fault you are so unobservant," Lady said, sliding her hand over his arm to his neck before slipping her fingers into his short hair.

"Uh huh," he couldn't help but lean toward her for a kiss.

She pulled back, "So, I'm a creepy little sneak?"

"Mmhm," he said. "And I like that. I really do."

"Oh?"

"Oh yeah," he said, holding her tight so she couldn't pull away from his lips. All day she had worked until her mind was numb and throbbing at the same time, and finally she had gotten to a point where she felt like she was getting somewhere. It was time for a break. Every muscle began to unwind into relaxation as Dean's lips moved against hers.

Sam had been rather quiet on the other side of the room. He'd been working on Bobby's computer for possible jobs. He looked up when Lady began giggling and looked away quickly at the extreme affection being shown. The chaos and frustration that Loki had infected them with just days ago was gone and Sam was back to feeling awkward. But at the same time it was rather inspiring. His brother, who was severely devoted to playing women, had met his match. It wasn't a normal relationship by any means, but for Dean it was natural as breathing. If his brother could have something it gave Sam hope for himself. As thrilled as he was for his brother's happiness, though, he really couldn't stand watching or listening to them make out for long. "Guys, seriously?" Sam laughed and shook his head.

"Yeah, seriously!" Bobby barked as he returned.

Lady and Dean might be willing to ignore Sam's protest, but they both had too much respect to ignore Bobby's.

"I found a few," Bobby offered Lady a few gemstones. The tiger-eye gems had swirls or stripes of different shades of brown, from pale yellowish-brown to nearly black-brown.

"These are good," she said after looking them over.

"Going to tell me why?"

"I think I might be able to focus a bit more on Max's vision with them," she said. "If I get a bit more power behind it maybe I can see the spirits, hear what Garrett is saying. Simple bit of meditation if I can find the focus for it. Can I hold onto these for a while?"

"Yeah, keep them if you think they are useful," Bobby said.

Lady jumped up from Dean's lap suddenly, and he threw his hands up when he heard the microwave go off as she vanished into the kitchen. "You are ditching me for hot pockets now?" he called.

Lady poked her head back into the living room, "I'll ditch you for Bobby's meatloaf. I'm hungry."

They day wound down into night. Lady and Bobby ironed out a few details before he went to bed, and Lady worked until Sam stretched out on the couch before she retreated into the spare room. There were two cots already set out and Dean was already asleep on one. Lady didn't bother touching the spare cot, and settled for lying right on top of Dean.

Dean woke up immediately, "If that is Freddie I'm going to be pissed."

"Well, I do occasionally like doggie-style, but I'm not nearly as furry," Lady purred in his ear before kissing it.

Dean chuckled and moved to kiss her back, and then rolled onto his back so he was able to kiss her properly. Every movement either of them made caused the old cot to squeak loudly. "Mm, yeah, we're going to wake someone up," Dean said, slowing down. "Not that you are quiet to begin with."

"Move that other cot to block the door, and I promise I'll be as quiet as a mouse," Lady said, her fingertips stroking his neck gently.

"Get off of me," Dean said, eagerly moving to do as she suggested. He moved the metal frame of the cot against the door and wedged it between a few boxes to prevent the door from being opened. When he had that done Lady was pulling the mattress off the other cot and putting it on the hard floor. She was already sitting on it and pulling off her socks when he joined her. "So clever," he muttered as he pushed her down on the mattress.

"I have my moments," Lady said happily as his hands slid up her thighs to the waistband of her sweatpants before tugging them down. Dean's mouth covered hers as his hand went up the inside of her thigh, his fingers finding her wet opening and slowly teasing it until she let out a high moan.

He chuckled, "Quiet as a mouse?"

"Don't make me bite you," she warned as he went back to gently rubbing her thighs. "And I mean in a way you won't enjoy."

"I don't think you have it in you," he taunted as he leaned in for a kiss. Since they had left Ohio Lady had been incredibly affectionate, and he'd been enjoying every second of it. The doubts that had entered his mind under Loki's influence were gone, they were going to make this work.

Once Lady got Dean's shirt off she pulled him down, kissing down his neck and collarbone before moving over to his shoulder. Her teeth dragged gently, at first, until she found a spot she liked and bit harder than necessary. "Hey!" he complained, trying to pull away but she just held onto him tighter. "I'll get you for that," he chuckled.

"Quiet," she purred, kissing him gently.

Dean got to his knees and pulled her onto his lap. His hands held onto her hips as they moved against his. Her hands gripped his shoulders while she muffled her sounds in his neck or against his mouth, and it was hard because every flex of his fingers or hitch in his own breath made her pleasure spike. It was almost a test of what she would put up with to be with Dean. Every nibble on her ear made her want to moan in pleasure, to tell him how he made her feel without really saying the words. That she wanted to make him feel as good as he made her feel, that she wanted to pull those breaths out of him and make him lose control. But there were limitations in place, they wanted each other at the cost of their usual passion and energy. Even with the slow motions and soft sounds both of them were still at the edge of losing it.

"I was afraid I'd have to put a pillow over your face," Lady teased as they settled onto the mattress on the floor.

"Shut up," Dean said, holding her close and kissing her. "We should get a motel tomorrow. Just you and me, leave the dog."

"Okay," she said in a tired voice, snuggling against his warm body and breathing in his scent. "While we're in town we have to stop at the grocery store. I can live without ranch, but Bobby's almost out of hot pockets."

Dean rolled his eyes but ignored the quirk.

Lady woke up a few hours later and slipped out of Dean's arms without waking him up. Even if Lady didn't have her future-sight to warn her which floorboards creaked in Bobby's house after all the years she had spent there she knew them all. Barefoot she crept down into the basement and lit two blue candles. Once the candles burned a nice pool of wax she set the tiger-eye gems in the pool without extinguishing the flames. Sitting crossed-legged with only the candles for light she worked on emptying her mind and focusing on what Max's vision told her.

Meditating was never something Lady had been good at. It required patience, she rarely had much to spare. It required focus, and her mind was often busy. Every now and then she would lose her focus and internally complain it was taking too long, but she kept trying until she got her mind completely devoted to Max's vision.

She saw the pentagram, herself at the point. Her hands were tied and over her head. The four others on the other points were still foggy, she couldn't tell who they were. She examined the pentagram, it was engraved on the ground. The ground was dirt, firm dirt packed down tight. There was something pale within the lines, something to give the pentagram more tangible power, if she had to guess it was ashes. But it could have just been salt or chalk dust.

_Who are you with?_ Lady focused harder on the others there. Something in her gut told her something important was there.

The trouble with meditation was that there was little magic involved. It was almost a dream-like state and sometimes you saw things you wanted to see, instead of what was really there. One of the spirits was coming into focus, and it was Ian. His spirit was nearly pitch black, coated with black magic. Another spirit became more in focus, she didn't know the name but she believed it was a male witch she had killed more than three years ago. The third moved into focus, and this one she didn't recognize at all. A young woman with dark blonde or light brown hair, grinning widely. The fourth one was twisting in and out of focus, but finally Lady saw who it was. _Oh no!_

Sam woke up early with the sun rising, Freddie was scratching at a door. At first he thought the dog just needed to go outside, but Freddie was scratching at the basement door. Concerned, and curious, Sam checked his pistol and quietly went into the basement while leaving Freddie upstairs. He saw Lady sitting in front of a few candles that were almost burned up. He tucked his pistol into the waistband of his sweatpants and said, "Lady? What's going on?" She didn't answer, she didn't move. For a second he wasn't sure she was breathing. He waved his hand in front of her face, snapped his fingers and even clapped a few times. "Lady?" He put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

Lady let out a startled shriek and jumped to her feet, her hands swatting him away from her. Sam jumped back, just as startled. "Jesus Christ!" he shouted at her.

"Don't do that!" she shouted at him, putting her hand to her chest as her heart felt like it was going to burst. "Don't shoot!"

Sam looked confused until the door of the basement flew open and Dean was there with his pistol while Bobby held Freddie back. Sam put his hands up, "Relax. It was nothing!"

"Nothing! You scared the shit out of me!" Lady shouted at Sam and smacked his arm.

"Ow!" Sam complained. "I'm sorry! I didn't know what was going on! What...what was this?"

Lady let out an angry breath as she blew out the candles and dug the tiger-eye gems out from the pools of wax. "I was working." Lady slapped Sam's arm once more as she went up the stairs. It was rather embarrassing for her to be startled like that. Normally her future-sight warned her, even if it was only seconds ahead of time, of anything like that. She'd gotten a pretty bad ass reputation of having nerves of steel, when she often had little to no nerves at all.

"What'dya work on?" Bobby asked as she returned the gems.

"I got a few more details on Max's vision," Lady said, looking out the window of the kitchen. She had gone in a complete trance, what had felt like an hour had really been four. The sun was coming up, showing the blanket of snow the blizzard had left behind. "I was right about the spirits, I was able to see them this time. If Max's vision is right..." Lady frowned and shook her head.

"What?" Bobby asked.

For so long she had kept Mason's family a secret, even knowing she was able to talk about them now it wasn't easy. "One of the spirits was Tammy. If it is right that means Max's binding spell isn't strong enough to hold her spirit. Tammy might be able to break Max's hold."

Lady was on the phone speaking to Mason about the weather they were receiving in North Dakota while Bobby checked road reports. She'd be able to reach the border, but any farther north the highways were closed. The pick-up Mason had loaned her had four-wheel drive, but that didn't mean it was safe to travel. But that didn't mean she wasn't going to try.

"I got this handled," Lady said with a smile. "Maxine is already taking steps to tie Tammy down, I'm just going to help."

"If you can keep Tammy back does that mean the ritual Garrett wants to do won't work?" Sam asked.

"No, he'll just find another spirit," Lady said. "But if Tammy gets free she might take the time to wreak havoc before running to Garrett. She's dangerous. And she's been on the reservation long enough to know Max's territory, weak spots and spots of power. Things Garrett might like to know." Lady chewed on her lip for a moment, wondering if Max had seen Tammy at the ritual all along but had only hidden it. Would she really risk her family like that?

"Sam and I will come with," Dean said.

"Your car isn't going to make it, not until the roads get cleared," Lady said.

"We'll ride with you," he said.

"You can go," Sam said, making Dean give him a sharp look. Sam shrugged, "I found a job in Nevada. A haunting, only happens once a year and it's less than a week away. I can do it alone."

"C'mon, man, we're trying to help Lady."

"Dean, she has this," Sam said. "Come on, we've been trying to help her but we just get in her way. Until she can tell us how we can help we're sitting on our thumbs."

"He's right," Lady said. "Not that I don't like you in my way, you are rather fun to have around, but...I don't need back-up. I just need a dead witch's bones to nail her down. Get out there, do your ghostbuster thing."

Dean wondered if this was how it would always be, deciding if he wanted to work with his brother or his Lady. Both of them could handle the job on their own, neither of them seemed to need him. At least with his brother he had the chance to be useful, but with Lady he had a chance at some physical love.

"You don't have to leave Sam alone. I'll be working closely with Maxine," Lady said. And that decided it for him. Lady wouldn't be alone, Sam would be.

Dean nodded, "Okay. I'll help you get the truck packed."

Lady smiled, knowing she didn't need help. She had two bags and a dog, all she could handle herself. But saying goodbye to Dean was just as fun as saying hello, although considerably more depressing.

Once they were in the spare room they had taken over she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed him. He chuckled, "Yeah, don't start anything you won't finish."

"I have every naughty intention of finishing it...just in a week or two, instead of right now," she promised, pulling him back for another kiss. "I am sorry, about running off."

"Don't worry, I get it," Dean said.

She looked up at him seriously, "Dean, when this is over I'll make sure things are different. I don't know how, yet. I do want this to work. It's the only thing I've ever wanted that I haven't been able to lie, cheat, purchase or steal to get. Though I have been thinking of ways to do that."

"All you need to do is find a way to turn Garrett into a pile of ash," Dean said. He put his hand on the side of her face and held her there for a long kiss. Their mouths slowly working together, making words unnecessary. Her dark hair slipped through his fingers as her arms wrapped around his middle. "Things right now aren't that great, but they sure as hell aren't that bad," he said before kissing her again.

"Be safe," Lady said, pulling back before she could be delayed any longer. Her goodbyes to Bobby and Sam were short hugs and her final goodbye to Dean was another kiss that could have gone on forever if the freezing temperature outside hadn't cooled them down.

**A/N** - _Not quite ready to go back to daily posts, but I'm getting close! Once I got over a difficult part of the story the words just kept flowing and I got pretty far! Super-excited about upcoming chapters and I'm editing like a mad-woman getting them ready for everyone! This right here is just getting us back on track for Lady's storyline._


	46. The Dakotas, February 2007

**February 20, 2007. North Dakota.**

Lady didn't reach the Casino until a few hours after midnight, the snow drifts on the roads had forced her to drive at a crawl in several areas to avoid going off the road or into drifts big enough that even Mason's big truck wouldn't be able to get out of.

The snow had stopped falling, but she wasn't going to take the risk of going into the country until the sun was up. Mason had a few cousins with snow plows and by dawn they were getting the gravel and dirt roads plowed so she had a path to Max's house.

It was, technically, Maxine's house now. But the old crone's death still seemed like a dream in Lady's mind. It was just as plausible that Max was out on the frozen lake meditating or ice fishing.

"The witch is stubborn. She answers a summons, but won't talk much," Maxine said as she led Lady into the teepee. "I don't see any flaw in Max's binding."

"Do you have any of her remains left?" Lady asked.

"I found a few pieces," Maxine said. "It wasn't like she had everything organized and labeled for me when I got promoted, you know?"

"Sorry," Lady felt horrible. Maxine had talent as a folk-witch, but it had never been her dream to become the tribe's medicine woman. Max gave her own life to save Lady, forcing the responsibility onto Maxine to keep the tribe safe. For the first time in centuries the tribe had a new medicine woman. It was a big pair of moccasins to fill.

"No, it...I'm sorry," Maxine said. "Just...I'm scared. If Max saw this why didn't she warn me? Am I supposed to know what to do? Am I supposed to see these things too?"

"I wish I knew," Lady said. "Let's summon Tammy, let me do the talking. We'll try to nail this bitch for information one more time before you bind her again."

Maxine went through the ritual to summon Tammy. And Lady frowned as she saw Tammy's spirit was nearly completely black. Lady didn't understand spirits or necromancy well enough but she understood black magic very well. If the black magic within Tammy had grown that had to mean Tammy still had access to her power. Growing or not, Max's binding spell was preventing her from using any power she may be able to wield.

"Haven't seen you in a while, Lady," Tammy said, walking around the edge of the salt circle she had been summoned within. Max had been power enough to able to contain Tammy in just a regular circle, but Maxine didn't have that type of control. Her ghost eyes went to Lady's wrist, "Congratulations."

"Thanks," Lady said flatly.

Tammy grinned, "I was watching when the crone removed it from you. I felt the power shift, heard your screams as she ripped it out of you...felt the old bitch die."

"Good," Lady said. "Then you know what we have is more powerful than you."

Tammy looked at Maxine and back to Lady, "Sure it is." Tammy's lip curled into a knowing smile, not outright calling Lady's bluff.

Lady held up a small bone, "Look familiar?"

"Looks like a pinky," Tammy said.

"It's yours," Lady nodded. She dropped it in a wooden bowl, already there was salt and lighter fluid. She dropped a match in next, and didn't flinch as Tammy howled and screeched. When Tammy quieted Lady gave her the coldest stare she could, "Next is your ring finger. Little bigger, takes longer to burn."

"I didn't think you had the stomach for torture," Tammy said painfully.

"Should we try?" Lady asked, pulling out the next bone piece. It was a bluff, she only had a few pieces of Tammy that Max had saved and preserved, and she needed to save them for the binding spell Maxine was prepared to perform.

"What do you want?" Tammy asked hotly.

"Besides world peace? I sort of want to send you to hell where you belong, but right now I'll settle for an itty piece of information. There is a ritual Garrett is going to use. He plans to use spirits of his dead coven members, he'll have one live person at the point of a pentagram. Four spirits, one living person, him in the center," Lady watched Tammy's face and smirked when she saw recognition. "What is it?"

Tammy was quiet as she studied the piece of bone Lady was holding over the bowl, and then said, "It sounds like a binding ritual, something to silence someone who has done a grave injustice to him, binding them to his will while feeding them to the Goddess."

"What Goddess?" Lady asked.

Tammy looked away, determined to be silent. Lady dropped the bone in the bowl and lit a new match. "The Goddess, okay?" Tammy snapped. "That's all we know it by. Some just use it as a nickname for the ley lines, others take it literally as a true goddess. Hecate or Isis, take your pick."

Lady dropped the mach in the bowl and averted her eyes as Tammy howled in spiritual pain. Maxine began chanting her own binding spell, strengthening the hold on Tammy so she was bound to the will of the tribe. Maybe it wasn't strong enough to force her to protect the territory, but it was definitely strong enough to keep her from going to Garrett or attacking Mason's family.

Lady and Maxine were having a beer in the house afterward. "Are Hecate and Isis real?" Maxine asked.

Lady shrugged, "They are ancient goddesses. Considered witchcraft Goddesses, or Goddess of crossroads. Mix in fertility and sexuality, they had a lot of purposes. But their followers ended a long time ago. All they have now are pansy Wicca practitioners dancing naked on the new moon. But, they were heavy pagan deities in their time." Lady took a long drink and thought it over. "No, all the big names died out centuries ago. Before America was populated."

"Hey, we were here long before you pale-faces showed up," Maxine said.

"You know what I mean," Lady said. "If Garrett was using magic from something that old and powerful, he wouldn't be running a coven doing small sacrifices. He'd be ruling the country. I like the idea that they just use it as a nickname for the ley lines. If there really is a pagan god involved in what he does it has to be something small time. Most of what these guys do…they are powerful but not that powerful."

They drank in silence for a while until Maxine leaned back, "So all weird shit aside, how are things?"

Lady looked at her sadly, "I'm scared half to death that Garrett is going to manage to kill me."

"That sucks," Maxine smirked. "Tammy's information didn't help?"

Lady shrugged, "A bit. I can disrupt just about any ritual by speaking a few words. It's so sick in my head the things I know...but…something else feels like its missing."

"I would think having Max's vision would help," Maxine said. "What I wouldn't give for one."

"They aren't very clear," Lady said. "Any luck in summoning Max?"

Maxine shook her head, "No. I keep telling myself that her spirit needs time to adjust, to be strong enough to hear the call…but I'm worried. She died with that mark on her, what if it killed her? I mean, not just her body but her spirit, too?"

Lady looked at her hands, guilt nearly drowning her. Maxine had always been a strong woman. Her will, wit and character were just as strong as her body. But Lady had witnessed her confidence wane in the wake of Max's death. The lives of her family could one day be in her hands. The medicine woman aided them with everything from disease to disasters, and when the time came Maxine wasn't sure if she could handle it. "Max won't abandon her family. She'll return, one day." And if she never did, it was Lady's fault. Wanting to lift the mood she asked, "I've been out of the loop a bit lately, how is the family?"

Maxine seemed more normal talking about her large family. As the eldest of Mason's brood she had grown up adoring her younger siblings, mothering them and torturing them just as an older sister had the right to. "Derek has been able to hang onto his girlfriend for a whole two months now."

"No kidding?" Lady chuckled. "You guys meet her yet?"

Maxine shook her head, "No. All I know is she's white, blonde and from Florida. He won't even send a picture, says we wouldn't believe how beautiful she is." Maxine snorted, "That kid. He's been talking like he's six feet tall since he was twelve, but all of the sudden he's…he sounds like he's really in love. It's pretty crazy. I mean, I thought…you want to hear something really crazy?"

"I hear crazy in my head twenty-four seven, it's nice when I hear it from someone else," Lady grinned.

"You know he's had a crush on you since he was in high school. And, uh, after your curse was lifted I thought maybe now…"

Lady burst out laughing. "Me and Derek? Oh, wow. My Crazy of the Day award goes to you!"

Maxine joined in the laugh, "You've been family for a long time, Lady. The way you treat the men you are with I always sort of hated how Derek looked at you. I thought you'd break his heart, one way or another. But you were always respectful. Became good friends with him. Never jumped in the sack with him…did you?"

"No!"

"Just…well, there was my thought. I almost wanted you to be my sister-in-law, but this girl he's dating is studying to be a computer programmer and sounds like she could make a lot of money. So you are out, she's in," Maxine laughed. "How are the Winchesters?"

"They are good," Lady said.

"You have Dean wrapped around your little finger?"

Lady shook her head, "No. And I'm not trying to, either."

"You know my brother for six years and he never got any action, you meet this guy and you are ready to…what? Tie the knot?"

Lady snorted, "Hell no. It…I don't know how to explain it. I love Derek and your whole family. But…you guys aren't out there with me, you know? Dean and Sam have been right at the front line with me. And those two are sharp as nails. Especially Dean. He figured me out really quick. When he wasn't right on he was close, and when he wasn't even close I want to tell him the truth. I keep expecting them to let me down but…they haven't. And something in my gut tells me they won't." Lady took a breath. "Nothing against Max, but she had me chasing my tail trying to figure out what she was saying. I always felt like a bomb was going to fall on me every time she sent me somewhere. I mean, it took her dying to save me for me to finally believe in her, trust her completely. And uh…I feel bad because you are left holding the bag of bones, you know?"

"No, it's okay," Maxine said quietly. "It'll be a relief when this is over. You know, you could move into this house with me, help me figure things out until I get steady."

Lady nodded, "Yeah, whatever you need."

Maxine smiled, "It'll be nice having you back here full-time."

Lady just smiled and nodded. That hadn't completely been her plan. Her plan was to save herself from Garrett, and find a way to be with Dean. But already in her head her plan was changing. She had to clean up her own messes, and Max's death was a big mess. Right now she couldn't dwell on those things, she'd just have to see how the pieces fell. She was sure something would work out in a way that helped everyone, and she was also sure things would fall in perfect order to cause her the most damage. Ah, the lovely life of a witch-hunter.

**February 24, 2007**

"Yo!" Lady answered her phone happily.

"Hey, just got your message," Dean said. "Everything okay up there?"

"As far as I can tell, yup," she said.

"Well Sam and I just finished this haunting."

"Good," Lady smiled. "Roads are still a bit messy but I bet by the time you make it up here they'll be clean."

"Actually...we're heading to San Francisco," Dean said. "Sounds like there is a werewolf there."

"Okay," Lady said.

"That's it?" Dean asked.

"That's it," she chuckled. "I'm still working here. I'd love to see you guys, but it means I'll get more done before the next time I see you."

"I sort of like the sound of that," Dean said. "What are you...wait a minute, where are you?" Dean asked as he heard strange background noises.

"The mall," she said brightly. "I needed to pick up a few things. Not even fun things, so no jokes."

"You mean you aren't looking at shoes right now?" Dean sounded amused.

Lady set down the green pump she had been about to try on, "No, I'm not," she lied. "I needed tarot cards and sadly the best place to find them in North Dakota is at Barnes and Noble."

"I feel like I shouldn't ask, but I'm going to. Why are you getting tarot cards?"

"Maxine wants to try her hand at divination and I thought if I had something to help her focus maybe she'd get lucky. Personally I think they are worthless, but I wanted to get her something to help her out," Lady said. "Good news, though. I know how to counter Garrett's ritual."

"How?" Dean asked.

"I figured out it is a binding ritual. He is so arrogant he's actually going to try and bind me to his will. So I am going to bind myself before he can do anything," Lady said brightly. "Brilliant, right?"

Dean was quiet for a long time before saying, "Lady, that doesn't sound brilliant to me. That sounds retarded."

"Really?" Lady picked up a strappy sandal that was bright red and looked around for a sales woman. "It's really simple. Here, I'll break it down for you just...hold on one second," Lady muted her cell phone so she could ask for the shoe in a size seven. "Okay, years ago I was bound to the coven. That mark on my wrist pretty much linked me to them all the time. If I bind myself to something else, say to my own exclusive coven of one to go with my already awesome army-of-one deal I work with, Garrett's ritual will fail. Should actually blow up in his face. It's a good thing, completely harmless. Well, not for him, at least." Lady muted her phone again and grinned as the sales woman returned with her size. "Oh, this is nice! Thank you!"

"Army of one?" Dean questioned.

"Uh huh," she said happily. "Two if you want to count Freddie but he is only a few years old, not nearly old enough to enlist. He's like a super-loveable drummer boy."

Dean made a noise but went on to ask about his bigger concern. "Lady, you barely got rid of the thing that branded you as a witch and you want to do it again?" Dean asked, and she could hear the stress in his voice.

"Of course not!" Lady said. "Well, sort of. Dean, this is a good thing! I'm an extra step to staying alive. The only thing I need to figure out now is how Garrett finds me, or how I find him, and how I manage to get untied to avoid the massive explosion this is bound to create..." Lady went silent, realizing that didn't sound half as amazing as it had inside her head. "You know, this is why I lie all the time. I tell too much of the truth and people start thinking I'm stark-raving nuts." Lady picked up a bottle of perfume and sniffed it before giving herself a spray. She tucked it under her free arm along with her shoes. "Dean, I got this. I'm all over this like I'll be all over you next time we see each other."

"Okay," he said, but she could tell he wasn't nearly as excited about her recent discoveries as she was. And he wasn't even happy with her analogy.

"What's your favorite color?" she asked as she walked through the lingerie section.

"Why?"

"Hold on," Lady said, taking a picture of some pieces that caught her eye and sending them to his phone. "I just sent you a picture."

After a few moments she heard Dean chuckle, "Might help me if you tried them on and then sent me a picture."

"Like I need that getting sent around the internet," Lady teased. "I'll surprise you, Dean." Lady hung up and looked at the sales woman who appeared eager for a commission, "Do you have this in a 30B?" Lady pointed at black lace.

**February 27, 2007**

Lady stopped at Bobby's so he could help Lady figure out her binding ritual before she made a trip to Vegas.

"Don't you have more important things to do than run off to Vegas?" Bobby asked as he flipped through books.

"I know an artist down there that will help me," she said.

Lady had been working with Maxine on various counters to the binding ritual Garrett was going to use, further ironing out the details of the ritual and finding ways for Lady to manage not only destroying Garret within his own ritual but escaping at the same time. They weren't quite there yet, but she was excited to take care of the first step of her plan.

Lady waited to grab her cell phone until it started to ring, and held back her smile when she knew it was going to be Dean. "Hello," she answered.

"How are things looking?" Dean asked.

"I have a pretty good handle on this ritual. Bobby is helping me figure out my own binding ritual right now."

"What is that going to be like? Do I want to know?"

"Mm, can you not like it but accept that it helps?" Lady said.

"I sort of have to," he said.

"I'm taking a page out of Garrett's book and sticking it in my skin," Lady said. "I'm just going to tattoo it in."

Dean was quiet for a moment before saying, "Well, that doesn't sound nearly as bad as I was thinking. Can you make it like, a sexy pin-up girl tatt or something?"

Lady snorted, "No. Bobby is translating some Roman sigils. Once he has it done I am running to Vegas. I know an artist down there that will let me substitute the normal ink for the special ink it requires. So how did your werewolf hunt go?"

"Not well," he admitted. "We met this girl, Madison, and, uh, we thought her ex-boyfriend was the werewolf. Sam hung around her while I went to find the guy, protecting her, but, uh...turns out Madison was the werewolf. And instead of killing her on the spot we tried one of our father's theories that killing the werewolf that changed her, supposedly cutting off the bloodline, would cure her. It seemed to work, and, uh...well, Sam got pretty sweet on her. But the cure didn't work, she turned again and he had to kill her." Lady followed the best she could, but Dean wasn't the best at telling stories unless they involved extreme action with fists flying and guns blazing. "Anyway, Sam's pretty busted up about it. I'm not sure if it's because he liked her or if it's because he couldn't save her. I guess it's something of both."

"Are you saying Sam got it on with a werewolf?" Lady hissed quietly.

"Uh huh," Dean said.

"Help me out a bit, Dean, I'm not a jack of all trades hunter. Werewolves are...well, werewolves!"

"We learned some new things about them," he said. "When they turn during the full moon they aren't aware of it. She didn't know she was turning. I actually felt real bad for her and the other one. And he doesn't seem to be taking it very well."

"I suppose he wouldn't. I mean, he's not you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dean asked in defense.

"Just as I said it, he isn't you. I don't mean it in a bad way, you know I'm nuts about you. I'm not saying you are heartless, Dean, don't get defensive like a little girl."

"I'm not getting defensive," Dean said. "When are you and Bobby going to be in Vegas?"

"Just me, and in a few days," she answered. She got up and went into the kitchen. "Are you okay?"

"Why are you asking me that?" He sounded confused.

"You are starting to sound not okay," Lady said, quickly wondering why that might be.

"Its just you go in half-bind and half-cocked when it comes to this coven," he said.

"Not this time," Lady said. "I wish I could explain it so it doesn't sound like I'm being a total arrogant bitch about the whole thing, but I really do know what I'm doing. I have time, and I have things figured out for the most part. The last new moon before the summer solstice is June fifteenth, lots of time. I know what I'm doing." She smiled slightly, "It's so adorable that you worry, Dean-o," she said in a cute voice.

"Shut up," he bit back. "How about we meet you in Vegas?" Dean asked.

"I'd like that," she admitted. It had been a week since her hasty exit at Bobby's earlier in the month. "I'll call you when I'm on the road, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll talk to you later."

"And give Sam a hug from me and Freddie," she added.

"What do I get?" he asked.

"You can have me give you whatever you want," she chuckled before hanging up on him.

Lady sat across from Bobby and he pushed a book toward her. "I got these figured out," he said. "Sigils straight from a Roman goddess named Trivia. The one sigil right here depicts just one goddess. The next one is for protection. And the last one is for the moon."

Lady nodded in approval, "Sounds good. Can I get a photo copy?"

"Yeah," Bobby got up to go to his printer and scan the book. "Took a while to find them. Most of the other sigils are for fertility or chastity."

Lady snorted, "Yeah, I definitely don't want either of those."


	47. Las Vegas Part 1, March 2007

**A/N** - _I am SO sorry for the long time in uploading. For the past two weeks I've been getting an error message anytime I tried to update this story or create a new story within Supernatural. The error isn't fixed but thankfully other people on this site have found a way around it and I finally found a way that works! PHEW! I've been aching to update for so long! YAY! Ok, and to the story..._

**March 5, 2007. Viva Las Vegas!**

The Winchesters had beat her to Las Vegas and already had two rooms at a motel in a mediocre part of the city. Lady had only planned to be there a day, but wasn't devoted to that plan. She had been working rather hard, and so had the brothers. They all deserved a mini-break. Since Dean said he would meet her there she had been thinking about all the things she could do. Las Vegas was easily her favorite city. Compared to the bitter cold ten degree weather in the Dakotas she was soaking in beautiful seventy degree sunbeams. The locals considered that chilly, but she was in a skirt and t-shirt while Freddie panted at the heat.

"Sam!" Lady said with a big grin when he opened the door for her, jumping into his arms for a hug and giving his cheek a wet kiss.

"Hey, Lady," he said, holding her tightly for a few moments before setting her feet on the ground. "Enjoying the weather?"

"Love it!" she said as she went into his motel room. "Where's your sexy partner?"

Sam gave Freddie's head a rough and friendly rub, "I left him at the casino, he was on a roll at the blackjack table. He should be on his way back now that you are here." Sam knelt down and gave Freddie a friendly rub down. "How's work been going?"

"It's going well. I have this weird high from the whole thing, it's going very well. I can't wait for it to be over, though."

Sam nodded as he sat on the edge of his bed, "I bet. Can't be easy, having that in your head."

"How about the demon search?" she asked. "Dean hasn't said much about it."

Sam shook his head, "It's strange. After I got possessed by Meg there has been nothing reported. No possessions, demonic signs, nothing. Ash is still doing the regular search, but he hasn't come up with anything."

"Sorry," she said sadly. "Anything I can do? I mean, anything…"

"Do me a big favor," Sam said, and she looked at him intently. "Just kill Garrett, get free of this coven. Worry about yourself."

She smiled, "I doing that. I'm talking about helping you guys with yellow-eyes."

Sam shook his head. "I just want you to be…safe, Lady."

She let out a breath. She saw that mentioning the werewolf he and his brother had just recently killed would lead him to look sad so she didn't say anything. However she wanted to say, very badly, that if the werewolf had tried to eat his heart she would have found it too big to finish. "You are a good boy, Sam," she settled for saying.

He looked at her seriously, not sure how much time he had until his brother returned. "When you have this thing with Garrett figured out I…I bet you could help us a lot. But…want me to be honest?"

"All the time," she said. "Well, most of the time. Nearly all of the time. You are smart, you'll know when it is better to lie to me and I'm smart so I know when it is better not to call you out on a lie. So…"

"Lady," Sam said to quiet her rambling. "I'd, uh, sort of appreciate if you didn't get too involved. It's dangerous and not really your area."

"I get what you are saying," she said. "But I got skills you don't."

Sam nodded, "Yeah, but this is the same demon that killed our mother and my girlfriend. We don't want it to have a reason to come after you…unfortunately just knowing us is dangerous. Losing you would kill Dean."

She gave him a confident grin and fell onto his lap, "Sam, I live danger. Breathe it. And I occasionally eat it for breakfast." She curled an arm around his neck, "I know how to protect myself. I'm safer than most people."

"I know, but…" Sam's words cut off when the motel door opened and Dean stepped in.

"Hey," Dean said, giving Lady a happy smile.

"Go away, we'll be done in thirty minutes," Lady said, wrapping both her arms around Sam's neck.

"Funny," Dean chuckled.

Sam gave his brother a cheeky smile and wrapped an arm around Lady's waist, "Better make that an hour."

"Less funny," Dean said, pulling Lady off of his brother's lap and giving her a short kiss. "How was the drive?"

"Long as hell," Lady answered, letting herself fall on the bed. Freddie jumped up and gave a giant yawn before resting his head on a pillow.

"Guess he knows where he's sleeping tonight," Dean laughed at his brother's misfortune of having a soggy pillow. "My room is a few doors down."

"You know I came here for a reason," Lady said. "I think it'll be fun if you guys came with me to see Al."

"Al? That's, the, uh, tattoo artist?" Dean asked.

"Yeah. I met Al years ago. I should probably warn you, Al is…"

"No, I get it," Dean said. "Some guy you got frisky with so he does your ink for free, right?" Dean hated the jealousy he used to have towards other men when Lady gave them attention or affection. It wasn't him at all. But for some reason he had thought of Lady as his for longer than just the past few weeks. In her heels and tight jeans she had wiggled her way into his family, and he knew how easily she could wiggle right out again.

Lady studied his face, and then cracked a smile. "Al and I actually used to live together when we were teenagers. Al is the only person who could probably make me blush, even to this day." Dean's lips pressed together. Lady let out a happy sigh and dug in her bag for a few moments, "There is an art show today. I got us tickets." She offered Dean the pamphlet.

"An art show? I don't want to go to some pansy art show," Dean said. He hadn't seen Lady for two weeks and had been waiting for her in Vegas for a few days while she finished working with Bobby. He didn't want to go to one of her former fling's crappy art show. He wanted to, first before anything else, show her a good time. Show her he missed her and appreciated the numerous naughty pictures she had sent to his cell phone.

Lady rolled her eyes at Dean and handed Sam the pamphlet. "Read it, Sam."

Sam looked at the cover and opened the pamphlet, and then he started laughing. "Esteemed artist Alice Carpenter is having an art show." He laughed harder, "That's Al?"

"That's Al," Lady said, and she looked at Dean with amusement. Her friend Al wasn't an old squeeze, just an old friend. "I was trying to warn you. Al and I know each other from back in the day, but _she_ isn't up on what I do. So, would you like to come to an art show with me today and meet her?"

Dean just shrugged, not wanting to show that for a moment he may have been slightly jealous that Al had gotten with his Lady, even if it had been before they had met. Jealousy, a strange emotion that he hated to experience. It came from fear. Lady had been let into his life, the darkest corners and dirtiest closets, and it scared the crap out of him. He wasn't worried that she'd run off screaming because of what he did, he knew she'd be right by his side if he asked her to handle a job with him. But sometimes the monsters weren't the scariest things out there. Lady had no reason to stick around, she wasn't tied to him by blood like Sam was. And even if that was the case Sam had proved he had no problem going off on his own. And Lady had proven to be shady as hell. She'd learned to stay off the grid when she was a teenager, and that had been on her own. If she wanted to disappear without a trace again she could, and he wasn't very secure that she wouldn't. "Art show doesn't sound too bad," Dean said with a smile.

Lady left Freddie in Sam's motel room so he could continue his nap and Dean drove the three of them downtown.

"This is actually pretty fascinating," Sam said, still reading through the pamphlet. "Alice…"

"Al," Lady corrected. "She prefers to be called Al to her face. She only lets them print Alice so people know she's not a dude."

"Whatever," he muttered. "Started her own tattoo parlor at age eighteen. Before she was twenty her original works of art were going for tens of thousands of dollars. She's a chairwoman on an organization that funds lawsuits against censorship. And she's only twenty-five." Sam turned in his seat to look at Lady, "She even teaches at local colleges. This is actually sort of impressive."

Lady shrugged, "When I met her she was dumpster diving behind a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant."

"You are actually into this?" Dean asked, slightly concerned for his brother.

"A literal rags to riches story," Sam said. "I mean, getting paid for art is hard enough as it is but this woman has made a living off of it since she was eighteen."

"So the woman can draw a straight line," Dean scoffed as he parked his car at the studio.

"Even when we were kids she was good at doodling," Lady said. "Don't be too impressed, she had help starting out. I came down to check on her when she turned eighteen, drug her out to an Indian Casino and got her to play the right slot machine."

Sam smiled, "You played Lady Luck?"

Lady snickered, "Yeah, I did. Al's cool. She's my only friend that, uh…" Lady's smile vanished and she shook her head.

"What?" Dean asked.

She cleared her throat, "She's my only friend from my time here that survived." Lady let out a sad breath. "She loves to get nostalgic, you guys will probably hear a few stories. I haven't seen her in a few years, we might be chatting for a while."

The trio entered the studio. Music was playing at a volume that didn't drown out the voices or make people talk too loud. There were tall canvases propped up or hanging from the walls. The crowd was small and there were several signs demanding no photos or videos.

"Wow," Dean said, his eyes landing on a nude painting of a tall and leggy blonde woman.

"That is one of Al's," Lady said, pointing at the signature in the bottom right corner.

"Dean, this is art," Sam said in a low voice, hoping his brother wouldn't start drooling.

"And I am appreciating it," Dean said. "Wow."

Lady snorted and gave him a pat, "I'm going to go find Al. You guys stay out of trouble."

Lady was only gone a few minutes when another woman came up to them. She was nearly six feet tall, mostly legs that she showed off with a modest skirt and low heels. "Good afternoon, gentlemen. Are you enjoying the show?"

Dean looked at her, back at the painting, and back at her, they were the same person. "I'm not sure if I should answer that." He looked at Sam for help. "Can I answer that?"

"Knowing you, you probably shouldn't," Sam said.

She laughed lightly, "Hello, I'm Terri."

Dean smiled, "I feel like I already know you."

Terri looked appreciatively at her self portrait, "Al does wonderful work, doesn't she?"

"It's very beautiful," Sam said.

"Is it accurate?" Dean asked, grimacing as his brother stomped on his foot.

Terri just laughed, "Al believes in capturing the real world, real things. Although her more abstract art is what she is more famous for."

"We're actually here to meet Al," Sam said, hoping she could help them find the artist.

"I'd love to introduce you," Terri said. "Al really appreciates all the support from the gay community."

Dean's mouth opened and closed a few times before he managed to say, "I'm actually here with my girlfriend."

"Oh…but you two…"

"We're brothers," Sam said, pointing at Dean and back to himself.

Terri actually looked more disappointed than apologetic. "Oh," was all she said with a small shrug. "Well, Al is right there," she said, pointing behind them.

They saw Lady and a smaller woman walking toward them. Alice wasn't much taller than five feet tall and built a bit thick. Her hair was a mix of green and purple, and every visible part of her skin from the neck down was covered in tattoos. "Al, this is Sam and Dean."

"Nice to meet you guys," Al said, shaking both of their hands. "Lady, you got to meet my girl, Terri."

Lady smiled and shook the blonde's hand. She glanced back at the nude painting and back to Terri, "I feel like we've already met."

"I feel the same way. Al hasn't stopped talking about you since you called. If I didn't know better I'd be jealous," Terri said, putting an arm around Al's shoulders. "Will you be long?"

"A while, babe. Finish up here, okay?" Al said.

"Okay," Terri smiled and leaned down to give Al a lingering kiss before walking away.

"Come on back to my office, guys," Al said.

Dean grabbed Lady's elbow to hold her back for a moment, "You and her...?" He asked, his eyes wide and curious, hungry to know.

Lady gave him a sly smile, "Me and her what?"

Dean gave her an obvious look. Lady was rather promiscuous but obviously into men, that didn't mean she hadn't tried other things and he suddenly had to know. "You know what!"

Lady just laughed at him and followed Al into the back without answering.

Dean looked at Sam, "You saw that, right? I didn't hallucinate?"

"Grow up, Dean," Sam said, walking past him and taking a few quick steps to catch up to Lady.

Lady never thought she'd see the day when she would ever introduce Al to anyone currently in her life. Lady had only known Al for a few months when they were living on the streets in Vegas. But there were stories to tell. Wow, were there stories.

And that was why she had asked Sam and Dean to come with her. She could have told them she wanted to go alone, and they would have respected that. But she wanted them to know a bit more where she came from. Maybe help explain to them why it was so hard to accept their help and friendship, and how much it meant to her. A glimpse into the past she had before her life changed. She wanted them to hear some of those stories.

And Al loved her moments of nostalgia.

"You seem to be doing well," Lady said, falling into a beanbag chair on the floor next to Al. Sam and Dean took the folding chairs.

"Got the world in the palm of my hand," Al grinned. "House, job I love, trophy girlfriend. Only thing I'm missing is a dick but I never had much use for one of those." Al grinned at the brothers, "No offense, boys."

Lady laughed, "Don't let Al scare you."

"If I scare them they shouldn't be hanging out with you," Al said pointedly.

"Eat me, Alice," Lady snapped.

"I finally get a girlfriend and you offer, just like you," Al snorted. "You guys feel like a drink? Soda, water? If you really twist my arm I can sneak a few of Terri's wine coolers."

"We're good," Lady answered.

"What's the story with the escorts, Lady?"

"They are cool," Lady said. "These two are real good friends."

"I bet," Al chuckled. Al studied the two for a few minutes and then pointed at them, "You are related. Brothers, cousins at least. Right?"

Dean looked surprised for a moment. Most people didn't see the family resemblance. He looked more like his mother, and Sam took after their father. "Yeah," he admitted.

Al nodded, "I got a sharp eye."

"I read a bit about your art. The details you put in your work, very nice," Sam said.

Al smiled, "Art is life, beauty and love. And money. Like all those things, it is the smallest details that make it worthwhile. Except for the money, as few details as possible is best there."

Lady laughed with her, "Wow, when did you start talking like a fucking pansy about this?"

"Since I started shoving that crap down the gullets of stupid college kids," Al let out a sigh. "If you had told me ten years ago I'd have all of this…I would have knocked your ass out. If you had told me the two of us would still be alive…well…" Al shrugged and shook her head as she became more serious. "I'm glad you called. It's nice to hear you are still breathing."

"Thanks," Lady said.

"Going to tell me what you are up to?" Al asked.

"Boring stuff," Lady lied. "Past few years have been a lot of busy and boring work."

"Sure," Al nodded. "Well, just tell me you didn't join back up with that cult, okay?"

Lady smiled slightly, "I haven't."

Al shook her head, "I told you they were bad news."

"Is that how you guys met?" Dean asked curiously, glancing at Lady for a sign if he was reaching into her forbidden territory, but she seemed calm.

"Uh, no," Al said. She laughed a bit, "Dumb bitch nearly got me killed."

"Don't be a drama queen! Leave that part up to me," Lady said. "Who was the idiot who decided to follow me?"

"I was just trying to keep my ass out of handcuffs!" Al laughed, looking at Sam and Dean. "Me and Lady met…oh, we'll say it was ten years ago…"

**A/N - **_ I was thinking about having Al and Lady have a goofy singing moment, but I just couldn't find a place to put it. Here is that song anyway:_

_Living next door to Alice (Who the fuck is Alice?), by Smokie_


	48. Flashback, '96 to '97

**A/N** - _If you are having trouble uploading a story and receiving a Error type 2 message here is the way around it:_

**Go to the page where you get the error message. Look at the address bar and part of the link is going to be something like **[/story/story_edit_property .php?storyid=9999999/1/]** at the end. Change the word 'property' to the word 'content' so it looks like this. **[/story/story_edit_content .php?storyid=9999999/1/]  
** You'll either have to save that separate link or change that one word every time you try to update until the glitch is fixed.**

_This glitch is really getting on my nerves. I love this site but the people who run it need to get on this. At least post an update on the front page or something, because I nearly lost my mind._**  
**

**November 1996 – June 1997. Las Vegas**

Lady had been in Vegas for about six months. She knew her way around, she had her favorite spots to get hand outs from tourists, the best spot to set up a table for a rigged shell game, and most of the time she was doing well. But lately she had been off her game, and she was blaming the holidays.

Fucking holidays.

Tourism seemed to be down. Either people saving up money for the holidays or preferring to spend it at home instead of visiting the Sin City for a few days. And this was going to be her first holiday season on her own, completely alone. Sure, there were others like her that she got along with, sometimes hung out with. But she was still very much alone.

Tourists saw the flashing lights and big-name shows. They ignored the homeless population, the shady side of town. And even the cops around the city seemed to ignore the hoards of teenagers that were living on their own. And lately it was just hard to find easy targets so she could make her living.

Fucking holidays.

Lady wasn't sure if her hand wasn't steady enough because of the mess of crap in her head, or if she had chosen a poor target, but she got caught with her hand in a man's pocket. The guy looked like he had money to spare, a nice suit and shiny shoes with a gold watch. Lady understood right from wrong. And what was wrong was that dickhead got to have a Rolex on his wrist when she may have to freeze her ass off when the sun went down.

For a moment she had looked at him with wide innocent eyes, hoping he'd see her as some poor street kid who needed a few twentys so she could rent a room for the night. Instead he grabbed her wrist and shouted for the police.

Fucking holidays, man. Fucking holidays.

So now Lady was running. She'd managed to evade getting arrested several times, but this was her first close call in over a month. Learning the game had been easy. There were a few cops that knew her by name, and just let her be as long as she fed them a bit of information now and then. But if she got hauled in no one could help her. Eventually they'd find out where she came from and send her back. So running was her best option.

She got into an alleyway and tried to catch her breath while hoping the two uniformed officers chasing her had just finished off a box of donuts and were too heavy to keep up. That they hadn't been able to keep an eye on her when she raced through a crowd. Just hoping for a tiny break after her screw up.

Something in the dumpster she was hiding behind moved and Lady jumped. The only thing more plentiful in the city than stray teens was the stray cats. Lady had learned quickly to avoid the nasty little furballs. Nearly all of them were feral, and there were horror stories of rabies and tapeworms and ringworms and lots of worms. Disgusting.

A head slowly rose over the dumpster and for a moment Lady just stared at the pair of brown eyes looking at her. The two girls looked over each other. Though they had never met they identified each other as street kids almost immediately. For a long time it was just silence. There was a quiet rivalry between streets. Not really gangs, never organized enough to be called that. But resources were thin, especially lately, and Lady wasn't in her part of the city.

"Sup?" the girl asked.

"Nothing. You?" Lady asked.

"I can't get out," she admitted. "Can you give me a hand?"

Lady thought about it and then decided, "Why the hell not."

The girl was half a foot shorter than Lady, much shorter than the dumpster she had been in. Once she was out she offered Lady her hand, "I'm Alice. Everyone calls me Al. What's your name?"

"Lady. Just Lady, like just Sting but not as popular with the Police," Lady looked anxious as the two officers that had been chasing her appeared at the end of the alley.

They both let out a hiss and started running. Lady didn't know why Al was running with her. She sort of wished the shorter girl would have just hung back, because now that they were running together Lady didn't want to leave her behind. Although tripping her and continuing running sounded like a good idea. Cops were usually happy to get one culprit.

"This way!" Lady breathed, grabbing the smaller girl's hand and pulling her in a new direction. Lady shoved the girl into a small area between two buildings and squeezed in with her. Both of them were breathing heavily and trying to quiet their pants as they heard the officers run past.

"What'd you do to piss them off? They usually don't follow after two blocks," Al said.

"Eh," was all Lady could get out as she worked on catching her breath.

"Where are we?" Al asked as they stepped into the open.

Lady shivered as the heat from the run steamed off of her and let in the cold of the setting sun. "Not anywhere I want to stay." Lady looked the girl over, frowning slightly. "You haven't been out here long, have you?"

"Long enough," Al said in a defensive tone.

Ah, the tough voice. Lady should have rolled her eyes and left the tiny thing to see how long she would last on her own. But they were in the part of the city that only cops with guns and thugs with guns ventured into at night. And night came quickly this time of the year. "Let's just get a few streets over and go our own way, okay?"

"You got a place to stay tonight?" Al asked as they walked.

"You got cash and I can find a place," Lady offered.

"Not sure I want to stay with you. You give me the creeps," Al said. "Something dead in your eyes. Something is wrong with you."

Lady stared at her, hoping whatever was creeping her out would work to get her to shut up. But Al just looked back at her curiously. Lady rolled her eyes and kept walking.

It didn't take long for people lurking on the sidewalks to call out to them. Lady saw Al's features tense and realized the girl hadn't been on her own long at all. A few weeks, max. Lady had learned to avoid this area quickly.

"Hey, sweethearts," a braver of the lurkers stepped forward to block their path on the sidewalk. "Gotta pay the toll."

"We're tapped for cash," Lady said. "Cut me some slack, man."

"I know an alternative way you can pay, blue-eyes," the man grinned at her suggestively.

"I don't have the two minutes that would take to spare," Lady said.

"Ouch!" he laughed. "I like your bark, girl."

Al was trembling now, a few of the man's buddies were coming in for back-up. Lady put a hand on her shoulder and kept her voice even and didn't show fear, "Try anything and you'll find out you don't like my bite. And if…"

Lady pushed Al to the side and ducked her head as nearby gunshots were fired. The girls scrambled for cover as the men who had been harassing them started shouting. "Jesus Christ!" Lady shrieked, beginning to tremble as an early-night fight was breaking out halfway down the block. "Get up, come on!" She pulled on Al. They had to get out of there.

Al let Lady drag her at a sprint, wincing at each gunshot and shout that they were leaving behind. Sirens were blaring ahead of them already, cops moving in to contain the chaos.

Fucking Holidays.

That was all Lady could think of. Her head was a mess. She was aching for her old life. For months she had forgotten it, the excitement of being on her own and staying on her toes to keep herself free had let her leave it behind. But lately? Getting caught picking a pocket, chased by cops, slowing down to help Al, and getting them caught in the worst neighborhood in Vegas after dark? Things weren't going well.

Al had some cash and Lady went to a motel that rented rooms without asking questions. "I've been on my own about two weeks now," Al admitted, huddled on the bed they had to share. "I don't really know what I'm doing."

Lady nodded, "I sort of figured that when you decided to run at the sight of cops that were chasing me. You have any friends out here?"

Al shook her head, "No. I mean, I've met a few people. But, uh…"

Lady nodded. There wasn't a sense of kinship or camaraderie. Even now she hated the little girl that she was sharing the room with. She doubted she'd get much sleep, but at least she could get cleaned up and stay warm. And something she hadn't had for a while, someone to chat with.

Al was only fourteen, she had ran from an abusive home. She still had bruises and burns that weren't completely healed. Lady didn't share her reason for being on her own. Al was just expecting to get away for a while, just long enough that her parents would be more interested in seeing her alive and safe than angry for her running off.

But as Lady shared some of her stories from her past several months in Vegas Al got a new idea. Why go back at all?

Lady looked at Al with wide eyes, "You want me to teach you things?"

"Why not? Two of us working together. Partner up for a while."

Lady thought about it. It wasn't the first time that had been suggested. The past six months she had made several temporary friends that she had worked with. And every single one of them had ditched her after a few weeks. They got arrested, drifted to a new street, stole her half of the cash to buy drugs, one even got himself killed. Al needed help, she'd been sleeping under newspapers the past two weeks and eating from dumpsters. Lady needed help earning cash, and the distraction of teaching a dumb girl how to survive might be useful. "Let's give it a shot," Lady said with a shrug.

Lady had always been fascinated with magic tricks when she was a kid. Card tricks became her specialty. When she could she practiced in front of a mirror. When a mirror wasn't available she just practiced stacking the deck of cards. In Vegas everyone needed a trick to get by.

Al couldn't hold onto a deck of cards to save her life.

However Al served a purpose. A distraction, a lookout, and back-up. Two weeks after their chance meeting the two girls were close friends and living decently. Cash to buy things that were usually only treats, like shampoo.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas tourism picked up again, and Lady was hoarding cash for when Al eventually abandoned her.

"Lady, might have a problem," Al said.

"What is it?" Lady asked, her eyes searching the pedestrians and looking for an easy target.

"Ringo wants his cut," Al said with a frown.

"Son of a bitch," Lady muttered.

Ringo, in his mind, was King of the Street. He was a big and burly guy, often had a few thugs with him. He had kids pushing drugs in the less traveled areas of the city, and demanded a cut of the girls wages for the privilege of letting them hustle. Lady had dealt with Ringo, or guys like him, since she had started earning her own way. Ringo wasn't half bad, and it was easier to pay him than deal with him.

"I'll get him off our backs," Lady said with a smile. Al was afraid of Ringo, she didn't really have the stomach for this life and Lady knew she would be leaving soon. Lady grinned widely as Ringo came up to them. She slapped his hand while transferring several bills, "Hey, man, what's up?"

"Not much," he said. "How you doing, Little Lady?"

"Still sort of slim with the holidays," Lady said.

Ringo counted the cash and nodded in approval, "You know you could be making a lot more if you worked for me full time."

Lady shook her head. Maybe her morals were off, but she had her own set of rules. Things she wouldn't do, that she had decided she'd rather go hungry than do. She wouldn't sell her body for money, or sell drugs. It seemed important to have guidelines, to draw a line in the lawless life she lived now. Ringo kept telling her that she'd change her mind, and she was afraid he was right. But for now she didn't have to.

When Ringo was paid he left her alone, and it was business as usual. They'd work four or five hours a day, hang out somewhere for several hours, and go home. Home was often a sleazy motel or someone's floor, but they were managing well to stay off the streets at night.

And then their duo became a trio. One day Al found another teen sulking around their street. If Lady had been with her they would have kept walking, avoid the kid at all costs. That was they way of the street. But Al, the sucker, just didn't understand that.

"Who the hell is he?" Lady asked when Al led him to her.

"His name is Donny," Al said.

"Why is he following you like a lovesick puppy dog?"

"I said we'd help him get on his feet," Al said, looking up at Lady with big brown eyes, just like a damn puppy dog. "Come on, get in the Christmas spirit."

Fucking Holidays.

"I'm not running a how-to service for fucked-up teens, Al!" Lady hissed. "If you haven't noticed, I am one! I can barely take care of myself!"

"That's my point," Al said. "Even together we're barely holding it together. Why do we have to do this on our own? We all have trouble at home, with our families. Let's make our own family. Maybe this guy stays, maybe he doesn't. But at least he doesn't get sucked in by Ringo without knowing how things work."

Donny was rather shy. He didn't talk much, sat in the corner. But he began to open up after a few days of being fed and having a roof over his head. Both his parents had recently died and he had been living with his grandmother in Henderson until she passed away. The only place they could find him to stay was with a temporary foster home that already had ten other kids in it, he tried it for two days before deciding he'd rather sleep in a gutter.

Donny was almost eighteen, and could pass for it. When he had ran away he had been smart to take his ID and social security card. He was smart, too. Smarter than Al and Lady when it came to certain things. He was able to get them into a motel that rented rooms by the month.

Lady was teaching Donny tricks and he was catching on but he didn't have the outgoing personality to pull them off.

On Christmas Day the trio were sitting around their small motel watching Rudolph. Lady was shuffling a deck of worn-out cards, keeping her hands nimble. For the most part she was the breadwinner of their odd family unit. And she was trying to figure it out why it didn't bother her. She was no longer hoarding her cash, like what she knew would be the smart thing to do. She was making sure they had enough cash to get the motel for another month and have enough to left over to keep Ringo off her back. Making sure they were fed. Donny had gotten a hole in his jeans and she'd need to take him to the second-hand store to look for a new pair. Al went through sketchpads and colored pencils like they were candy.

Lady set her deck of cards down and wondered how in the hell she had become the mother of two other misfits. How had she let herself get pulled into that arrangement. And how in the hell it was working at all. She had sworn to herself that she would just look out for number-one. Take care of herself, it wasn't her fault these other misfits didn't have anyone else for them. But here she was…and part of her liked it. It was a good thing to do, Donny and Al helped keep away the loneliness and helped out where they could.

But as she expected, Al left the group shortly after Christmas. Al had lasted longer than she expected, and even gave them the benefit of telling them she was going back home. The past few weeks Al had been working to bridge the awkward gap between Donny and Lady, and now that she was gone Lady wasn't sure how much longer Donny would stick around. Donny seemed scared by Lady's outgoing personality.

But Donny didn't go anywhere, or even mention thinking about it. Donny took up the slack, becoming Lady's lookout while she worked. And he did a good job. New Years was a large party night and Lady made enough cash that she didn't have to work for at least a week.

Halfway through January Al returned, busted up face and crying. Any extra cash Lady had made went to taking care of Al after her happy reunion with her parents turned violently sour.

Lady was sitting outside the motel room, letting Al have some privacy. Donny came outside to sit with her. "You ever want to go back?" Donny asked her quietly.

"I don't have anything where I came from," Lady said softly. "You?"

Donny shrugged. "It isn't worth it to go back. I mean, I'll be eighteen in June. I can get a real job, I can get a real paycheck. Maybe something enough to get a real apartment. But you are only fifteen, you don't even have a driver's license. No one is going to give you a real job."

"I do okay," Lady said. "I don't know, okay? Maybe…maybe when I turn eighteen I'll go back. I suppose I'll have a lot to answer for…I don't know."

"Back where?" Donny asked.

She shook her head, "Not important. I just…I don't have anything, Donny."

He gave her a rare smile, "We just have to last until summer. I'll get a job and a real place to live. You can do your thing for extra cash, but when I don't have to worry about social services dragging me back I'll make sure we always have a place to stay."

"You don't have to worry about me," Lady said.

"If it wasn't for you I probably would have gotten jumped and killed my first week," he said. "We just have to watch out for each other." She finally returned his smile. Maybe their personalities didn't match up, but they were friends. They were in this together.

Lady and Al were back to their old schemes soon enough, and Donny was working on his own thing. The beginning of February of 1997 he was proud to tell them he found someone who had given him a part-time job without parental consent. And was eager to show them were he would be working.

"It's a bookstore," Lady said flatly, killing his buzz.

"It's fantastic, isn't it?" Donny looked at her hopefully. "Come on, I'll introduce you to my boss."

Lady and Al entered the shop. It was musty smelling, and books filled several shelves. "They have a comic book section?" Lady asked.

"Afraid not," a woman said. She was about Lady's height. Her hair was brown and went down her back, her eyes were a dark blue. "Hello, I'm Ananda."

"Nice place," Al said, taking the woman's hand.

Lady noticed a tattoo on the inside of her right wrist, the first time she ever saw it. Three moons, side by side. "Nice ink," Lady said when it was her turn to shake the woman's hand.

"You like it? It is the triple-moon, it stands for the triple-goddesses," Ananda said pleasantly.

"Ananda practices Wicca," Donny said, as if it meant anything to Lady. "Pretty rad, right? This whole place is an occult bookshop. I've been coming here in my free time and…this is all incredible."

Ananda smiled at his enthusiasm, "I'm very pleased to find a young man interested in the faith. I just hope you aren't going to get me into trouble, I really should have your guardian's permission…"

"I promise, I'll be the best employee you ever had," Donny said.

Ananda touched his face gently, "Such a sweet boy."

The trio left the shop. Lady wasn't into what Donny was into, but she was happy she wouldn't be the only person bringing in cash. He definitely wouldn't make enough in a month to keep them off the street, but she'd take any help right now.

"That woman gave me a weird vibe," Al said.

"That's because you are an uptight Catholic Lesbian," Donny said.

"Eat me, dickhead," Al snapped. "Serious. You know Wicca is witchcraft, right? It's a creepy cult!"

"You know shit, _Alice_!" Donny snapped back.

"Children, children!" Lady chuckled. "Lesbian Catholic, Witchcraft Geek, Adorable Thief. None of us are really allowed to judge the other, okay?"

Donny's new job paid surprisingly well, and he spent almost all of his extra time with Ananda as she taught him about her faith. Al didn't appreciate it when he talked about it when he got home, but put up with it. After a few weeks Ananda invited all of them to her home for dinner. The trio survived off of fast food, and Lady couldn't remember the last time a meal had required her to use a fork.

Ananda, strange or not, was pleasant. She was around thirty, no husband or children. She understood their homeless position and sympathized with them, even going so far as to invite them to move in with her. Lady and Al immediately said no, even when Donny looked at them hopefully to say yes. They'd take the free meal, but not a free bed. Al and Lady already knew the rules in Vegas, a free bed always had a cost.

"Lady, when do you turn eighteen? Perhaps you might like to work for me as well?" Ananda asked over dinner.

"Uh, not for a few years," Lady said.

"Her birthday is this month," Donny said brightly. Normally he was shy and it took a pliers to get him to chat, but with Ananda he seemed very comfortable. "The eighteenth."

Ananda's eyes flickered to Lady, "February eighteenth? You'll be…sixteen?"

"Uh, yeah," Lady nodded. No use in lying. Ananda was cool enough. She had known Donny was a runaway for a while without turning him in.

Ananda smiled at her, "You know, the year you were born was an important year. There was a blue moon that year."

"Really? Yeah, that's, uh, cool," Lady said.

Ananda packed leftovers for them and drove them home. Before they got out of the car she invited Lady and Al to come by the shop whenever they wanted to. She even offered to pay them cash if they wouldn't mind doing a little work.

Al wouldn't work there, and called Ananda the devil behind Donny's back. But Lady was thinking about her worn out clothes that would soon need to be replaced.

On her sixteenth birthday Ananda baked a cake for Lady. Something that she didn't remember anyone doing for her since she was ten years old. And Ananda paid her much more than minimum wage just to sweep the floor and dust the books. By March Lady wasn't even working on the streets hustling or pick-pocketing tourists. For the first time, in a year, Lady didn't feel like the weight of everything was on her shoulders.

And then one night Donny and Lady were walking back to their motel after working for Ananda to find three police cars with lights flashing outside. They hung back long enough to see Al getting carried out.

Lady and Donny both feared being sent back to their respective places. With their home raided they went to Ananda, who took them in with open arms.

It was late June when Lady found Al again. Al had been taken back to her parents, but that only lasted a few days before she ran away again. Trying to find her friends. But Lady and Donny were gone, no where to be found. Ananda's store had a closed sign on it and was left abandoned. Al tried to make it on her own for a week or two, but eventually turned herself into social services. Lady managed to track her down when she was in a foster home outside of Vegas.

Lady looked like hell. There were scars on her wrists and her hair was cut very short. "Looks like you have a decent thing," Lady said, appreciating the nice bit of suburbia Al was enjoying.

"Where were you?" Al asked.

Lady shook her head, "Doesn't matter. I, uh, just wanted to check in on you. I mean, you were the first person who didn't dick me over and…uh, I should have listened to you."

Al swallowed hard when she saw the same tattoo on Lady's wrist that Ananda had, "You joined the fucking cult, didn't you?"

Lady nodded, that was easier to say than the truth. "I got out okay, though."

Al let out a relieved laugh, "Before they handed out the kool-aid, obviously. You still with Donny?"

Lady shook her head. "I just, uh…I thought maybe if you thought about me half as much as I thought of you, then I should let you know I'm okay. And, uh…Donny didn't make it."

"What?"

"He's dead, Al," Lady said bitterly. "I, uh…just be careful out here, Al. And, uh…stay away from people with the mark. Okay? Just promise me that."

"Lady, hang on, okay? I'll come with you," Al offered.

Lady shook her head, "No. No offense, but letting people in is sort of how I got screwed over to begin with. I'm through with it. I can't handle it. Not anymore, never again. Just…be careful, Al."

**A/N** - _Song for this chapter:_

_Runaway, by Bon Jovi_

_**Another note** - I'm so psyched to be able to update again but I feel bad because I really haven't gotten that far on future chapters. That whole glitch had me frustrated! But I want to get the Vegas chapters posted because they all go very well together.  
_


	49. Las Vegas Part 2, March 2007

**March 5, 2007. Viva Las Vegas!**

"You scared the crap out of me when I saw you that day," Al finished the story.

"Pussy," Lady laughed. "I didn't look that bad."

"You looked like you had gone through hell!"

"Well, I had," Lady shrugged. "Ancient history."

Sam and Dean knew what Lady had been through during those months Al hadn't seen her. Saying it was a cult wasn't a far stretch, but the darker things that happened were things Al never needed to know of.

Al stretched a bit, "I didn't see you again for…what, three years? I had just turned eighteen and you showed up. High as a fucking kite, talking about visions and curses and that you wanted to make sure I was okay. Weirdo."

Lady glanced at Sam and Dean, and back at her, "Yeah, was on a bad trip."

Sam and Dean both knew that bad trip was pretty much her life. That had been before she had met the Mason's, she was just surviving day by day on Houdoo juice and small mystical treatments that Bobby had found for her. She knew she was dying and had just wanted to see her friend one last time and help her out. Al hadn't been doing too well at that time, legally an adult and kicked out of the foster system that had saved her from abusive parents.

Al pointed at her and grinned, "But you led me right to a slot machine, gave me a quarter and said play it. I did. Won fifty grand in one pull. I thought we'd be set for life. But you just took five grand and left again."

"But I came back," Lady said. "When you had your tattoo parlor."

"Yup. I got that whole thing set up with the cash from the casino," Al said. "Kept it until about a year ago." Al started giggling, "I could have shit bricks when you asked if I'd tattoo you. You were always terrified of needles."

Lady smiled a bit, "Yeah, well, I grew up. More realistic things to be afraid of then getting poked."

Al looked at the brothers while pointing at Lady, "This girl was always few cards short of a full deck. She'd climb water towers, talk tough to dangerous people and I once saw her pick a cops pocket just for kicks. Not scared of anything. Show her a needle and she nearly peed her pants!"

"I think I actually did once," Lady joined in the laugh at her expense.

"I suppose we should get to work," Al said with a sigh once the stories were done being shared. "Show me what you want done."

Lady showed Al the design and the artist got to work.

"Climbed water towers?" Dean asked while Al was tracing the design onto a stencil.

Lady shrugged, "I was fifteen, broke, and in need of entertainment. And a place to hide from people."

Dean and Sam both chuckled. They had enjoyed hearing about her time with Al. Even hearing about Ananda, the witch that nearly killed her and had killed her friend Donny, had been enlightening. But from the sound of it Lady had always been Lady. Just the Lady now days had visions, hunted witches and didn't give just anyone an ounce of trust. People had to earn it from her, and they had earned her trust.

Lady sat in a chair with her shirt off while Al tattooed the sigils on her left shoulder blade just to the right of her bra-strap. The noise of the tattoo gun made further conversation impossible. Lady flipped through a magazine, her lip twitching in a frown occasionally but otherwise didn't seem to be bothered by the needle scarring the ink into her skin.

Al was using a small cup of ink that Lady had brought with her, and didn't even ask what was in it. Lady and Maxine had made the ink themselves. It was harmless, mostly plant based to give the ink a bit more weight than just the sigils themselves. She'd complete a real ritual once she returned to North Dakota, but had to wait for the new moon on the eighteenth of March.

"All done," Al announced proudly. "Shaggy over there has his eyes about to pop out, maybe you should put your shirt on."

Lady laughed at Sam as he rolled his eyes. For the most part Sam had looked at a portfolio of Al's art while Lady got her tattoo, but it had been hard not to look on with interest as Al worked. He knew Lady wasn't shy and he'd seen her wearing less than a bra on a few occasions, but it was still awkward. Even though it didn't do anything for him. He couldn't handle the jabs Dean would take at him if seeing Lady in a bra did do anything for him. The verbal jabs and possibly the literal ones.

After the job was done Lady said goodbye to Al. Maybe she'd talk to her again in the future, or maybe not. Al had been given a harsh childhood and was being blessed by a successful adulthood. Lady didn't want to ruin it.

Dean drove them back to the motel. Sam went into his room, and Dean and Lady retreated into their own. "You're quiet," she said, craning her neck to try and see the new tattoo in the mirror.

"Just thinking," he said, shrugging out of his jacket. "You didn't have it easy."

She smiled, "You think while I was out here it was all rainbows and puppies? You think I could do what I do if I had been pampered my whole life?"

"No, I mean, makes complete sense," Dean said. He had been trying to picture Lady as a street kid all day, but couldn't. He had seen Lady covered in dirt and blood, ratty jeans and with bed-head. But he knew she preferred to look her best. Manicured nails and painted toe-nails, high-heels and designer jeans. He'd only known her as the witch-hunter addicted to hot pockets and expensive shoes, and as hard as he tried he couldn't imagine her sleeping in an alley. He could believe that even at fifteen she was charming enough to weasel her way into motels and survive off of handouts and hustling. But he was bothered at the dangers he'd heard her face and others that hadn't been mentioned that he knew were out there. "You know what really kills me?" he asked, one hand on her waist and the other slipping through her hair.

"I bet bullets," Lady smirked.

He covered that smirk with his mouth. "That back then, I should have met you," he said looking into her eyes. "How many times my dad ditched me and Sam to check on you, the times you were at Bobby's just days before or after we had been there." Before he had always found it strange that they had never met until they had, but he had discovered after his father's death that there were a lot of contacts he had never known of that existed in the hunting circles. But now he was confessing, almost at least, that he wished they had known each other before. How much more work could they have done together? He would have been there for her, helping her along.

Lady grimaced a bit, "Yeah, you know, you probably wouldn't have liked me back then."

"Why not?" he asked, sounding amused.

"I was dying," Lady reminded him, sobering him immediately. "I'm not the same person I was last year, and pretty far from the person I was two or three years ago."

Dean thought about that and nodded. He wasn't the same person he was a year ago, either. Maybe they had missed out on several years of knowing each other, but he knew a year ago all he had been looking for was a brief encounter of the naked kind. "Yeah. I rather like this version of you," he said. Alive and thriving, and fighting to keep it that way. But even when she had been cursed he couldn't deny that there had been feelings. He gave her a brief kiss. "Just, one thing I don't get."

"What?"

"Al obviously has a crush on you," he said.

She grinned, "Jealous?"

Dean shook his head. He wasn't. He wasn't sure if he should be, either, the idea of it was sort of a turn on. "I'm just thinking. You got someone who is rich, has the hots for you, and you could kick their current girlfriend's ass. Why not go for it?"

"Dean, I'm not gay," Lady said in a serious tone. "Not even a little bit."

"Not even a little?" he asked, almost hopeful.

"The tiniest bit that if you pranced around in my bra and panties I'd probably enjoy it, but that's it," she said.

He looked thoughtful for a moment then shook his head, "Not happening."

She grinned and wrapped her arms around his neck, "I bet I could get you to do that."

"No, you can't," he grinned back. "You know I still have more questions…about all of that. You aren't going to let me ask them, are you?" He looked at her seriously, reading her face the best he could. He respected that Lady had issues in her past, and if he was honest maybe he didn't want to know about them. She had given him and Sam a glimpse into a piece of her past, and he knew there was so much more than the few stories Al had shared with them.

As much as she was willing to share with Dean, she knew his questions were going to be about the time Lady and Donny had spent with Ananda. The time Al hadn't known about and that Lady didn't talk about. She could talk about it, but he didn't want to hear about it. Not really, at least. "Save it for another time," she said, pressing her lips to his for a kiss. He moved to take them a step toward the waiting bed but she stopped him, "I want to show you something."

"I'm watching," he said, his eyes lighting up.

"Not here," she said. "I sort of have this thing I do, every time I come to Vegas. I usually do it alone, but since you made the side trip to see me maybe you'd like to come with."

"What is it?" he asked suspiciously.

"It'll only take…ten minutes," she said. "Well, fifteen to get there. If you don't like it you can wait in the car."

"Can it wait?" he asked, his mouth going to her neck.

She made a happy sound but said, "No. The sun is down, have to do it now."

"Okay," he said reluctantly, grabbing his jacket and following Lady out.

Dean drove as Lady gave directions, still not saying where it was they were going. After about fifteen minutes of driving she instructed him to pull over by a chain-link fence that was around a water tower.

"You are joking, right?" he asked as they got out of the car. "You come to visit a water tower?"

Lady leaned against the car, "My first night in Vegas, this is where I slept. Not on the ground, either. And anytime I had a little more trouble than I could handle I always snuck up here. No one was crazy enough to follow me. Let's go."

Lady's tennis shoes didn't match her skirt, but she was smart enough to know heels wouldn't have worked to climb the fence. Dean wasn't far behind. Lady grabbed the first rung of the ladder and Dean grabbed her hand, "This might be a ritual to leave behind, Lady," he said.

"Not scared, are you?" she asked.

"No. This is just stupid," he said. She changed her face, looking hurt and nearly pouting. "Doesn't work. I can tell when you are faking."

"Give me two minutes," she said, and began climbing.

Dean stood at the bottom of the ladder, shaking his head. He was content to give her the few minutes of nostalgia she wanted and go back to the motel. And then something fell lightly on his head. He jerked and grabbed it quickly, and found it was a pair of black lace panties. He looked up, Lady was only five or six feet above him giving him a wicked grin. "Hold onto those for me, will you?" she asked, giggling as she began to climb again.

Dean put the underwear in his pocket and let out his own chuckle, "You are so naughty," he said as he began to climb up after her.

The water tower was at least eighty feet high. Halfway up gravity seemed to be pulling at him more strongly. Lady wasn't too far ahead of him and feeling playful she slipped her legs through a rung in the ladder and leaned back. Her legs anchored her so she hung upside down, her long hair falling on Dean before he realized what she was doing. "You doing okay? Not afraid of heights, right?" she asked with a grin.

Dean laughed and took another step up so he could kiss her. His hands were white-knuckles as they held onto the ladder, but his heart was racing with the excitement and bit of danger.

Lady swung herself back up and continued on her way to the top. At the top there was a walkway that went around the reservoir that held the water and a sturdy railing. She was laughing when Dean reached the top. "Check this out," she said.

He looked at where she was pointing. In black marker there were two signatures stating 'Lady was here', one from 2006 and another from 2005. "They repaint it every few years. Too bad. But the only year I've missed since '96 was '01. I was actually in Vegas twice that year but I just didn't make it up here." She pulled a marker out of her jacket and began to write her 2007 signature.

Dean turned and took in the view. His hands grabbed the railing and tested its strength, feeling secure he leaned against it and looked out at the lights of the city. The tower was far enough from the Las Vegas strip that it wasn't blinded by the lights, but they were on full display. The dimmer streetlights of the surrounding area looked like tiny stars in the distance.

"Pretty cool, right?" Lady asked, leaning against the railing with him. Ten years ago the city had taken her breath away. Massive, full of life and excitement and money. Screw the stars in the sky, the lights of the Las Vegas strip had them beat.

"Yeah," Dean agreed, moving to stand behind her and wrapping and both his arms around her waist. "How many other guys did you taunt into bringing up here?"

Lady laughed, "None," she said. "Well, I tried twice. They chickened out before making it twenty feet."

"I got to ask something," he said. "I get that you can afford to be a little reckless and crazy, considering you can see things. But back then you couldn't. Were you really always like this?"

"I'm worse now," she admitted. "Well, in some cases I'm better. I mean, when I was fifteen I didn't even consider the future. I guess I still don't. Let's just go with yes. Things have changed, I'm pretty much the same…but different. As different as…"

Lady went quiet as Dean reached around to turn her face to his as he leaned forward to kiss her. She turned slowly in his arms, returning the kiss that he had started just to shut her up. When the kiss stopped she looked at him. The lights of the city behind her reflected in his eyes. The city that she had become entranced with over ten years ago reflected in the eyes that had struck her as gorgeous just a year ago. No matter how long she lived, if it was only until June or another thirty years, she'd never lose the excitement she got over the ripple effects that life created. Something as small as picking the wrong pocket had sent her on a course that had her standing eighty feet on a narrow walkway with someone she adored. Someone that no matter how much she had used, abused and lied to in the beginning, still kept coming back.

Dean leaned down to continue the kiss, holding her firmly against him so that she could feel his growing desire. She let out a soft moan while letting her hands run over him while his tongue teased her mouth. She got his pants unbuttoned and he lifted her short skirt, letting his hands caress thighs and move over her firm rear. Lady swallowed and took a few breaths as his mouth moved down her neck before he turned her around. She held onto the railing, her breath coming in excited gasps as his hands gently caressed her while moving her hips to the right height while she looked out over the city. She felt his warm erection press against her and she pushed back, wanting to feel him inside her. His hands held her waist firmly as he entered her slowly, working his entire length in an inch at a time. Lady let out a breathy moan as he began pumping into her with a steady rhythm. The excitement from the day and the little bit of danger at their location had her experiencing pleasure with his touch that made her knees want to go weak.

Dean let out a deep moan as she tightened around him, her wetness sliding down the insides of her thighs and he couldn't help but go faster and pull her to him. His sound of pleasure and the more urgent movements had her climaxing again quickly. "Oh, Dean!" she cried out as she felt him getting close. She let out cry of passion as she came again, her hands white-knuckles on the railing holding on for their lives while she felt Dean's release vibrate inside her.

Dean pulled her from the edge of the walkway and held her against him, both of them breathing heavily. "Wow," Lady gasped, finally letting her knees go weak, knowing Dean would hold her up.

"Uh huh," he agreed.

She could feel his heart pounding against her back and tilted her head to kiss him. There were no words to express how happy she was he had made the trip to Vegas. That he was not only brave enough to share in some of her stranger pastimes but had added a new spin on them to make her cherish them for a long time.

Back at the motel she got into bed wearing a t-shirt and underwear, trying to keep from purring at the giddy feeling she still had and looking forward to the next few days that they could spare.

Lady was used to being woken up in the night. It was a nuisance but her extra-sight loved to warn her of horns honking and sirens blaring before her ears would normally hear it, and it liked to warn her loudly. It was a fair trade considering how many times it had saved her life.

But this time she wasn't woken up by the sounds of the city. She wasn't sure if Dean had shifted in his sleep or if it was a noise he was going to make in his sleep that pulled her back into consciousness. Normally Dean wasn't that bad of a bed partner. Once he fell asleep he didn't move much, and his snores were infrequent snorts that she had gotten used to. But the anxious sounding gasp wasn't normal, but this wasn't the first time she was being woken up by it. Lady reached across the bed and rested her arm across his bare chest just before he woke himself up with a startled gasp. She watched him quietly, his eyes wide open and she could feel his heart hammering away in his chest. He closed his eyes and sucked in a slow breath through his nose and let it out through his mouth trying to calm himself. She'd seen that reaction a few times before and knew he had just woken up from a nightmare.

"You know that garnet charm works…well, it's supposed to work like a charm," she said in a soft voice.

Dean's jaw flexed. He knew that the charm she had given him months ago seemed to work, but he had stopped using it a while ago. To be honest he'd been rather happy lately, and his dreams recently had been weird jumbles or lusty dreams of her. But the nightmares had returned, vibrant and full of fear.

Lady shifted and got her head on his shoulder and rubbed his chest gently, the only comfort she knew to give him until his heart calmed down and he could go back to sleep. He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and his other hand took hers as he worked on sorting out the nightmare while trying to forget it.

The nightmare had been a mess of fears that had recently been brought back. He had seen Sam heartbroken over having to kill Madison, the werewolf in San Francisco. Dean admittedly felt bad about it, Madison had been a sweet girl and he liked her if only because Sam had fallen for her. Sam had gotten a little sweet on a few girls over the past year and a half since Jessica died, but Madison had really drawn him in. There was a parallel between Madison and Sam that, no matter how hard he tried, Dean couldn't ignore. Madison had been ignorant of what she was, a werewolf. At heart she was a good woman, but the week leading up to the full moon she was a monster. And Sam was afraid of what might be inside him, something the demon wanted with him and the other psychics like him. Sam had it in his head that the more people he could save the closer he was to being saved himself. If Sam couldn't save Madison, what hope did he have for saving himself?

And Dean was scared to admit, where was the hope?

Not just for Sam, but both of them. His whole family. His father had sold his soul to save his life, he shouldn't even be alive right now but he was. His mother had been killed for what? They didn't know. Sam had fallen for a werewolf that he had been forced to shoot. And Dean tried, he had given it the good old college try, to feel some more empathy towards Madison. But he couldn't.

If he was honest with himself, he believed Madison was a monster. That she had known she was a werewolf or not didn't change things. She was a deadly and dangerous monster that couldn't be allowed to live. And he had let his brother kill her. He felt bad, but mostly for Sam. Not for her.

How twisted was his head that he couldn't see past that Madison was a werewolf? How screwed up did his father make him? His father that had died to save his life…now he was judging his father.

Dean got out of bed and went to the bathroom, splashing cold water on his face. Lady settled into his side of the bed, it felt warmer than where she had been laying. "Babe, you okay?" she asked quietly. Wishing she knew what to do. She saw if she asked what was wrong she'd only be met by silence, he didn't want to share his nightmare. But he didn't seem to be shaking it off easily, either. The other times she'd seen that happen he'd either keep her awake for a quickie, or just move so they could spoon before going back to sleep. She appreciated Dean in his simplicity. Fix a bad mood with sex or some quiet snuggling, and she liked being able to provide those services. She knew how to provide those services. But not everything was always taken care of by physical actions. If Lady ever got to rule the world she'd make that a possibility, but until then she watched Dean carefully.

His answer to her was sitting at the small table in the motel room in his boxers and opening a bottle of whiskey. She was pretty sure that answer meant the same thing as a simple 'no' but Dean was never quick to admit weaknesses. Especially silly ones such as being rattled by a bad dream.

Lady had an idea of how nasty Dean's nightmares could be. Just watching him sleep sometimes made her feel grateful that she couldn't dream. With a sigh she got out of the warm bed and tugged the top blanket to wrap around herself as she took the other chair. "Want me to go board with Sam and Freddie in the other room?"

He actually had to think about it. He liked the idea of being alone and finishing off the bottle of whiskey himself before passing out on the nearest flat surface into a dreamless stupor. Lady could go a few doors down and be with Freddie. He thought she'd even prefer that, that dog was her living breathing teddy bear. He glanced at her, ready to tell her to do just that, but looked away at the strange look in her eyes. The only light in the motel was the lights filtering in from the curtains, but that was enough to see her worried look.

"I'm fine, just needed a nightcap," he said roughly. Although three inches of the whiskey was gone from the bottle and working on burning a hole through his stomach, that was a bit more than a nightcap. Another inch was gone and she was still just watching him with concern. "I'm not a very good person," he said. Before he had said it she already had several things pop into her head to prove him wrong about that. "My own father is dead because of me, and I don't have any way to…"

"You can't blame yourself for what John did," Lady said.

Dean nodded, he knew that but it didn't make it any easier. "I don't know what to do with Sammy. I don't know how to protect him, or save him if that's what I'm supposed to do. It's been six months and we are no closer than we were back then."

"Sam is going to be okay," Lady said quietly.

Dean let out a dry humorless laugh and took another gulp of the whiskey. "I don't have any idea how to help you."

"That's okay," Lady said.

"Yeah…that's the thing. I'm pretty damn useless. Sam doesn't need me. You don't. Dad never did, either."

Lady got up from her chair and sat on Dean's lap, wrapping the blanket around the two of them and resting her head on his shoulder. "Maybe I don't, but I want you around. I can't say the same for your family but Sam has proven if he wants to run off on his own he can and will. And he doesn't. And John chose to trade his life for yours instead of being without you." Dean closed his eyes and rested his head against hers. "So I'm not boarding the Dean-pity-train. What you do is far from easy, and if you want to drink yourself sick and brood some more that's just fine. When you are done I'm going to be right here," she bounced slightly on his lap. "No matter what happens, I'm always going to be a passenger of the Dean-Fan-Bus. I got the VIP pass so I get to board it whenever I want to. And every now and then the driver let's me use the loud-speaker thing and I sing karaoke. But whenever I try to do a country song they make me sit in the back of the bus until I say I learned my lesson."

Dean wasn't sure if it was the alcohol taking effect or because Lady was so damn silly, but he felt his lip twitching in a smile. "You are a nutcase," he muttered, resting his face in her hair.

"Yeah. But I'm also cute, so things even out," she said. She touched his face gently and raised her head to look at him. His eyes looked miserable and he couldn't look her in the eye for long. "Come on back to bed, mopey," she said, giving his cheek a kiss. Lady got off his lap and tugged him back to bed, getting the blankets over them and curling her arms around him so he couldn't escape.

Dean couldn't fall back to sleep. The nightmare had rattled him to his very core and the only reason he didn't go back to the whiskey was because Lady curled up next to him seemed to hold more comfort. Thinking about himself, the things he had done and how twisted he was, it made him sick to his stomach. Or maybe that was from guzzling half a bottle of whiskey in less than fifteen minutes. What it came down to was he didn't like himself, his life or what it had turned him into. And Lady, his nutty psychic witch of a girlfriend, liked him just fine. She kept telling him she wanted to be with him, and for all of her lies, he believed her. Lady wouldn't be there right now if she didn't want to be.

"This is working, right?" he asked. His body felt numb from the whiskey but his mind was still too clear for his liking.

"Can I get a hint? Is what working?" Lady asked in a tired voice. "Am I supposed to be doing something?"

"Never mind, I'm just drunk," he muttered softly, letting his hand move over the arm she had curled around his stomach. Her other arm she had tucked under and around his neck, it felt like a mix of possessive and protective and it felt nice with his current state of mind. What they had was working.

Lady tried to stay awake, waiting for enough time to pass to see if Dean felt like sharing. She had a feeling he wouldn't, but it seemed like the right thing to try. And she was even curious what his nightmare had been. But the night around them became silent and she was waking up to the sunshine before she realized she was falling asleep. Dean was untangling himself from her and the blankets, and sleepily she rolled onto the spot he had been laying in for it's warmth as he went to the bathroom. A glance at the clock next to the bed said it was only six. Before she could wake up enough to join him in the shower he was done and walking out of the bathroom. "Coffee?" he asked, digging in his bag for clothes.

"Sure," she said, tightening the blankets around her and closing her eyes.

The only reason Dean was out of bed was because once the whiskey went through his system it had left him with a massive headache and a bladder so full he couldn't stand it anymore. Three aspirin, coffee and something to eat was what he needed right then.

Lady couldn't fall back asleep, the city around her was waking up and becoming too noisy. She took her time getting up and in the shower. When she stepped out of the shower Dean had returned with a tray of coffee and a fast food bag. "Sam is getting ready to take Freddie out for a walk if you want to go with him," he said.

"I'd rather just hang out here this morning," she said. "Hangover?"

Dean frowned, and then nodded, "Yeah, a bit," he muttered, sipping at his coffee.

Lady helped herself to the fast food bag, grabbing a sausage and egg biscuit. She talked a bit, trying to gauge his mood and only saw that he was dealing with a splitting headache.

Sam returned with Freddie and Lady happily gave her loving dog some attention while Sam talked about a few strange happenings around the country that they could look into.

"I figure we can hang out here a few more days, I'll just find out what I can over the internet," Sam said.

"Yeah, sounds good," Dean said, finishing off his coffee.

"So, Lady…can I ask?" Sam looked at her.

"Ask what…oh, yeah I suppose," Lady said.

"What happened when you and Donny moved in with Ananda?" Sam asked.

Lady shrugged, "At first it was actually pretty cool. Donny was really into what Ananda showed us, was actually pretty good at the whole thing right off the bat. I wasn't very sharp at all, but…well, Ananda never picked me to be a recruit. She played nice for the most part, but…" Lady shook her head. "Eventually she separated me from Donny, I never saw him again. After a while I saw her bring in other people and animals for sacrifices, figured out that was what she had done with him."

"You were just a kid," Sam said, looking at her with sad eyes.

"Ananda didn't believe in discrimination," Lady said. "Sam, look at me. I'm alive, healthy and thriving. Kicking ass and taking names. I'm okay."

"It just makes me really want to get rid of this coven," Sam said. "When it gets close to June we'll be with you, every step of the way."

"Yeah, we will," Dean agreed.

Lady's face stretched into a grin, "Will you guys go get a pre-kill-warlock pedicure with me?"

Sam snorted a laugh first, and soon Dean couldn't fight off the smile.

After their laugh Sam asked, "So, she taught you things, right? Recruited you into the coven and had you using black magic."

Lady nodded, "Yeah. I didn't know any better, not an excuse, but I learned some pretty wicked things. The worst I ever did was chop up a cat."

"That didn't bother you?" Sam asked.

Lady tried to think back to what she had thought about it, and slowly she shook her head. "For some reason it didn't. I don't know if Ananda was just numbing my mind, or if I really did just get a kick out of the power. Or if I really just hated cats that much."

"She had to be screwing with your head. You wouldn't have done something like that," Dean said.

Lady made a face, "I dunno. I know I wouldn't do anything like that now. If only out of spite of that two-faced witch. I mean, god, the things I've learned since then make what she taught me look like a child's game."

"Dad had a theory on witchcraft," Sam said. "Like it was as addictive as drugs, something you could never shake."

"That's not a theory, it's true," Lady said. "Well, mostly true. Getting drunk a few times doesn't make you an alcoholic. But the thing is, when you know the possibilities there is temptation."

"Are you ever tempted to use it?" Sam asked.

"Using black magic isn't something I think about. The risks and the costs of it are just too much. I think about it almost all the time, but that's sort of my job. But I don't really think about myself using it. In the end, black magic isn't beneficial. Not even to the user. To be honest, if Ananda had decided to keep me alive as an actual recruit, I probably would have worked up to it. I didn't know any better. I had just turned sixteen, all alone, the whole thing was pretty exciting. So…in a way being nearly sacrificed was a good thing." Lady smiled at the brothers, ready to end her trip down memory lane. "So, you guys have anything you want to do? See a magic show, a concert?"

Sam shook his head, "Not really." All Sam wanted to do was get back to work, find a case to take his mind off of killing the werewolf Madison, but he was there because Dean needed to spend some time with Lady.

Lady looked a little put out and Dean wasn't offering any suggestions. "You guys want to see me rob a casino at the craps table?" She asked, raising her eyebrows hopefully.

Dean rubbed his forehead, "I got this killer headache. You two go."

Lady kept the smile on her face, "Let me change my clothes, I'll meet you outside, Sam," she said. Once Sam was out of the room she let her smile fade, "Everything okay?"

Dean nodded, "Yeah. Go, have some fun."

"Okay. Here is the deal. I'd rather stay here and hang out with you. Or go out and do something with all of us. If all this is really just a hangover and you need to sleep it off, I'm happy to get out of your hair so you can do that. If it's anything else…can you give me a hint?"

Dean smiled a bit, "I really just need to sleep it off. I get it, I was…weird, last night. Just forget it, it was nothing."

Lady returned his smile, "Okay. We'll be back in a few hours."

Lady and Freddie joined Sam outside, and instead of going to the casino they took a long walk around the city. Lady pointed out some sights she had known as a kid, talked about her works progress and whatever else came to mind.

Sam was a comfortable person to be around. Non-judgmental, like his brother, but he was quite a bit different than Dean. Maybe it was because he had been the baby of the family, or the few years he lived on his own having a normal life, but Sam had an unusual amount of compassion and actually expressed it. Lady had a hard time giving out compassion. In her mind compassion was something soft and unprotected, far too easy for people to sucker-punch when she was looking the other way. She wondered how Sam managed it. She was pretty sure it wasn't fake when it came from him. One day maybe she'd ask him how he could care so much for people he barely knew, and kept his sanity. She had trouble just caring about a select group of people.

They returned to the motel around noon and Lady asked Sam to keep Freddie. She would have rather had her dog with her, but she had been able to spend the past few weeks with Freddie and she only had so many days with Dean. She found Dean lounging on the bed watching TV. "Hey, you feel better?" she asked, pulling her shoes off.

"Yeah, got a few hours of sleep," he said. She bounced onto the bed and he smiled, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling him to her for a kiss. "Make any money?"

"No, we just walked. Sam got a few offers when we stopped on street corners, but they didn't offer enough money. I say Sam is worth at least a dollar a pound." She glanced around the room. The whiskey was on the table, it didn't appear to have been emptied any more than it had the night before. Dean's eyes looked alert, but he still seemed tense. "I'll try to pimp him out at night, that's when the high rollers are cruising around."

"Did you remember to pack your pimp hat?" Dean joked.

"Damn it! I knew I forgot something," Lady rolled her eyes and let out a short laugh. For a few minutes she quietly watched Dean flip through the channels. She was aching to snatch the remote from his hand but something bigger was scratching in her head. "Okay. I have to know."

"What?" he looked confused.

"What your nightmare was about," she said. "I hate to bring it up now, after you are finally getting over it. But I'm curious."

Dean rolled his eyes, "It's nothing."

"Then tell me," she said. "Come on. I had to trade in dreams for visions, I don't understand how something in your head can bother you so much."

Dean looked at her for a while and then shut the television off. "Just a mess of…I can't even remember most of it. But pretty much everyone I care about ended up dead, and I'm there. Can't do anything, just there and alone. Considering what we do, who's to say that isn't going to be the case?"

Lady sat back and thought about it. Well, that would be a very miserable dream to have. How could someone's mind betray them like that? Take all their worst fears and make them play out in their head. She tried it in her own head, a mess of mutilated corpses. It must not be the same because while it didn't make her happy it didn't bum her out, either. It wasn't real. "Oh," she said. "That sucks."

"Yeah," Dean muttered, he could tell that she didn't understand at all.

Before he could get out of bed she rolled on top of him, "So I sort of get it. I'm sorry. If you want Maxine has a lot of dream remedies. I can get her to help."

"I'm good," he said, it was a lie.

"I'm going to anyway," she said with a smile. "If you answer me one question, I promise I'll never bring this up again."

"What's the question?" he asked suspiciously. He wasn't up for reliving the nightmare, he was just relieved to have the sun shining and know that it hadn't been real.

"Do you ever have sex dreams?" Lady asked with wide eyes. He couldn't help it, he burst out laughing. Lady was right on top of him and leaned back as if she was offended, "Why is that funny?"

Dean worked on settling his laughter, "It's funny because that is a bit off topic, Lady."

"We're talking about dreams, it's perfectly on topic," she argued. "Dean, I can't dream. I'm just curious."

He grinned as he wrapped an arm around her, "I have some good dreams at times," he admitted.

"That's not really fair," Lady said, slipping out of his arm and moving to the other side of the bed. "So, you like…can sort of have sex with anyone you want to while you are asleep."

Dean had never thought of it like that. Dreams were nothing like the real thing and often left him feeling frustrated more than anything else. He moved closer to her and put an arm on her stomach while giving her a short kiss, "Is that jealousy I hear?" he teased.

"Stop it, I'm thinking," she said. She was actually tempted to call Maxine and ask her about dreams now. Something she had never cared much about was suddenly a fascination in her mind. Native American's had several dream legends, and Maxine probably knew most of them. And if she was honest with herself, the thought of Dean having dreams about someone else actually did peeve her a bit. He was the one who wanted to be exclusive, before him she had understood what that meant but had never cared. Suddenly she cared a whole lot. What if his dreams had some other woman, maybe even a damn blonde, stealing the show?

"Okay, you can think," he said, his mouth going to her neck as his hand rubbed up and down her side gently. "And I'll show you what I did to you in the last sex dream I had."

Lady's mind shut down for a moment. Dean was kissing down her front through the fabric of her shirt while his hand moved down her leg. "That's really not fair," she breathed as he moved her shirt up enough to kiss her bare stomach. "Distracting me isn't going to work." It was the worst lie she had ever told, Dean knew how easy it was to distract her and right then he was doing a damn good job of it.

His mouth moved slowly, her skin touched by his lips before being gently licked and sucked, and then the same kiss was repeated in a new spot. Slowly her shirt kept being raised until she pulled it off along with her bra to give him complete access. He made a trail of wet kisses to her breasts, taking his turn with each one. Lady closed her eyes as his mouth covered a sensitive nipple and gave it a gentle suck followed by several flicks of his tongue. Unable to take it she pulled him up to her mouth, holding him there as she rubbed her legs against his.

Dean got her jeans unbuttoned and leaned back to pull them off. He got out of his shirt and Lady began rubbing her smooth legs against his bare torso. His hands moved over her legs, caressing them gently as he kissed each of her inner thighs before parting her moist lips with his tongue. Lady let out soft moans and arched her back at the hot pleasure that ran up her spine. "Oh!" she moaned as she felt his fingers inside her while his mouth kissed the sensitive flesh with a skillful tongue. Her hands clutched at the sheets as he sent her over the edge and held her there until she was crying out in pleasure.

Dean slowly kissed back up her body as she breathed heavily. Weakly her hands moved over his arms and back, her eyes meeting his for a brief moment before he put his mouth over hers. She could taste herself on his tongue as they kissed deeply, her body still trembling.

Pressing her thigh against the front of his jeans she could feel his own desire and quickly pulled open the button of his jeans. Dean took his time getting out of his jeans, slowly kissing her and not giving into her inviting eagerness. There was no rush.

She pulled a moan from Dean as he entered her slick core. His hips rotated, pushing deep into her and letting his head drop to her chest to lick and kiss the skin there before taking her mouth again. Lady held onto him tightly, breathing heavily and barely able to keep up. Her eyes closed as he breathed her name in her ear, her hands moving down his back to feel the flexing muscles. His speed increased and she arched her back while her pleasure spiked, letting out soft whimpers of ecstasy that he soon joined her with.

Dean moved from between her legs but kept his arms wrapped around her and rested his head on her chest. Her fingers moved through his hair gently as her heart slowed. "I'm suddenly jealous of your dreams," she said after a few moments.

"They aren't always bad," he said quietly, and then smirked. "In them you usually have bigger boobs."

Lady clenched her jaw for a few moments, "You know what, I'm just going to let you have that. I shouldn't, but you deserve one." She let out a breath as a delightful shiver of an aftershock coursed through her body. "Maybe two."

He laughed with her and shifted to a more comfortable position and covered them with the blankets. Lady appeared cozy enough to take a nap but she reached off the bed for a grocery bag of snacks and pawed through it until she decided on a bag of M & Ms.

Lady smiled as Dean wrapped an arm around her to press her closer to him as she flipped through the channels on the TV. For some insane reason, what they had was working. He'd gotten a closer glimpse at her life, a life she was more ashamed of than the one she led now, and things weren't any different between them. Her past and secrets were shedding like layers of skin. Just a few months ago that had terrified her, but she was feeling incredible.

The next few days in Vegas with the Winchesters were very enjoyable. Originally she had to go there because of her work, but it did feel like a bit of a vacation. And over the past few months, with how hard all of them had been working on their respective jobs, they all deserved it. But they all had to get back to work. With their vacation over Sam and Dean went to look into a haunting in California, while Lady and Freddie returned to North Dakota.

**A/N** – _Song for this chapter:_

_Rock 'n Roll Heart, by Eric Clapton_


	50. North Dakota, March 2007

**March 17, 2007. New Town, North Dakota**

Since getting the sigils tattooed on her back Lady felt secure in her ability to handle Garrett's ritual. She still needed to complete her own binding ritual, but she didn't feel pressed for time. There were still unknown elements, but whatever he wanted to use her for he wouldn't get. Just knowing that was satisfying. The last new moon of spring was going to fall on June fifteenth, which meant she had just under three months. Time had seemed to go by fast since Max had died, and she knew the days would only go by faster as the time drew near. But right now she was just happy to have a handle on the situation, and excited because Sam and Dean were on their way. The new moon was tomorrow night and they wanted to make the trip to help her with her own binding ritual her and Maxine were going to complete.

A few times a month wasn't nearly often enough to see them. Even though she spoke to Dean every few days, and Sam probably once a week. So far there were no solid future plans, at least none vocalized. She'd been trying to keep herself from thinking of them, but she couldn't help it. In three months this would be over. Garrett would be dead, and if any coven members were still around she didn't see how they could be much of a threat without their warlock leader. There weren't many options for her after it was done. While her knowledge base was huge, it was mostly centered on witchcraft which wasn't that popular. There were other pagan threats if she wanted to chase after them that she could probably handle. First on her agenda was do what she had promised Dean, make sure things were different. What they had now was working, but it wasn't enough for either of them. Maybe things wouldn't work out between them if they were always together, but she didn't think they could go on forever being separated for weeks at a time. And she wanted to be with him. She'd help him and Sam, if they wanted her to. But she already decided she needed her own car. Sharing the backseat of the Impala with Freddie was not going to happen, the dog deserved his own backseat. And so far Mason had been more than lenient in her putting thousands of miles on his truck, but she couldn't survive on his generosity forever.

She still had her promise to Ellen. Jo had been keeping in touch but mostly because she wanted to know how Lady was coming along in her own hunt for Garrett. Lady wasn't sure if Jo was now hunting alone, with a new partner, or if she was just waiting on standby for Lady to call her for help. When Garrett was done maybe Jo and her would partner up again.

And there was the help that Maxine wanted. Lady could probably fill her time just with aiding Maxine while she learned the ropes of handling Max's old duties. Maybe even adding a modern touch to them. There was a lot that Lady could learn from Maxine, and vice versa.

She wondered how she had gotten her fingers in so many pies. Commitments that she had made without thinking twice, and they weren't just going away. She had to keep in mind that she planned on living several more years, she couldn't just say she'd do something with the plan of dying before its conclusion anymore. And people thought death was inconvenient, living was a whole lot harder than dying. Hell of a lot more fun too, though.

Lady was working with the twins Carrie and Erin to decorate for St. Patrick's Day. Just some green balloons and streamers while the lime flavored jell-o shots chilled. It was officially spring break and they expected a large group at the bar that evening.

Sam and Dean arrived earlier than expected. Mason pointed them to the currently closed bar where high-pitched laughter could be heard from the lobby.

"Sam!" Lady said in an unnaturally high voice, running up and jumping into his arms for a hug. "Mm, Dean," she said, changing brothers and giving Dean a long kiss. "You guys are early."

Dean looked at her and around the bar, "Have you been huffing helium?"

"Uh huh!" she said brightly, her voice beginning to change back to normal. "I thought you guys wouldn't be here until later tonight."

Sam shrugged, "Once we got into the state Dean didn't slow down. I'm glad we're here. He's been a real bitch lately."

"Shut up," Dean said, leaning down to kiss his girl again. He finished it with a tight hug and whispered in her ear, "You better be ready for a long night."

Lady bit her lip and met the naughty glint in his eyes with one of her own. "I need to finish helping these guys out. Why don't you guys talk to Mason, he'll get you the keys to your rooms. When you are ready come back down, we'll get something to eat. Just behave yourselves," she said quickly and gave them each a pointed look.

Lady had set some strict rules for Sam and Dean when they were visiting New Town. The first was to not use any stolen credit cards. That wasn't a problem because she was able to get them a free hotel room. Second was not to hustle, their main source of cash income. New Town wasn't very large, and she knew many of the residents by name. Third was to in general behave themselves. They had taken extra time after their last hunt in Idaho to make sure nothing and no one was following them, extra precautions to make sure they had covered their trail. Fourth was an unspoken rule that Dean and Sam had, which was to be as polite as possible to the Mason's and their family considering how generously they assisted Lady.

Dean followed Sam back into the hotel lobby, and Mason came out from his office to greet them. "How have you been, boys?" Mason asked as he grabbed a pair of key cards and began to code them for the correct rooms.

"Not bad," Sam said. "How's Greta?"

"She's good," Mason said. "You boys should have been around for the holidays. Greta is the leading cause of diabetes in this area."

"We're sorry we missed that," Dean chuckled.

"You should come out to the house for dinner tomorrow," Mason said. "Derek and his girlfriend will be there."

"No kidding? Derek has a girlfriend?" Dean looked surprised and impressed.

Mason smiled proudly, "Yeah. And he even convinced her to give up spring break in Florida to come here so she could meet us."

"Sounds serious," Sam said, taking his keycard when Mason held it out.

"Wish I wasn't stuck doing this night shift, I'm looking forward to meeting her," Mason said.

"You are the manager, get someone else to do it," Dean said.

Mason nodded, "True, but good help is hard to find. Normally Lady would take the shift, but she respectfully declined. Told me to bite her, in fact."

Dean laughed, "Yeah, sorry, me and her have plans," he said as he took his own keycard. "Thanks, Mason."

"Uh, hey, Mason?" Sam asked, leaning against the counter. He pointed at a framed picture on the wall behind the counter. It was of a dusty old town, taken in black and white. "What is that? Is that New Town?"

Mason shook his head, "No, that's Van Hook. About sixty years ago, when the dam was finished, it was flooded. Van Hook was abandoned and became part of the lake, and New Town was created. There is a legend that if you stand at the cliff behind my house at the right time of the day you can still see the town."

"Is that true?" Sam asked.

"No," Mason smiled. "But it makes for a good legend, doesn't it?"

Sam returned the smile, "Yeah, it does. Thanks, Mason."

Sam's room was on the second floor, and Dean's was on the third floor at the end of the hallway. He opened the door and felt around on the wall for the light switch. Once the room was illuminated he couldn't help but grin. King sized bed, mini-bar, large screen TV. He wasn't leaving this room unless it started on fire, and once Lady finished working and joined him that just might happen. The perks of having a girlfriend with access to free hotel rooms paid off.

Dean liked being able to go to the same place more than once. So often it was dangerous to return to a town, he and Sam often left messes and a lot of questions, occasionally dead bodies. But in New Town he knew which station to tune the radio to, he even remembered some TV channels, small things he never thought about but found comforting in their familiarity. And the added protection there, that it was a safe haven protected by an ancient medicine woman, or her much younger and more pleasant great-great-great granddaughter, it was safe and comfortable.

Dean kicked off his boots and went into the bathroom, a new grin stretching across his face as he tried to decide between a shower or a soak in the whirlpool bathtub. He settled for a quick shower, the bathtub seemed like it would be more fun when Lady could join him.

When Sam and Dean returned downstairs Lady and the twins were doing their best Alvin and the Chipmunks impression after sucking in helium by singing 'Witch Doctor' between fits of laughter and dancing, all the while trying to convince Mason to join in on the low parts.

"You're such a killjoy, Dad!" Erin said in her helium-high voice.

"Totally," Carrie agreed.

Mason looked at his watch, "I have people already waiting for the bar to open. How much of this helium actually ended up in the balloons?"

"Hm, well, a few more huffs and I'll be floating to the ceiling," Lady admitted.

Mason smiled happily at the girls and rolled his eyes, "Wrap it up, girls."

"One more chorus?" Erin asked.

"Maybe later," Lady said as her voice began to go back to normal. "I'll see you two tomorrow."

"But Lady…" Carrie whined.

"But nothing," Lady whined back.

"You are going to miss meeting Nicole," Erin said. "Why don't you guys come to the airport with us? There is nothing fun to do here."

Normally Erin would be right. Lady would have preferred being out in the country with the Mason's and Freddie. But she was capable of having a _lot_ of fun with just Dean. Lady snorted a laugh, "Ah, so sweet and innocent. Are you sure you are almost eighteen?"

Maxine entered the bar, greeting her father and sisters before shaking the Winchester's hands. "Guess since they are here you won't be coming with to meet Derek's girlfriend?" Maxine looked at Lady.

"I will tomorrow," Lady said. "You guys need to give Derek more credit. He is a sweet guy, Nicole sounds like a good chick. Instead of expecting her to have a tail and lining up as if you are about to meet a sideshow freak you should be happy for him. Instead of planning on ways to embarrass him when you get home." Lady's eyes fell on Carrie and Erin.

"You gave us the idea for the…" Carrie began.

"Sshshh!" Lady hissed as she received a look from Mason. She gave Mason a cheeky grin that he rolled his eyes at.

"Okay," Maxine sighed. "But if she does have a tail?"

"Totally send me a picture," Lady said quietly.

Maxine took the twins and left, along with half her family, to pick Derek and his girlfriend Nicole up at the airport. His plane wouldn't land for a few more hours, but the airport was over an hour drive away.

"You boys want a beer?" Mason offered.

"Like you have to ask," Dean said, taking a seat at the empty bar.

"Lady?" Mason asked.

"Grab a can from my stash, will you?" Lady asked as she stepped on a stool and then onto the bar to hang some green streamers. Mason held up a large can of the energy drink Monster for her.

Mason looked at Sam and Dean and said with a voice that was almost a warning, "She's had at least five of those today."

"Only two. Carrie and Erin each stole one," Lady corrected. "Mace, will you turn off the ugly lights?"

"Ugly lights?" Sam asked as the bar went dim.

Dean chuckled, "Ugly lights. See, when they come on after a night of drinking the person you've been drinking with…suddenly doesn't look that good anymore."

Lady and Mason worked on putting green filters on the dim lights, finishing the decorations for the popular drinking holiday. Watching Lady work, actual work, was interesting. She was still goofing off, like she always did, but things still got done.

A few bartenders showed up to open the bar, and Lady led the brothers to the restaurant so they could eat. They barely sat at the table before one of the waitresses whispered something urgently in her ear and Lady got up to run into the back. Lady returned five minutes later and before they had ordered their dinner a maid put her hand on Lady's shoulder and Lady jumped back up to help them.

When Lady returned she was setting their plates down in front of them and taking a chance to catch her breath. "I'm sorry. The place is pretty short-staffed right now, I've been helping Mason out wherever he needs it."

"Anything we can do to help?" Sam asked.

She shook her head, "No, I got it covered." In all honestly, Lady rather enjoyed the attention and being needed. The staff at the Casino knew her as a jack of all trades, working everything from bartending to housekeeping when needed. That people came to her for help with mundane things or and extra hand made her happy.

As they ate Lady went over her plans for the next day. "Greta is having a big dinner tomorrow night, the whole family is going to be there. We are invited. I have to go. Well, I want to. I want to see Derek and meet his girlfriend. You guys don't have to, but I think I should make you. You know what, we'll just say we're all going," she flashed them a smile. "Maxine will help me out with the binding ritual at midnight, then whatever you guys want to do for however long you are here."

"Mason's whole family?" Sam asked. Sam had visited the Mason's house once, only meeting the twins but he had heard of other siblings.

"Whole family," Lady nodded. "As in children, grandchildren, uncles, cousins, nephews…whole family. Like, close to fifty people." She looked at Sam hopefully, "You'll come, right?" She gave him a slight pout.

"Uh, yeah, sounds fun," Sam said, feeling like a sucker when Lady burst into a grin.

Dean nodded, "The Masons are good people. And your family. Only right we hang out for a bit. Maybe work on learning all their names, seeing as I'll probably be here more often."

Lady smiled widely at that news. There were a lot of possibilities in her future, and she was looking forward to each and every one of them.

Lady went into the bar to help out until another waitress was available. The brothers got a table in the bar, relaxing and having a few beers while watching Lady work the crowded bar. She worked behind the bar mixing drinks, switched to serving, and a few times even acted as a bouncer leading a few rowdy guys outside so Mason could separate them.

"Can I ask you something?" Sam asked.

"What?" Dean asked.

"I've seen three guys cop a feel, and you haven't twitched once to butt heads," Sam said.

Dean smiled a bit, "I'm not a jealous guy."

"Roy," was all Sam said.

"That was different," Dean said firmly, old anger rising up at the mention of Roy. "The idiot shot her, and I still want to return that favor." Dean shrugged, "I don't know, man. Lady and me, it just seems to work. I haven't seen her since the beginning of the month, I'm aching to get some time alone with her, but…things are just good."

Sam smiled and took a long drink of his beer. Dean and Lady shared a rather physical relationship, but they had been long-distance for nearly two weeks. Maybe there was more to their relationship than he was able to see.

Lady came to their table and set a pair of fresh beers down in front of them. "You guys doing okay?" she asked, running her hand through Dean's hair and leaning over to kiss him.

"Hey, Lady, why aren't I getting a kiss?" a man sitting at a nearby table asked.

"Because you don't tip as well," Lady said. The man appeared to think about it and offered Lady a few dollar bills. She took them with a smile and graciously kissed his cheek. "Thanks, Bill."

It was almost ten at night, some extra help had arrived which meant Lady felt free to leave. She sat down at their table with a beer, counting her tips for the evening while chatting happily.

They finished their drinks and made their way to their rooms. Sam said goodnight on the second floor, and as soon as Dean had Lady to himself in his hotel room he had her in his arms with her feet off the floor. Lady returned his kisses happily and held onto him as he lowered them on the bed.

Lady had never been good for serious conversation when it dealt with emotions. Ask her to explain a counter-curse or a summoning ritual and she could talk for hours. Ask her about shoes and she could talk for days. But expressing feelings for ten minutes was beyond her. She could tell Dean she missed him, but she couldn't explain why. Not even to herself. But she showed him, with every bit of energy she had, how much she missed him and she hoped she showed him how much she adored and loved him. And she felt it reciprocated with his own touches and movement of his body against hers. Her hands moved over his warm skin that covered firm muscles, occasionally marred by scars. Her fingers stroked his hair as he kissed her. His rough hands explored and moved her body to him.

"Mm, that was insane," Lady breathed. At least when they were only seeing each other a few times a month they made sure the sex wasn't boring. She moved to get her head on his shoulder and tucked the blankets around them. "Want to watch Family Guy?"

"After that? You can watch whatever you want," Dean said, handing her the television remote. He should have been tired, while he was he wasn't ready to drift off to sleep. After two weeks of just phone calls, some naughty ones at that, he felt like he was finally getting a chance to experience what he and Lady could have together. Lounging around, watching TV and eating in bed. Laughing at late-night cartoons before switching to late-night talk shows or a movie channel, idle conversation about what they had missed out on since they last spoke. "Is it always going to be like this?"

"No. This took some serious sucking up to Mason so I could have this suite," Lady said. "And normally there will be a dog in the room, at least in the same building. But I let him stay home. Well, made him stay home. He wanted to come with."

Dean laughed, "I can do without the added luxury. I put up with the dog. But I'm just wondering if it really is this easy." He had been concerned, after she'd picked him up after his nightmare, that she had seen the worst he had to offer and would give up. But her phone calls were steady, and she always sounded happy on the phone and sincere in wanting to see him again.

"Dean, we both know we are far from easy," Lady said, and she frowned as she thought about her words. "Well…let's face it, you are sort of a slut." Dean laughed with her. "Our lives aren't easy. This year alone I've dealt with a ghost, heeler, demonic possession, sex-fiends and Loki. And it's only the middle of March. But, in our down time, why can't it be like this? Well, not this exactly, seeing as we will have to get out of bed eventually. You always seem to forget, no matter how many times I get you naked you always have to put your clothes back on." Dean laughed again as she rambled on and gave her a slight squeeze. "And you know, getting you naked is a bit of a hazard. I've never met a man who carries three straight-razors, none of which he uses to shave his damn face." She teased, kissing the rough stubble on his chin before kissing his mouth. "So, the answer is no. Things aren't easy, but when we can I think we should at least try to make it easy on each other."

Dean thought about it, "Yeah, I like the sound of that."

Lady grinned, "But that doesn't mean I'm not going to be easy on you all the time. I sort of like putting you in your place, getting under your skin, teasing you, messing with you, all around getting you worked up."

Dean returned her grin, "I like the sound of that, too."

"So, how long are you and Sam going to stay?" Lady asked.

"Just a few days," Dean said. "It still isn't smart for us to stay one place for too long. And, uh, we have another job lined up in Arkansas."

"Yeah? What is it?" she asked.

"Sounds like a straight-up haunting," he said. "An old army-buddy of my dad's called, asking for help. He is a warden of a prison, and the ghost seems to be haunting the jail."

"Is it safe to hang around a jail? I mean, there will be a lot of cops there," she said.

He smiled, "I already have the perfect way to get in there. All Sam and I have to do…"

"What do you mean get arrested!" Lady snapped, not letting him finish.

Dean's eyes widened, he hadn't expected Lady to listen with anything but quiet interest and maybe a few professional questions. She actually looked upset. "Not that big of a deal." She stared at him with wide eyes, not even blinking. "It's not like we're going to stay in prison. We'll break out. We'll find a way to break out." Still she just looked at him seriously. "Don't worry about it," he said with a confident smile.

She didn't return his smile. How many times had she flashed the same kind of smile at Bobby and told him the same thing, and she suddenly felt like a bitch for doing so.

Dean's smile faded and he looked away, "I don't have a solid plan, yet. But I will."

She let out a breath and looked back at the television, "Okay."

"Okay?" Dean looked at her.

"Okay. What else can I say?"

Dean thought about it for a while, "Not much, I guess. You don't want me to help out my dad's friend?"

"No, I do," she said quickly, looking at him with wide eyes. "But I don't like the idea of you in jail." She licked her lips and propped herself on her elbows to look at him. "You and Sam get out of a lot of jams. I just want you to make sure you can get out of this one before you jump in."

"I will. We don't work like you," Dean said.

"Good," she said with a smile. "Because considering the crimes they can put on you, a lot of which you are guilty of...well, I'm not getting within spitting distance of a prison to come see you. Just a fair warning."

Dean grinned and pulled up onto his chest, "Not even going to come for conjugal visits?"

"I don't think my boyfriend being behind bars the rest of his good years is funny," Lady said. "Dean, I nearly have Garrett pinned down. I'm going to want your help when I figure it out. And even after that I want to be with you. If something goes wrong on your job...well, I'm not sure what the hell I'm going to do. I'm sort of expecting you to be around, available and not in handcuffs."

"We'll make sure we have a good plan," Dean promised solemnly. "And...if anything happens to me...well, like you said, you don't need me."

"Yeah, well, I've become slightly emotionally attached to you," she said. "It's sort of nice not being alone."

"Yeah, well, until things settle down we know we just have to go day by day," Dean said. "If anything happens to me you aren't going to be alone. You have the Mason's. And Freddie."

She nodded, "Yeah. And if anything happens to me you'll have Sam. Still, I don't like thinking about it." She let out a breath and stared at the ceiling. "Thinking about the future…I'm not used to it yet."

"What do you want to do once Garrett is done for?" Dean asked.

"Whatever I need to," Lady said. "Be wherever someone wants me or needs me."

Dean pulled her in for a long kiss and wrapped the blankets tighter around them, "So you'll be with me."

She smiled as she relaxed within his arms. Just happy to enjoy her reunion with Dean and being able to ignore the anxious thoughts of his upcoming job. If Dean's plan didn't work and he ended up stuck behind bars for years it'd hurt. She didn't want to be without him and just the thought scared her more than facing Garrett did. Dean's arm around her relaxed and his breathing changed as he fell into a deep sleep. "I love you," she mumbled tiredly before slipping into sleep herself.

Lady slept easily, her face was resting on Dean's chest and his arm was draped across her back. The normal sounds that would have woken her up didn't even make her stir. There was no safer place in the world for her than the reservation, and with Dean.

But in the middle of the night she sat up suddenly, still asleep at first but quickly waking up. She was still, confused and her eyes moving around the dark room. Dean snorted awake and wrapped an arm around her waist, "Where do you think you are going?"

"Quiet," she said.

He went quiet, and began looking around. He wanted to ask what was going on, but he waited.

"Dean, something's here," Lady said, jumping out of bed and grabbing her bag.

Dean got out of bed and grabbed his bag, pulling out his pistol, "What?" They both went still as an icy chill fell into the room. He reached into his bag and grabbed the salt. He knew the reservation had a serious spirit infestation, even knew that they were there to protect the town and surrounding area, but he sure as hell wasn't inviting them to spend the night with him.

"It's already in here," Lady said as he salted the door and moved to the window.

"And we'll get it out," he said, brandishing his sawed-off. "Rock salt."

They waited, but nothing came. But the icy chill never left. Lady was at the phone next to the bed before it rang. "Mason?"

"Lady, something is very wrong," he said. "Maxine called, I couldn't make anything out. I'm worried."

"I'll be down in a minute," she said, hanging up and grabbing her jeans off the floor.

Two minutes later Lady and Dean were in the lobby, talking to Mason. Sam reached them just as Mason explained what he knew. "Maxine called me, there was static on the line and she sounded panicked. A few moments after that the temperature dropped twenty degrees and I haven't been able to get a call out to her."

"Where did the temperature drop?" Sam asked.

"Everywhere," Mason said. "In here, outside. Everywhere."

"We have to get out there," Lady said. "Stay here," Lady ordered Mason.

"Greta..."

"Nothing will happen to them," Lady promised. "The spirits are here to protect you, they'll be there to protect her and your kids."

"You have an idea of what is going on?" Sam asked anxiously.

Lady nodded, "Spirits are out in full force tonight. Something is coming, or is already here. They are warning and protecting Max's territory."

"Protecting it from what?" Dean asked.

Lady shrugged, "Could be anything. I have a warlock after me, you guys have a demon after you. Most important thing is to get out to the country, Maxine will know more but we won't be able to reach her on the phone. Stupid EMF is screwing everything up."

Sam and Dean loaded their gear into the pick-up truck, and there was no choice but to let Lady drive. The roads in the country were snow covered, not all of them plowed. Between her knowledge of the area and her future-sight she was actually the best person to be driving. That didn't mean they liked it.

"Jesus Christ!" Dean snarled, grabbing onto the door handle with one hand and his seat belt with the other as the truck slammed through a snow drift.

"Oh god," Sam breathed, and Lady thought she heard him utter a prayer.

"This is nothing," she said brightly, trying to lighten the mood. "You should have been here the winter of '05. Ninety inches of snow that year. And…"

"How much longer?" Dean asked tensely.

"Not long," Lady said, letting out a breath. "We reach Mason's house, if Maxine isn't there I'll take a snowmobile to her house."

The drive to Mason's was a terror-inspiring hour and the Winchesters nearly jumped out of the truck once Lady stopped it. Lady didn't take offense to it, there wasn't time to. Out here the source of Max's power was stronger and there was the occasional glimpse of a spirit wandering around Mason's home. "Don't shoot them," Lady said as Dean prepared his sawed-off. "These are Max's."

"Lady!" Derek called from inside the house.

"Don't leave!" Maxine ordered her brother.

"I have to find Nicole!" Derek shouted back.

"Hey, hey!" Lady reached them. "Maxine, what is happening?"

Maxine looked sadly at Derek, and back to Lady, "I'm not sure," Maxine said, and Lady caught the lie. Maxine knew what was wrong, but she was hiding it from her family. "I'm trying to keep my family safe, they can't leave the house."

"I'm leaving! You can't make me stay!" Derek said forcefully.

Maxine shoved her little brother to keep him in the house, "You aren't leaving! Stay within the salt!"

"Lady! Please!" Derek pleaded with her. "I can't find Nicole. I woke up when this started, and she wasn't here."

"Nicole?" Lady questioned. "Your girlfriend?"

"Yes! Please, get this bitch to let me out of here so I can find her!" Derek begged.

"I'll find her," Lady promised him. "Just stay here."

"No! Let me out!" Derek shouted. Before Maxine could knock her brother back Sam had an arm around his chest. "Let me go!"

"Hey, calm down! Acting this way is only going to lead to someone getting hurt," Sam tried to talk sense into him.

"Sam, keep him back," Lady ordered. "Dean, can you stay here? Keep them safe?"

"Got it," Dean said.

"Derek, we'll be back with Nicole," Lady promised him. Freddie was sitting at the door, quiet with his tail down. "Stay here, Freddie. Come on, Maxine."

Lady followed Maxine, seeing footprints already in the snow leading up to the medicine wheel on the hill behind Mason's house. "What's going on?" Lady asked.

"It's bad," Maxine said, her voice trembling. "Nicole is dead. Something came here and killed her."

**A/N** – _Song for this chapter_

_Witch Doctor, by Alvin and the Chipmunks_


	51. ND Medicine Wheel, March 2007

**Early Morning March 18, 2007**

Lady and Maxine made their way up the snowy hill to the top where the medicine wheel was. The medicine wheel was clear of snow, and in the center there was a woman, face-down on the rocks. The earth had been scorched within the circle. The white rocks that formed the wheel were no longer white and brilliant, but dull and gray. Except for the rocks at the center, they were red from blood spray.

"What was she doing up here?" Lady asked, shining her flashlight over the body.

Maxine shook her head, "I don't know. I woke up when the spirits stirred. I came right here and found her…all I've done since is keep Derek and my family inside the house. I don't know what to do! Why did this happen? Who did this?"

"I still want to know _what_ happened." Lady frowned. "The circle seems wrong."

Maxine nodded, "It's been tainted by this death. Lady, I don't know what could have gained access to my land to do this."

Lady pulled some matches out of her pocket and lit one, the flame burned blue. Her mouth went dry. "The coven," Lady said. "Tammy!" Lady hissed and then began running down the hill back towards Mason's home.

Maxine was quickly behind her. "Lady?"

"Tammy is free!" Lady shouted back, running and sliding down the snowy hill until she reached the bottom and made her way to the house. "Greta! Dean!" Dean had the door open as Lady ran in. She jumped over the salt line and urged Maxine to run faster into the house. "All the windows and doors?"

"Salted," he said. "I don't care if they are friendly, I don't like them."

"All the candles orange?" Lady said, running from room to room.

"Yeah," Dean said. "What's wrong?"

"Tammy is free," Lady said. "Everyone accounted for?"

"Where is Nicole?" Derek asked anxiously.

Lady opened and closed her mouth, and then painfully said, "I'm sorry, Derek."

"What? Sorry for what? What happened?" Derek shouted. "What did you bring here, Lady!"

"Hey!" Sam said, keeping Derek back from lashing out.

"What did you do, Lady?" Derek shrieked.

"ENOUGH!" Maxine roared, making everyone go still while she trembled. "Lady did not bring this spirit here. Max did. And I am sorry I wasn't able to keep her contained. Right now we have to make sure everyone is safe. The phones aren't working. We have to warn Dad, and my brothers. My uncles. Everyone. We have to get into town."

"The protection is strongest here," Lady said. "Maxine, you don't need a phone. You have an army that is up and ready, willing to do everything."

"My only point of power has been defiled!" Maxine said with panic. "Purifying it will take a full moon cycle! And I'm not good enough to communicate with them without it."

"Maxine, that isn't the only point of power."

Maxine seemed to calm, and then she nodded. "You are right. Come on."

"Where are we going?" Sam asked.

"You two are staying here and keeping them safe. Tie Derek down if you have to, do not let him out of this house," Lady said. "Maxine and I will be back in an hour, we just have to cross the lake. There is a small island, Max used it for a quiet place to meditate."

"And Tammy?" Dean asked.

"She can't get past the salt. Circle the living room with it just in case, keep the candles burning. Just, please, don't leave them alone. If Tammy comes after me I can handle it."

Dean's jaw clenched and her eyes widened as he offered her his sawed-off shotgun. "Loaded with rock salt. Extra shells."

She shook her head, "If Tammy thinks she can come after me, she isn't getting the benefit of being salted."

"Humor me," Dean said.

Lady took the heavy shotgun and stuffed the extra shells into her jacket pocket. "I'll be back soon."

The lake was still covered in about a foot of ice, but recent warm weather had caused snow to melt and the lake was rising. A few cracks had appeared in the ice, and the ice creaked and groaned, but two women running across it didn't cause it to break. The island was about half a mile into the lake, and wasn't very large at all. If it had been big enough to put a house on Max probably would have lived there instead.

Lady had only been to the island once, three winters ago, to check on Max when she hadn't returned after three weeks. Max had been fine, but Lady had gotten a head-zap for interrupting her meditations. Since then Lady had no desire to explore the small island. Now she was desperate to.

There was another medicine wheel crafted with white rocks there, much smaller than the one behind Mason's house. Maxine stepped inside, and Lady shivered in the cold as Maxine spoke with the spirits. Maxine sent the strongest ones to her family to relay a message, and to hear if they were okay. And for the others to search for Tammy, see where she was.

"They say she left," Maxine said quietly, stepping out of the circle. "And they say she didn't murder Nicole."

"What? Nicole slit her own throat?" Lady asked doubtfully, and then went still. "Oh fuck me."

"What?" Maxine frowned.

Lady shook her head, "Just a really sick thought, I'm not going to share it until I know. Just…let's get back there."

"Wait," Maxine said quietly. "Lady, please, I'm not Max. You say things like I should know what you mean, but I don't. I'm so scared right now, and in the dark, please, just be straight with me."

"Okay," Lady said. "What if Nicole did slit her own throat? What if it wasn't a murder, but a sacrifice? A suicidal sacrifice?"

Maxine shook her head, "Nicole was Derek's girlfriend. He's been with her since Christmas."

Lady closed her eyes, "Right around the time Max died, right? I think I'm going to be sick."

"I'm not sure if I understand. What are you…"

"If I'm right, it means Derek got played," Lady said stiffly. "I don't know. When we get back I'll check the body."

"Hold on," Maxine said quietly, bending over to look through an old wooden chest that was several feet from the circle. "I haven't been here since Max died. I think she knew I'd need this place. It's like…like I can almost feel something is here."

"Think she left something for you?" Lady asked, anxious to get back to Mason's house and check on Greta. Not eager to see if her theory was correct, she'd hate to tell Derek he was shagging a witch. But something in her gut told her she was right. If Tammy hadn't killed Nicole, what else was there? She hated to admit it, but it was a rather clever plan. Max had hinted that she had problems with the coven before Lady had ever showed up, and was worried her area of power was coveted by them. If the coven got someone close to a member of her family to be invited in they could cause a lot of havoc. But still, why kill themselves on a point of power? Kill themselves without hurting the Masons?

"I'm not sure," Maxine said, pulling out strange instrument that appeared to be made of tarnished brass. "What is this?"

Lady stepped forward and shined her flashlight on it, "I think it's a witch compass. Supposed to help find witches, leads you in their direction. Like a magnet to them. Only works if you have a piece of them, though. That's old English lore, though. I didn't think Max would have anything like that."

"I remember this," Maxine said quietly. "When I was little she showed me this." Maxine sniffed slightly as she held onto it. "God, Lady, I'm not ready for this. I can't do this."

Lady put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed, it was all she could do. She had apologized several times already, the only other thing she could do was help Maxine while she transitioned into her role of power. There was a lot of work that needed to be done. Once again her time with Dean was being interrupted by work. And this time Mason's family was taking the worst hit from it. She couldn't wait until June, to finally have this finished. She hoped she could find a way to make Garrett suffer for this. "Come on, let's secure the area. Pack that up, let's take it back. Grab whatever you think you'll need. Once the sun is up I'll help you set up a ward to keep Tammy's spirit from returning."

Derek appeared to have calmed down and was curled up on the couch with his mother. Sam and Dean both looked anxious. "What's going on?" Dean asked quietly, not ready to set Derek off again.

"Tammy's spirit is gone," Lady said softly. "We might have another problem. I have to head back to the medicine wheel."

"Give me a few moments with my family," Maxine said.

"What is it?" Sam asked softly as Maxine wrapped her arms around her brother.

"Not here," Lady said. She watched painfully as Maxine tried to comfort her brothers tears, and turned away to leave the house.

"Babe, you going to tell us anything?" Dean asked, following her quickly.

She nodded, "It's bad."

"How bad?" Sam asked.

"Maxine is in there right now spelling her brother into a sleep," Lady said. "I don't know how bad this is, I have a bad feeling of how bad it is…I just need to get back to the medicine wheel to be sure."

Maxine came out of the house, looking at Lady with hard eyes before turning away. "They are sleeping. And safe. Come on, let's go. See what this is."

Lady knelt down to give Freddie a quick rub, "Stay here, buddy," she commanded quietly.

Dawn was almost on the horizon when they reached the defiled medicine wheel. Lady stepped in and rolled the dead body over, the growing light showed her the woman's face. Lady's lips parted in surprise. She had never met Nicole, she had been looking forward to it but this was the first time she was seeing her. And she recognized her immediately. "This is the fourth spirit Max's vision showed me. She's young, probably fresh out of recruitment and sent up here just to free Tammy," Lady said, bitter understanding filled her. "She was a witch."

"But why?" Maxine asked.

"Tammy has been here long enough to know secrets, just knowing Max was here and the power available is dangerous for Garrett to know. Tammy fled the instant she was free. Maybe she tried to get off a bit of revenge, but her first priority was going back to her master."

Maxine looked ill, "These medicine wheels work as crossroads. They allow spirits bound to the family access to move about. With it tainted like this almost anything can get in or out. I cannot hold back someone as powerful as Garrett," Maxine said in fear. "I couldn't even keep this witch out."

"Because she was invited," Lady said softly.

"Who would invite her?" Dean asked.

"This is Nicole," Lady answered. "Garrett found out about Max's family, sent her to wiggle into Derek's life and get her invited here. She probably killed herself happily for Garrett. Destroyed this point of power, set Tammy free."

Maxine looked furious, "I met her! I shook her hand, I hugged her! How could I not tell she was a witch?"

"Max knew all of this, right? Knew what was going to happen, never warned anyone. Just gave you cryptic crap half-hoping you'd come across the right answer, or the answer she wanted," Dean said. "Fucking witch!"

"Hey! We have a job to do," Lady said. "There is a lot to do. Since I'm standing in this job, let's do this first. Get the body wrapped up and on ice. Maxine, how do you want to handle the medicine wheel? Is there anything I can do to help?"

Maxine shook her head, "No, there isn't. Um...no...I just..."

"It's okay. Take your time," Lady said. Maxine turned around and walked down the hill several feet.

"You okay?" Dean asked from outside the circle. He didn't want to step inside, getting so close to the creepy magic made his skin crawl.

Lady knelt down and touched a finger to one of the red stones and rubbed to see if it could be cleaned, but no luck. "No, I'm not. These people let me into their lives, and now they are in danger. I wish that..." Lady paused, frowning and standing up.

"What is it?" Dean asked, reaching into his pocket as his EMF reader spiked again.

In front of Lady a spirit appeared, and it took less than a second to recognize the old woman. "Max," Lady said softly.

"Hello, Lady," Max said gently. As a spirit Max's eyes were dark orbs, instead of milky white. Her skin was smoother, her hair darker, and the mark of black magic on her right wrist was there. The mark she had taken from Lady.

"Max?" Maxine was running back up the hill eagerly.

Max turned to face her granddaughter, "You have failed miserably."

Maxine stopped outside of the circle, looking as if she had been slapped. "I…I'm doing all I can! Max, I don't know what I'm doing! Please, I need your guidance."

"I know," Max said. "But I am not strong, and I do not have much time. The new moon will peak tonight. You have everything you need to protect your power, find it before then and be prepared to use it."

"Tonight?" Maxine's eyes grew wide. "What happens tonight?"

Max turned to Lady, "It is time."

"Excuse me?" Lady's eyebrows shot up.

"Tonight is the night," Max said.

Lady shook her head, "No. You said I had until June."

"I said you would not see another summer here," Max corrected her. "I hope you have used your time wisely."

Lady let out a snort, and then her face fell. "No, I can't face Garrett tonight. I have my own work to do tonight." Her binding ritual wasn't complete. All she had were a few sigils tattooed into her back, which meant next to nothing without completing the ritual.

"Lady," Max said calmly, and reached her hands out to Lady, but Lady didn't reach to take them. "Please, listen to me. For once in your miserable short existence, listen instead of speaking. We live in dark times…"

"No! Screw this, I'll lock myself in a bomb shelter," Lady said. "I can't do this tonight. One, I have dinner plans. Two, I just barely got a plan together to disrupt the ritual and it isn't ready! I'm not fucking ready to die! You bitch! You screwed me over!"

"Listen," Max commanded, and Lady shuddered as ghostly hands grabbed hers. "We live in dark times, and you can command the power to destroy Garrett. You only need to understand his power is not a gift. Anyone can demand power, only a few can hold it, and it takes a rare person to command it."

"Max, please, for once in your life…" Lady paused, and then continued, "Well, you know what I mean. For once, talk straight. What are you telling me?"

"I'm telling you that you will find a way to kill Garrett," Max said. "I have seen it."

"Fine. Yay me. Am I going to survive it?" Lady asked. Max tightened her hold on Lady's hands. "Max…no, no! Let me go! NO!" Lady shrieked as she saw her future coming too quickly

"Lady?" Dean said anxiously, prepared to step into the circle.

Dean and Sam both jumped back as blue flames erupted from the center of the medicine wheel, exactly where Lady had been standing. They covered their eyes from the brilliant light. "No!" Sam shouted, recovering first and taking steps forward. The flames were flickering down, the bloodied stones in the middle were now black. Lady and Max were both gone.

"Lady!" Dean called, moving to take a step into the circle but Sam grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "What the hell happened?" Dean turned on Maxine.

Maxine's mouth opened and closed, "I don't know! I'm sorry, I don't know!"

"The blue flames. Garrett took her," Sam said.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious!" Dean snapped. "Took her where?"

"We can find out," Maxine said, earning the Winchester's full attention.

Maxine showed Sam and Dean the witch compass she had brought back from the island on the lake. Dean got what blood he could from the drained witch and tested it out. There were two pieces of brass that created an upside down V, and hanging from the point was a small piece of brass with a scoop to hold blood. "The blood will feed the compass," Maxine explained. "You may need to refill it. The farther you are the more it will need."

Dean looked at her seriously, "If you are dicking us around, and something happens to Lady, I'm coming back here."

Maxine looked offended and even hurt, "Lady has been my friend for many years. This compass works, it will track a spirit of a witch. If Nicole is supposed to be at the ritual tonight, it will lead you to her. And Lady."

"Dean, come on," Sam said, gathering up the instrument and pulling his brother back to the truck.

Freddie ran through the snow, barking and looking at Sam and Dean with a wagging tail. Dean looked at the silver charm bracelet hanging from his collar, and gave the dog a rough pat on the head, "C'mon, pal. Let's get her back."

**A/N** – _Song for this chapter:_

_Blaze of Glory, by Bon Jovi (get it, hehe. 'Blaze'…nvm)_


	52. Garrett's Ritual, March 2007

**Unknown Location, March 18, 2007**

Lady felt the scalding heat, and felt that she was moving, and felt like she was being smothered in a plastic bag choking for breath. There was nothing to see, just darkness that made it harder to hold onto consciousness.

Lady sucked in a ragged breath as bright blue flames were visible again, surrounding her and licking at her body. Her lungs burned from the breath she took, and the breath came out in a choked cry of pain as the flames vanished. Every nerve ending in her body was vibrating in pain. She should have been well-toasted, but as she curled her body inward to protect herself she saw her skin was only red like a bad sunburn. That still hurt like a bitch but she was able to be grateful that was it. For now.

"Hello, Lady," Garrett said, standing over her.

Lady let out a groan of pain, but couldn't uncurl herself. Her insides were trembling and she felt if she tried to move they'd fall apart. "What did you do to me?"

"A little travel through the ley lines," he said. "Much faster than driving, isn't it?" Lady couldn't even move to slap at his hands while he patted her down. The only thing she had with her was a knife and a flashlight, and he took them. "Oh, darling, forgive me, you are in pain." Garrett said gently. Something ice cold began to drip on her back. For an instant it felt like a godsend, and then it burned. For a while Lady held the scream behind clenched teeth but couldn't for long. "Sh, sh," he hushed her, putting a warm hand on her burning forehead. "Sleep," he said gently.

And she did.

When Lady came to her insides felt cold, but her skin still felt badly burned. She looked around slowly, trying to take in details. She was finally living Max's vision. A pentagram was on the ground, her hands were tied above her head and her feet were barely grazing the point of the star. A few candles were on the ground, but they were not lit. "Oh, fuck me," she groaned.

"This ritual doesn't call for it," Garrett said humorously. "But we have time if you want one last hurrah." Lady glared as he walked around the circle so she could see him. "Afraid I can't untie you, you understand."

Lady let out a breath and looked around. It appeared they were in an abandoned building of some sort. Old wood walls, a few holes that showed only darkness outside. Large, a few wooden beams that showed at one time it had more than just one room. Above them was no roof, and she could see spinning clouds and the occasional flash of lightening. "Nice place," her voice was weak. Already she was wondering how much time she had, knowing it couldn't be long. All she could do was get Garrett to chat for a while to kill time and maybe even buy her some time, while she figured out Max's cryptic crap on how she was going to kill the bastard.

"Thank you," he said, ignoring her sarcasm. "Your old medicine woman isn't the only one who knows how to keep a good secret place. Of course, her place wasn't really a secret. Just heavily fortified. I've known about Max for…fifty years? Yes, at least that long. I was branching out, and wandered into her territory. We had a nice chat." Lady watched him carefully. He was much older than fifty, even if he didn't appear to be a day over thirty. She wasn't sure how easy it would be to tell his lies from the truth, but she wasn't going to keep him from talking. "She was a very interesting woman. A bit crass, not very polite, but interesting. You know why I didn't kill her?" Lady arched an eyebrow to show she was interested. "Because she understood my purpose."

Lady rolled her eyes, "You have no purpose."

"Is it really so hard to believe that Max struck a deal with a warlock?" Garrett asked her. "A battle between Max and myself would have been long and bloody. It would have drained my resources, and would have killed off her family. I'm not sure which one of us would have won, to be honest, but it is the sort of battle where both lose. But there is a purpose to what I do, Lady. You are young, and I forgive your intolerance."

"Intolerance? You are a murderer," Lady said. "You twist magic and blood, take life to fuel yourself. Fine, I'm intolerant."

"You have a lot of energy, a lot of potential, and you could have used it," Garrett said calmly. "If there is no one to protect the ley lines, what do you think will get out? If no one tapped some of that power from them, what would happen? My methods, and the methods of my children, are harsh. But it must be done. The lines hold ancient power, older than me. Even older than Max. Possibly older than Adam and Eve. And for a long time I am the one who has commanded it." Garrett smiled, "You know, it takes a unique person to be able to draw power from a ley line. You've done it for years without even knowing it. It takes an even more unique person to survive traveling through one of the ley lines, and that was how I got you here. You know what you are?"

"I get it. I'm unique," Lady said stiffly.

"You are dangerous," Garrett corrected. "You are nothing more than a child, and you cannot comprehend your capabilities. You don't even know what happened to you, to cause them. You blame Ananda's ritual, the things she did to you. Your curse. You blame everything on what my coven did to you."

"Because they fucked me up," Lady said.

Garrett's lip twitched in a smile, "You were already screwed up in the head, Lady." Garrett stepped into the center of the circle, close enough that Lady could spit on him if she wanted to. She wanted to, but her mouth was too dry to manage it. "When Ananda died I thought about you. I looked over you, do you know that? I watched you escape from the hospital. I helped keep that quiet, I didn't want too many people searching for you. I wanted you, so badly, to return to us. I waited for you to tap into the power how Ananda showed you to, but you never did. It was my mistake that I let you go, that I let you be on your own hoping you would die. And then fascinated when you didn't. Does it bother you that all you ever had to do was show a glimmer of respect for me and I would have taken you under my wing? I would have taken care of you, like a father."

"It doesn't bother me," Lady said. "I chose what I wanted to be, and I never wanted a daddy."

"But you chose wrong!" Garrett said. "Lady, I could have given you everything. A home. A family. Safety. No pain. No fighting. No hanging onto a life that is so short it barely matters."

Lady licked her dry lips, "That is what is wrong with you. You've lived so long, you don't see people. Maybe we won't live past a century, but we actually live."

Garrett looked at her sadly, "See, that is where you are wrong again! Lady, you are not like them. You are like me. You've been touched by power. Touched by a goddess, and given power. Free power. And I would have shown you how to be great."

"I'm not like you," Lady said. "I don't need power to get off, you sick fuck. Six-pack of beer and a few winks usually gets me there. So blow me, you warlock dick-sucking mother-fucker! I'm not like you! So kill me or shut the hell up!" It wasn't smart or original, but when all else failed Lady could always come up with a few easy insults.

Garrett tilted his head as he watched her outburst, never flinching as she tried to kick at him. "I do have one question for you. Why, in the world, would such a lovely young woman who calls herself Lady, act like such a bitch?"

"I'm afraid my sense of humor is far too advanced for your crusty old ass," Lady snapped.

Garrett held up a hand and Lady went still, sucking in a final breath as her lungs seemed to squeeze in her chest. She let out a soft whine as he got closer to her. "For what it is worth, your death will restore the balance until the next black moon. I do not enjoy this, Lady, but you brought this on yourself."

Lady sucked in breaths as Garrett returned to the center. She was still breathless as he summoned his spirits. One by one they appeared.

Lady looked darkly at Nicole, her eyes wide and looking at Garrett with admiration. "Why'd you go after Derek?" Lady asked, her eyes moving to Garrett.

"He was isolated from his family, at risk," Garrett said. "It makes perfect sense, doesn't it?"

Derek was a lot of talk, but he had a big heart. That the witch had wiggled her way into his life only to taint his family's protection was going to hurt him for a long time. He'd probably fallen in love with her, and that sort of betrayal stayed with a person for a long time. Eventually Maxine would tell him how he had been used...Lady hoped Derek was able to move on after a burn like that. She hoped she managed to survive so she could try and help him. If it wasn't for her their family wouldn't have been pulled into this.

"Yeah, it does," Lady said quietly. "Without Max, and without their main point of power, the whole area is pretty defenseless."

"Yes," Garrett said. "After what you did I need their source of power. Things have worked out rather perfectly in my favor." Garrett looked at Tammy and Nicole, both looking at him with the admiration of lapdogs. Ian and the remaining witch Lady didn't know the name of looked as if they were forced to be in attendance, holding no admiration or respect for Garrett.

The balancing act. Two coven members that were unfaithful, two that were. And Lady who was the opposite of Garrett. The circle to contain the power, Garrett in the middle and the power within the lines. "This is a binding ritual," Lady muttered, her mind clicking as she saw small signs that Max's vision didn't show her. "But not to bind me."

Garrett looked thrilled, "You are very right."

"All I really am is a sacrifice," Lady said. Seeing the preparation and smelling a combination of incense she began to understand how it was going to work. Her work the past month hadn't prepared her properly. Even if she had managed to complete her binding ritual with Maxine it wouldn't have done any good. "You know, I sort of thought this was a binding ritual to put me under your charms. But you really are going to just kill me," Lady said softly, fear settling into her chest.

"Sort of sad, isn't it?" Garrett said with a smile.

"You know, people say I have a bit of an ego," Lady said. "Admittedly, I do. I have a series of complexes that I rather enjoy having, to be honest. But you, I mean…hell, I'd clap if I could."

Garrett grinned, "You are sharp, Lady! You've figured it out, haven't you? After all these years, you've figured it out."

Lady nodded, "Yeah. I thought it was impossible. All these years you haven't been worshiping Pagan deities. You've been binding them. Leeching off their power. How big of a dick do you have to be to think you can control a god?"

Garrett opened his arms, "It is easy, when you are one."

"A warlock with a god-complex, fuck," Lady let out a breath. "That's original. Real original." Lady looked away. Suddenly it made sense. Max's cryptic hints and Garrett's previous rant. The power he leeched from was furious, furious because it was chained to his will. And her disruption of the Black Moon in November had been a disruption of a nation-wide binding ritual to keep it chained up. Garrett was going to spare no drop of her blood to keep his leashed god in check.

Problem was, she had been working on keeping herself from being bound. The amount of power required to bind an actual Pagan God…Lady couldn't fathom it. Her heart began to thump anxiously in her chest. Why hadn't Max warned her? Why hadn't she seen it before?

"The Goddess is ready," Garrett said. "It is time." Garrett pulled out a ceremonial dagger and held it up so she could see her reflection briefly, "Oh…so you can't interrupt me…"

Lady struggled as he teasingly dragged the tip lightly down her side, and inhaled sharply as he stabbed it to the hilt in the side of her abdomen. A small cry escaped her mouth until blood bubbled up and made her cough painfully. Lady looked at him with wide eyes, this wasn't how it happened in Max's vision. She didn't have to know anatomy to feel that it was a lethal strike, the hot blood running down her side while her insides turned to ice told her that. Minutes, half an hour? How long until her blood pooled at her feet and she couldn't last any longer?

This wasn't supposed to happen!

Garrett smiled, enjoying the painful surprise in her eyes, the defeat showing in her face as the fear of her last moments became a reality for her. He began his ritual. He began speaking calmly in Latin, and his spirit-coven joined him. The candles on the ground flickered to life with blue flames that grew with each carefully pronounced word. Lady focused on their light as her strength waned, her breaths becoming painful with the knife still stuck in her side. In vain she tried to get a few words of Latin to disrupt Garrett's ritual, to send the power he was invoking against him, but she couldn't form the words as her mind began to panic. She was dying. Her head fell into her chest as she lost the strength to hold it up, and her eyes slid shut.

The short life she had lived flashed in her mind, some of her favorite memories tried to bring her comfort in her final moments. Being with her mother, earning a chuckle from Bobby, dancing with Freddie, barbeques at Mason's house, making love to Dean. Everything she'd miss in life gave her a brief goodbye as the heat of the blue fire surrounded her. She sucked in one last gasp, breathing in the hot flames, as her heart stuttered to a stop.

Sam held the witch compass as still as he could while they drove. "Still pointing south," he muttered.

"I can see that," Dean said roughly. "How fast is that blood disappearing?"

"About the same speed," Sam said. They had to refill the small dish that hung twice since leaving North Dakota. They had enough blood to refill it several more times, but they still had to worry about getting to their destination before midnight. It was already ten in the morning and they only had fourteen hours. That was if their course stayed south and they didn't slip into a different time zone.

Freddie let out a low whine from the backseat, and then a bark before whining again. "Relax, pal, nothing's going to happen to her," Dean said, drumming his thumbs on the wheel.

Sam gave his brother a strange look but didn't say anything. Lady hadn't seemed too sure of herself when Max held her and told her she had only hours instead of months before facing Garrett. He knew she was looking forward to doing her own ritual tonight that was supposed to be able to reflect Garrett's ritual, and she never got her chance. His insides felt cold. They had arrived in North Dakota in high spirits, expected a few days of a reprieve before taking on a challenging job. Now they were racing the clock to save Lady.

Bobby's car was waiting on the side of the road, and as the Impala sped past it he got onto the highway and began following it. Dean grabbed his phone as it rang. "We see you," he said. "You got everything?"

"Yup," Bobby answered. Sam had called him as soon as they could. Everything he and Lady had figured out the past few months was packed up in his car or in his head. "Lady knows how to turn the ritual against Garrett. Even without that ritual she planned she can manage it. Aside from having her tongue cut out, she can do that. But if this ritual goes nuclear like the black moon her and everything in a few mile radius is going to be burned to the ground. She can disrupt these things easy, but she can't contain it."

"You have any thoughts on how to?" Dean asked.

"No," Bobby admitted. "My plan is to run as fast as my two legs will carry me."

"Well, that's something," Dean muttered. "Just stay close. Can your car keep up?"

"Boy, I've been working on cars since before you were in diapers. Yeah, my car can keep up," Bobby said.

"Good," Dean said, hanging up and hitting the gas again. He checked his mirror frequently, making sure Bobby didn't fall too far behind.

They only stopped for gas and coffee. Night fell and they were still on the road. "We're getting closer," Sam said. "It isn't using up the blood as fast."

"We've driven through four states," Dean said tensely. "We're about to hit Oklahoma. We damn well better be getting closer." Dean grabbed in his pocket as his phone rang, "It's Ash, answer it." He tossed it to Sam.

"Ash, we're busy," Sam said.

"Hey, you seen Lady?" Ash asked. "I've been trying to reach her the past two hours. I tried Jo, she can't get a hold of her either."

"Why, what's up?" Sam asked.

"Well, she told me I could lay off the search but I got a weird weather reading. Spinning clouds over a Prairie Preserve in Oklahoma. I thought Oklahoma and twisters, not unheard of, but this time of the year? It isn't even over a trailer park."

"You are right, that's bad," Sam said. "We're not far from Oklahoma, where exactly is this reserve?"

"Uh, east of Foraker. About six thousand acres of nothing, though."

"Thanks, Ash," Sam said, hanging up. "Spinning clouds, just like during the black moon."

"Where?"

"Hold on," Sam said, digging through the glove compartment and grabbing their stash of roadmaps. He found Oklahoma and opened it. "We aren't far at all, it's against the border of Kansas. Only there aren't really roads, just prairie trails and grassland."

Dean looked tensely at the clock, there was only an hour until midnight. "Can we make it in an hour?"

"I don't see why not," Sam said. "We're cutting it close, but we are probably only forty miles away."

Dean followed the road as long as he could until he had to move onto bumpy prairie trails, or no trails at all. Soon they no longer needed the compass, they were able to see the spinning clouds above them and the flashes of lightening within them. And soon there was a soft glow of blue light from a lone building. It looked like an old barn that had been there since the dirty-thirties.

When Dean killed the lights and stopped the car Sam got out and took several deep breaths. "You made good time," Sam said tensely.

Freddie jumped out of the car, his tail down and his ears up while a low growl made him rumble. Sam held onto his collar to keep him from running off in the dark. Bobby's car stopped beside the Impala. "This has to be it," he said, jumping out and setting a bag on the trunk of the Impala. "Feel a bit chilly to you guys?"

Sam turned on his EMF reader, "No spikes. The only spirits must be inside where he is doing the ritual."

"We have fifteen minutes to get in there and get Lady out," Dean said, checking his pistol. "Let's go."

The three men took two steps towards the building. There wasn't much of a plan, and there wasn't going to be a discussion to form one. Garrett was scary powerful, they had to go in hard and fast. Hit him with everything they had. Show him that he couldn't just make people burst into flames and transport them halfway across the country so he could sacrifice them.

The men took their third step toward the building, and fell back as a rocketing explosion shook the ground and blew the building apart, sending a fireball of blue flames into the sky as the rotating clouds sparked with lightening. Freddie let out a howl and several furious barks, shifting on his four feet as if he was unsure if he should charge in or run in the other direction. The men looked at the receding fire in shock, and started running the distance. Freddie met their pace, barking and whining.

There was one wall still standing, barely, and flames were flickering. A cyclone of blue fire was twisting around and into Lady, burning through the ropes that held her. "Lady!" Dean shouted, running to her, and stopping to aim his pistol at Garrett who was on the ground with a two-foot chunk of wood impaled through his chest. He wasn't moving so he was the least of Dean's concerns. "Lady!"

The rope snapped and Lady landed on her feet as the fire swirled around her, wrapping around her arms. She turned to look at Dean and he saw the knife sticking out of her side.

"Kid, oh, Jesus…you okay?" Bobby looked at her. "We got here as fast as we could."

Lady's head wobbled slightly and she looked around as if she was confused.

"Lady, we're going to get you patched up," Sam said, holding Freddie's collar as the dog tried to surge forward. "But, uh…"

"You need to stop sparking so we can get you out of here," Dean finished. The flames were winding around her, but didn't seem to be burning her. Although her skin looked as if she had spent too many hours in the sun, she wasn't getting burned alive and didn't seem to be in pain. The biggest concern was the knife in her side, if it had hit a vital organ they may not have time to get her to a hospital.

Lady looked at the knife in her side, and before they could tell her not to touch it she took it out, looking at the blood smeared on the blade. And they took a step back as she touched the tip of her tongue to the blade and ran it to the point. She let the blade drop and looked at Garrett. "For too long, you have made me suffer," she said. It wasn't Lady's voice. It was a strange sound, a mix of high tinny voices with a deep bass and everything in between reverberating together. Lady raised her hand and Garrett's body was lifted off the ground several feet, and then slammed back down.

Garrett sucked in a few breaths and his eyes fluttered open. "Lady, what have you done?" he groaned.

"She freed me." Lady grabbed Garrett with one hand and lifted him off his feet. "Now, to take back the power you took from me."

"Lady! Stop!" Dean shouted. "What are you doing?"

Lady looked sharply at him and blue flames erupted from her eyes, "Silence!" With a wave of her hand Dean went flying back, landing hard and toppling end over end. The moment of distraction was all Garrett needed to take the switchblade he had taken from Lady earlier and stab it in her chest. She let out a cry of pain and let him go, giving him only seconds to scramble to the ritual site and vanish in a burst of blue flames, traveling through the ley lines to escape her wrath.

"Bobby!" Sam looked at him anxiously as Lady grabbed the knife in her chest and pulled it out.

"Kid, you with me?" Bobby shouted.

"I go by many names, that is not one of them," she said, dropping the knife.

"Can, uh, we know your name?" Sam asked.

She studied them, "You are not with Garrett. You are not part of his coven."

"No, we definitely aren't," Sam assured her. "But, uh, well…we're sort of, uh..." Sam looked at Bobby for help.

"Just, uh, seems Lady has a small case of possession by a pagan god. We can figure this out," Bobby said uncertainly.

Dean limped forward, "Get the fuck out of her."

Lady put a hand up and Dean dragged his feet as he was pulled forward and slammed to the ground at Lady's feet. "You pathetic apes. You will show respect in my presence."

Dean groaned as he felt like he was being crushed under Godzilla, and sucked in grateful breaths when the pressure was relieved. He groaned, "Bobby, what's going on?"

"Uh, might be a good idea to show her a little respect, Dean," Sam said, shifting on his feet and unsure what to do.

"Got it," Dean groaned.

Lady focused on Bobby, "You show fear. You are wise."

"Thing is, you've sort of taken up residence in a friend of mine," Bobby said in a low voice.

Lady's lips twitched in a smirk, "And like Garrett, you want to send me away again? Chain me up so you can siphon my power any time you wish? I've waited centuries to be free, I am not releasing this body. The spirit has already been destroyed, it's gone."

"What?" Bobby asked breathlessly.

"This mortal shell can barely contain me as it is. You think a spirit could survive in here with me? Humans, you always want power and magic but you never think of what it takes to hold true power. I am the very essence of magic." Freddie let out a snarl and several barks, and was quieted by the fiery gaze of Lady. "You asked my name before. I have many. Garrett called me The Goddess. That is what I am. I've been known as Freyja, Trivia, Hecate, Isis, Ichpuchtili…wherever blood has been split to summon magic I've been there drinking it up and fulfilling your wishes. I've been gone a while, but I'm back." Dean grunted as he was lifted from the ground by The Goddess, her hand grabbing a fistful of his shirt and raising him off his feet.

Dean tried to look past the flames flickering from her eyes, "Lady, please. God, if you can hear me…" he choked as his air was cut off and The Goddess began whispering in a strange language.

"Dean! Let him go!" Sam shouted.

Dean's legs kicked and he struggled until The Goddess was struck down by two-hundred pounds of furious Freddie. The Goddess threw the dog off of her almost instantly, sending Freddie into howls and whimpers of pain. "All of you shall spill your blood for me," The Goddess said softly.

Sam grabbed Dean and helped pull him to his feet as The Goddess went for another strike. Several shots rang out from Bobby's pistol, three striking her in the chest.

The Goddess snarled and put a hand at the bleeding wounds. She retreated to the circle of the ritual, and blue flames enveloped her and she vanished.

"You shot Lady!" Sam shouted.

"That thing was going to kill us," Bobby said. "Dean, you okay?"

"Do I look okay?" Dean snapped, holding his side and groaning. "What the hell happened, Bobby? This better not have been in the plan!"

Bobby's face looked grim, "I don't know. But now we got a warlock and a pagan goddess out there doing God knows what."

"Well, I don't know how to get answers from God. But I'm willing to bet I can choke a few answers out of a witch," Dean said. "I don't care if Max is already a ghost, if she doesn't tell us how to fix this I'm going to kill her."

The Impala and Bobby's car bounced over prairie trails and once they were in an area they could get a signal on their cell phones Dean dialed Mason's home. He was rather glad when Maxine answered.

"We're on our way back," Dean said in a warning tone. "You better get Max's spectral ass available to talk."

"She will be," Maxine said quietly. "Dean…I think I had a vision. Of Lady dying, being taken to a very dark place. Is it…was it real?"

Dean hung up on her.

Less than twenty-four hours ago Dean had been having a reunion to remember with Lady. Now he was driving the thousand miles back to where she had been taken, trying to forget the image of her fiery eyes, trying to forget the strange voice the thing inside her used to tell him her spirit was destroyed.

They stopped at Bobby's house, he needed to check a few things.

"What do we know about this thing?" Dean asked as Bobby moved quickly around his house.

"You're asking me to do research on half a dozen goddesses in ten minutes," Bobby said. Bobby set a heavy book down and flipped through pages until he stopped at familiar looking sigils. "This is what I gave Lady. Ancient sigils depicting Trivia. Roman goddess of witchcraft. Her Greek equivalent was Hecate. Goddess of the crossroads and witchcraft." Bobby swallowed hard, "I'd need Lady to back me up on this…but I'm wondering if instead of keeping Lady from being tied down by Garrett, these sigils may have just invited this thing to take up residence."

"Her tattoo," Dean muttered.

"That thing said she had many names," Sam reminded them. "From a lot of different cultures. What if we just caused the latest reincarnation of this thing?"

"One major screw up," Bobby muttered.

"Not your fault," Sam said. "We just need to figure out how to stop this. Bobby, is this anything like demonic possession?"

"I don't know," Bobby admitted.

"If it is Lady is dead," Dean said quietly.

"No, we can save her," Sam said.

"We saw Garrett stab her in the chest," Dean said flatly. "Bobby shot her in the chest. Say we can stop this thing, get it out of her, what are the chances she'll live very long?"

"We do what Lady would want us to do," Bobby said. "We stop this thing. We stop Garrett. And we do it quick. This thing is free after being abused by Garrett and his coven for a long time, aching to go on a sacrificial killing spree and get back some of its power. We can't wait."

"Grab whatever you can and let's get back on the road," Dean said.

"Let me ride with you, I can research more on the way," Bobby said, moving quickly.

**A/N** – _Song for this chapter:_

_Necromancer, by Rush_


	53. ND Medicine Wheel part 2, March 2007

**North Dakota, March 19, 2007**

Night was falling when they reached New Town. Dean had to leave his Impala at the Casino and took the truck that Maxine left for him so they could make it out to the country.

There wasn't even a sliver of the moon visible so soon after the new moon.

"What's with all the cars?" Sam asked as they neared Mason's house.

Dean's jaw clenched. Last time there had been this many cars there had been a party. "I don't know," he said, getting out of the truck and walking up to the house.

"You made good time," Maxine said, meeting him outside.

"Tell me what you know, and if you try any…"

"You're going to know a lot before the night is over," she assured him. "Please, come in. Warm up, I'll get you some coffee."

"We don't have time," Dean snapped. Maxine was a woman of intimidating size, but he was still bigger and was ready to drag her away from her family so he could demand the knowledge her and her wrinkly bitch of a grandmother had kept from them and Lady. But he stopped as someone appeared in the doorway. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Jo shifted on her feet, "I came to check on Lady, and they brought me out here."

"Get out of here," Dean ordered.

Jo narrowed her eyes on him, "No. Listen, Lady told me if I didn't hear from her after a new moon that I had to come here. I did that, and I'm not leaving until I see her." Jo looked at the ground, "She dead?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Dean said.

Jo wiped at moist eyes, "I was hoping Freddie swallowed her cell phone again, but…yeah, I think I knew that wasn't the case."

"Jo has a role to play," Maxine said gently. "We all do."

"No one has any role to play in your sick game!" Dean snapped. "Here is how things work from here on out. You tell me what you know, how to stop this thing. And then I stop it. And if there is any way to save Lady, you do it. And if you are lucky once this is over I won't torch this whole place to the ground! Understand?"

"Yes," Maxine said. "But you don't. Dean, you are exhausted, and in pain. Physical and more. Come in, sit down and rest. In time everything…"

Maxine went silent as Dean pulled out his pistol, "Lady trusted you. And Max. I don't trust you."

"Lady was family," Maxine said calmly. "You aren't going to hurt me, Dean. You need me."

"Like hell he does," Jo said, walking to stand between him and Sam. "You know where Lady hid the book?"

Dean glanced at her, "Why?"

"Because Lady didn't trust anyone but herself," Jo said. "At least she didn't trust anyone to hold all of the cards. She gave me her safe combination in case they wouldn't play ball if things didn't work out. But she never told me where it was. She said if anything ever happened to her she needed someone to destroy the book, but I'm willing to bet she has a ton of information she hasn't shared with anyone."

Dean shoved his pistol back into his waistband and smiled at Maxine, "Guess I don't need you. Come on, Jo."

There was barely a path plowed between Mason's house and Lady's trailer, just enough for her to get back and forth, but snow had been blown over the tracks and a few inches had been added since the last time anyone had been out there. Dean directed Jo to the room Lady worked in and showed her the safe hidden in the small crawlspace.

"Not a very original hiding place," Jo said as she got on her hands and knees.

"What is the combination?" Dean asked.

"Eighteen, two, eighty-one," Jo said.

Dean internally groaned. Lady knew a hundred rituals and curses by heart, but when it came to numbers she had a poor memory. She'd used her own birthday, not original at all but not something she could forget.

"There is a lot of stuff in here," Jo said, handing things to Dean as she pulled them out. The book was pretty useless, since translating it was beyond any of them. But Jo pulled out a cassette tape, the diamond she used to follow ley lines, a few crystals, some charms and a few notebooks. "That's all of it," she said, crawling back out. "This was the last thing in there."

Dean saw several large batteries in a plastic bag, and looked at the cassette tape. As was common in the trailer during the colder months there was no electricity, but he went into the bedroom and grabbed the old stereo on the dresser. "Six of those? Right?"

"Yeah," Jo said, handing them over.

They gathered in the small living room and looked through the notebooks as Dean shoved the batteries into the stereo. He checked that it had power and shoved the tape inside and pressed play.

Lady's voice began to play, "I really hope I can feed this tape to Freddie in a few months, but I'm not taking the chance. Jo, the notebooks hold all of my notes. Sorry for the crappy writing. Ways to stop Garrett, if I don't manage it, are there. Best chance is turning the ritual against him, but if that fails hammering an iron nail in his thumbs and toes should render him without his powers. Only thing is you have no chance of getting that close to him and staying alive. Sorry. Uh…shit." There was a short pause and it sounded like Lady had stopped recording and started again. "The ley lines on the reservation have been protected by Max since she set up residence there. She said something before she died that she's worried they are in danger. And I don't doubt that. She wants to protect her bloodline more than anything. Maxine and I haven't been able to summon her for help, at least not yet. But the answers are there, somewhere. I'm worried with Maxine being in charge now that the area may be suitable for an attack by Garrett. If anything happens to the Masons because of me I'll never forgive myself. Stopping Garrett might be a lost cause, but they need to be protected. I guess that's all I can really ask of you, try and get them out of the area if Garrett comes to take over the ley lines. I know when I ask you to do that and just run, you won't. So here is my best advice if Garrett is still alive. Call Bobby, he knows more than you. The Winchesters, too. And, uh, the national guard?" Lady let out a strange humorless laugh. "I've been trying my hand at making charms. I don't know if they work, yet. Won't know until I get to go toe-to-toe with Garrett. But they are with this tape. Two rubies. I did have four before Freddie got hungry and I haven't gotten them back yet. If you look close enough they've been…it doesn't matter how I made them. Just, uh, don't tell Bobby I was robbing jewelry stores again, he'll pop a blood vessel. All you have to do is put it around your neck and it, in theory, is supposed to keep you safe from black magic. That's in theory. The only thing I know for sure is that you won't get hurt from wearing it. And, uh, remember Malibu? The binding spell? Chances of getting it to work are slim but I came up with a new one. It's in the red notebook, the page is marked with a green piece of tape. The binding spell will only keep him defenseless for a few minutes, but blowing him apart might make it last a bit longer. If you get that far you can hammer nails in his thumbs and toes, it prevents him from leeching power from ley lines. After that, I'm still sketchy on how to keep him dead. If things don't go according to plan this is a back-up I hope no one has to use. Because as far as my plans go, this is a really bad one. And, heh, I've had some really bad ones. So, if you are listening to this I'm dead…I think that's the line I should have used at the beginning. You know the important stuff. Just, uh...heh, remember to dance, okay?" Lady let out a breath and the recording clicked off. For a long time they let the tape run into silence but the voice didn't return.

"What does she mean by remembering to dance?" Sam asked quietly.

Jo clenched her jaw and wiped at her eyes, "That's just what we said every time we went out together. If something happened to the other that we'd have a funeral pyre and dance." Jo sniffed slightly, "You sure she's...?"

"Yeah," Dean said quietly, taking the tape out of the stereo and putting it in his pocket. "But it isn't that simple. We have a much bigger problem than Garrett."

"What?" Jo asked.

"There is an actual pagan goddess on the loose," Bobby said. "And she's dancing in Lady's skin right now. Jo, I get you were her friend, but this is too dangerous. You need to get out of here."

Jo shook her head, "I can't."

"He's right. Lady didn't want anything to happen to you," Dean said.

"No, I mean I can't. Maxine won't let me leave. She has the whole area on lock-down. Anyone who tries gets stopped by her or spirits."

Dean and Sam exchanged a look. "We need to talk to Maxine," Sam said.

"Yeah, we do," Dean agreed.

Jo held out the two ruby charms to Dean. His jaw flexed, there wasn't enough for all of them. Lady sounded doubtful that they'd work, but she had been trying. He grabbed the precious gems and put them in his pocket before leading the way out of the trailer.

Maxine was calmly waiting for them outside of Mason's house when they returned. "Are you ready to listen?" She asked.

Dean angrily looked down the row of vehicles and tried to ignore the sounds of Mason's family inside the house. He locked his jaw as he glared back at Maxine.

"Maxine, we're here to help," Sam said gently. "We need to stop Garrett and The Goddess, but this is dangerous. You need to evacuate your family, and Jo."

"My family was raised to believe in spirits, they are here because they want to help and are just as valuable to protecting our territory as the spirits," Maxine said. "And Jo is here to help us."

"How is she going to help?" Bobby asked.

"Max can summon The Goddess here," Maxine said. "And Jo may be able to assist us. I don't know all the details myself, but I promise no harm will come to her. You have my word."

"Your word means shit!" Dean snarled.

"How can I help?" Jo asked, ignoring Dean.

"Max will explain," Maxine said. "Please, come with me."

They followed Maxine up the hill behind the house and to the tainted medicine wheel. Max's spirit was in the center. "We can summon The Goddess here," Maxine said. "When the witch defiled this circle she broke the protection. Before only spirits allowed into our territory were able to cross into it. Now it is capable of allowing all sorts of things into it. The lines of power it is on have held up for centuries, without being disrupted. And it has been used many times, the fabric here is very thin."

"Then why aren't ghosts spewing out of it?" Sam asked.

"Crossing over is still difficult," Maxine explained. "But if you are quiet you can hear them."

Sam put a heavy hand on Freddie's head to hush his low whimpers. It was quiet enough he could hear his own heartbeat, and then very distantly he heard whispers. Nothing he could make out, just hushed voices that could have just as easily been the wind.

"We are nearly ready." Max looked solemnly at the group of hunters, "Do not mourn for your friend, she has died bravely."

"She wouldn't be dead if it wasn't for you!" Bobby snapped.

"I know," Max said. "But you must understand what we are up against. The Goddess is ancient, as old as our race. Our only benefit is that she is weak, trapped within a mortal shell. She cannot die, or be killed. And will not allow herself to be bound within the lines of power again."

"Then why are we summoning her?" Dean asked.

"You should listen before you ask questions," Max said sharply. "Once, many years ago, my tribe held tens of thousands. I was younger than Maxine when The Goddess came to our lands. In the beginning she was curious. Our magic was different and new to her. In the beginning we were respectful of each other's power. But that respect did not remain. She was arrogant, believed her power was ultimate. That nothing could defeat her. She tried to sway our people to her, to worship her. We would not, and she tried to have us destroyed. She failed horribly."

"You killed this thing once?" Dean asked.

"Not kill," Max said. "But I was the one who destroyed her physical being and banished her to live within lines of power. Even now she is bound to them. But as her power grows she will find the strength to break free completely. When she was powerful she watched over the ley lines, they were used as a pathway to other realms including her own where she held an army of her slain warriors."

"Spirits?" Dean guessed.

"Yes," Max answered. "All powerful warriors that worshiped her greatly in their life went into her servitude at death. She put them into a spirit-realm, holding them until she needed them. They call her Freyja."

"Wait a second," Sam said. "You are saying you were alive when the Vikings landed in America?"

"I was here before they left," Max countered cryptically. "Freyja was an interesting being. Beautiful, even to our people. Charming. Arrogant, fearless, and even as she was being defeating she did not go down easily. She also was called by another name. Lady."

"What are you getting at?" Bobby asked.

"Do not misunderstand me. Lady is no reincarnation of a Goddess," Max said lazily. "It is just a coincidence she took a liking to the same nickname as the Goddess once had. Now you may not believe in destiny, but I have seen it. I have even changed it.

But when I found Lady, I saw no destiny. She was hit with powerful magic, raw and straight from The Goddess. She has had a part of The Goddess inside of her for nearly ten years. And because of it she is unpredictable and capable of power that is too dangerous to be unleashed. So I set out to give her a destiny."

"And you chose this?" Dean asked. "Let this thing wear her around as a Halloween costume?"

"This was not what I chose," Max said. "As I said, her path was unpredictable. Anarchic. I only foresaw this path when I met you, Dean Winchester." Dean's lips parted in surprise and his eyes widened in confusion. "I have chosen to give her a destiny to aid yours. And I did so because she asked me to help you."

"This doesn't help us!" Dean snapped.

"It will," Max said gently.

"No, it doesn't!" Dean argued. "You could have made sure this Goddess stayed locked up in the lines, asleep and being sucked dry."

"But I couldn't," Max answered. "My only mistake when dealing with the Goddess the past several hundred years was ignoring her. I had my family, we had found a safe and powerful place where I could watch over them. And I did so without leaving their side. Lady demanded my assistance for you, demanded that I see outside my own selfish means and my family to look into your future. When I did I could barely see past the foul evil that haunts you. But I also saw that the past few decades the ley lines have been weakening, shifting drastically. And it all started the night the demon you hunt first visited your family. Since then demons have been distorting the ley lines and crossroads, and they have corrupted the ley lines. I do not know if they do it on purpose, or if it is just a byproduct of their presence. But I knew if we did not find a new way to leash The Goddess, then she would become free. And if she was, her newest ally would be the demons you hunt." Max walked silently around the edges of the circle. "I did as Lady asked me."

"She never asked for this," Dean said.

"All she asked was to be able to help you," Max said. "And be able to destroy Garrett. I have given her both things at once."

"You sent her to her death," Dean corrected.

"Because of me The Goddess is freed on our own terms. Weak and vulnerable. Instead of at full strength with command of her army and with the aid of demons," Max countered. "I have seen the future several ways, Dean Winchester. Ask Lady what she would rather have. Her life at the cost of hundreds. Or sparing hundreds with her own sacrifice."

"You didn't give her a choice! You decided to play god!" Dean roared, stepping forward and stumbling back as he was hit with a psychic zap from the spirit.

"Careful, boy. I may be dead, but my bite is still much worse than my bark," Max warned. "What is done is done. We must summon The Goddess now."

"And do what?" Bobby asked.

"Quiet, you hear that?" Sam hissed. They all went quiet and there was the distant sound of dogs growling and barking. He looked around nervously and put a hand on Freddie's collar to keep track of the dog.

"What you hear is coming from the realm within the ley lines. The spirits who once served The Goddess have been corrupted into vicious fiends." Max said. "And they are near. This is why we must summon The Goddess now."

Jo let out an anxious breath, "What do we do then? How powerful is this thing?"

"Let me worry about that," Max said.

"We aren't ready for anything," Bobby argued. He looked at the Winchesters and Jo, "I want to take care of this as much as the next guy, but we don't really know what this thing is capable of. The little we do know is more than we can handle."

"It would take us a long time to explain how to stop this being," Maxine said to sooth Bobby's concerns. "We just don't have the time. If we do not stop her soon her power will grow drastically. And we won't have any way to stop her."

Bobby looked as if he was sucking on a lemon, "Let's do this. God save us, let's do this."

Dean checked his shotgun, not that it'd do much good. From his pocket he pulled out the rubies, and offered one to Jo. "Put that on," he ordered, and she did so. "Sam." He said.

"You need…" Sam began, knowing the second things got hairy he wouldn't be able to keep Dean from unleashing his grief and frustration in a storm of violence. Dean needed the protection more.

"You need to cover Jo," Dean said. "We try that binding spell on this thing, you keep her safe."

"I'm not leaving your side," Sam said, taking the ruby and handing it over to Bobby. "Cover Jo."

Bobby took the gem silently, and put it around his neck. "You two don't do anything stupid." He said, knowing they heard his words but weren't actually listening.

Maxine set a silver plate with drops of blood and other things in the center of the circle and stepped back as Max began calling to The Goddess.

Blue flames erupted from the center, and when they receded Lady was standing there. "You," The Goddess stared down at Max. She grinned slowly, "Still playing the old tricks? Summon me and bind me? It won't work this time."

"I know," Max said. "I do not hold the same power I had then. But neither do you."

"I do," The Goddess countered. Blue fire flickered from her eyes, "I've already protected myself from any binding ritual." Jo's whispered words came to a choking halt. "I've been very busy, Max, and there is much more I plan to do. Speak quickly."

"I have summoned you for a bargain," Max said. "You answered my call. I respectfully ask you to listen and ignore their presence."

"Listening," The Goddess said.

"My family is dying out," Max began. "I have stayed with them as long as I could, but now it is my granddaughter's turn to watch over them. She is young, weak, and will not have my guidance. Spare them. Punish me if you will, but spare them."

"No," The Goddess answered cruelly. "Every being that shares your blood will be mine. All those that stand against me will suffer. Like you made me suffer."

"You weren't meant to suffer," Max said. "I did not know that evil could invade the ley lines, your realm. Do you understand it has corrupted you?"

"I am not corrupted," The Goddess said. "I'm just very pissed off."

The temperature dropped farther and Dean pushed Jo between him and Sam as some of Max's spirits appeared around them to offer protection.

The Goddess chuckled, "You want to do this like that?" The Goddess knelt to the ground and touched the center of the circle, "My followers are longing for a chance to tear at something new."

There was a shudder in the ground as The Goddess willed her own bound spirits to cross over. Max crouched down, and then vanished into the ground leaving her family and the hunters to fend for themselves.

**A/N** - _Thanks for the reviews!_


	54. Within the Ley Lines, March 2007

**Spirit Realm. March 19, 2007**

Lady looked around weakly, realizing her wrists were free. She went to the wound on her side, but didn't feel it. Slowly she sat up, not feeling pain. She had woken up on a patch of soft dirt with sharp jagged rocks. There were a few gnarled trees without leaves, no wind, no sounds, no smells. "Where am I?" she asked aloud, and heard her soft voice echo back. She took unsteady steps forward, wincing as the sharp rocks dug into her feet. She looked closer…they weren't rocks.

They were broken bones.

"Oh, well, this is nice and cozy," she whispered to herself. She looked around warily, something in her gut telling her she needed to be quiet. She wasn't in a safe place. And while it looked like she was the only one there, she saw the remains of those that had been there before her.

"You are dead," a voice said. Making her spin around.

"Max?" Lady breathed. "I, uh…sort of had the feeling I wasn't in Kansas anymore, but this doesn't look like the place over the rainbow."

"You are right," Max said. "This place is unforgiving, harsh and dangerous."

"So, uh…I'm dead and…I went to hell?" Lady asked. "I sort of got a glimpse at hell once and it actually looked a little more cheery than this. I mean, I wasn't a saint but do I really deserve hell?"

"You haven't ventured very far yet," Max said. "This is not hell. Hell aims to torture its souls. Here, souls are more frequently eaten. It is a spirit realm."

"Why are you here?"

"You failed to kill Garrett," Max said.

"What? So you hop into the spirit world to rub my nose in it?" Lady snapped angrily.

"I never put faith in you, Lady. Walk with me," Max said, and Lady walked beside her. "The world has gotten dangerous the past twenty years. And will only become more so. The power of The Goddess has been in Garrett's hands for too long, and must be taken from him. You were meant to do that, and you have."

"No, I didn't. I died," Lady reminded her.

"Your spirit has left your body, but your body now is home to The Goddess."

"Excuse me?" Lady snapped, glaring at Max.

"You heard me," Max said lazily. "You freed The Goddess."

"That sounds like a bad thing. What do you mean I gave The Goddess a home?"

"It is a very bad thing," Max agreed. "And what I mean by a new home…well, that is more difficult to explain. When The Goddess answered Garrett's call to take his offering of blood, your blood, you were already dead. However your body was marked, an invitation for her to escape the ley lines. Instead of being trapped, she is free and now resides in your body."

Lady licked her lips, understanding that the sigils on her shoulder had been an invitation. They had still worked to disrupt the ritual, just not in a way that benefited anyone. She had died, Garrett had survived. "That sucks," she said softly.

"The Goddess will take back the power that was stolen from her centuries ago, and start a war if anyone dares to go against her. And there will be a war."

"Guess I got out of the fight just in time," Lady said roughly. "And sounds like this place will fill up quickly."

"So after all of this, you just roll over and die?" Max asked.

"I already did!" Lady snapped.

Max looked at her seriously, "Spirits are weak, but if one holds onto life hard enough they can return to the land of the living. For most it takes months or years of fighting. You have less than a day. This place was once home to The Goddess's most treasured warriors who died in battle, but they have been twisted into fiends. You must be fast before they get the scent of your soul."

Lady stiffened as she heard distant howls and hungry snarls. "Max, you said you have no faith in me."

"Your faith is the only faith that matters," Max said lightly. "You've fought to live for years, are you going to stop now that you are dead? Run fast, Lady."

Lady let out a hiss as Max vanished and turned anxiously around. She licked her lips and looked one direction, "Well, at least this way sounds quiet," she muttered, and began running barefoot on sharp pieces of bone. The terrain softened after what felt like a few miles. Though Lady knew she was dead and was pretty sure she was just a spirit, she felt tired as hell. Sweat was dripping down her face from running, her feet were cut and bleeding. She rested against a mossy tree. When she had first woken up she had been in something like a plowed garden with bones instead of seeds. As she ran the ground had hardened and blue-green grass was sprouting. The trees were tall and had long branches that hung down. So far the run had been on flat ground, but in the distance she saw rolling hills and on the horizon there were sharp peak of mountains.

Maybe Lady had never been an angel, but she thought she had been a good person. She never thought her use of the F-bomb or seeking out sex or murdering evil witches would have damned her soul to this place. She also didn't believe in heaven, but thought that wherever spirits went should have been a little bit more habitable. She looked at the sky. A blue-black, no stars or moon, not even clouds that she could see. "Why me? Huh?" She shook her head and wiped at the tears that were spilling out.

Lady stood up straight as she heard a soft noise. She was still until she heard it again, and as quietly as she could walked curiously toward the sound. Her heart nearly burst in joy when she saw a young woman huddled under a willow tree. "Hey, sh, it's okay. I won't hurt you," Lady whispered, crouching. It was such a relief to know she wasn't alone in this place, that there were other souls trapped there as well.

The woman raised her head from her hands, and Lady fell back as she saw the woman's face was eyeless with a gaping round mouth full of sharp teeth. Lady let out a shriek as the thing lunged at her.

Her scream sent the woods she was running through in a flurry of activity. Black ravens that she hadn't seen in the trees cawed and took flight, their big black wings stirring the air as they followed her. Things she couldn't see running between the trees, some on four legs others on two. Feral snarls, high cackles, shrieks of delight at a hunt. "Oh god!" Lady gasped as she ducked under a low hanging tree branch as she ran. "NO!" She screamed as something hit her back and knocked her onto her face.

She wrestled with something as big as Freddie, but it was slimy and slithering. It's disgusting coating allowed her to slip away, only to be pinned down by something that was just as large with glowing red eyes and claws for hands. It held her as ravens dropped from the sky onto her. Sharp beaks and claws scratching and nipping at her exposed arms and face as she screamed and fought. "HELP ME! GOD! SOMEONE HELP ME!" She screamed and begged as she was being torn apart.

There was a crack, something sounding like a gunshot, and the things scattered. Lady tried to hold herself together, feeling hot blood on her abdomen and she was afraid she was holding her insides where they were supposed to be. There was another blast, and she decided it was thunder, but it was distant and she saw no lightening in the sky. Lady crawled under some low branches for cover, trembling as her spirit continued to bleed. "Help me," she whispered and sobbed.

She felt movement around her, something like a cold breeze that made her fear the ravens had returned, until she saw shimmering orbs of blackened spirits. She stayed huddled under her cover until they passed, and then quietly crawled out and got back to her feet. One arm stayed protectively around her abdomen as she limped on, going the way the other spirits had. She wondered if that was all she looked like to them, a shimmering orb. But so far all the other residents of this place hadn't been very hospitable, she wasn't about to flag one down and ask. She couldn't move as fast as the other spirits, but they went in the direction where she heard the thunder and that had been her original direction.

When the trees cleared she was at the edge of a cliff, and the other side was twenty feet across. Lady dropped to her knees. She knew the things that were behind her. She knew the only reason she hadn't dropped dead from her injuries was because she was already dead, but that didn't stop it from hurting. It could be possible for her to have the flesh completely stripped from her bones and things eating her insides without dying as a spirit. That was a scary thought, because already she felt like dying was a better alternative than being trapped where she was.

"Giving up already?" Max asked, appearing at her side.

"Give me a hint?" Lady asked. "Am I supposed to use my own intestines for a bungee jump?" She motioned toward the dark and bottomless pit of a cliff in front of her.

"You don't want to go down," Max offered. "You want to go up." Max pointed toward the hills on the other side of the gaping hole. "And you do not want to stay here long. I am doing my best to keep them at bay, but my power is not very strong here."

Lady turned to look behind her, there were several pairs of reflective eyes hiding in the trees and staring at her hungrily. Maybe they were getting ready to pounce and take her by surprise. Or maybe they were afraid to venture outside the cover of the trees themselves. Lady had a feeling it was the latter, which didn't make her feel much better about her choice to go this way. "Where am I going?" she asked.

Max looked at her without sympathy, "I'm trying to save your spirit from this place. You do not belong here, Lady. You must keep moving. Those things will kill you, end you completely."

"You seem to be able to pop in and out as you like! Just take me with you!"

"I cannot," Max said gently. "If you had allowed me to bind your spirit, I could guide you easily. But you had to be stubborn and protect your freedom."

Lady's lips parted, and then twisted into a snarl. "Why didn't you just tell me?"

"Power is shifting, Lady. These things feel it, they are being drawn to the same place you are. Stop blubbering and move!"

"WHERE THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO GO?" Lady screamed back. "There is no where but down!"

"Then go down!" Max shouted back, and shoved Lady over the cliff.

Lady let out a short scream and her hands grabbed at jagged rocks without luck. She braced herself for the inevitable impact, and screamed as she felt her left leg break with the fall.

"Well, well, look who we have here," a high voice said.

Lady took in painful breaths as she tried to sit up, assessing any other damage to her spirit. She looked around, but not much light reached the bottom of the pit. "Who's there?"

"Don't you recognize me?" the voice said, and there were soft footsteps until Angie, the witch she had killed nearly a year ago in Florida, became close enough to see. She smiled wickedly, "Now, this is interesting. The good little witch-hunter ends up here? In the pit no less. Tsk tsk, you must have been naughty."

"I got pushed," Lady said. "What is this place?"

"It has a few different names," Angie said. "I just call it hell. It's where you sent me. I thought only witches came here when they died. I guess you were one after all."

"I guess I was enough of one," Lady said painfully. "So, you hide in this hole and those things don't eat you?"

"Think I'll tell you my tricks of surviving this place?" Angie shook her head. "I was just on my way to answer the call of Garrett, going to be by his side. But this…I'd rather be stuck here and enjoy tearing you apart than escape this place."

Lady worked to protect her fragile insides and broken leg as Angie tackled her and worked on beating her into the ground. Fingernails clawing at her eyes, a knee into her chest to take away her breath, a kick to her broken leg to make her scream.

"Angie, stop," a man ordered.

"No! She killed me!"

"She killed me, too. Don't you think I deserve a chance?"

Lady let out soft painful whimpers as Ian, another witch she had killed in Florida nearly a year ago, stood over her. "Just finish it," she begged.

"I expected more fight from you," Ian muttered. "Angie, leave."

"No. I at least want to watch," Angie said in a feral voice.

Ian put a hand on her shoulder, and with a fluid movement slammed her head into the rocks. Lady looked up at him fearfully as Angie went still, her head leaking onto the rocks. "I never liked her," he said, kneeling down so he could be on the same level as Lady. "You killed me and sent my spirit into slavery for Garrett. Do you know what I want to do to you?"

"I know what I'd want to do to me," Lady breathed fearfully.

"Then you know how insanely painful it is for me to assist you," he said. Lady looked at him with wide eyes. "The Goddess is free and unchained. Garrett is calling upon all spirits he can command to assist him in binding her again. I must answer his call. I must obey, that is all I can do. You understand his power. Maybe you can't fight him as a spirit, but you can aid others to do so."

"How?"

"We just have to reach a crossroads," Ian answered. "I can lead you to one, but it will be up to you to claw yourself out of this place. I want to be free of Garrett, I want him to die."

Lady let Ian help her stand, and he let her use him as a crutch as they walked down the path. "So, uh…about the knife to the throat," Lady said awkwardly. "Well, I'm not sorry about that. You know that, right?"

"This is a long journey, do you have to talk?" Ian asked.

"I'm trying to stay conscious," Lady said. She managed to stay quiet for a long time before saying, "What is this place?"

"Official name? I don't have one. Garrett has called it Folkvangr before. If he's right that is where Vikings who died in battle went, sort of like their heaven. But this is far from heaven," Ian said. "I know what I am. I'm a black witch, I enjoy using black magic...but I never knew just how dark this place could be." Ian stopped, going silent and pressing them against a wall. "Quiet."

Lady watched a cloud of black smoke streak by over them, it tinged the air black for a long time and they didn't move until it had dispersed completely. She had seen black smoke like that before. "Was that a demon?"

"Yes," Ian said. "They travel through areas near crossroads. It means we are close to one."

Lady wanted to beg for a break as Ian helped her hop along, but she felt if she stopped to rest she wouldn't be able to get up again. She believed that Ian wanted Garrett dead, but she was expecting him to smash her head into the rocks like he had with Angie. Her best chance at being ready was to keep herself moving so she could avoid the crash she wanted to take.

"Is Ananda here?" Lady asked, wondering if the witch that had cursed her ten years ago was still floating around as a spirit.

"If she is I haven't seen her," Ian said. "Fortunate. She'd slay us both if she was. Most witches end up in this pit. It's safe, not many of the monsters come down here."

"How do you get out?" Lady asked.

"Garrett summons us," Ian said. "Not you, obviously. The ritual sites are on intersections of ley lines that are thin enough for us to pass through. I'll take you as far as I can, but like I said it is up to you to get out."

The tops of the cliffs didn't seem as high as they made their way, but the bottom of the pit became more narrow. Several black orbs were visible in the distance and Ian pressed her against the wall. "Those are the others. Weak-willed spirits, they move like schools of fish for protection. Garrett's cannon-fodder, but if they see you they will attack like wolves."

"What are they doing?" Lady asked.

"Something is blocking their way out, they aren't smart enough to find another way. I can resist Garrett for a short time, but time is running out." Ian looked around. "I'll round them up and guide them away. Once it is clear you are on your own."

Lady rested her head against the rock-wall. She couldn't walk on her own, she could barely stand up without assistance. She watched from the distance as Ian walked into the group of shapeless spirits, rounding them up like sheep and guiding them. She waited several minutes to make sure they wouldn't turn back before leaning against the wall and hopping her way to the spot they had gathered. Once she reached it she fell over, her hands searching the black dirty for a way out.

Lady understood crossroads. They were weak points between the spirit world and the real one. Even demons used crossroads as a way to move around. And ley lines had their own crossroads as points of power. "So, uh, this thing have a doorknob or something?" She muttered weakly. "Max? Hello?" she called. She was at a cross in the cliffs. A deep and narrow split between rocks. One going east and west, another going north and south, with her in the middle of them. It wasn't a traditional crossroad, but it was definitely an in-between place where the fabric between realities could be weak enough for her to cross over or at least speak to the other side.

But nothing happened.

She laid on the ground, resting and trying to find the will to keep moving through the pain. And then she heard flaps of wings and saw a dark cloud of ravens overhead. Lady crawled out of the open center and to the moderate cover of the rocky wall. Avoiding getting her eyes gouged out by ravens was enough motivation to keep moving. This place wasn't working, and Max had pointed her in the direction she was supposed to go before. Lady pulled herself back to her feet and leaned against the wall as she hopped along, going north, or the direction she was considering north. The direction where there were hills and mountains. She hadn't seen crossroads, but that was where Max had pointed her. But Max had also pushed her over a cliff. Causing Lady to fall down the cliff or not, taking Max's advice was the only thing she knew to do.

What felt like miles of hopping the terrain began to raise and the walls fell away. Lady was out of the dark pit. The area she was in now was mostly grassland, not many places to hide and nothing for her to lean against. She tried at first to walk, telling herself that her leg wasn't really broken. That she wasn't really a solid person at all, she was just a spirit. But her leg was definitely broken and there was no way in hell she was going to try and put weight on it again. So she crawled.

Monsters weren't the only thing infesting the realm. As she crawled insects came up from the ground in swarms. Beetles and ants crawled and nibbled on her, spiders as big as her fist charged at her until she swatted them back. It wasn't until she found a large stick that was thick enough to support her weight that she was able to get back to her feet and use that as a crutch. It helped her move faster and kept the worst of the insects from attacking.

When she thought the insects were the worst this region had to offer she heard howls that made her go cold, and the snapping barks to signal an attack that made her try to move faster. She was at the bottom of the first hill she'd need to get across, and she moved as quickly as she could in hope that at the other side of the hill would be salvation. She'd take a tree to climb, a cave to crawl into, or a river of lava to dive in. She wasn't picky, just something so she didn't have to be torn apart.

Lady found something. She found what Max had sent her to find at the top of the hill. Burned into the grass there was the design of a medicine wheel. Not a traditional crossroad, but it was a spot of power. She hoped this was what Max had told her to go to, at least, because she could hear snapping jaws and feel heavy paws vibrating the ground nearing her. "Max? Max!" Lady called as she fell into the center of the circle. She swung the stick she had been using as a crutch at the first black dog that reached the top of the hill, hitting it on the side of the head and sending it toppling back down. "Oh god, no!" Lady shrieked as three more dogs reached the top. One snapping at the other while the last one lunged into the circle.

Lady fell back and got her arm in the dog's neck. Hours of playful wrestling with Freddie meant she had practice handling large dogs. However Freddie had never tried to rip her throat out. The dog's teeth sank deep into her arm, crushing the bones and shaking, nearly tearing the limb off. Lady screamed in pain as another dog grabbed what had been her good leg, pulling and shaking. Lady tried to save herself from the kill, the teeth to the throat, she knew was coming from the remaining dog. Each of them were just as large as Freddie, and all of them full of feral rage that she couldn't protect herself from. Lady closed her eyes, too afraid to watch as the dog's jaws opened wide and its sharp teeth gouged into her neck, clamping tight to choke her.

There was another crack of thunder that sounded like it was right over her, and the black dogs paused in tearing her apart before running away with fearful whimpers. Lady didn't move. The pain was too much, she had nothing left to fight with and no hope.

Max appeared and knelt beside her, putting a hand on her chewed up throat. Lady looked at Max with contempt, even as the old medicine woman seemed to look down at her with sympathy and compassion that she had never showed when they were alive. "It is time, child," Max said gently, gathering the frail and broken spirit of Lady in her arms and guiding her through the ley lines.

**A/N** –_Hey guys, thanks for the reviews. I hope these chapters aren't getting too crazy, but at the same time I needed them to be a bit crazy. This 'Goddess' arc has one more chapter to it after this, just so you know it doesn't go on forever. I don't want to spoil anything, but we're all Supernatural fans here and I think we know that characters have trouble staying dead. I don't plan on making it a habit, but there is a method to my madness and I promise if you hang around it'll make more sense. _

_Also I just like saying thank you for the reviews because they make me so happy :D. This story just hit 80 reviews, which is the most I've ever gotten. And it is about to reach 9,000 views (I sort of stalk my story traffic). And I know with a story of this length not many people can stand to sit through and read it all. If I didn't have bills to pay I'd probably write all the time. So again, thank you for following and reviewing. And I'll get around to getting that next chapter up eventually ;)  
_

_Songs for this chapter:_

_Alice, by Avril Lavigne _

_New Divide, by Linkin Park_


	55. ND Medicine Wheel Part 3, March 2007

**North Dakota. March 19, 2007**

Max had only vanished for five seconds before reappearing with a tiny glimmering light. The Goddess lifted her head back and laughed, "What do you plan to do with that spirit?"

"Put her where she belongs," Max answered, and thrust the light forward into The Goddess's chest.

The Goddess tilted her head and rubbed at her chest as if it was tender. "I almost feel sorry for the thing," she said. "How broken and beaten…oh, she hates you. You think that trying to…" Her words choked off and she gripped at her chest, and then dropped to her knees.

"What's happening?" Jo asked anxiously as the temperature spiked several degrees.

"I think we want to take a few steps back," Maxine said, guiding the group back as The Goddess let out a howl.

Lady didn't have time to appreciate Max's rescue, the instant she had to breathe and be free from having her insides ripped out by spectral black dogs she was on fire. She felt the immense heat, the burning coils wrapping around her like a giant constrictor. The pain numbed as the fire seemed to enter her brain, digging deep inside, and she heard hisses in a strange language. Lady's mind went wild in pain, flashes of her life bombarding her in an attempt to distract her from the pain. And flashes of some other strange existence that was so vast she couldn't keep up with it.

And then everything went dark and quiet.

The Goddess collapsed and took in raspy dying breaths. The wounds that had been inflicted on her body began to pump blood and pale eyes looked up at the sky in a blank daze.

"What did you do?" Bobby asked as the temperature dropped.

Max knelt next to the still form and put her ghostly hand on the forehead, "When you live as long as I have, or as long as The Goddess has, you forget the power of life."

"That's it? She's dead?" Dean asked. "What did you do?"

Max looked at him, "I have introduced The Goddess to her equal, and at the same time her opposite. Balanced the power, healed corruption..."

"We still have a problem," Sam said anxiously as the earth shuddered again, barely listening to the old medicine woman's quiet ramblings.

"Can we hold them back?" Maxine asked, looking to Max.

Max was quiet as she waked around the edges of the circle. "We won't have to. Garrett has felt the change, the shift in power. He's coming, and he'll hold them back himself."

"Jo, the binding ritual?" Dean asked.

Jo was already turning the pages of the notebook, "Got it."

"Bobby, cover her," Dean ordered, checking his pistol.

"You cannot kill Garrett," Max said.

"I'm sure as hell going to try," Dean said.

"Max, what do we do?" Maxine asked urgently.

Max looked at her granddaughter, "We do nothing."

Blue flames erupted in the center of the circle, and when they receded Garrett was standing there, apparently healed from the injuries he had received the night before. He nudged Lady's body with the toe of his boot before clapping gently. "Max, I knew you'd manage a way to get rid of that little problem."

"You cannot take from her power any longer," Max said.

"There is plenty of power that remains," he answered. "You only took the conscious part of her away, the power is still there. Even better this way, don't have to worry about accidentally waking up a pissed off God when I want access to it."

Dean aimed and fired his pistol. Maxine ducked away and covered her ears. Once Dean's clip was empty he wasted no time in reloading, but before he could complete it Garrett was inches from him. Garrett wrapped a hand around his neck and lifted him up. Dean choked and his feet scratched at the ground. "I've been against your kind before, boy," Garrett said. "Guns, knives, fire…they don't work. Why don't you give up?"

Sam went to his brother's side immediately, but Garrett held him back without even touching him. Bobby shifted on his feet anxiously as Jo quietly began reciting the binding ritual behind him. He wanted to help Dean, but he needed to stay between Jo and Garrett.

Freddie had mixed feelings about Dean. The dog didn't appreciate having to share a bed with him, and he sort of blamed Dean for making his little Chihuahua friend disappear. But Dean gave him the funny water that could make the room spin. Maybe Freddie wasn't so sure what to think about Dean, but he knew he didn't like what Lady was doing on the ground. And he definitely didn't like Garrett. Freddie couldn't help the snarl that came out of his throat when he jumped on Garrett, his teeth biting in the arm that was holding Dean and shaking furiously until he heard funny sounding snaps.

Garrett couldn't be killed by physical injury but he felt pain just fine, and the massive dog trying to rip his arm off was inflicting a lot of it. He stumbled back, snarling himself as he tried to get the dog off of him. Freddie just growled louder as tendrils of smoke began to lift from his collar.

"Freddie! NO!" Sam hollered, stepping forward as Garrett pulled out a knife.

"Get off me, mutt!" Garrett snarled, sinking a blade deep into Freddie's neck above his collar.

Freddie let out a short whine that echoed and released Garrett. Freddie fell beside Lady, and weakly licked her hand a few times as his blood pooled on the ground.

As Sam and Dean tried to restrain Garrett as he was weakened while Maxine stepped forward, tears running down her face as she dipped her fingers in Freddie's pooling blood and smeared it on Lady's face and over visible wounds, chanting softly as Max instructed her what to do.

Lady was taking in cold breaths of air, her insides felt like ice and her skin felt like fire. There was pain all over. Throbbing pain from spectral wounds she had experienced, but the new stabbing like pain in her side and chest that hadn't been there before. She was looking at a sky with stars, smelling cold winter snow. And she heard voices, people talking. It took a few moments to push back everything that had happened to really become aware, and when she did her focus returned. Something about her felt different, like something was curling around her insides and through her blood. Somehow Max had gotten her out of that spirit realm, and she was alive. Maxine was over her, touching parts that hurt the worst while muttering softly in her native tongue.

Lady began fully aware of what was happening, slowly looking away from the sky to those around her. Sam and Dean were working together, trying desperately to contain Garrett but failing horribly as his power returned.

"Let them go," Lady said roughly as Sam and Dean both became held.

Garrett turned, his lips parting in surprise. "You're dead."

Lady was still pulling herself up from the ground, Maxine was there to help her. She looked dazed, even stoned. She looked down at her body, touching the holes from gunshots. "When did I get shot?" And then she saw Freddie on the ground, and couldn't speak because she was on shock.

Garrett faced Lady with a grin, "Brilliant magic, Max. I knew you were clever, but I did not believe you would try something so unreliable."

"I've known Lady a long time," Max said. "I had faith she wouldn't succumb."

"Doesn't look like she's holding up very well," Garrett chuckle. With a flick of his hand Maxine toppled back from Lady, and without Maxine to help support her she fell over, and she put her hands on Freddie. He wasn't breathing, the blood wasn't pumping from the wound in his neck.

"Lady?" Dean called roughly.

Lady's eyes searched around sluggishly and paused when they met his. "You need to run," she said roughly, trying to get back to her feet.

"Yes, they do, don't they," Garrett said, grabbing a fistful of her hair. "Look at this. All the power in a nice package. A little leaky, but I have duct tape."

Lady grabbed his throat and Garrett let out a startled choke as she squeezed. Blue fire erupted from her eyes. The temperature spiked in the area again. "You killed my dog," Lady said furiously.

"You can't control it," Garrett choked out.

Lady didn't hear him. The shock and fear was clearing from her mind. The pain was lifting and she recognized the strange feeling that was inside her. It was power. Raw power that she had felt ten years ago when Ananda's ritual was interrupted and hit her full force. But it was a thousand times more potent. It was as if she had taken a shot of speed. Her mind was clear and sharp, she felt strong and fast while everything around her slowed down.

"Kid!" Bobby shouted. Fire retreated from her eyes but she didn't release her hold on Garrett.

She looked at the huddled group. She couldn't see Jo but she heard a whisper of her voice reciting a complex binding ritual. Her hold loosened on Garrett and he sucked in a much-needed breath. "You really going to dip into the magic, Lady? You've been staying as far away from it as possible for years," he said, his voice pleading.

"I think you need to see what you created, Garrett," Lady said.

She could feel the ley lines vibrating right below her, and it was easy to slip back into them and to carry Garrett down into them with her. It was easy because it was like the ley line wanted to be under her command, wanted to serve her and grant her entrance.

The earth cracked and shuddered with the force. The cliff split and crumbled down into the lake below, crashing into the ice and into the frozen water. The hill in the spirit realm where Max had finally rescued her split and cracked as well. The incredible force of power she had shoved through the intersection of ley lines had destroyed it. She felt the power of the line shift until it was barely a thread.

She was back in the spirit realm. The area was now swarming with the hungry fiends of corrupted spirits that had once been worshippers of The Goddess.

"This is your great plan? I conquered traveling through the lines of power long before your ancestors washed upon the shores of America," Garrett laughed. His laughter was cut short when he was unable to move back into the real realm. "You trapped us both here?"

"Your powers are bound," Lady said. She had waited just long enough for Jo to complete the binding ritual. "You know, black magic ends up destroying most witches in the end. You are way past your expiration date, pal."

Lady didn't flinch at the terrified screams as Garrett tried to fight off the incoming hordes of fiends. They tore into his flesh and spirit, destroying him piece by piece. She stayed still, ignored by the beasts. Her clear mind was telling her she should run while the monsters were occupied. But she didn't move. She watched until nothing was left of Garrett. His pieces filled the bellies of dozens of fiends that fought each other to lick blood from the grass. She could feel his life force being extinguished. She swallowed hard and began to back away, soon the fiends would be hungry again. They'd look for anything to chew on.

Lady got a safe distance away before turning and running. She felt another source of power, a crossroad, not far from her. All she had to do was be faster than the fiends. Above her the sky was speckled with ravens and larger birds, all of them making noise to signal that they had found a meal. Smaller birds, sparrows and whippoorwills, were singing to her from the sky and diving down at her. Their tiny claws grabbing at her shirt and hair, trying to pull her back.

When Lady got close enough to the intersection she saw where she would end up if she used it to return to the real world, underwater. But she didn't have time to keep running, the fiends were faster than her and were hungry for more blood. She sucked in a breath and let the power guide her, it was as easy as breathing.

Easier than breathing, because when she slipped through the line she was surrounded by ice cold water that made her want to gasp for air. The water around her heated quickly though, nearly boiling and sending her toward the surface quickly.

The ice on the surface was nearly a foot thick, and exploded upward. Water shot fifteen feet into the air and Lady broke the surface to suck in a grateful breath. Her hands grabbed edges of ice as her limbs felt numb and heavy with the cold. She tried to pull herself up, but the ice around the hole was fragile and kept cracking and breaking apart.

"Lady! Hold on!" Sam's voice called.

"Stay back!" she called as loud as she could. The ice had been cracking all day, with the large hole she had created it wasn't stable. And then her head dipped under the water as she lost her grip on the ice. She struggled back to the surface. "GET BACK!" She ordered, her voice sounding strange, almost as if it was vibrating with power.

The water around her began churning and she struggled to get herself out. The water heated around her, sending steam rising into the cold night. And then the water erupted out like a geyser, within the water were thousands of spirits and fiends that had escaped into the real world behind her. "Oo, that wasn't supposed to happen," she said grimly.

Lady sucked in a breath before being dragged down under the water, kicking at whatever had grabbed hold of her leg until she was free and could reach the surface again for a breath. When she reached it a hand grabbed her arms and pulled at her.

Lady grabbed back anxiously and saw her savior was Jo. Light and agile enough to avoid the worst of the cracks in the ice, and stupid enough to attempt it. "Lady, are you okay?" Jo asked as pulled Lady across the ice and away from the dangerous hole.

Lady looked up at the sky that was once speckled with brilliant stars. Now the stars were blotted out with black spirits and fiends.

"I think I screwed up, Jo," she said, wrapping an arm around her chest as wounds began to throb again.

"Come on," Jo got Lady's arm around her shoulder and moved her to the group that had gathered on a safe part of the ice. Mason's family along with Bobby and the Winchesters. "Lady! Move your ass!" Jo said anxiously as black fiends and spirits of witches splashed out of the hole.

Max's own spirits were joining the fray, and Lady had to stop and look. Spirits bound in Garrett's power and spirits bound to Max's power tore at each other. The fiends from The Goddess's realm tore at all of them, even at each other.

"Lady, is it you in there?" Dean asked as she reached them.

Lady couldn't look at him, she could barely tear her eyes away from the horror she had just unleashed in her hasty exit of the spirit realm. "Not completely," she admitted in a high voice.

Dean put a hand on her shoulder and turned her so she had to look at him, "How are you alive?"

She finally met his eyes. "I don't think I am." She looked down at her chest. Holes in her clothes, an ache in her heart, blood still leaked from the wound in her side.

"Hey, you are going to be okay," he said, holding her face and making her look back up at him. "Just, whatever is holding you together can last until we get you somewhere. We'll get you checked out, and…and it's over. Garrett is dead, The Goddess is gone. Right?"

"Not exactly," Lady said, putting her hand on his and pulling it away from her face. She looked at the group on the ice. "You all need to run," she said, taking a few steps back. "I can't see which side is going to win, but I know which one of them has the biggest numbers."

"What is going on, Lady?" Sam asked.

"Some idiot sort of unbound a few hundred dead witches and a few thousand corrupted spirits," Lady said, and pointed at herself, "The idiot is me. Just run…"

"We aren't leaving you, kid," Bobby said, having a hard time looking at her.

Lady turned around, they would be running soon.

She didn't understand the power inside her. Garrett was right, she had no idea how to use it. But she had managed to stay alive by winging it for years. The time she had taken months to plan something she had ended up dead and holding onto ancient power of a pagan Goddess.

Two spirits of Garrett's, black and shapeless, had broken from the group. Blue fire erupted from Lady's eyes and she reached out. There was an unnatural sound as the spirits burned and died. She took steps forward, and barely had to think about it as she continued. The power seemed to understand exactly what she wanted, and blue fire consumed all the dark corrupted spirits.

Lady collapsed on the ice. There was a sizzling sound and she realized it was because her whole body was overheating, hot enough to cause steam to rise around her.

Max's spirit stood next to her, "You've done well, Lady."

Lady looked up at the sky, still hundreds, maybe thousands, of the damn birds were flying above her. Circling and looking to take her back. Around her she heard sounds of sparrows and whippoorwills calling, and she felt her broken spirit inside being pulled toward them.

"What did you do to me, Max?" Lady asked.

"Would you believe this is the best fate I could find for you?" Max asked. She touched Lady's face gently, "You can find peace that you never gave yourself in life. You don't have to fight any more." Lady looked at the blood that covered her torso and rubbed at the holes that were there, suddenly feeling very weak and human. "The magic will let you hold onto life if you want it to, but it isn't permanent."

"I guess this is it," Lady said stiffly.

"No, wait," Sam said. "We...we have to be able to do something!"

"They are going to carry you back there," Max said. And Lady knew she meant the birds. The sparrows and the whippoorwills that were singing. They were singing for her. They didn't want to attack her, they wanted to lead her back into the realm of the dead where she belonged. "But I'm holding them back from taking you."

Lady sat up slowly and got to her feet, facing Max. "Because you are so merciful," Lady said. "I can't even be surprised by what you did. Everyone here could have died tonight."

"I knew you would not let them," Max said.

"You used me," Lady said.

"Yes," Max admitted. "Forgive me. You wouldn't have done what was needed had you known. But I did not do this with the intention of letting you die…and stay dead. Forgive me for the pain you have had to bear. I will tell you how to save your life. The power you were able to command will go back into its dormant state. Your wounds will heal. And you can go on living as you wish." Lady gave her a hard look, waiting for the catch. "Unless you'd rather return to where you were. There are still plenty of the fiends left, and the power you have will not save you in the spirit realm."

"Kid, now isn't the time to be stubborn," Bobby said, looking anxiously as the birds began to fly lower. Maxine was behind him, softly chanting in her native tongue to keep them at bay, but it only seemed to be slowing them down.

"Fix it," Lady demanded, glaring at Max.

Max guided her closer to the group until Lady was standing before Jo. "The only way you could ever survive destroying Garrett," Max said. "A life for a life."

Jo looked confused for a moment as all eyes fell on her, and then surprise and fear filled her eyes. "You mean you want to _sacrifice_ me? That's why I'm here? That's how I'm supposed to help?"

Lady turned to Max, "She's my friend."

"You don't have time to find a stranger," Max said. "You know the magic, Lady. You've looked at the rituals. Everything you need we can get within minutes."

Lady looked at Jo sadly, "I'm so sorry."

"Lady…" Jo began to protest.

"I'm sorry you got into this, I really am," Lady said. "You are the first blonde that I actually liked hanging around."

"Lady, you don't…" Jo began.

"I'm not going to kill you, Jo. Just remember to dance, okay?" Lady said firmly. Jo's eyes widened and sadness replaced the fear.

"You would choose to go back to that horrible place in favor of saving one life?" Max taunted her.

Lady turned to Mason's family, "Is this what any of you ever expected from the woman who claims to have spent centuries protecting you? Human sacrifice? She could have killed Garrett herself decades ago, instead she let him continue what he was doing." She looked at Derek, "She knew Nicole would go to you so you could lead her here." Lady looked at Maxine who was still chanting to keep the birds at bay. Maxine gave her a small nod that no one else noticed. "My life for yours, Jo's life for mine. No, not going to happen." Lady turned to Max, "And thing is, you don't know any more than that. Let me guess, you can't see past this, can you?"

"I see everything," Max said. "Lady, you only have moments before we can no longer hold them away from you. They are calling for your soul."

And Lady could see the future coming quickly, unlike she had before. She saw herself giving her friends a hundred different tearful goodbyes. She looked at Dean, "I really don't handle goodbyes well."

He looked at her, tears welling up in his eyes, "I can't lose you, Lady."

"To be honest it always felt too good to be true, but I just ignored it," Lady said softly. "Just, uh…know I chose this. My life isn't worth taking someone else's. I can't do that. But I promise, this is over with me. Garrett, The Goddess, the coven. It's all over." Lady sniffed and looked at Bobby. "Sorry."

Lady walked away from the group and to Max. Lady put her hands on Max's shoulders. "I just want you to know, out of all the people who have dicked me over in my life, you take the prize."

"I did what I had to," Max said without apology. "I always told you that black magic was where you strength lied. I did not think you would resist it forever. I gave you the chance, but you have chosen to go back to being trapped in the spirit realm alone."

"And I made that choice," Lady admitted. "But I'm not going back there alone." Max tried to move from Lady, but Lady held on firmly. Blue fire erupted from her eyes. "Maxine!" Lady called.

Maxine took several breaths and quit chanting. The birds went into a frenzy above them. "We don't need you, Max," Maxine called. "Your ways, the old ways, are not how we want to live. Not when it means betraying those we take in as family." Max began to scream as the birds descended on her and Lady. "It's a new millennium, grandmother, and it has no room for someone like you."

The birds clawed and pecked at Lady and Max, but Lady didn't make a sound as she focused all her energy into holding onto Max. The birds were gathering other spirits that Max had bound over the years, the spirits didn't fight them. Maxine was freeing them from their service, from the service Max had bound them in. Max was the only one who wanted to hold onto the shadow of her life, the only one who screamed over the birds calls and songs.

The ice cracked below them and Lady sucked in a breath as she plunged into the dark icy water. She didn't struggle, except for keeping Max with her, as the spectral birds dove into the water and dragged the pair back into the intersection of ley lines under the lake.

The group retreated as the ice became more unsteady, and went to the shore. Maxine watched over the ice for several minutes, and the sounds of birds quieted. "It is over," she announced sadly. She turned to the Winchesters, Jo and Bobby, "If I had known this was what Max had put into motion I would have stopped it. Probably why she never told me." Maxine put her arms around her mother who broke down in fearful sobs.

"What are we supposed to do with you?" Bobby asked.

Maxine looked at him with large brown eyes, "I'm going to serve my family, the best I can. But I am going to do it my own way. The spirits are free, this land is barely safe anymore."

Defeated, the hunters abandoned the lake and walked back to Mason's house. Mason's family retreated inside while the hunters went to retrieve a fallen companion.

Bobby knelt beside Freddie. He took the collar off from around his neck, finding bare burned flesh below. The collar had several words of Latin scratched in to protect the dog from magic, but not to protect him from a blade. He wasn't sure if the charmed rubies were still stuck in his stomach or not. The dog had saved Dean's life, all of their lives, when he attacked Garrett. Dean silently took the collar as Sam and Bobby wrapped Freddie in a sheet to take him down the hill and back to the truck.

"What do you think she did to Garrett?" Sam asked.

"He killed Freddie," Dean said flatly. "She made him pay."

It was quiet to the drive back to the Casino. Dean parked the borrowed truck next to his Impala, and before Sam could get out of the truck Dean was already driving off.

"Is he going to be okay?" Jo asked.

Sam shook his head, "I don't know."

"You should follow him," Jo said. "I'll take the book. I'll destroy it. Lady told me how to. I'll take care of it."

Sam handed her the black book that they had taken from Lady's trailer, "Thanks, Jo."

"I hate to ask," Bobby said, looking at Jo's station wagon, "Think you can give me a ride home?"

Jo nodded, "Yeah. Of course."

**After Lady's Death**

Jo dropped Bobby off in South Dakota and helped him unload Freddie's body. Bobby knew that the past several years Lady had spent a lot more time in North Dakota than with him, and he felt guilty for letting her now that he understood how Max had used her. He wasn't going to bury Freddie up there, not where foul witches like Max had resided. He took his time getting a grave dug near the edge of the property where Lady used to throw the ball for Freddie, and put the dog to rest. He marked the grave with a large stone.

Ten years. No matter how old he got that was a long time to know someone. And Lady had always been likable. He opened his fridge, frowning at the bottles of ranch he got because of her. He closed the fridge, not hungry and beer was not strong enough. He grabbed the good liquor and a glass, sitting at the table and pouring himself a drink. "Ya did good, kid," Bobby said quietly before taking a long drink that burned all the way down. "Pain in my ass, all the way to the end. But ya did good." It had been a fear of his, for years, that Lady's knowledge of black magic would eventually become too much of a temptation. He was grieving, but he was still proud of her.

Sam had followed Dean and caught up to him a few days later. He had expected Dean to be drinking, drunk, passed out…something along those lines. But he should have known better. Dean grieved best when he stayed busy. Busy to the point that he couldn't think about anything other than what he was working on.

Not that he hadn't been drinking. But Dean appeared to have been productive. The grease on his clothes told meant he had first worked on the Impala, but now Dean was working on a job.

"Sorry for running off," Dean muttered.

"No, I get it," Sam said quickly. Looking at the papers Dean had been reading and noticed that Lady's silver charm bracelet was on them.

Dean saw Sam's eyes fall on it and quickly stuffed it in his pocket. "It was Dad's before it was hers, I'm just taking it back," Dean muttered. Stealing from Freddie, even if he was a dead dog, was pretty low.

"You okay?" Sam asked.

Dean gave him a brief glare that told him he wasn't up for talking about it but answered, "We couldn't even give her a funeral," Dean said bitterly. "No, Sam, I'm not okay. Everyone we love, we care about, die. And it's never pretty when they go. But Lady made her choice, wasn't our fault, and she even managed to get in some revenge. Nothing more than I can do but get back to work."

It was more than Sam had expected. "I'm really sorry," he said. Sam had loved Lady as a friend, even like a sister. He missed her already, but he was going to deal with that on his own. Right now he was worried about his brother. Dean didn't deal with loss well, and Lady had been the first new person he had let into his life for a long time.

"Not our fault, Sammy," Dean said bitterly.

"What are you looking at?" Sam asked.

"That prison haunting," Dean said. "I called Deacon, we worked out a plan."

"I…" Sam began to say he didn't think it was a good idea. He wasn't ready for a job, he didn't feel up for it. He felt sick to his stomach with grief over losing Lady, and the concern for his brother. They had lost their father and Lady within a year of each other, it was a hard blow. "Okay, what do we have?" Sam asked, pushing his grief away to focus on the job and help his brother.

Jo Harvelle was making a road trip. After dropping Bobby off she kept driving south. She wasn't sure where she was going until she was halfway there. Lady and her had a rocky start, but Lady had been the one to not only acknowledge her desire for the job, but let her use her talents and feed her hunger for knowledge. She'd been a good friend. They'd saved each others lives, and Lady had not only spared Jo's life but avenged the threat of Max. For a second Jo had thought that Lady may actually do it, kill her to save her own life. But the more Jo thought of it she realized Lady wouldn't have even sacrificed another witch to save her own life.

The Roadhouse was loud and busy. Jo walked in and stood in the doorway a full minute watching her mother serving beers and chatting loudly with the crowd before she was noticed. Ellen froze, her mouth opening in surprise. Ellen had only heard from Jo through postcards and a very few phone calls, she hadn't seen her daughter since October. The next instant Jo was wrapped in her mother's embrace and holding on tight as tears fell.

"Jo, baby, are you okay?" Ellen asked, holding Jo's face and looking at the tears. "Come on," she said, leading her into the back. "What happened? What's wrong?" Ellen asked anxiously.

Jo looked at her mother through tears, "Just, uh, Lady didn't make it, Mom." Ellen's eyes widened. Jo wouldn't tarnish Lady's memory with what she had become before she died, she didn't even understand it herself. "I just wanted...I didn't want to be alone. I wanted to see you. I've missed you."

"Of course," Ellen said, hugging her daughter again. "I'm so happy to see you, baby. I've missed you so much. I'm so glad you are okay. I'm so sorry about Lady."

In North Dakota Maxine was accepting full responsibility as the tribe's new medicine woman. Max would never return, and that was a good thing. The spirits that once protected the land were free, allowed to move on into their afterlife wherever that led them. Her family was mourning the loss of a friend, and were trying to see their future without Max's aid. It was a frightening new life for the Masons, and Maxine was more than ready to guide them now.

**A/N** – _Songs for this chapter:_

_Pushing me away, by Linkin Park_

_Blaze of Glory, by Bon Jovi_

_**Another note**__ – With how long this story is, I could end it now. I think I wrapped up most storylines I had with the coven. However I've also left a lot of things open (things that you may not have noticed) and have kept writing. I have an outline of everything I want to happen even up until season 6. I actually giggle when I think about Lady meeting Castiel. So at this time I'm leaving it open to the floor. You guys think this story is complete? Or should we have a back-from-the-dead party? (I've already written Lady's resurrection. And no, Dean doesn't include her in his deal.)_


	56. What Never Should Be Part 1, April 2007

**A/N** – _This chapter takes place during the episode 'What is, and should never be'. I originally wasn't going to write out this chapter because I didn't feel like inserting Lady made it very original, but I wanted to show Dean's closure after Lady's death. Also, I thought so soon after Lady's death she'd still be on his mind a lot. I hope everyone is okay with this, and I'm writing it with the expectation you've seen this episode and know what is going to happen at the end so there is no big cliff hanger._

_As for the resurrection of Lady, as long as people are reading/reviewing I'm going to do it. I'm not going to create a new story, I'll just continue adding chapters. I'm not a fan of having the same story split up into several stories. While I polish up future chapters enjoy this version of one of my favorite episodes in Season 2. Share the story with your friends/forums/communities if you think others will like it!_

**April 15, 2007. Joliet Illinois**

Sam flipped through pages of an old book, tapping his pen with a frown. After they handled the haunting in the Arkansas prison he had hoped Dean would give them a break. Stop at Bobby's for a few nights, check on their old friend. But no. Dean was committed to keeping his emotions bottled up. They were working a new case with several missing persons.

Sam dialed Dean's phone. "Hey, I think I know what we are dealing with here," Sam said.

"Yeah? What?" Dean asked.

"A djinn," Sam answered.

"You're kidding! A freaking genie?" Dean laughed.

"I don't know about that," Sam muttered. "But apparently they've been feeding off of people for centuries. They usually hole up in ruins, the bigger the better."

"You know what, I saw a place a few miles back. I'll go check it out," Dean said.

"No, no wait. Come back and pick me up first," Sam said.

"No, I'm sure it's nothing," Dean said, hanging up on his brother.

Dean turned around and began searching for an old factory he had passed earlier. He had been cruising around for over an hour, just searching for any signs of weird while Sam did research on the area. He hadn't found anything, but driving alone was comforting. Something where he could let his mind wander, but not too far because he still had to pay attention to the road.

He parked at the abandoned factory, a sign declared it a condemned building. He broke in, shining his flashlight on the floor and listening for signs that the building may be occupied by anything more than stray animals. The only thing better than driving was actually working, something that his whole mind had to be focused on and he couldn't think.

Knowing what he was hunting he was prepared. A silver knife dipped in lamb's blood in case a djinn was there. But he didn't think that the lambs blood had been something Lady had suggested they keep available as an ingredient to counter curses, it was just an added tool in their arsenal of weapons against the supernatural. He didn't think that the silver knife was the one she'd used to kill an incubus, it was just a knife. After the hunt was over he'd probably think about it, memories triggering each other, but right now he was eager to be in the hunt.

And ever better, it seemed he had reached the djinn's lair.

Dean caught a shadow of movement that couldn't be from any animal. He pocketed his flashlight and began walking toward where he had seen the movement, wanting to get the jump on the thing. Needing the chance to kill the evil thing that was responsible for several missing persons. Punish something that was responsible for taking away life.

He saw the shadow of movement too late, and was grabbed from behind by the djinn and pinned against the wall. He grunted, the thing was pretty damn strong. It looked human, but its face was covered in mysterious markings that may have passed for normal in Los Angeles but in Illinois would stand out. Dean grunted and struggled as the djinn's eyes glowed electric blue and it put its hand to his forehead.

For an instant Dean was in the dark, knocked out. Very little time seemed to pass when Dean woke up with a jerk as thunder cracked. He sucked in a few shocked breaths and looked around the dark and unfamiliar room. Faint smell of paint, stacked boxes. He wasn't in the factory, he appeared to be in someone's house.

He got out of the bed and patted his pockets, searching for his weapons, not finding them he felt naked as he walked through the dark house. More stacked boxes, as if someone was in the process of unpacking and had given up. He found his cell phone on a table and quickly dialed Sam.

"Dean?" Sam answered.

"Sam?" Dean said in a low voice.

"What's going on?" Sam asked.

"I don't know! I don't know where I am!"

"What? What happened?"

"The uh, the Djinn, it attacked me," Dean said

"The Djinn? You're...drinking gin?" Sam sounded confused.

"No, asshat! The Djinn! The uh, scary creature! Remember? It put its hand on me and I woke up in some strange place. Boxes all over the place."

"You mean your house?" Sam replied and let out a sigh. "Dean, you're drunk. You're drunk-dialing me."

"I'm not drunk! Quit screwing around!"

"Look, it's late. Alright, just get some sleep and I'll...see you tomorrow, okay?" Sam said.

"Wait, Sam! Sam!" Dean shouted into the phone as Sam hung up. He rubbed his forehead and took another look at his surroundings. The boxes were labeled and a few had been unpacked.

He scrambled to the kitchen drawers, looking for a knife, when he heard a door open. But the drawers were empty. Lights turned on and he worked on hiding, not wanting the owner of the house to catch him on their property.

"That's my good boy," a woman said. "Oh, yeah, great, he got a lot of work done while we were gone," she said in a sarcastic tone.

A dog made a low sound and sniffed into the kitchen before happily panting at Dean. "Freddie?" Dean couldn't help but say it. His heart pounded in his chest as he rubbed the dog's head and inched towards the living room.

Lady was straining with bags in both her arms but smiled as she saw him. She let the bags drop, "Hey, babe! I missed you!" she said, walking up to him and wrapping her arms around his neck and giving him a sweet kiss that he found himself unable to return. He was in shock, he wasn't sure that he was breathing. "Nice work getting your stuff unpacked," she said, giving his rear a swat as she went back into the living room.

"Lady?" Dean finally managed to say.

"Yeah?" she looked at him curiously, and then her face changed to concern. "Dean, are you okay?"

He licked his lips, "I don't know. How...you...you're here."

She threw her hands up, "Okay, I know I said I'd be here earlier but we got delayed. Not my fault, the U-haul truck sort of stalled on the highway. Okay, maybe that was sort of my fault, but I'm only like an hour late."

"U-haul? What...what's going on?" he asked.

"Have you been drinking?" she asked.

"No!" Dean said defensively. "I..." he let out a breath and walked up to her and pulled her into a tight hug. His arms wrapped around her torso while he buried his face in her neck. She felt the same, damn she even smelled the same! "I'm so glad you are here." Unable to help himself he let out a laugh. "I've missed you."

She returned his hug and happily returned the kiss he gave her. She started laughing and pushed him away, "No, no, no! You were supposed to have all of this unpacked and cleared out of here. Let me be mad at you for...two minutes. Ah, only one because you are so damn cute."

Dean laughed with her and didn't let her go. A wish, the Djinn had given him a wish. As hard as he tried not to think about it Lady's death had been on his mind often. He had felt guilty and cheated by it. "Do you...do you remember anything?" he asked her, hoping she didn't. If he had gotten a chance to think about his wish it would have been that she never had to go through anything unpleasant or painful.

"About...?" she questioned him, arching her eyebrow in confusion. "Did I forget something?"

He shook his head, "Never mind, uh, never mind," he said quickly. If she didn't remember he didn't need to bring it up.

"Can we at least get the living room clear of boxes before we go to bed?" she asked him. "I have a truck full of my stuff we need to bring in."

"Uh, yeah, sure," he said. "Uh...we live here?"

She blinked at him, "Yeah, Dean. A lot nicer than your old bachelor pad, right?"

"I bet," he said, unable to hide the confusion from his face. "And, uh, just where is here?"

"I've had a long drive and I'm tired. No messing around, okay?" she laughed at him and grabbed a box. She pushed it into his arms. "Here is home."

He set the box on the ground and opened it, finding several picture frames wrapped in newspaper. He unwrapped each one carefully, looking at the photos with fascination. Him and Lady on a beach. Lady and Freddie posing together. And he came across one that looked recent. Himself and his mother.

The picture frame slipped through his fingers and the glass shattered. He had trouble coordinating his hands, even moving.

"Oh no!" Lady cried out. "Back, Freddie," she said, and shoved the dog in the bathroom and closed the door to keep him away from the broken glass. "Dean, are you okay? Did you cut yourself?"

"My...mom..." Dean said.

"Aw, I liked that frame," Lady said as she examined the damage. "I bet I can replace the glass. The picture is okay."

"Lady, you know when this was taken?" Dean asked, his fingers touching the picture.

She shrugged, "Looks like last Christmas. I think you two look cute together. Mary is gorgeous." She smiled and sighed, "I can't wait to see her tomorrow."

"Mom is...uh, you know my mom?" Dean asked.

Lady looked at him with concern again, "Of course I do. Dean, you are scaring me."

"I'm a little scared myself," Dean admitted. "I...Lady, I...don't leave. Don't move, don't go anywhere, okay?"

"Where am I going to go?" she asked.

"Just, stay here," he said, walking toward the door.

"Dean!" she called as he walked out.

Dean was taking large breaths of cool spring air and took running steps to the Impala parked beside a U-haul truck. The keys were inside and it started up. He backed out of the driveway and went down the street. It didn't take him long to discover he was in Lawrence, his hometown. And the house he had left was just down the street from the house his mother had died in.

It had been over a year since he had been in Lawrence, stopping a poltergeist from killing the family that had moved into his old house. And there he had seen the ghost of his mother. But he stopped in front of the house, pounding on the door and ringing the doorbell until lights came on inside.

He felt like he had been punched in the stomach when the door opened. He couldn't breathe, the breaths he did take didn't seem to satisfy his need for air. His mother was standing at the door in a robe. "Honey, are you okay?"

"Mom," he breathed, stepping forward and wrapping her into a hug.

She hugged him back, "Dean, what's wrong? Are you okay?"

He shook his head, "I...yeah. Yeah, I am." He released her. "I just...I had to see you."

His mother let him into the house and sat at the dining room table. "Did you have a fight with Lady?"

"No, no...uh...you know Lady?" he asked.

She raised her eyebrows, "Yes, I know Lady. Of course I do! Dean, what is going on?"

"You don't think that wishes can, can really...?"

"What?" Mary looked confused.

"Forget it," Dean breathed. "I get it. I'm just, uh...I'm happy to see you. That's all. You're so beautiful."

"What?" Mary couldn't help but smile at the sincere compliment.

"Hey, when I was uh, when I was young was there ever a fire here?" Dean asked, looking at shelves where pictures sat.

"No, never," Mary answered.

"I thought there was," he muttered.

Mary let out a sigh, "Okay, I get it."

He looked at her with wide eyes, "You get what?"

She smiled at him, "You just bought a house with Lady. You are going through a lot. It's a big step to take."

Dean looked surprised, "I bought a house?"

She laughed lightly, "When your father and I bought this house we were already married. One of the happiest moments of our lives, but it was still scary. Oh, I still miss him."

"Dad, uh...Dad's dead?" Dean said, his mood deflating slightly. "And the thing that killed him was a..."

"A stroke," Mary answered for him. "He died in his sleep, you know that."

"That's great," Dean let out a breath.

"Excuse me!" Mary sounded offended.

"That, that's great. That he went peacefully," Dean said quickly "That sure beats the alternative."

"You've been drinking," Mary said flatly.

"No, I haven't, Mom," Dean said.

"I'll call Lady and have her come pick you up, okay?"

"Wait, no!" Dean said.

"Why? Did you get in a fight with her?"

"No...I don't think so," Dean grimaced.

"Are you sure you are alright?" Mary asked.

"Yeah," Dean said. "I've never been better," he laughed.

"Can you make it home okay?" Mary asked. Dean nodded. "Why don't you and Lady come over for lunch tomorrow?"

"Yeah, we will," he said as she walked him to the door.

When Dean pulled into the house he had left just an hour ago the lights were still on. He walked in and Lady was working on emptying boxes. The stereo was on and she was bobbing her head to the music and humming along. Glass had been cleaned up and Freddie was stretched out on the floor of the kitchen. Dean couldn't take his eyes off of her. He had seen her pretty much destroyed, dragged down into the lake with spectral birds tearing at her.

But there she was. Whole and not bursting into flames. And she didn't remember any of it.

She turned to face him and frowned, "I'm just putting your shit wherever I feel like. Since you couldn't lift a finger to do it yourself. And where the hell did you go?"

"Sorry…uh, sorry," he muttered. "I just had to…something I had to check. I had to check on Mom. I'm sorry, Lady. Just, it's been a strange day."

"Mary is okay, right?" she asked.

He nodded and couldn't help but smile, "She's perfect." Dean grabbed the box she had handed him earlier and worked on putting picture frames on a shelf above a desk. "So we bought a house?" he asked once that box was empty. It was all he could do not to stare in awe at the photos. His father wearing a Santa hat with a very young Sam and Dean on each knee. Him and people he didn't recognize gathered around a table with beers. Himself leaning against the Impala with a smug smirk on his lips.

"Got another one," Lady said, appearing by his side and setting another picture frame on the shelf.

The picture was the two of them, in front of the house they were inside of. They were standing beside a 'For Sale' sign while Lady held the 'Sold' sign. They were in the middle of a kiss.

"We bought a house," Dean said, chuckling to himself. The only thing he ever owned was the Impala, now he owned a house!

Lady let out a tired sigh, "Dean, you better not be having second thoughts about this. I quit my job, left North Dakota, just so we could live together."

He shook his head, "No second thoughts," he promised her.

She looked perplexed, "What is going on with you?"

He grabbed her hands and pulled her to her closer so he could kiss her. The dreams she was in had only made the loss feel worse, but this was no dream. He felt her warmth, tasted her mouth, heard her breathing. "This is...this is incredible," he said, grinning.

"That was incredible," she breathed, pulling him back to continue the kiss. "Mm, maybe it's time to christen the new house?"

Dean kept one arm firm around her back as the other scooped her legs up from under her. Her arms wrapped around his neck as he carried her into the bedroom, navigating the narrow walkway of boxes, before laying her down. She pulled him down with her.

"I missed you so much," Dean breathed into her neck.

She giggled, "I was only gone three days, Dean."

He looked into her eyes, it had been a month. A painful month. He put his mouth on hers, letting out a soft moan at the feeling of her body arching to meet his. Her eyes were intense and serious as she pulled his shirt off. Old scars and recent bruises were gone, as if he had never hunted. And as he undressed her he found smooth skin, not even a tattoo. And he understood just how clear his wish had been.

His mother had never died. His father had never forced them into a life of hunting. Lady had never been marked by her coven, she had never been forced into becoming a witch-hunter. They were just two normal people.

That didn't take away his memories. His memory of losing his mother or her. The constant pain and suffering he'd endured. And it was gone, he never had to experience it again. He had a lifetime of nights like this to look forward to.

"You waiting for an invitation, big guy?" Lady teased as she curled a leg around his back to pull him close to her.

"Shut up, Lady," he chuckled as he slid the head of his erection over her wet slit. Her body shuddered under him and he couldn't hold back any longer. Her hot warmth and lively body had been missed. He pressed himself into her opening while covering her mouth with his, teasing her mouth with his tongue as he buried his erection deep inside of her.

"Oh!" Lady let out a deep moan as he rotated his hips. Her hands moved over his back as her legs rubbed against his.

Dean could barely control his body as the sensations grew quickly, moving faster with need. With his face against hers as he breathed, "Is this okay?"

"Oh, don't stop," she moaned in his ear before kissing it.

He couldn't have stopped if the roof had fallen in on them, her needy breaths and caress of her hands on his body had him fisting the sheets to keep himself from losing it entirely.

"Oh, Dean," Lady moaned as he held her close to him. She took several pants of breath and let out several soft moans while holding him just as tight. "Oh...I should leave more often. My god, that was fantastic. Wow." Dean kissed her and held her close against him as her muscles unwound. She shifted until her back was to him, but he kept the length of his body against hers. The only person Lady always had time to snuggle with was Freddie, but tonight she wasn't getting out of spooning. He had his arm around her waist and held her there, his face resting in her hair that covered the back of her neck. He never thought he'd ever be with the woman he loved again, and he wasn't letting her go.

He was quiet as he remembered her being dead. Thinking he'd never get to see her strange excitement over trivial things like a pair of shoes, or hear her coddle her monstrous dog, or see the wicked glint in her eye or hear her ramble off topic or fall into a fit of giggles until she sounded like Woody the Woodpecker.

"Everything is going to work out," he said quietly. Nothing bad was going to come after them again. No demons. No witches. No pagan gods. He had a whole future. His mother got to live her life. He had his quirky psychic girlfriend back. And tomorrow he'd see his brother. "Things are going to be easy, from now on, Lady," he promised, looking at her to see she had fallen asleep.

Dean closed his eyes, and without trying he fell asleep. Nightmares had been almost constant since Lady's death, and tonight was no different. A jumbled mix of her being consumed by blue fire, being pulled into icy water, Max there laughing at them…

Dean woke up abruptly, his heart pounding in his chest. The sky was lightening outside as dawn approached, and Lady was still asleep in his arms. He kissed her shoulder gratefully. For a long time he just laid there, eyes open because he didn't want to fall back into nightmares. And then he looked up as the bedroom door was nudged farther open so Freddie could trot in.

Dean smiled as Freddie looked up at him with large brown eyes. His biggest competition when aiming for Lady's attention and affection had always been the damn dog. Freddie had saved their asses a few times, he really did like the dog. But it was still bitter knowing his girlfriend would rather share her bed with a smelly mutt than with him. Freddie's tail wagged hopefully as they looked at each other. "Oh, why not. Get up here," Dean said, and Freddie jumped up on the bed. Lady let out a sleepy noise with the movement, but as soon as Freddie settled into the open space on the bed next to her she dropped an arm on him as if he had been there the whole night.

Dean frowned a bit. Lady was a pain in the ass to sleep next to, she jerked awake at the slightest noise. She had explained when she heard pieces of the future they were at an amplified volume. But she seemed to be sleeping soundly right now.

And Dean wondered. If Lady had no coven...did that mean she had never been given her psychic visions? Her sneak peaks into the near future? He snapped his fingers next to her ear. She didn't jerk at the sound until he made it. She mumbled something incoherently and tightened her grip on Freddie, but didn't completely wake up. Lady was still a bit off and goofy, but she was actually _normal_. Dean let out a short laugh and got out of bed. There was no way he was going back to sleep. Now that the fear of the nightmare had passed he was too jittery and happy to go back to sleep.

He went to the living room and looked through a few boxes. Some things he had no clue what to do with, he wasn't sure how they could even be his possessions. Since he was four years old everything he had was required to fit in the Impala, he had never had much. Now he had enough to fill up a house. Photos, clothes, towels, movies, CDs.

He found a box full of loose pictures and sat on the couch to look over them, getting acquainted with the life he didn't remember living. Holiday pictures of his family together, baseball games, school events, him dressed as Batman for Halloween.

He set the box down to look through again later, and picked up one of the bags Lady had brought in. One wasn't much more than an overnight bag, packed with her essentials. Inside he found a wallet and he went through it. She had a driver's license, and a last name. Lady Mason. She had a checkbook and ATM card. Lady was a legal citizen.

A few hours later most of the living room was unpacked when Lady walked out of the bedroom with a sheet wrapped around her, "You let me sleep in with the dog?" she asked. "You are awesome," she chuckled.

Dean walked up to wrap his arms around her and give her a kiss, "I just...I'm really eager to get unpacked. Everything is already perfect, and it just keeps getting better."

She looked impressed at the work he had done while she slept and then looked a bit worried, "Did you get any sleep?"

"Yeah! Of course I did! It isn't like I stayed up all night," he said quickly. It was only a half lie, he had gotten a few hours of sleep. "Still a lot of work to do, but we'll make this place a home yet."

She smiled at his enthusiasm and kissed him again. "Mmm. Think you can put Freddie in the backyard? Not sure I want to flash the neighbors so soon after moving in."

"Sure! Of course," he said as she went into the bathroom, dropping the sheet halfway there. "We have a backyard?" he looked at Freddie. "C'mon, pal." He opened the door in the kitchen and Freddie trotted out into the cool morning. There was a large backyard with a high wooden fence that even Freddie would have a hard time jumping over. "See you, pal," Dean said, closing the door to Freddie and hurrying to join Lady in the shower.

After their shower he left Lady to do some unpacking, letting her know they had plans to go to his mother's for lunch, and left to go to a nearby college.

For the most part Sam was his go-to guy for research on things he didn't know about off the top of his head. However Sam didn't have any memory of the djinn. Without Sam the next easiest thing to do was tap the mind of a local expert.

The professor he went to see had information on djinn. Dean urged him to skip the parts he already knew and asked, "So what about this wish? You think they can really do it?"

"Um, no. I don't think they can really do it. You understand these are mythical creatures?"

"Yeah, I know. But, uh, I mean in the stories. You know. Say you had wish that you never even said out loud. You know, like that, uh, that a loved one never died. Or that something awful never happened?" Dean looked at him hopefully.

"Supposedly, yes. I mean, they have godlike power. They can alter reality. Past, present and future."

"Why would the djinn do it? It was self-defense? Or maybe it's not really evil," Dean muttered, mostly to himself. They must have the djinn all wrong, because it had given him the perfect life.

"Son?" The professor looked at him seriously, and Dean looked at him with his full attention. "Have you been drinking?"

Dean chuckled, "Everybody keeps asking me that. But, uh, no."

He left the college, going to his car and out of curiosity opened the trunk. It was empty except for some random junk. No false-bottom, no weapon stash. "How about that, baby? We're civilians," he chuckled happily and slammed the trunk closed. He took in a deep breath, everything was wonderful, fantastic, beautiful and perfect.

Until he saw a strange woman staring at him from across the street. She didn't fit in with the regular foot traffic, standing still and facing him. She wore a long white nightgown, looked pale and ill. And there was a faint buzzing sound. Dean's good mood soured when the woman vanished and the sound went away. A spirit? He shook his head, not his job. Not anymore.

He returned to his house, his home. Lady was moving boxes from the U-haul truck into the house and it was almost empty. "You work fast," he said.

"I want to get rid of the truck before lunch," she said, kissing him. "Mary called to make sure we're still coming over. I told her we'll be there around one. Is that okay?"

"It's perfect. Everything is perfect," he said, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her neck.

She giggled and returned the affection, "I'm not sure what has gotten into you but I'm liking it," she said, caressing his face.

"So, uh, you and Mom...you like her, right? You get along?" Dean asked.

"Of course! I love Mary," Lady said. "She made the most gorgeous man alive, after all."

Dean grinned. "And, uh...the Masons, in North Dakota?"

"Yeah, what about them?" she asked.

"Uh...how are they?" Dean asked.

"They are good," Lady said.

"And Max...?" If that old medicine woman was still alive he'd correct it swiftly.

"Maxine," Lady corrected. "She doesn't like to be called Max."

"Yeah, but isn't there like...a grandmother named Max?" Dean asked.

Lady shrugged, "Not that I recall. Mason and Greta's parents are dead. Uh, I don't remember them mentioning a Max."

"And you have their last name," Dean said, a bit curious and confused.

"They were the best foster family I ever had," Lady said. "They adopted a nutty teenager when most people kicked me to the curb after two weeks. Yeah, I took their name." She let out a sad sigh, "Dean, you know I don't like talking about..."

"I'm sorry, I know," Dean said quickly and put on his best smile. So she still didn't want to give up her history, fine by him. Maybe her childhood had still been bad enough that she had needed a foster family, but she was here and happy. "I'm just really glad you are here now. And that everything is okay. Lady, I am so happy. I've never...I can't remember ever being this happy. For you, Mom, me. It is, really, a wish come true." He chuckled, "This is so awesome."

Dean spent the rest of the morning hauling boxes, getting rid of the U-haul truck, unpacking and reveling in the little things that were his. Hangers in the closet, laundry baskets, a shower curtain, folding chairs and a local phonebook. Things that had been useless to him in his nomadic lifestyle, but now were a necessity in this new perfect life.

He drove Lady to his mother's and inside he couldn't wipe the grin off his face as he listened to the two women talk happily. Mary had an interest in the house and Lady was sharing ideas and asking questions. They laughed, mostly at Dean and his ridiculous happiness, and enjoyed sandwiches and lemonade.

"Dean, when do you have to go back to work?" Mary asked.

"Work?" Dean looked at her with wide eyes.

"At the garage," Mary specified.

Dean thought about it. He was a mechanic? Well, that suited him just fine. Instead of working on just his Impala he'd work on other people's cars, and get paid for it. His father had been a mechanic, even owned half a shop before their mother had died. He wondered if that was the shop he worked at, or if it was a different one. He'd figure it out eventually.

"You are off until Wednesday, right?" Lady asked, giving him a strange look.

"Yeah, that's right!" Dean agreed quickly. "Hey, Mom, it, uh, looks like the lawn could use mowing. Want me to take care of it?"

Mary's eyebrows went up, "You want to mow the lawn?"

"You kidding? I'd love to," Dean said.

"Knock yourself out," Mary said, exchanging a look with Lady. "You'd think he'd never mowed a lawn before."

"He's acting strange, but I'm sort of digging it," Lady said quietly as he walked out. "I better drag him to the mall before he goes back to normal."

He grinned at the womanly laughter he heard as he walked out of the house. He found the lawn mower in the garage and got to work. Dean walked the lawn mower across the grass. He'd never used a lawn mower in his life, at least not for its intended purpose. He had very distant, memories of watching his father push the lawn mower up and down in lines across the yard when he was a child. Right now he was enjoying the simple manual labor, outside in the sunshine and heat while the two most beautiful women he'd ever had in his life were talking about wallpaper and interior design.

He killed the mower when Lady stepped out of the front door with a beer in her hand. She met him halfway and wrapped an arm around his sweaty neck, "You look like you could use a break," she said, handing him the cold beer.

He held her waist and kissed her happily, "How are things inside?" he asked.

"Good. You know, girl talk," Lady said. "She's gushing over her wonderful son that is helping her do chores, and I'm getting all hot and bothered watching you work."

"I'll take care of that later," he promised, leaning down to nuzzle her neck until she began to giggle and pull away.

"I'm going to finish helping Mary clean up," Lady said, giving him a happy smile before retreating back inside.

Dean sat on the front steps with his beer, looking at the freshly cut lawn and inhaling the scent of the grass that hung in the air. Suburban bliss, he had it. A two bedroom house, girl, dog, job. And he watched as a car pulled to a stop in front of the house. When he thought he couldn't be happier, that if it happened his chest could explode right out of his chest, he was suddenly happier.

He saw Sam's familiar frame in the car and was already on his feet to greet his brother. But the attractive blonde in the passenger seat took a few seconds longer to recognize. Jessica was alive. Of course, if the demon had never attacked his mother it had no reason to go after Jessica later.

"I don't believe it," he muttered, crossing the lawn quickly and wrapping Jessica in a hug. "Jessica!"

"Uh...good to see you too, Dean," Jessica said, patting his back.

He let her go and hugged his brother, "Sammy!"

Dean looked his brother over. He looked confused, but there he was. "Look at you!" Dean gushed. "You're with Jessica! It's...I don't believe it."

"Yeah," Sam said, putting an arm around Jessica's waist protectively.

"Where'd you guys come from?" Dean asked, wondering if they lived nearby.

"We just flew in," Sam answered. "From California."

"California! Stanford, I bet!" Dean said excitedly. Sam had never been drug out of college, had never lost Jessica. "Law school? Right?"

Sam pointed to the half-full beer in Dean's hand, "I see you started off Mom's birthday with a bang, as usual."

Dean's smile faltered a bit, "Wait...Mom's birthday? That's today?"

Sam looked a bit annoyed, "Yeah, yeah, Dean. That's today. That's why we're here. Don't tell me you forgot."

Dean shrugged and gave his best innocent smile. Sam shook his head and rolled his eyes while leading Jessica to the house. Inside the house Lady greeted Sam and Jessica with a polite smile and handshake, while Mary greeted both with a warm hug. Dean put his arm around Lady's shoulders and whispered in her ear, "Did you know today is Mom's birthday?"

She frowned at him and pinched him a little too hard for it to be friendly, "You are lucky you have a nice ass," she said quietly with a roll of her eyes. "Mary, we're going to head home and get some work done. We'll see you guys tonight."

Dean took the exit she gave him and walked outside with her. "You know, I think I'd really like to hang out with Sam and Mom," he said.

"We will tonight," Lady said. "We're going out to dinner tonight for Mary's birthday. We need to get ready, and give her some time with her other son."

**A/N** – _Song for this chapter:_

_Desperately Wanting, by Better than Ezra_


	57. What Never Should Be Part 2, April 2007

**April 16, 2007. Joliet, Illinois**

Lady explained to him that they already had plans to take his mother out to a nice dinner for her birthday, pinching him a few more times for forgetting. It took Lady half an hour to dig through boxes of his clothes until she found something suitable and he had been in a weird state of awe as she helped him find something other than jeans and flannel shirts. "You find any ties?" she asked.

"Uh…yeah," Dean said, holding up three colorful ties. When working he stuck with plain black. But black wasn't an option. There was bright red, neon yellow and electric blue. "What the hell? I do not wear this!"

Lady started pawing through the box he had been looking in, pulling out a tamer tie dark gray with stripes. "This one suit your fashion sense?"

"Better than these," he muttered as he took it. "I still wonder why the hell I have these."

Lady shrugged, "Maybe one of your exes bought them for you."

Dean went still as he thought about that possibility. When looking through photos he had seen a few, actually several, strange women but there hadn't been anything obvious to say if they were more than acquaintances. But instead of driving across the country he had spent his whole life in Lawrence, there were probably a lot of relationships he had to learn about. Not just co-workers or drinking buddies, but something he'd never really had to deal with before. Ex-girlfriends. "Guess I'll throw these," he said.

"Nah, throw them in the nightstand. We can use them some night," Lady said. For a moment he was confused, what purpose did ties have being in a nightstand. Then he caught the naughty look in Lady's eye and he returned her grin.

"Get over here," he said, making her squeal and giggle as he wrapped his arms around her, kissing and gently wrestling until they fell on the bed.

"No, stop! I have to get ready!" she protested.

"We have all afternoon," he said in her ear before giving it a quick nibble.

"No," she giggled. "No. No! I have to get ready, and so do you. We have to look nice for your mother's birthday."

He let out a low growl and satisfied himself with a long kiss that ended when Freddie tried to join in. Lady went to spend some time with her dog while he showered and did something he didn't do often. Shaved.

Shaving, in Dean's mind, was a waste of time and a pain in the ass. Normally he used an electric shaver, sure it left stubble, but took five seconds to get the job done. It didn't cut him and he could do it while driving. However he had been given a new life. He got to celebrate his mother's birthday, he wanted to look nice. So after his shower he stood over the sink with a towel around his waist, carefully shaving the rough whiskers. Lady let out an appreciative whistle as he walked into the bedroom. "Check you out, all suave and sexy," she nearly purred.

He pointed at her, "You give me that look and I'm not letting you get away again."

Lady tried to give him an innocent look that failed when she had to bite back her smile. But she turned her back to him and started picking out her outfit. Lady almost always dressed in something tantalizing, from tight jeans to short skirts. Tonight she looked great, wearing a pale pink dress that went to her knees with straps that tied behind her neck. Her straight black hair brushed her bare shoulders as she examined herself in a mirror. With a quick hand she brushed make-up across her face, not too much. "Stalker," she snorted a laugh as she caught him watching her get ready. She grabbed a wool sweater and pulled it on to cover her shoulders.

He finished tucking in his dress shirt and buckled his belt. He was aching to throw on some jeans and a t-shirt, but he was looking forward to the dinner they were getting ready for. "Hard to not look. You are very beautiful," he said without even thinking about it.

She smiled, "I don't need you to tell me the things I already know, Dean. Check out these shoes, they go with this dress perfectly!"

He let his hands rest on her waist, feeling the soft fabric and her warm body beneath it, "Everything is perfect," he agreed with her and giving her a soft kiss.

"And you look incredibly handsome," she returned the compliment. "I barely recognize my dirty mechanic under there." She put her hands on the sides of his face and pulled him back for another kiss. "Oh my god, this is like making out with someone completely different," she mumbled before starting the kiss again, her hands rubbing his smooth jaw.

He jumped a bit at the unexpected firm pinch she landed on his rear, "Hey! Careful, you're going to bruise the merchandise," he warned. "And don't get used to this."

"I won't. It's like making out with a girl. Fun to do every now and then, but I prefer dudes," she said.

Dean looked at her seriously, "You can't say things like that when we're almost ready to leave the house."

She gave him her best grin, "You are so easy to get worked up. If I didn't like you taking it out on me I wouldn't do it."

He reigned in the lust that had been building since their shared shower that morning and gave her a short kiss. He liked how Lady teased, and she always followed through in the end. He still wasn't used to having someone steady and reliable…hard to be used to it when she died so shortly after they became serious. But he liked it, a lot. So he'd let her torture him with some playful flirting and the images she put into his head, trusting that at the end of the night she'd make up for all of it. "We need to get going," he said, giving her a gentle swat.

The dinner was at a nice restaurant. Dean couldn't recall ever going to such a nice establishment before in his life, well…at least for the purpose of having dinner. His brother was in a nice suit and tie, better than the crappy suits they wore on jobs. He even felt a little under-dressed, the best he had were black dress pants and a blue button-down shirt with a tie. The women, all of them, looked their best and his mother seemed to be glowing with happiness that her family was together with her for her birthday.

Lady and Dean exchanged a concerned look as the first course was brought out, and he had to chuckle as she looked anxiously at the others to see how they enjoyed the strange mess that had been set in front of her. She nudged Dean with her knee and leaned towards him, "What is this?"

"I have no idea," he said, smiling and chuckling again.

Dean was quiet, enjoying listening to Sam catch Mom up on college and his life at Stanford. And then Sam and Jessica made a huge announcement by showing off her engagement ring.

Mary got up, hugging her son and soon to be daughter-in-law. Dean got up, shaking Sam's hand and congratulating him. Every time he kept thinking the world couldn't get any brighter it did. Sam was getting married! To Jessica! Everyone he cared about was safe, happy, and had lives and futures.

And then he saw the spirit again. The girl, standing across the restaurant and watching him, and a faint buzzing noise. He took a few steps toward her, but she vanished before he got too close and the buzzing faded away. He turned around, his elated mood darkened. His family was looking at him with concern and confusion in their eyes.

He played it off as nothing and continued with the nice evening, ending it by taking his mother home and saying goodnight.

"I had a lovely birthday. Thank you. Goodnight," Mary said, hugging her sons and their girlfriends.

Sam turned to Jessica, "Ready to turn in?"

"Sure," she said.

"Goodnight, guys," Sam said.

"Nice seeing you again," Lady said.

"Wait a second. Wait a second! Come on, it's not even nine o'clock yet! Let's all go out for a drink," Dean suggested, not ready to call it a night.

"Yeah, maybe another time," Sam said.

"Come on, man. Look at us! We both have beautiful women on our arms. You are engaged! Let's go celebrate."

Sam let out a soft snort, "Uh, guys, can you excuse us? I just want to talk to my brother for a second."

"Sure," Jessica said.

"Yeah, uh, I'll be in the car, Dean," Lady said, giving his shoulder a slight squeeze.

Dean smiled at his brother. For the first time since Sam had shown up they were alone. "What's gotten into you?" Sam asked.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"I mean this whole warm, fuzzy ecstasy trip thing," Sam said flatly.

"I'm just happy for you, Sammy. For both of us!" Dean wished he could explain, but why drag his brother down with what his life could have been like? It wasn't like he would believe him.

"Yeah, right. That's another thing. Since when do you call me Sammy? Dean, come on. We don't talk outside of holidays."

Dean's face fell a bit, "We don't? Well, we should! You're my brother."

"You're my brother?" Sam repeated.

"Yeah!" Dean laughed.

"You know, that's what you said when you snaked my ATM card, or when you bailed on my graduation, or when you hooked up with my prom date. On prom night."

Dean grimaced slightly, "Yeah, that does sort of sound like me. Well, hey man, I'm sorry about all of that." Dean said, stepping forward.

Sam stepped back, "No that, look, that's alright man. I just, you know I'm not asking you to change. I just, I don't know, I guess we don't have anything in common. You know?"

"But, yeah, of course we do!" Dean argued. "Hunting?"

Dean looked for a glimmer of recognition, but Sam just started at him blankly. "Hunting? I've never been hunting in my life, Dean."

"Yeah, well. We should go at it sometime. I think you'd be great at it," Dean said painfully. He walked out of the house and got in his car, giving Lady a small smile before driving them home.

He understood it. Sam had always been different from him. Not in a bad way. He had, after all, grown apart from Dean and their father when their lives were without their mother. It made sense that it happened even with their mother alive...but without hunting they just never reconnected. His whole life had been centered around watching out for his little brother, and for almost two years they had rarely been separated. Sam was his best friend, brother. Always there to have his back.

But in this life he had wished for it just wasn't that way.

At home he fell onto the couch. He'd been riding a high for a day, but now it wasn't there. Lady curled her arm around his neck and fell lightly into his lap and offered him a beer. Gently she loosened his tie and opened a few buttons of the shirt he had been wearing, trying to make him feel comfortable. Her fingers stroked the hair on the back of his neck, "You alright, babe?"

"You and Sam aren't friends," he said quietly.

She shrugged, "This is only the second time I've met him."

Dean let out a breath. Lady and Sam were close in their other life. She'd always jump into his arms for a hug before assaulting his cheek with a wet kiss. Not in this new life he had wished for. Sam was off in college, rarely came to visit.

"Sammy and I...you know we don't get along?"

She nodded sadly, "Yeah, well, you two are civil for the most part. He's been gone at college for, what, five years? You don't see each other much. I don't get why anyone would want to spend an extra five years, especially during their good years, in school. Just think of all the stuff he's missing out on."

He took a drink of his beer as his hand rubbed her leg gently, "I can fix things with Sam. I can make it up to him. To everyone."

"You don't have anything to make up to him," Lady said. "Okay, admittedly you were sort of a douche to him when you were growing up...that is if the stories are true. And I know a lot of them are. I mean, some I'm not sure of and if they are wow, you were a royal dick before I met you. But..."

"Hey," Dean said in protest.

"Sorry," she muttered. "Dean, you are a great guy. I can't get enough of you. You are talented and funny. But, uh, Sam is a yuppie."

"Whoa!" Dean said, wanting to argue but having a hard time thinking of something to say in defense of his brother.

"It's true," she said. "And we aren't. Doesn't mean we are any better or worse than he is. We're blue collar, and he is...a yuppie. With a yuppie fiancé. You are a mechanic, a damn good one. I'm a bartender. He's going to be a lawyer." She shrugged, "Just different."

"He's my brother," Dean said. "I grew up with him. Why can't I grow old with him, too?"

"Okay," Lady said. "I'm on board for the winning Sam's heart thing, I mean who knows when we can use the benefit of free legal advice." Dean nodded in agreement. "So, uh, yeah. Anything I can do to help. In fact, I have an idea!"

"I'm afraid to ask, what is your idea?" He looked at her seriously.

She grinned, "Tomorrow, I'll kidnap Jessica. Do some girl bonding."

He smiled, and then his smile disappeared, "What do you mean by kidnap?"

She laughed at the worried look on his face, "Me and your mom can take her out in the morning. Mani-pedi, window shopping. By lunch time Jess and I will be best friends forever!"

Dean returned her smile, if anyone could manage that it was Lady. She had managed to turn Jo from wanting to kill her to being a close friend, befriending Jessica would be a cakewalk. "No blonde jokes," he said.

She seemed to struggle with that for a few moments but said, "Fine."

"And, hey, maybe we can invite the family over tomorrow. Have a barbeque, show them the house," Dean suggested. That was the normal suburban thing to do, right? "I bet Sam would really like Freddie."

Lady looked at the boxes, "That means getting all this done."

"We have all the time in the world," he said.

Lady kissed him quickly, "I like it. And if it doesn't work, you say the word and I'll just get arrested so he has to come over and defend me."

Dean grinned, "You would do that, wouldn't you?"

"I'd do just about anything," she said. "At least once. Probably twice. What do you think the first offense of public indecency is? Think it'd be weird of I asked Sam?"

He was willing to bet, even without her future-sight or experience hunting witches, if he asked her to do something dangerous like investigating a haunting or some other monster she would. But there was no reason in the world why he would want to go back to that. He had a home, family and a mortgage. She was still a bit nuts, brave and eager to make the people around her smile. Easily happy with their life. Maybe he wasn't living rich and large, but he was living a life that was richer than he had ever experienced. "You are a nutcase," he said happily.

"Yeah, but I'm your nutcase," she grinned back at him. "You know this doesn't come for free, right?"

"Oh? How much is it going to cost me?"

"If this works, I want a striptease," she said seriously, and his head fell back as he laughed. "And I get to pick the song you do it to."

"It's a deal," he said. He was willing to do a little dirty dancing for a chance to mend things with Sam. He finished off his beer and set the empty bottle on the table next to the couch. "How'd we meet?" he asked. "I just want to hear your side of it."

She giggled, "Is this some sort of new foreplay?"

"I'm just wondering how I met such a cool chick that gets me, and how I didn't screw it up," he said. "Yet," he added as an afterthought. His track record for relationships wasn't good, and while Lady was the most promising he'd ever had it was still sort of new.

"Well. Last year me and my adopted brother Derek were heading south for spring break, we wanted to go to Mexico. We broke down in Lawrence, rolled into your garage. John didn't want anything to do with the Volkswagen I was driving. But you appeared, covered in grease, gave me that naughty look you do perfectly and said you'd take care of it. I wasn't sure if you meant the car or me, but you handled both pretty well." Dean chuckled, he could almost picture it. "Best spring vacation I ever had, and I never made it to Mexico."

"And we've been together since?"

"Well, no," Lady said. "You and Derek became pretty good friends. A few times you came up to North Dakota to hang out, party. We sort of kept in touch for a few months. But, uh, it wasn't until after John died that we sort of...I don't know, connected? Since then we've done the long distance thing. A weekend here, a weekend in North Dakota. Now, this," she motioned to the house and boxes. "This house came up for sale. Close to your old neighborhood. We went after it."

"Just like that?"

Lady shrugged, "Yeah."

That sounded like both of them. Seeing an opportunity and striking. Impulsive, a little crazy, but if it felt right why wait? "I totally get it," he muttered.

"Get what?" She asked, looking confused.

"Why you are the one," Dean said. Lady smiled at him and leaned to him for a kiss. He met her lips and closed his eyes. He was going to send the djinn a fruit basket, the thing deserved it.

"Let me change and we'll get to work," she said, hopping off his lap and going to the bedroom. Dean pulled himself off the couch and grabbed the closet box to unpack.

Lady returned and began helping him, wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Lady knew how to dress up and seemed to enjoy it, but sometimes he believed she looked best when she wore something plain and comfortable. As much as he wanted to wrap her up and finish what they had started earlier they needed to buckle down and clear the house of boxes. He had a lifetime of nights, mornings and afternoons to be with Lady, tonight they needed to work.

They worked together until the living room was clear. With a yawn she said she was going to bed, but he stayed up to continue working. The kitchen still had several stacked boxes in it, and he was looking forward to inviting his family over to his house before Sam and Jessica returned to California. Already he was imagining it. Have a few beers, grill some burgers, patch things over with Sam while Lady weaseled her way onto his good side by befriending Jessica. Things were going to be perfect.

In the background the television was playing and he turned to watch when a news report caught his attention. The reporter announced it was a year anniversary of a plane crash. Dean watched carefully and searched his own memory. "No, I stopped that crash," he muttered. A year ago a demon had been causing planes to fall out of the sky. He and his brother had been on one of those planes and stopped it. A mid-flight exorcism that had left his insides twisted in fear, but they had saved over a hundred people.

But their mother had never died. Their father had never turned to the life of hunting to avenge her. He had never lived on the road, hunting monsters with his father.

Dean stopped packing and went to the computer. He searched, seeing deaths that he and his family had prevented had never been prevented. Ghosts had succeeded in haunting and killing victims, a shtriga had left several children in comas to die, a shapeshifter had mutilated and murdered several women, a serial killer werewolf was in San Francisco tearing hearts out of people. The cost of his wish, he figured out.

Dean jerked in his chair as someone walked past his peripheral. He licked his lips nervously. "Lady?" he called quietly, but he didn't think it was her, and he didn't have his usual arrangement of weapons for an intruder. He got up and walked down the hallway quietly, and saw it was the strange woman from earlier. A spirit. This was the closest he had gotten to her and noticed she looked like she was in bad shape. And then she vanished.

Dean went into the bedroom, Lady was asleep in bed. Safe and curled around Freddie. All he had to do was crawl into bed next to her, go to sleep and forget about everything. This wasn't his job anymore, damn it.

Then he heard a faint buzzing, and he saw a light was on in the closet. Quietly he opened the closet door and jumped back in shock. Two dried up bodies were hanging in there, and the light bulb was fuzzing in and out.

"Dean? What are you doing?" Lady asked sleepily.

He turned to her, trying to hide the bodies in the closet but when he looked back the bodies were gone and the light was off. "Just getting ready for bed," he answered, trading his button-down shirt for a t-shirt before closing the closet.

He couldn't tell Lady. The life had gotten her killed once. He had admired how quick she was to put others before herself, but that was exactly what had gotten her killed. He got into bed and kissed her gently before settling in next to her. He waited only long enough for her to fall back asleep before he got out of bed and left the house.

It didn't take long to find his father's headstone in the cemetery. It was nice. Not too big, not too small. Pale granite with his name chiseled in clearly along with the declaration that he had been a loving husband and father. Before his wish his father had been given a funeral pyre, no gravestone…just burned to ashes that he had let scatter into the wind. But this time he had a gravestone, it wasn't the same as having his father back but it was something to talk to.

"All of them. Everyone that you saved, everyone that Sammy and I saved. They're all dead. And there's this woman that's haunting me. I don't know why. I don't know what the connection is, not yet anyway. It's like my old life is coming after me or something. Like it doesn't want us to be happy. Course I know what you'd say. Well, not the you that played softball and wore Santa hats. 'Go hunt the Djinn. He put you here, it can put you back. Your happiness for all those people's lives, no contest.' Right? That's what you'd say, right? But why? Why is it my job to save these people? Why do I have to be some kind of hero?" Dean's eyes burned as tears filled and slid down his face. "What about us, huh? Mom's not supposed to live her life? Sammy's not supposed to get married? I can't have a home? Why do we have to sacrifice everything, Dad?" Dean wiped the tears away.

Dean returned to the house. Freddie scratched at the back door and Dean went to one knee and scratched his neck. "I know I gave you a lot of grief. Kicked you out of bed, locked you out, taunted you with food...generally a real dick to you. I'm sorry I'm doing this to you again, pal. If I find another way, I will." Dean opened the door and let Freddie outside.

He sat on the bed next to Lady and shook her awake. She made a noise before rolling over to look at him. "Hey," she smiled, giving him a gentle pull towards her he didn't resist. He kept the kiss short.

"I got an emergency at work I need to take care of," he said quietly.

She looked confused, "At two in the morning?"

"A friend of mine, their car broke down," he said, and she seemed to accept it. "I just wanted to say goodbye before I left. Not sure how long it will take."

She touched his face and pulled him down for another kiss, "Mm, you are just too wonderful, you know that?"

Dean kept his eyes closed. Taking back his wish from the Djinn was going to kill her, Jessica and his mother again. He felt far from wonderful. "I'll try to be back as soon as possible," he promised. "And I'm going to do everything I can to...just go back to sleep. Sorry to wake you."

Could he trade in his wish? How? And to what? He wasn't sure what the djinn got out of this deal, if it was just for kicks or what, but he knew the best bargaining tool was going to be a threat. He needed a silver knife.

Normally all he'd have to do to get one is open his trunk, but the Impala wasn't the mobile armory it once was. But he knew where a case of silver was fairly unprotected. He broke into his mother's house.

Dean grimaced at the noise he accidentally made getting the chest of silverware out of the cabinet. He quickly opened it and looked for the sharpest knife it held, pausing when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

Sam didn't turn on the lights when he went to look for the intruder, but there was plenty filtering in from the outside streetlamps. Dean grabbed his brother's wrist and twisted it while kicking his brother's feet out from under him. On the ground Sam was no threat. Not that he had been much of a threat to begin with. "That was so easy I'm embarrassed for you," Dean chuckled.

"Dean? What are you doing here?" Sam asked.

"Well, uh, Lady and I wanted to invite everyone to a barbeque tomorrow," he said.

Sam turned on the light and looked at the open chest of silverware, and then back at Dean. "What you...you broken into the house to steal mom's silver?"

"It's not what it looks like...I didn't have a choice," Dean said.

"Oh really? Why? What's so damn important you have to steal from your own mother?" Sam asked heatedly.

"You want the truth?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, I do," Sam said.

Dean looked at him sadly and did the best thing he could for his brother, he lied. "I owe somebody money. A bookie. I lost big on a game, I got to bring him the cash tonight."

"I can't believe we're even related," Sam muttered.

"Sam, I'm sorry. I'm sorry we don't get along. And I wish to hell I could stay and fix it. Just, uh, tell Mom I love her, okay?"

Dean got into the Impala, looking for the motivation to put it in gear and drive back to where he had found the Djinn before. His mother, Jessica and Lady, three lives for hundreds. Maybe even thousands of others. They had all sacrificed so much, and he was about to do it all to them again.

He jumped in surprise as the passenger door opened and Sam got in. "Get out of the car," Dean said.

"I'm going with you," Sam said.

"Like hell you are. You'll just slow me down!" Dean snapped. Sam, this Sam, was untrained. He couldn't fight, and didn't have the guts to handle what he had to do.

"Tough," Sam said.

"This is dangerous and you could get hurt," Dean said.

"So could you," Sam countered. "Whatever stupid thing you are about to do, you're not doing it alone. You're still my brother."

Dean studied his face and realized that the gap between them wasn't as big as he thought. Sam still knew he was up to something, and was there for him. Dean didn't want to do this alone, and with Sam beside him he nodded once and started driving.

It didn't take Sam long to find the container of lamb's blood Dean had gotten, and Sam freaked out. Dean didn't slow down or even hesitate to give Sam the rundown. That he was on a hunt for a djinn, and the only way to kill one was with a silver knife dipped in lamb's blood. And as expected, Sam freaked out further.

They reached Illinois before the sun was up, and Dean drove to the abandoned factory where the Djinn had granted his first wish. He had a plan, sort of. If he could get the djinn to talk, maybe he could keep some of his wish. Let his mother, Jessica and Lady live, without losing all the work his father and them had done over the years. Negotiate, something.

And then Dean saw bodies hanging from their wrists, like he had seen in his closet at home. There were empty bags hooked up to them, they were drained of fluids and drying up. Above him was a buzzing light bulb, going in and out. And then he saw the spirit that had been haunting him, hanging just like the corpses with a full blood bag and tubes going into her neck.

"What the hell?" Sam gasped, shocked by the sight.

"It's her," Dean said. "Sh!" Dean grabbed his brother and moved him into cover.

He watched the Djinn that had attacked him come down to the room. It fed from the tube, feeding off the woman's blood. She shuddered and whimpered, and his fingertips glowed blue as he touched her forehead until she went quiet again.

The djinn retreated from the room and the brothers went back out again. "This is real. You aren't crazy!" Sam gasped.

"She doesn't know where she is," Dean muttered, studying the woman. "What if that's what the Djinn does? It doesn't grant you a wish, it just makes you think it has."

"Look man, that thing could come back. Let's get out of here," Sam said urgently.

Dean looked up at a flickering light bulb and listened to the light fuzzing sound it made. He sucked in a few breaths and grimaced in pain. "What if I'm like her? What if I'm tied up in here someplace? What if all this is in my head? I mean it could, you know, maybe it gives us some kind of supernatural acid and feeds on us?"

"No, Dean, that doesn't make sense," Sam said.

"It does," Dean argued. "That would explain why she keeps appearing to me. She's not a spirit. It's like I'm catching glimpses of realty. You know, like I'm in here somewhere, and I'm catatonic. I'm taking all this stuff in, but I can't snap out of it." Dean swallowed hard as everything clicked into place. His perfect life was only a dream, it wasn't real. Just something the djinn had planted in his head to make him compliant.

"Yeah, sure, whatever. We got to get out of here," Sam said.

Dean faced him, "I don't think you are real."

Sam grabbed his brother by the shoulders and shook him, "Dude, you feel that? You feel this? I'm real! This is not an acid trip. I'm real, and that this is real. And it is going to come down here and kill us for real!"

Dean pulled out the silver knife, "One way to be sure."

Sam backed off and put his hands up defensively, "What are you doing?"

Dean looked at the blade, "There is an old wives tale. If you're about to die in a dream, you wake up." And he turned the point of the knife to himself.

"No! Dean! That's crazy!"

"Maybe," Dean said.

"Dean, this isn't a dream. I'm right here, with you, now. And you're about to kill yourself."

"No, I'm pretty sure. Like, ninety percent sure," Dean said.

"Wait!" Sam said urgently. Dean paused, and looked around as the light around him grew brighter and his mother came into the room. "Why did you have to keep digging?" Jessica and Lady were walking up to him as well. "Why couldn't you have left well enough alone? You were happy."

"Put the knife down, honey," his mother said gently.

"You're not real. None of it is," Dean said, fighting back the stinging tears in his eyes.

"It doesn't matter. It's still better than anything you had," his mother said. "It's everything you want. We're a family again. Let's just go home."

"I'll die. The Djinn will drain the life out of me in a couple of days," Dean said painfully. He knew it wasn't real, but he didn't want to leave.

"But in here, with us, it'll feel like years. Like a lifetime. I promise. No more pain. Or fear. Just love and comfort. And safety. Dean, stay with us," his mother touched his face gently and he closed his eyes at the tenderness of her hand. He knew it wasn't real but it felt real.

"You don't have to worry about Sam anymore," Jessica said. "You get to watch him life a full life."

"And we can have a future together," Lady added in, her eyes bright and there was a big smile on her face. "We can have our own family. I love you, Dean."

Dean sniffed back the tears, "I loved you, Lady. I don't know if I ever told you, but I do love you."

She smiled wider, "I know, Dean."

"But I can't..." Dean clenched his jaw as Lady's lips touched his.

"Please, Dean, stay with me. Don't send me away," she said, her eyes pleading with him. "Don't send any of us back to that dark place."

He closed his eyes. The promises from their lips sounded perfect. He could imagine the things he could do. He looked at them sadly, "I'm sorry. So sorry," he breathed, apologizing to the figments of his imagination before thrusting the knife into his abdomen.

He felt the knife slide in, the hot blood erupting around his hands and up his throat, the icy coldness of death creeping in.

And then he sucked in a cold breath and saw Sam's anxious face in front of him as he woke up from the perfect world. "Dean! Oh God, come on! Wake up, please! Wake up, damn it!"

"Uh, Antie Em, there's no place like home," Dean grunted.

"Thank God. I thought I almost lost you," Sam breathed.

"You almost did," Dean admitted as his brother cut him down.

Dean examined himself. There was no stab wound in his stomach, that had been part of the dream. Old scars were there, his clean shave was gone, and some new injuries the djinn had inflicted while he was unconscious. Back in the real world with his real brother they had no problem getting rid of the djinn, stabbing it with a silver knife and sending the bastard to hell where it belonged. The woman who he had thought was a spirit in his dream world was still alive, but barely. They cut her down and fled the djinn's layer.

After getting the girl to the hospital Dean was working on getting his strength back. He's lost some blood, how much he didn't know but it wasn't serious. It felt like he had pulled a muscle in his arm, and he had several bruises he didn't know where they came from. But the physical injuries weren't the worst thing he was experiencing. It had felt like two days in the perfect world, but the djinn only had him for a few hours before Sam found him.

"You alright?" Sam asked.

Dean had already told him what things had been like. He shook his head, "You should have seen it. I wanted to stay so bad. Ever since Dad all I can think about is how much this job has cost us. We've lost so much. Sacrificed everything."

"But people are alive because of us. Because of you. It's worth it, Dean."

Dean nodded. That was true, but it wasn't what had made him find the strength to end it. His mother, Jessica and Lady were dead. All he had left was his brother, and he couldn't abandon Sam. The real world sucked. It was a harsh and unforgiving world that enjoyed dropping a load of crap on them whenever it felt like it. And Sam didn't need to take that on himself.

"Let's head to Bobby's, I, uh, I'm going to need a few days," Dean said, walking slowly to the car.

Bobby looked happy to see both of them when they arrived the next day.

"I'll be inside in a few," Dean said, handing his bag to Sam. Bobby and Sam left him outside.

Dean walked to the back of the lot, just wanting a few moments alone. He held Lady's silver charm bracelet in his hand when he reached Freddie's gave. "Hey, pal," he said to the rock that marked the grave. He looked around, wanting to make sure Sam or Bobby weren't watching him talk to the dog's grave. "I did my best with Lady. It hurts like a bitch, it will for a long time I bet." He sighed and picked up a fist-sized rock and set it next to the larger one. "I'm sorry. If things had been different, if she was still around, I would have done anything. And everything." He let out a breath and wiped at the moisture that was building up in his eyes.

Lady had been screwed, but she'd made her choice. That was just the hazard of the job, one his father had seen. One that he and his brother would one day see. They were going to lose their lives to save others. It wasn't fair, but because of them other people would go on living. Most of those people never even knew that they had saved their lives, and that was the way it should be. It wasn't right...but that's how it was.

Sam and Bobby looked at Dean curiously as he walked back in and helped himself to a beer. "So, how've things been, Bobby?" Dean asked casually.

They spent the evening in relaxed conversation, playing cards and drinking beers. There was an empty chair across from Bobby, Lady's usual spot in their games. It was quiet and not as many laughs without her, but no one mentioned it. Lady's death was going to be a sore spot for a while longer. Healing wasn't an easy process, but they were going to make it.

**A/N** – _Songs for this chapter:_

_Caught up in You, by .38 Special. This song was also covered by We The Kings._

_Damn Regret, by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus_

_The World Has Turned, by Weezer_

_**Another Note** - So was that okay? I wasn't liking this re-write of the episode originally, but I rather like writing from Dean's perspective. And I think his state of mind once he wakes up is a good because we all know what he'll be done next. Well, either way I hope this was a nice buffer before I reintroduce Lady. I'm still polishing the next few chapters but they'll be coming soon (hopefully this weekend, if not early next week)  
_


	58. May 2007

**A/N** – _This is two chapters in one. I wanted to make sure everyone is caught up to what the Winchesters have been up to, and I wasn't going to post just a one page chapter._

**April 29 – May 2, 2007**

Sam smiled in the passenger seat of the Impala as Dean sang out of tune with Foreigner. The past month had been rough, on both of them, but he saw the signs that Dean was going to be okay. There were still times when he went quiet and moody, but that he was taking some joy in the things that usually annoyed Sam were a good sign.

They stopped at a diner, Sam going in to order them something for the road so Dean could finish listening to his favorite tape of the week. And all joy escaped both of their lives.

The Yellow-Eyed Demon transported Sam to a remote location, leaving Dean alone and in a frenzy to locate his brother. He recruited Bobby's help. Several things happened the next day. The Roadhouse, once a save haven for hunters, was burned to the ground. Several hunters, and Ash, that had been contacts and friends, were killed in the blaze. And then Dean and Bobby were on a race to Cold Oak, South Dakota, expecting that was where Sam was.

However they were too late. When they reached Sam it was only in time to watch him take a death blow by a strange man, another one of the psychic children.

Bobby brought in food for Dean. Sam's body was laying on a dirty mattress in one of the abandoned houses. He had left long enough to hear that demonic activity, that had been nonexistent the past few months, was now skyrocketing. As much as it hurt losing Sam, he had been like a son to Bobby, they needed to get to work.

Everything about Dean worried Bobby. The way his shoulders were hunched together while being slumped down in defeat, the nearly dead look in his eyes. Bobby had seen Dean through John and Lady's death already, this was nothing like either of them. He was staring at a man that couldn't find a reason to live, and he believed if he left Dean alone it wouldn't be long until the boy put a bullet through his own brain.

"You should eat something," Bobby suggested gently.

"I'm good," Dean said in a low voice.

Dean wouldn't listen to Bobby when he suggested burying or burning Sam's body, it was the right thing to do. But Dean couldn't handle that, not yet. Knowing Dean he suggested getting to work, told him about the demon activity.

That was even worse.

"Look at that! I've sacrificed enough!" Dean shouted, shoving Bobby back. For a moment Dean's anger filled his eyes, but soon his eyes looked dead again. "Sorry," he muttered, sitting down. "I'm not leaving. Just go."

Bobby left slowly, wondering how long Dean would last on his own. He half-expected to hear the gunshot himself, but he didn't. He hoped Dean could hold it together long enough to get over the initial shock of grief. To get his mind working again to see the big picture. Bobby couldn't stay with him. Demons were out in full and something major had been started. Dean was out of the fight, probably for good, but there were still innocent people out there.

Dean had the pistol if he wanted to put a bullet in his brain. Hell, he had the choice of a large range of calibers, some big enough to take his whole head off. And he thought about it. The instant Sam had died in his arms he snapped. How could he go on living? There was nothing else to live for. He had failed. He'd failed everyone he loved, everyone he lived for.

But he couldn't do that. Between the stabbing pain of grief he thought of other possibilities, and he looked at Sam's lifeless body and thought them all over. He knew he couldn't keep going without Sam, and he only saw one option. Trading his soul for his brother's life. He went to a crossroads and made a deal with a red-eyed demon.

Bobby never expected to see Dean again. He believed that when he had a chance to return where he left him he'd have two bodies to dispose of instead of one, and it was a bad feeling. But two days after Sam had been killed the Impala rolled into the lot.

He never expected to see both the Winchesters there.

It would have been better if Dean had killed himself, over selling his soul. And Bobby couldn't help give Dean a piece of his mind while Sam was inside researching. But he did like he always did, he pulled it together and got to work.

The three men were able to team up with Ellen, who had narrowly survived the Roadhouse Blaze, and stopped what the demon had been planning. Partly. Hundreds of demons escaped a hell gate, but the Yellow-Eyed Demon was killed and the Colt revolver retrieved. Sam was alive, the only surviving 'psychic child' that the yellow-eyed demon had created. And Dean was counting down his last year alive.

**A/N** – _Song for the above mini-chapter:_

_The Permanent Rain, by The Dangerous Summer (This song can make me cry)_

**A/N** –_This next part takes places shortly after the season 3 episode 'The Kids Are Alright'. (refresher, that's the episode Lisa and Ben are introduced in)_

**May 31, 2007**

Sam and Dean had just finished a job in Indiana where local children were being replaced with changelings. They weren't too far from South Dakota and decided to skip the cost of a motel and spend a night or two at Bobby's to see how things were. Sam was already relieved that he'd get a chance to examine Bobby's extensive library, and hoping to get some time from Dean.

Since Dean had sold his soul he had been almost unbearable. Dean was enjoying life to the fullest. One-night stands, hooking up with twins, greasy food for breakfast, loud music, easy women and risking his life while on jobs. And Sam said nothing about it. If he hadn't turned his back on the enemy he wouldn't have gotten killed, and wouldn't have put Dean in the position to sell his soul. So he was letting his brother live it up while he tried to find a way to save his brother. There was a demon, named Ruby, claiming she could help him. He didn't trust her, not one bit, but he was going to take whatever he could.

He just wished Dean would take an interest in saving his own life. Sam had looked up to his brother when he was little, and he could barely stand the guilt that was knotted in his stomach when he knew his brother would be dead in less than a year because of him.

For the most part Dean was happy with his choice. Sammy was alive, and he got one last year to live before he went to hell. Not as good as ten years, but his soul hadn't been worth enough to give him that. Still, in his mind it was best thing he had ever done with his life.

But the last job had him thinking, even dwelling a bit, on his mortality. He had originally wanted to look into the job because a woman he had hooked up with years ago lived in the town. Lisa Braedon was a beautiful brunette and about eight years prior she had rocked his world. He had been nineteen then and for the longest time the memory of their weekend together had been his favorite memory, and even now it made the top ten list. But when he had met up with her he discovered that she was a now a single-mother. There had been panic when he thought maybe he had fathered the kid, but she assured him that wasn't the case. After rescuing her and her son from the changelings he thought about what he might be missing out on. Having kids of his own was something he always desperately tried to avoid with the many women he had been with over the years, but when he thought about it he sort of wished he'd been given the chance. When he was gone all he was leaving behind was his car. The more he thought of it the more he knew it was probably for the best. He liked kids, he had practically raised Sammy after all, but it just wouldn't work out with his life. But now he knew it was a possibility he could never have. Something he never even wanted before, and now it was on his mind.

Part of it, he suspected, was because of the dream world the djinn had put him in a month ago. The fantasy life he was given, and narrowly escaped from, probably would have included children with Lady…

Lady was still a sore topic to think about. He still thought about her every day. He carried her charm bracelet in his pocket, he had her garnet charm hanging from the radio knob in the Impala, and they were on their way to Bobby's where her presence would always linger. Hell, if he looked through all of his bags he could probably find a pair of her underwear in them. But the pain of loss wasn't nearly as great as it had been just a month ago. He had a year to live, and even though he had loved Lady he couldn't spend his time mourning her. He liked to think that Lady appreciated having a good time and would be rooting for him. But mostly he tried not to think about her too much.

The moment Dean parked the Impala in Bobby's lot Sam got out and stretched his long legs after the drive. Dean was moving to the trunk to unload their bags, and that was when they heard the sound of a shotgun going off in Bobby's house.

Sam and Dean exchanged a look and a few silent hand signals while pulling out their pistols. Dean went around the house while Sam ran to it.

**May 31, 2007. Just moments before Sam and Dean arrived…**

Bobby pulled into his lot early in the morning. Ever since the hell gate in Wyoming had been opened, releasing the Yellow-Eyed Demon's army of demons, things were getting bad. Several hunters died in the Roadhouse, meaning their already small numbers were considerably smaller. Bobby was spending most of his time out in the field, there just weren't enough other people around to take care of the things going on.

His keys jingled as he stepped up to his door and when he slid them into the lock he found them unnecessary. The door turned easily and opened, but he didn't step inside right away. Bobby may be old, but he wasn't forgetful. Not about the easy stuff, such as locking his door. That was a habit that couldn't be broken. With the salvage lot he ran there were a lot of strangers coming around, even when he wasn't home. He sure as hell wasn't going to make it easy for them to break in.

But he had also made sure the Winchesters and Lady had keys of their own, if they ever needed a place to put their feet up when he was away he didn't want them to break in and ruin his locks. But Lady was dead, and the Impala was no where to be seen.

He pulled his pistol out and stepped inside slowly. If someone, or something, was there it probably had heard him come up. He didn't have to be quiet when returning to his own home, damn it.

There was a man standing in the kitchen. The man was around six feet tall, broad shoulders but not heavily built. He was young, mid to late twenties. Dark blue eyes, dark blonde hair, smooth skin. Wearing dark pants and a t-shirt, along with a smile. "Mr. Singer, it is nice to meet you."

Bobby looked at the hand the man was offering him, and he felt cold dread enter him as he saw the sign of the Triple Moon on the inside of his right wrist. This man was a witch and part of the coven.

"I won't bite," he promised, throwing his hand out and making Bobby's gun fly out of his hand before he could get a shot off. Bobby swallowed hard. Correction: This man was a damn powerful witch. Telekinesis wasn't easy to do on the fly like that.

"What the hell do you want?" Bobby growled.

"Mostly, I want to be able to have a civil conversation without worrying that I will be shot," he said. "I'm not here to hurt you. I won't hurt you. But I will keep you from hurting me."

"Uh huh," Bobby said, inching away from the witch and to where he knew he had another gun stashed.

The witch smiled gently, "My name is Donovan. Yes, I'm an evil black-hearted bastard. That doesn't mean we can't help each other out. All I need is the book. The one Lady retrieved last year, I need it. The sooner the better."

"It's gone," Bobby said. "We burned it."

He shook his head, "No, no you didn't. Believe me, I'd know if it had been destroyed. And it's still very much alive. Bound in human leather, bleeding dark magic. I just can't get a direct read on it. Where is it?"

"Even if I knew, I'd die before I told you where it is."

The witch looked severely annoyed, but before he could speak further Bobby had his hand around his shotgun. He pulled it out and fired. At the close range Donovan couldn't move or defend himself, his chest being hit with a spray of pellets and nearly liquefied.

"Bobby!" Sam gasped as he stepped inside, finding Bobby holding a smoking gun and a dead man on the floor. "You okay, Bobby?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I am," Bobby grunted. "Not that I'm complaining, but what are you doing here?"

Sam shrugged, "Figured we weren't far, could use a place to put our feet up for a day or two."

Dean came in, "We're clear outside. What the hell is that?" He looked at the dead body, no doubt in his mind that if it was dead on Bobby's property that it was supposed to be dead.

"A witch," Bobby said, lifting the dead witch's arm to show them the tattoo.

"I thought we killed all those sons of bitches," Dean said angrily. Lady had told them the coven was done with, they weren't supposed to be coming back.

"I guess we had a few stragglers," Sam said. "Nice that this one decided to come to us."

"We have another problem," Bobby said. "He thinks the black book is still out there. You two idjits burned it, right?"

"Yeah, Sam took care of it," Dean said. "We need to burn this body before he gives off any bad mojo."

"Uh, guys," Sam said as Bobby and Dean began to drag the body out of the house. "I gave the book to Jo to destroy."

Dean and Bobby dropped the witch and stared at him. "WHAT?" They both shouted at him.

"Lady went over how it had to be done with her," Sam said quickly. Back in March right after Lady's death his first concern had been Dean, he didn't think twice that Jo wouldn't follow through with destroying the book. Things just kept happening that he was never able to check back in with her. "I...I trusted her to take care of it."

"Idiot!" Dean shouted.

"Idjit!" Bobby agreed.

"I'll call her, right now," Sam said.

Dean and Bobby worked together to get the body in the far back of the lot. Bobby let out a breath and removed his cap for a moment to wipe the sweat off his brow before replacing it. "We'll get him in a pit and let him burn to ash," Bobby said. "I'll go grab the backhoe."

"Sounds good," Dean panted as Bobby walked away. "Heavy son of a bitch," Dean rested his hands on his knees and took a few big breaths. He couldn't handle this coven starting up again. Not when there were so many demons out there. He was in a freaking war with hell, he couldn't handle Pagan-worshiping douche bags on top of it. And if he was honest with himself, even though he had tried to learn as much as he could the best expert they had on witchcraft was dead and gone. Not even a body leftover. All of her notes were written in Latin. Lady had been after those bastards for so long she had developed a sixth sense to finding them, had the balls to do dangerous rituals to aid her search, and the benefit of her extra sight to take them on. He couldn't do this again, not without her.

"That smarted," the witch grunted.

Dean jumped back and grabbed his pistol as the witch shifted on the ground. He squeezed the trigger of his pistol, but it was jammed. Jammed? He took better care of his weapons than he did himself. His guns did not jam!

The witch rubbed at his chest, coughed and choked a few times, before spitting out several shotgun pellets. He licked his lips, "Would you like these back?" Dean swallowed hard. "I suppose not. The name is Donovan, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I don't suppose you know where I can find a particularly important piece of literature, do you?" Donovan looked at him curiously. "Keep trying to shoot me, I'm not going to allow you to. It hurts. Won't kill me, but does a number on ones wardrobe." He tugged at his holey and bloody shirt. He gave Dean a slight smile, "Just because I'm an evil witch doesn't mean I can't look nice."

Dean lowered his pistol, so the witch was screwing with his gun. But no, that was a bit over a witch's range. "You are a warlock?"

"I'm powerful," Donovan said. "That's all you need to know. I'm trying to be civil, but you hunter-types are so damn trigger happy, it is hard. I have never hurt you, never tried to kill you, but you are so quick to shoot me? No honor."

"You are just a twisted freak," Dean said, anxious for Bobby to return or Sam to come out.

"Yeah, well, so was Lady," Donovan said, studying Dean's tense face. "I understand that you grieved for her loss. My condolences."

Dean couldn't move he was so furious, or maybe Donovan was preventing him from even twitching. Lady had been gone more than two months, but he still thought about her. From their last real night together or the two days the djinn had given with her in his head. He had accepted she was going to be a lost love, someone he'd think of until his last day alive. But he couldn't stand this warlock speaking about her. Saying her name out loud, someone else reminding him of the loss…he couldn't stand it.

"Go fuck yourself," was all Dean could say.

"I believe you do not know where the book is," Donovan said softly. "Forgive my intrusion, and I'll forgive you for trying to kill me."

"Doesn't work like that," Dean said, wondering where the hell Bobby and Sam were.

Donovan took a few steps and Dean recognized the two stones that marked Freddie's grave on the ground nearby. Green grass covered it now, the rocks were the only marker. "You don't want to hunt me, Dean. Not until I do what I have set out to do. You'll just have to trust me on this." Donovan gave him a pleasant smile, and burst into flames.

Dean fell forward as the hold on him vanished.

"Dean!" Bobby shouted. "What happened?" Bobby's mouth hung open. No witch, a scorch mark on the ground. "He was dead."

"No, he wasn't," Dean said, getting back onto his feet. "We need to get to Jo, and get that damned book."


	59. Minnesota, May 2007

**Evening of May 31, 2007. Duluth, Minnesota**

After Lady's death Jo had visited her mother, but had returned to Minnesota. She had a place to live there, a job and work to do. Ellen had let her stay for a few days, help her get over the sudden grief of losing a friend in the line of combat, and of course tried to get her to stay. But Jo wasn't ready to rejoin her mother. Even after seeing Lady be destroyed by what she had hunted for ten years Jo still wanted to hunt, and Ellen was still against it.

After the Roadhouse burned down Ellen went to her daughter, and Jo took her in. Filling the same purpose her mother had done for her just a month before. Both of them grieving for several lost friends and Ash. With the insurance money from the destruction of the Roadhouse Ellen bought a bar in Minnesota. The grand opening was scheduled in a week. Word was getting around to surviving hunters that a new watering hole was going to be available, but many of them were now against gathering in large numbers again. It was war out there, literally hell on Earth.

While it didn't have the hunter's gathering like the Roadhouse did they weren't entirely surprised to see Dean, Sam and Bobby walk in while Ellen was working on stocking the shelves.

"Hey, boys," Ellen said. "Damn good to see you. How've you been?"

"Been better," Dean said, his eyes turning to glare to Jo. "Where is it?"

"Where is what?" Jo asked, setting a heavy box on the counter and frowning at him.

"We just got attacked by a warlock from the coven. He wants the book, and he's pretty damn sure it isn't ash. Where the fuck is it?" Dean snapped.

"Hey! Don't you dare..." Ellen started in to defend her daughter.

"No, Mom...don't," Jo said, her face falling.

Ellen looked at her daughter with surprise, "You told me you got rid of it. Exactly how Lady said to."

Jo didn't look ashamed, just a little upset she had been caught, "I read Lady's notes, is what I said. And her notes say she knew at least two members were still up and running. I've been studying it, getting ready for when their ugly necks pop out again."

"You stupid..." Dean took a step forward, but Sam pulled him back.

"Jo, I understand what you are thinking. Hell, part of me even agrees with you," Sam said, earning a disgusted look from his brother. "But we have to get rid of it. It isn't safe. The warlock that attacked knows it isn't destroyed, and he wants it."

"He won't be able to find it," Jo promised him.

"How do you know that?" Dean asked.

"Because no witch has been here," she said smartly.

Sam squeezed his brother's arm in warning. Dean's jaw had been clenched the whole drive to Duluth, his knuckles white on the steering wheel…he was pissed. "Yet. Hasn't been here yet," Sam corrected her. "We're getting rid of it. Tonight."

"Damn straight we are," Ellen said, staring at her daughter.

Jo clenched her jaw, but nodded. "Okay."

"I can't believe how stupid you were! You could have gotten yourself killed! Your mother killed!" Dean shouted, tearing his arm from Sam's grip. Lady had chosen to die, and counted on them to destroy the book if she wasn't around to do it herself, and Jo had let them down. Put them all in unnecessary danger.

"I know what I'm doing," Jo said.

"What you did came back to bite us in the ass," Dean said.

Ellen stepped forward and put a firm hand on Dean's shoulder to force him to take a few steps back from her daughter, "I get that you are still hurting, but don't you..."

Dean swiped her hand off of his shoulder, "I'm fine. Lady made her choice. Her choice was to keep Jo alive and let herself die. And Jo goes ahead to help herself to a black book!"

"HEY!" Bobby snapped, pushing himself between Ellen and Dean. "Jo, get the damn book. We're burning it. The rest of you idjits just shut it or go take up separate corners."

The book was protected by its own magic and needed to be burned at a ritual site. There was one not far from Duluth according to Lady's notes. Jo had also taken Lady's other charms and the diamond to help search for ley lines, everything that Bobby was now taking for himself. Bobby let the diamond lead him to the center of the intersection of ley lines. It wasn't very secluded, just a quarter of a mile from the road. It was on the edge of a thick grove of trees, but there wasn't any cover from the nearby road. He pocketed the gem and let out a breath, "Let's get this done with." He set the book on the ground.

They all went quiet and still when they heard footsteps coming up the path they had just taken. They weren't too far from town, which was why the ritual site was abandoned. It was a nice evening, possible a hiker was out for a late night stroll. Dean glanced up, a late night stroll under a full moon? With their luck, he doubted it, and tried to reach for his pistol. He found himself unable to move.

"How wonderful," Donovan said, stepping into the area.

Bobby looked at the others, they weren't moving. "You are too late," Bobby said, going to grab his book of matches. But he couldn't move, either.

"Sorry, Mr. Singer," Donovan said, walking forward. "You ruined my shirt last time, so I came in prepared to use a more forceful hand. It is for your own safety. Now, please take...oh, lets make it five steps backwards."

Bobby grimaced as he did what he was told. Donovan stood in the middle of the loose circle next to the book, turning to face each of the hunters. "Simply wonderful. You have extra help. Perfect amount of people. Just stay where you are, your positions are excellent!" Donovan picked the book up off the ground, and Bobby noticed that the five of them could make points of a star.

Donovan flipped through the pages of the book, a grand smile on his face. "This is a very nice copy." He inhaled the scent of the old pages, "Oh, and I think this is one of the first that Garrett created. Smells old. Unfortunate that Lady didn't have a more up-to-date copy. What I wouldn't give to get my hands on Garrett's personal stash. But this…"

"God you bastards love the sound of your own voice, don't you?" Dean grunted, struggling and straining to get out of the strange sort of paralysis Donovan had put on him. Just talking was taking all of his energy.

Donovan's eyes flashed to him, "There is power in words. In a voice," he said. "But there is more power in actions."

"You got the book. Let them go," Dean bargained, his voice strained as he tried to fight the magic hold on him.

"Give me a moment, Mr. Winchester," Donovan said, pausing about three-quarters into the book. "Aw, yes, she did," he muttered, and chuckled. "Little Lady, oh so clever." Donovan took a few long black hairs that had marked a page, and on the page was a tiny drop of smeared blood. "Everything I need," he breathed, grinning at each of his paralyzed sacrifices. "Don't worry, after this little ritual I'll destroy the book for you. I won't need it. Just be quiet and still like you are, all I need are a few extra bodies to guard the lines. No harm will come to you, you have my word."

Donovan set the book on the ground and rested his hand on the grass beside it. He closed his eyes and the grass began to shrivel black until it created a circle that stopped at the toes of each of the hunters standing around him. His voice was a hushed whisper, and then blue flames were flickering from the book. The pages burned, curling and blackening, turning into ash as the fire grew and began to circle him.

There was a crack as loud as thunder right over their heads. The earth shuddered and knocked the hunters back and off their feet, but they were still unable to move. Bobby was able to see Donovan wasn't alone in the circle of flames anymore, but the flames were shifting and were entering Donovan's mouth and eyes. Donovan let out several pleasurable gasps when the fire receded, and his eyes flickered with blue fire when he looked at Bobby. "Take care of what is left, won't you?" he said breathlessly before vanishing in a burst of blue flames.

Bobby was having trouble getting back to his feet, and Dean was at his side. "The others okay?" he asked, taking Dean's hand so he could stand up on shaky legs.

"Ellen? Jo?" Dean called. "Sam, get away from that!"

Sam was moving to the black lump that Donovan had left. "Dean...its Lady's body. He must have pulled it out of the ley lines."

Dean and Bobby both straightened and looked. Covered in mud and muck it was a small body. At last they had a body to put to rest. Something to give them closure. Some ashes to bury next to Freddy, another rock as a marker.

**Within the Ley Lines – Undetermined date and time**

When Lady had been pulled back into the lines by the flock of ravenous birds she had tried to get back out, but she had become effectively trapped.

"They won't allow you out," Max said, glancing at the birds. "It is their job to shepherd the dead away from the land of the living. They have felt your spirit, and won't let you pass over again."

"You can't pass over either," Lady said smugly.

"This is what you want your last act to be? A petty act of revenge?"

"No, that's what you wanted for me," Lady said. "I just turned the tables on you. I can be a sadistic bitch, but I won't be a black witch."

"I'll get out of here, Lady," Max said.

Lady's lip twitched in a sick smile as she heard the distant sounds of barking, and fear crossed Max's face. "You won't get out of here in time," Lady said. "See, maybe I went in blind, but I have things figured out. Everything is clicking together. That mark Ananda put on me ten years ago, that was a binding spell. Binds the spirit to this realm so when they die they are taken here. You took that mark, and that binding spell. The only reason you were able to go back and forth was because your spirit had been bound by Maxine." Lady grinned enough to show her teeth. "And without Maxine holding your spirit, you can't get out of here. Ever. I've been studying necromancy a little bit. Binding spells, in particular. And I know this area well enough to know those fiends want you a hell of a lot more than they want me."

"Lady…they will destroy me," Max said. "You're going to kill me!"

"No, not me," Lady said, looking at the red glow of eyes in the darkness. "They will, though."

"Help me," Max begged her. "You still have the power of The Goddess inside you, help me!"

"Of course, let me help you with some advice," Lady said. "Run. Run fast."

Lady turned her back on Max, ignoring the snarls and barks that signaled the hunt was on. She didn't make it very far before she could feel the shift of power that signaled Max was trying to protect herself, and the fading power the tell her Max failed.

Lady wandered the vast space. Many of the fiends that hunted there were located in certain areas that she learned to avoid. Few that ventured out or roamed farther traveled in packs, such as dogs or wolves. She had enough power from the Goddess to protect herself from the fiends, but the birds were another story. The birds were passive for the most part…until she tried to near a crossroads where she'd try to escape.

The birds were a mix of whippoorwills, sparrows, owls and crows. They weren't affected by any power she threw at them, they moved faster than her and were numbered in the thousands. Their mix of songs and calls were all she heard, every minute she spent there it was a mix of mournful songs, chipper tweets, hoots and caws. Lady tried many tactics to get away from them. Hiding beneath trees, covering herself with mud to disguise herself, running, leading them into fiends that snatched them up like peanut treats. But like Max had said, they knew her spirit and would not allow her to leave. She was effectively bound within the spirit realm.

The area was turbulent. She saw demons slithering through the realm whenever one used a crossroads, and there were hundreds of them. They whispered in dark Latin that made her skin crawl. From what she observed she didn't think they were aware of her, or even aware that they were passing through a corrupted spirit realm of a long forgotten Goddess.

And then she heard a ritual being performed, a whisper of Latin echoing across the realm. It wasn't until she felt herself being drawn to it that she realized it was a summoning spell. Someone was summoning the power within the ley lines, The Goddess's power.

The birds seem to be quieted as magic was being used on both sides of the ley lines, and Lady got closer than she had ever before managed to get to a crossroads. She took it and dove through, a bit of exhilaration as the power burst into flames around her, holding her in a warm embrace as it guided her out of the spirit realm and back to the real world.

When the flames receded she was face to face with a young witch of the coven. It was a young woman, her eyes wide and shocked at Lady's arrival. One of the few low members of the coven to survive the Black Moon.

Lady could feel the ley lines vibrating strongly beneath her feet, and knew the birds, the psychopomps who had the task of keeping her spirit out of the living realm, were on their way now that they realized she escaped.

The witch had a sacrifice, a young boy that could only be fourteen years old. With barely a thought the boy was free from his ropes. Lady reached with the power and focused on the witch. Immolating a being of flesh and blood was much more difficult than handling spectral fiends, and Lady wasn't sure that she succeeded before she was pulled back into the ley lines and trapped once again.

She wondered if she could find a way to escape, really escape. But she wasn't sure what sort of life she had up there anymore. She was dead, would always be chased by psychopomps…and with the power she was holding she wasn't necessarily human any more. She was more than a witch, even more than a warlock, with what was inside of her. The wounds of her spirit and body healed with little effort once she tried, and she thought if she continued using the abilities she might be able to understand them far enough to escape. But again, what life would she even have in the living world?

It was impossible to tell time, the realm was always in a perpetual state of twilight or dawn. No moon or sun. No stars. What felt like every couple of days there was another witch trying to use the power within the ley lines. She couldn't always reach the area before the ritual was complete, and the damn birds seem to be learning and were no longer going passive near ritual sites.

For the most part Lady laid in a field of dry grass, a blue fire around her and scorching the earth in a twenty feet radius. The fire kept the smaller fiends and insects from nibbling on her, and the birds flew higher to avoid the extreme heat. The fire wasn't painful, not anymore. She was alone, and going crazy because of it. The fear of being alone wasn't as strong as the fear of being devoured by the dangerous fiends, but it was getting close to being a tie.

And then there was another ritual. Not a summoning ritual, but one used to communicate. "Lady…" someone was calling. "Knock Knock."

Lady looked around, anxious that she may have come across a fiend that could actually speak. "Who's there?"

"A friend," the voice said. It was tinny and distorted, hard to tell if it was male or female. "I've been trying to communicate with you for a while now, I'm glad you've finally heard me."

"You are a witch," Lady guessed. "Summon me out of here, and then we'll talk."

"If I do, they'll just drag you back in. You know that," the voice said. "You see, you haven't been able to hear me…but I've been able to hear you. I know what is going on over there. I want to help you."

"Sure you do," Lady said. Wishing the witch would just summon her out so she could try and burn them to a crisp. She wasn't even sure if she was really talking to someone or if she had finally started hearing voices. She had been very aware when she was talking to herself before, it was out of boredom and sometimes she just needed to hear something other than those damn birds. This time she wasn't sure if this voice was one of her own or really someone on the other side.

"What do you say to a trade? That nice bit of power you are holding, for me to get you out of there?"

"This power dies with me…eventually," Lady said. So far she had been avoiding it, afraid of the finality and pain of being ripped to shreds. Not just her body but her spirit. "You and your sick kind aren't allowed to use it any more."

"Don't be stupid, Lady. You aren't holding all the cards here, and you definitely aren't holding all the power."

"Everything I am holding I'm not letting go of. So shove your trade up your ass." Lady listened, but the other end went quiet. When that witch tried a serious ritual she was going to break out and torch their ass, being attacked by angry birds or not.

It felt like a few days had passed when the next ritual happened. It was different than the others. It was summoning power, but specifically the power that she held. She was literally dragged in the direction of the summons. Unsure what was happening and unprepared she struggled and fought against the pull. Before she reached a crossroads she was sucked into the earth, traveling through ley lines between the spirit realm and the living world. She couldn't breathe or see, and was struggling in vain to control what was happening.

The next thing she knew she was pulled into the living world. A full moon was high overhead. Blue flames surrounded her and a witch was holding her tightly, but she couldn't see his face. Fire was burning in her eyes and she felt the surge of power that had once been exciting to possess was now burning through her as the witch pulled it out forcefully. She struggled for breath as the power that had kept her alive left her. Her heart was pounding wildly in her chest, getting every last beat it could before it gave out. She went limp in the witch's grasp, and finally she was given peaceful dark that she had been fearfully avoiding.

Lady was just a dirty crumpled mess on the ground when it was all over. Barely recognizable as the woman who had died months ago. Sam looked at the body sadly. He was so exhausted he couldn't spare the tears, not anymore. He couldn't even feel the relief of having her body back to put it at rest. He gave her filthy hand a small squeeze to say goodbye one last time, and then grabbed her wrist. He sucked in a shock breath and nearly fell back, "She has a pulse! Jesus Christ! She's still alive!"

**A/N** - _Song for this Chapter_

_Afterlife, by Avenged Sevenfold_


	60. Minnesota Hospital, June 2007

**Early Morning, June 1, 2007. Duluth, Minnesota**

The second Dean parked in front of the emergency room Sam got out of the car, carrying Lady in his arms. "We need some help here! She's not breathing! Someone help me!"

The emergency room was full of sick people, but no one questioned the large man holding a small dirty woman. A flurry of nurses and doctors surrounded them, examining Lady in Sam's arms while getting a gurney. Within a minute Lady had a tube down her throat with a nurse pumping air into her from a small bag while they rolled her away.

The waiting room was nearly silent. There was a bit of hope, a bit of fear, and a lot of questions. Bobby, claiming to be her father, was taken back into the room she was in after a few hours and spoke with a doctor. He came out several minutes later, his face unreadable.

"What'd the doctor say?" Ellen asked.

"Well, she ain't breathing on her own, say her lungs are scarred and burned. And, uh, they found a bleed in her brain but they managed to get it stopped. They've done a ton of tests, waiting for more results to come back," he muttered. "I don't know what they'll find. They are giving me a load of crap right now. Malnourished, dehydrated, concussions..." Bobby shook his head. "Right now she's in a coma. They don't expect her to wake up, but they are keeping her on, uh...machines and stuff. In case they find something to help her." Bobby glared at the snort of laughter Dean let out. "Something funny?"

"No," Dean said stiffly, looking away. Not funny, he was just about to go insane. They'd been waiting for hours just to hear she was in a coma? That she was broken and beaten and dying? Why did she have to go through more pain and suffering?

"Can we see her?" Sam asked.

"They got her set up in a room, they only want one person in at a time," Bobby said.

Sam glanced at Dean and back at Bobby, "Mind if I spend a few minutes with her?"

"Knock yourself out," Bobby said.

Sam walked down the hall. Back in the waiting room Dean began to walk out. "You aren't staying?" Bobby called after him.

"For what?" Dean looked back at him. "Tell Sam I'll be in the car."

Jo looked tensely at the others, and stomped after him. She met him outside the emergency room entrance, "You are a dick!" she shouted.

Dean turned and looked at her with wide eyes, "Excuse me?"

"She loved you, and she's in there right now..."

"That's not Lady in there," Dean pointed back at the hospital. "That's a...a broken body with nothing inside of it. Donovan sucked the power, maybe even anything left of her soul, out of it and took off. Instead of sitting on my thumbs, I'm going to work and try to track down the bastard."

"What happened to you, Dean?" Jo asked. "We never knew each other that well, but...Lady talked about you like you were some John Wayne. Instead you are just a chicken-shit. You can't even go in there to face her? Even if it's to say goodbye?"

"You think Lady would want people to see her like that?" Dean asked. "I say pull the plug so we can burn her already! Get it over with! She died two months ago, on her own terms! Being kept alive on machines isn't how she'd want to be remembered. Let her keep that shred of pride instead of coddling whatever the hell is in there. Life is short, I don't have time to waste on this anymore!"

Jo looked at him with wide eyes and in a small voice said, "You are a class-A son of a bitch, you know that?"

Dean walked stiffly to his car, and leaned against the side of it while glaring at the emergency room doors, wishing his brother would hurry the hell up. Would Lady's death haunt him until his own death? Yeah, it probably would. Her death, Sam's death, and his father's. And anyone else who decided to kick the bucket before he took his trip to hell at the end of his year. Why couldn't he just enjoy his last months without the guilt? Without hating himself for everything that had happened in the past year.

In the hospital Sam was in Lady's room beside her bed. He looked at her sadly. She was hooked up to machines with tubes and wires coming out of her arms and out from under the hospital blanket. He sat in a chair and put his hand on hers, "I'm not sure if you are in there, even if you are I doubt you could hear me. I've said goodbye so many times. You've been in every one of my prayers. I hope, more than anything, that now at least...wherever you were, you aren't trapped there anymore. I hope you get to go somewhere peaceful and warm, and safe." Sam closed his eyes and bowed his head while holding her hand, giving her one more prayer.

"That's very beautiful," a soft voice said, making his head jerk up. The door to Lady's room closed and Donovan was standing there. Sam stood up immediately, "You stay away from her!" he ordered as he stepped around the bed and prepared to pummel the warlock with his bare hands if it was necessary.

"Tough little thing, isn't she?" Donovan said quietly, just looking at Lady with sad blue eyes. He looked at Sam, "Easy, big guy. I saved her life. Few more weeks within the lines and she would have been a blubbering mess begging for something to end it all."

Sam just glared at the warlock, wishing he hadn't left his weapons in the car. He had been holding Lady the whole ride to the hospital, he hadn't taken the time to grab his pistol. He just wanted to get her medical help immediately. The whole time waiting he hadn't thought to go back to grab something. Taking a gun into a hospital…he shouldn't have to take weapons into a hospital to grieve for a friend.

Donovan's eyes studied him, not moving closer but not backing down. "I don't want her to die. I've been her biggest fan for years."

"The things you people did to her…I'm going to hunt down each and every one of you," Sam promised.

Donovan slowly pulled a small bottle out of his pocket. "There are two options. The first one is to leave her how she is. Her body is weak, her brain isn't much more responsive than oatmeal…I'd give her a few more hours until she's gone forever. Plenty of time for you and all her friends to come in and say goodbye. Or…you can give this to her. It will save her life."

"I don't believe you."

"Of course not. But you have nothing to lose. Either I'm lying and it will kill her. Or I'm telling the truth and if you don't give it to her she'll die anyway," Donovan said. Donovan looked at Sam with something that resembled compassion, "The place where she was holds magic from a time where Gods walked beside man. When I took the power out of her I was able to access it myself. Since she died I've been trying to find a way to save her. I'm not a good person, you look at me with the right amount of distrust. But I want her to live."

"Why?" Sam asked.

Donovan tossed the small bottle to Sam, and Sam caught it without a second thought. "Personal reasons. I'm not going to lie, this isn't a cure all. Some things will still have to heal on their own. Her life is in your hands, literally. Just inject it into her bloodstream or pour it down her throat. If you don't do the right thing, I'll come back for you."

Donovan backed out of the room, and Sam didn't chase him. He had already experienced how powerful the warlock was, the only thing he'd succeed in would be getting hurt or killed if he tried to take him down.

Sam looked back at Lady, and at the small bottle that fit in the palm of his hand. He opened a drawer near her bed and found a wrapped syringe. His eyes moved quickly to the door and back to his hands as they worked to fill the syringe with a greenish tinted liquid. He swallowed hard, he had nothing to lose. Lady sure as hell didn't, either. Sam didn't know what was in the bottle, what he was injecting into her IV and into her bloodstream. As soon as it was done he shoved the syringe into the biohazard disposal unit and the bottle in his pocket. His face grimaced as he watched her, "I'm so sorry, Lady," he muttered. Dealing with a warlock was no better than a demon. At least a demon had rules to follow, a warlock had no rules. Bound only to their own moral compass, which usually pointed far south. And he had just shoved something into her body that came from a warlock of the same coven that she'd devoted her life to stopping.

Lady jerked in her bed, back arching and arms flailing. Sam watched the monitors, her heartbeat was increasing. He was about to hit the nurse button, and then Lady tried to open her eyes.

Sam put a hand on her chest to hold her down and his other took her hand, "Hang on, Lady. Lady, calm down," he said gently as he heard her heart monitor begin to beep wildly. "It's me, I'm right here with you." Lady went limp on the bed. "Please..." Sam let out a breath as Lady squeezed his hand. "Oh Jesus," he breathed. "Just hang on, Lady."

Lady struggled weakly. In her mind she was in a burning field in the spirit realm, but she was having a hard time breathing. There was a voice, it was muffled, too loud and distorted to understand. Her mind was foggy, and her limbs numb. She couldn't quite remember what happened, but she believed she was in danger. Danger, there was always danger. She went still and focused on the fire. It was easy to command, kept her warm and kept most of the hungry creatures away from her.

Sam took a step back as nurses and doctors flooded into the room, answering the signals from Lady's life monitors. He watched anxiously as he saw her heart rate continued to be erratic, and in horror as he saw her temperature spike.

"She's overheating. Wheel her to the ice tank," someone shouted, pushing past Sam so they could roll her gurney out of the room. The medical staff worked with precision, unhooking unnecessary equipment and rolling out whatever else was needed.

"Sam? What's happening?" Jo asked when he returned to the waiting room. "Is…what's happening?"

"I think she might be okay," he said, grimacing slightly. "She was almost awake…but…" He swallowed hard, "Her temperature hit a hundred and fifteen before they took her away."

"That's pretty high," Jo said.

"That means her brain is cooking in her own skull," Bobby said in a low voice.

"They are trying to stabilize her," Sam said anxiously, bringing his hand to his mouth so he could chew on a knuckle. He closed his eyes and worked on finishing the prayer that Donovan had interrupted just minutes before. This time asking for forgiveness for himself instead of asking for Lady to be granted peace.

After being taken out of her room Lady was put into a shallow tub of ice water in an attempt to control her fever. She was flailing around as if she was having a seizure while her fever rose to one-thirty. The nurses thought the machine was malfunctioning, a brain should have shut down and left her dead if the fever was that high.

Lady clawed at things grabbing at her as she felt the fire being extinguished around her, the friendly warmth being turned into icy cold daggers. The fiends had invaded, she was done for. But she was going to take out as many of them as she could. Their sounds were muffled and distorted, speaking in a weird language that she couldn't make out.

A blinding light was around her, not the calm blue fire she had learned to control but something white and painful to her eyes. She realized she was in water, the lake? She struggled and fought, getting herself free and stumbling out of the water. The ground was slippery, like ice. Was she back at the frozen lake in North Dakota?

She couldn't see, she could barely hear. She stumbled into something and grabbed it, throwing it at the things that were attacking her. Screams and shrieks. If they wanted a meal they had to work for it, damn it. Either they had to work for it or wait until she laid down to give up.

Sam and the others were all standing in the waiting room, anxiously waiting for a doctor to return. And then an alarm sounded. Security moved to watch the exits and all staff began walking around anxiously.

Dean had been waiting in the hospital parking lot for nearly an hour, but he was okay with that. He'd rather be alone, silently feeling sick to his stomach over what had happened. He just needed it to be over. And then he heard the alarms go off in the hospital. He ran across the parking lot. There was a security guard at the exit, but it seemed he was making sure no one got out and didn't stop Dean from going in. It was most likely that a kid or handicapped patient had gotten out of the watchful eye of the medical staff and they wanted to make sure they didn't make a break for it…but how often in his career had the most likely scenario actually been the case?

"What's going on?" He asked anxiously when he reached the group, his hands patting his pockets to make sure a few blades were available, and he felt the comfortable weight of his pistol in the back of his waistband.

"We don't know. Doctor?" Bobby looked at the doctor that was walking up to them.

The doctor that had been treating Lady was soaking wet, red scratches across his face and he had a limp, "Sir," he looked at Bobby. "Your daughter attacked us and ran. She is probably delirious from the fever…I don't even know how she was able to…" The doctor was obviously amazed and confused beyond rational thought, but was trying to explain how the woman he said wouldn't wake up from a coma was now running around by herself. "She ran off, and we need to find her."

"We'll help," Sam said.

"In a minute," Bobby corrected, motioning for the group to gather. "We might have a problem."

"What problem? Lady isn't in a coma, she's running around! She's probably delirious but give her some time and she's going to be okay!" Sam said.

"After what she had in her? How sure are you it's even Lady?" Bobby snapped at him.

Sam opened his mouth, almost telling them what he had done. That he had given Lady some magical shot that seemed to be bringing her back…but then he decided now wasn't the best time. They still had to find Lady before she hurt herself, or her fever cooked her brain. See what condition she was in, see if it really was her. There wasn't time to confess or explain. "It doesn't matter, we have to find her," Sam said.

Dean shut down all emotional thought. He'd gotten a lot of practice doing that over the years. Take away the fact that the patient was his dead girlfriend and all he was looking for was a nut job who had gotten mixed up in magic that was a danger to herself and others. He let the training his father had drilled in him take over, giving his brother a nod and splitting up to walk the corridors and check the rooms of the hospital. Jo and Ellen split up to watch the elevators while Bobby stayed in the waiting room to wait for the doctor and watch the exit.

Dean and Sam followed the wet trail on the floor where Lady had lashed out at the medical staff that was trying to save her. Once it ended they split up, taking separate hallways and making a thorough search. Dean was near the end of the hall, nearing a restricted area he was already making plans to infiltrate, when he heard a crash.

His hand twitched, wanting to go to his pistol, but he waited until he saw the situation. Lady was soaking wet, the thin hospital gown clinging to her body, in a dark room. She was on the floor, huddled into a corner. The crash had been the fluorescent bulb being broken. Lady had several nicks and cuts from the shattered glass. An IV was still stuck in her arm, but the bag had been ripped off and just a tube was hanging down. Her hands were over her head and she was whispering in Latin.

She went quiet and tense when she heard his careful footsteps. All logic and training he had been learning since he was four years old was forgotten. He should have stepped forward, disabled Lady before she could curse him. That was how you handled a witch. Right then Lady was terrified, disoriented and who knows what else after everything she had been through.

"Lady, can you hear me?" he asked, his voice sounded strange to his own ears. Slowly he walked around the broken light bulb so he could get closer. "Lady, it's…"

Without warning Lady lashed out when he got too close. Hissing in Latin while scratching at his chest until he pinned her arms down. He held her close to him and pressed her up against a wall so she wouldn't step in the glass. An hour ago her brain had been mush…what the hell was going on?

Lady had barely found a quiet place that seemed to be safe. She'd broken the light, scared it off somehow. She was just trying to protect herself and get some sense back. She didn't know where she was, and just when she thought she had found a temporary safe spot one of the fiends came across her. It was moving slow, but she wasn't going to let herself be an easy prey. But when she attacked it she discovered it was a big one, and too quickly it had her trapped. She felt the rumble of its chest vibrating through her, it was too strong to fight off and didn't flinch when she attacked. She wondered why it wasn't just getting down to business, tearing into her throat and ending it. She waited for several moments, waiting for the pain to start. For the fiend to start in on her. When it didn't she struggled, trying to kick and bite it, anything to invoke it to do something so it could be over with.

"Stop it," Dean growled. He could feel her heart beating a mile a minute against his chest, her breath was coming in winded pants and her body felt feverish. If there was any bit of hope that she was going to live she needed to stop fighting. It felt like her heart was going to blow up if it kept beating like that, and just half an hour ago she couldn't breathe on her own.

"Dean!" Sam called, running into the room. "What are you doing?"

"She's freaking out, man," Dean snapped, tilting his head so his brother could see the red bleeding scratches on his cheek and part of his torn shirt.

Sam went still as Lady started hissing in Latin. "That sounds friendly," he breathed, paling slightly.

"Just get out of here, she knows enough curses to blow up the whole damn place," Dean ordered.

"No, wait," Sam said. "Quiet." Sam was better in Latin than Dean. Dean could recite it just fine, but he only knew a handful of translations. "I'm catching some of it."

"Sam, just…"

"Shut up!" Sam barked as he got closer. Lady snarled and started speaking loud when he touched the top of her head gently. "Uh…Eat…eat me?" Sam's eyebrows shot up. "She's swearing at you in Latin, Dean."

And she was. The only thing she could think to hiss at the fiends that were taunting her was taunt them right back. "Do your worst you miserable piece of crap. You want a piece of this? Eat me. Go for it. I promise I'll make you sick. Stupid mindless…" she was growling, but all words that came out were spoken in Latin.

"Lady!" A voice interrupted her rambling taunt. "Please, stop. Lady, it's me. It's Sam. Can you understand me?"

Lady went still and would have crumpled to the floor if the fiend didn't have her pressed against a wall. But…that wasn't right, was it? The spirit realm didn't have walls.

"Lady, you are going to be okay, just calm down," the voice said gently, a heavy hand was on her head and gently rubbing her wet hair. "Dean, move back a bit. I think she's calming down."

Lady was still for a moment as the weight behind her lessened, and then she twisted her body to continue attacking. She wasn't falling for it. Not yet, she wasn't that far gone yet. Strong hands grabbed her wrists and her back was pressed against the hard wall again, restraining her without causing harm.

"Yeah, I don't think so," the one that was holding her rumbled, her face right against its chest that she could feel the sound vibrate. She sucked in a few pants of breath, inhaling the smell of leather and gunsmoke.

That wasn't right, either. The spirit realm didn't have smells. Or bright light. Or fiends smart enough to taunt her like this. Either this was some insane hallucination, or…

"Just, give us a minute, we're calming her down," Sam said anxiously as a parade of nurses and doctors armed with sedatives and restraints came in.

"She's dangerous," one of them said. "And very ill."

"If you don't step back you'll find out who is dangerous," Dean barked a warning to them. Lady was still and he could feel her breath on his neck, her chest rising and falling against his, her hands still while he held her wrists.

Lady was able to hear and understand the words now. She was identifying the sterile smell of bleach and the sick smell of antiseptic. She could feel linoleum under her bare feet.

Everyone went very still as she began to laugh and gasp, "I got out?"

She continued to laugh as her will to fight left her, causing her knees to go weak and someone or something lifted her into their arms. Either she'd finally gone insane from being trapped in the spirit realm, or she was free from it. The giggles hurt her sides, and she put a hand over her eyes to block out the bright fluorescent lights. And she kept giggling as something poked her arm and darkness fell over her.

Dean's jaw was so tight it ached as he put Lady on the gurney. Her eyes were half-open and rolled back in her head, her breaths wet and raspy between dopey laughter. He looked up at Sam while he wondered what the hell was going to happen next.

**A/N** – _Song for this chapter_

_Passion for Publication, by Anarbor (try to take the lyrics literally, that is if you listen to any of the songs)_

_Just another note, thanks for everyone keeping up with the story and if at any time something isn't clear with the writing or off with the story let me know by review/message so I can fix it or explain it more thoroughly. And just a quick 'woot!' because this story has over a hundred reviews. _


	61. Escape to Bobby's, June 2007

**June 1, 2007**

Lady was out for several hours, nurses came in frequently checking her vitals and a few times taking blood to test. The group of hunters didn't leave her room, watching her and waiting for a chance to see how miraculous her recovery really had been. Sam sat by her bed, holding her hand. Ellen was at the window, while Jo was against the wall so she could see the door. Bobby was on the opposite side of her bed from Sam, while Dean stayed near the door.

It was in the afternoon when Lady began to come to, wincing into bright light. There was something warm in her hand, and she pulled away. Jerking and wincing as aches across her body protested.

"Hey, Lady," Sam's gentle voice said, and the warm thing around her hand tightened. His hand? "Stay calm, you are safe."

She turned her head, trying to stop the bright light that infiltrated her eyes. "Too bright," she muttered. "Break the light…"

"Close the curtains," Sam said quickly.

There were a mix of sounds. Shoes on hard tile, the scraping of metal on metal while curtains were closed, the click of a light switch and a hum of fluorescent light bulbs going off. She relaxed a bit and opened her eyes. The room was still brighter than the spirit realm had been, but it was dim enough that she could look around. She could see dark shapes, but couldn't make out many details.

"Hey, kid, how you feeling?" Bobby asked gruffly.

Lady jerked and looked around, and looked in the direction the voice was. The dark shape was on the other side of her bed. "Bobby?"

"Right here, kid," he said, and she felt his warm dry hand cover her free hand. He patted it a few times and then it went away. "It all you in there?"

That was a good question. "I don't know," she admitted. "I'm thinking about setting you on fire, you on fire?"

"No," he said flatly.

"Then it's all me," she said, closing her eyes as they began to ache. "I can't see."

"Yeah, well…with your eyes being on fire consider yourself lucky that you even have 'em anymore," Bobby muttered. "Other than some nicks and cuts from when you freaked out and broke a light bulb, you are good. Uh, better than new, almost."

"What do you mean?" Lady asked.

"Long story," Bobby said quietly. "But, uh, no knife wounds, gun shot wounds. Hell, not much for scars left either."

"Oh," Lady sighed slightly. "Well, I figured out how to fix all those injuries. I had a lot of spare time, there wasn't any TV where I was."

The room was very quiet until Bobby asked, "Was that a joke?"

"Mmhm," she answered.

A nervous laugh came out of Sam, and she felt his other hand touch her forehead. "The doctor says you are going to be okay. A miraculous recovery…"

"Doctor?" she asked slowly.

"Yeah. You are still in the hospital," Sam said.

"Whoa, whoa!" Bobby was helping Sam hold her down as she struggled.

She lost all sense that she had recovered. "No! No hospital. Get me out of here! I want out! I want to leave! I need to get out of here now! No!" She squealed. How quickly her fears had changed from being eaten to being pricked by needles by strangers.

The nurses, a whole team, came in and assisted them in holding Lady down until they hit her with a tranquilizer that made her go still. Lady mumbled incoherently as her limbs went numb and unresponsive, a thick fog entered her brain.

Dean, who had been standing as far away from the bed as he could while staying in the same room, let out a breath. He had barely moved and it felt if he tried he'd fall on his face. Doctors were saying that their tests earlier were wrong, that the brain damage they saw hadn't actually been there. Maybe they had screwed up her tests, or maybe there was something else at work.

Sam looked up as Dean backed out of the room silently, and Sam let go of Lady's hand to follow him out. He met Dean in the waiting room. "What are you going to do?" Sam asked.

"About what?" Dean asked, going up to the vending machine and looking interested in the selection to avoid looking at Sam.

"Soon Lady is going to wake up. She'll be strong enough to get out of that hospital bed. She's going to be okay," Sam said.

"Let her get there first," Dean said, pulling out his wallet to grab a few dollars. He wasn't hungry, far from it, but he could not look at his brother.

"You have to tell her what you've done."

"Yeah, I suppose I will," Dean said. "But she can't blame me for sleeping with a few women while she was dead."

"That's not...that isn't what I'm talking about and you know it," Sam said. "You wouldn't have sold your soul for me if she had been alive."

"What? Don't be stupid," Dean scoffed, turning to glare at Sam. "You are my brother. My blood. I wasn't going to let you die."

"She would have been there for you. Just like she was there for you when Dad died," Sam said. "She wouldn't have let you throw your life away. And now she is back and you are torn up because if it."

"I'm ready to freak out," Dean admitted. "Some serious bad mojo has to go on to bring someone back from the dead, Sam! And she was dead! You heard the doctor. Bleeding into her brain, couldn't breathe on her own…" Dean studied his brother and his eyes widened. Since Lady had appeared his mind had been severely occupied while trying to shut down at the same time, but now that he was looking at his brother he noticed something was off. "What the hell did you do, Sam?"

Sam kept his face even. Sometimes he wished his brother was only as smart as the GED he had achieved, but Dean proved time and again he had smarts that rivaled Sam's. Give the normal person a miracle like Lady, and they wouldn't think twice about it, or take it for granted. But Dean had put together the pieces and got from point A to point C without discovering point B. Sam wasn't sure he could lie to Dean, and say he had no part in Lady's recovery. So he told a half-truth, "I haven't left her side since we got here," Sam said, making Dean look away guiltily. "And I'm going back. I don't know what she went through, what she even remembers. But I know when we found her she was terrified. I'm not leaving her alone."

Maybe Dean could surprise him with how sharp he was, but Sam knew how to get away from the accusing glare. Accuse him right back, for not being there for Lady. He turned on his heel and went back to the hospital room.

Dean glared at the vending machine. He didn't have to pretend to be interested in it any longer, but it was available to glare at. He wished he could be like Sam, be there and help Lady. Sit beside her and talk, get answers while making sure she wasn't alone. But he couldn't. He could barely look at her. But numbly he walked back to the hospital room, standing near the door. He told himself he was guarding it, making sure no one or no thing got in past him.

"Jo, think you could get Lady some clothes?" Bobby asked quietly.

Jo nodded, "Yeah, of course."

"Bobby, what are you doing?" Ellen asked. "You can't think about getting her out of here."

"That's exactly what I'm thinking," Bobby said roughly. "As soon as that sedative wears off she's going to be tearing at people to get out of here again."

"He's right," Jo confirmed. "She nearly gouged my eyes out with her boney fingers when I took her to a hospital in Texas."

"Wait," Sam said. "Ten hours ago she was brain dead. She should stay here for a while, at least a day."

"Right, where she is doped up and defenseless," Bobby argued. "I don't know how she was able to survive, but I do know that warlock has something to do with it. Whatever he did to her at the ritual site. We need to get her somewhere safe, sober her up, and figure it out."

Sam swallowed hard, sometimes he didn't give his own brother enough credit. That was one thing, he had grown up beside Dean and knew him pretty well. However he should have expected Bobby to come to a similar conclusion. But at least Bobby didn't think he was involved.

"Now, unless you guys want to help pay for these hospital bills, maybe you'll move your asses and get her some clothes," Bobby said roughly.

Dean wasn't able to sit by Lady's bed and hold her hand, he wasn't good enough to do that. But sneaking her out of a hospital like she had begged them to do…he could do that. "How you want to handle this?" he asked Bobby.

An hour later Jo and Ellen returned to the hospital. "Lady, can you hear me?" Jo asked anxiously, sliding the curtain around her bed so they could have privacy. Lady mumbled something incoherently. "Well, that's good enough for me. We're going to get you out of here."

Jo and Ellen struggled with Lady's limbs as they dressed her in sweatpants and flannel button-down shirt. They tore out the IVs in her arm and let Lady lay in the bed fiddling with the shirt-buttons as Jo went to the window. The Impala rolled up to the window when Jo stuck her head outside. "Get the door open," Jo instructed as she went back to Lady's side. "Come on, Lady, we're getting out of here."

Lady tried to work drug-heavy limbs, muttering and snickering to herself while leaning on Jo. Once at the window Dean and Sam grabbed her, easing her out of the window and putting her in the backseat with Bobby. "Good luck, boys," Ellen said tensely. "Let us know how she does."

Sam and Dean had broken into the hospital pharmacy storage, getting the same drugs the hospital had her on. Including some tranquilizers just in case. And something extra. "I grabbed this, should wake her up and counter the sedative they gave her," Sam said, holding up a syringe.

Dean snatched it out of his hand, "Sam, you do _not_ give Lady uppers. What is wrong with you?"

"I'm just thinking, if you want answers let's get them now," Sam said. "Get her awake, make sure everything is okay."

"We can wait," Bobby argued. "Just let this run through her system."

Sam frowned as he looked out the window. It'd take a while for the drugs to get through Lady's system, and he didn't want them to get too far away from the hospital in case she needed it. Maybe if they got her coherent they could talk her into going back, make sure everything was okay. "What if…" Sam turned to try and bargain with Bobby.

"Sam, this is the girl that won't go to sleep after two energy drinks. We are not pumping her up with anything stronger than a cup of coffee," Bobby snapped.

They went to a motel in St. Paul. If Donovan really wanted to find them again there wasn't much they could do, they were hoping the busy downtown of the city would make him think twice.

Once there Lady talked, her words slurred from the sedatives. She told them what had happened after Garrett stole her away from North Dakota, and what happened until she had been pulled out.

"So this whole time you were just trapped, alive, in the spirit realm?" Sam asked softly.

"I was aware, not really alive," Lady corrected. "I'm just not sure how I got out."

It was Bobby's turn to talk, telling her about Donovan and the book. Things clicked in Lady's mind, not as fast as normal because of the drugs but fast enough.

"The ritual Garrett did," she said once he was done. "I had marked it, tried to do a curse on the ritual through the book. This is bad."

"How bad?" Sam asked.

Lady opened her eyes weakly to look at him, still only able to see fuzzy dark shapes, "How bad is a warlock holding the power of an ancient Goddess? On a scale of ten, I'd say that's at least an eight, plus three-hundred. Idiot."

Sam rolled his eyes and held back the laugh that wanted to escape. He was just relieved she was okay, and safe.

"Any idea on how you went from dead to this?" Bobby asked.

Lady shrugged a shoulder, "Guess I'll have to find Donovan and ask him."

"We need to find him and kill him," Sam corrected. "You held onto that power for over two months, any idea…"

"Wait a second," Lady said, her voice sharper and stronger than it had been before. "What?"

"Do you have any idea how to stop someone holding the power of the Goddess?" Sam finished.

"No, I don't. But what do you mean two months? It's been _maybe_ two weeks," Lady said anxiously.

Sam and Bobby exchanged nervous looks while Dean kept his eyes on the floor. "Lady, it's June first," Dean said.

"Oh," was all she said, leaning back onto the bed.

The room went quiet with her. Over two months?

"Um," Lady began again. "No, I don't know how to stop it. It's raw magic power. Witches and warlocks and use it and warp it, but not that. It's too powerful."

The next day they drove back to Bobby's, reaching it late in the evening. Even though Lady had proved she was able to walk on her own Sam kept an arm around her waist while leading her inside the cluttered house.

"Bobby is getting the downstairs room set up for you," Sam told her quietly as he helped her through the dark house. "Dean is running into town to get some supplies, things you may need."

"You don't have to do this, Sam," Lady said quietly.

"I want to," he said. "I'm so happy you are...you are back, and you are you."

"Mostly, right?" Lady asked. "Come on, I'm blind, not deaf."

"I'm worried about you," Sam said. "We're going to take care of you, though."

"You, uh...that's nice, but you don't have to," Lady said. "You can leave with Dean, I don't expect you to stay. And, uh, come on, I'm not stupid, either. Maybe I'm no genius but I was pretty good at connect-the-dots as a kid. You are being disgustingly nice and Dean is unusually quiet. Something is going on."

Sam frowned, yeah, something was going on. She had missed out on a lot in the past few months. "Dean is sort of in shock. He took it pretty hard, and he held it all in. You know how he is. Now that you are back he can't just let it all go. Not that fast."

Lady shook her head, "Two months, Sam. I don't need details, but I can imagine. Just, uh...it's okay. What I became, what happened...I don't expect him to forgive any of that."

"There is nothing to forgive," Sam said firmly.

"I became a..." Lady shook her head. "I don't even know."

"Just give him time. Please," Sam said. "And yourself time. Things aren't...they can't go back to how they were overnight."

"Sure," Lady muttered. "Can, uh...can you take me to Freddie's grave?"

"You sure?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," she said.

Outside Lady could have her eyes open. The glow of the moon didn't hurt. In fact for the first time in years she actually found the sight of the moon rather beautiful. It was a strange fuzzy circle in the sky, and she could even make out some of the larger stars. The sound of crickets, the rustle of grass in the wind. The smell of Bobby's place, fried food and engine grease. She was free and safe.

And then she was at the soft patch of grass that was Freddie's grave. "I'll be inside in a few minutes," she told Sam.

"Okay," he said, giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

Lady sat beside the grave and rested her hand in the cool ground. It didn't feel real, any of it, yet. That she was actually alive and free from the ley lines. That she got to see her friends again. She hadn't been given a chance to say goodbye to Freddie, there hadn't been time. There was the swift vengeance against Garrett, and then the race to try and save herself. She ever thought if she lost her dog she'd break down into a useless emotional heap. Freddie had, for a long time, been her biggest confidant and source of emotional support and love. Even when she was with Dean her dog had never taken a back seat to her affection. Occasionally he had been ditched in favor of Dean and human companionship, but he had always been there. Freddie had been faithful and gave unconditional love, her closest companion…

A few hot tears burned her sensitive eyes and she let out a shaky breath as she felt the loss settle into her chest. The relief of being back was keeping it from being overwhelming, but it hurt.

Lady wiped at the tears as she heard someone approaching, and sniffed back more tears when she heard who it was.

"I'm sorry," Dean said, standing beside her. "Not sure if you saw it or remember, but he nearly tore Garrett's arm right out of the socket. He was a good dog."

"Thanks," Lady said softly, wiping at the tears that were falling down.

"Lady...a lot happened while you were gone." She sat there quietly. "I can't believe I'm talking to you right now. And, uh..."

"I don't need any explanation," she said. "Sam is being unusually sweet and nice, I'm still waiting for my brain to start leaking out of my ears...maybe I just need some time."

Dean nodded, grateful she was giving him a pass for the moment. "Sure."

"It was hard to tell time there," Lady said softly. "The sky was…just blank. No sun or moon, no stars. No light. I tried to keep track, sometimes, but I can't believe it was two months."

"What was it like?" he asked.

"For the most part, it wasn't too bad. Figured out how to, uh…how to avoid the dangers. Pretty easy when I was the top dog." She swallowed hard. "I managed to get out a couple of times, but only for a minute or so. I kept getting pulled back in." She sniffed slightly, "I let Max die there. Or, well, her spirit die at least. After she was gone I was alone. I mean, not just alone as in no one I liked was there. As in…I occasionally had conversations with myself because if I didn't I'd lose my mind."

Dean flinched as Lady tensed next to him, afraid she was going to break down into sobbing tears or a violently lash out. He hoped if she had to do either she'd just stick with violence. Lady never seemed like an overly emotional woman, he'd only seen her cry after rescuing her from Gordon. And he wasn't sure if he could help her out of she decided to break down in front of him right then. He wasn't the right person to comfort her.

Above him he heard flapping wings of bats or maybe nocturnal birds. "Let me take you inside," he said.

Sam looked at Lady with concern as she came into the house, her hand holding onto the wall to guide her as she tried to see. The doctor said there was nothing wrong with her eyes, but everything was fuzzy and there wasn't much color. So far she hadn't complained much, she'd take blindness to death.

"Are you hungry? Thirsty? Anything you need?" Sam asked.

"I just…no. Sam, I'm okay right now. Please, don't…hover or coddle. It's…it makes me feel weird."

"Yeah, okay," Sam said. He opened his mouth, wanting to talk to her and tell her what Donovan had given him to give her…but Dean was staying within earshot. If anyone had an idea of what magic could heal a person so thoroughly it would be Lady, but Dean was looking for any reason he could to be angry and declare Lady's resurrection a fluke.

Sam leaned against the counter and watched Lady slowly move through the house. He'd just have to keep an eye on her, watch out to make sure whatever he had put into her didn't have undesirable affects, and hope that he found Donovan before he came back for her. He knew the warlock had to be getting something out of this deal, and he had taken it without knowing the cost. But if Lady was alive again the cost was worth it, he was just a bit anxious to see the bill when it came due.


	62. Bobby's House, June 2007

**June 4, 2007. Bobby's House.**

Lady was braving more of the light, unable to avoid the sun during the day her eyes were adjusting, and the more she tried to see the clearer her vision seemed to get. Or at least that's what she told herself. Even though all she could make out were fuzzy shapes she could feel the men watching her. She'd never been so self-conscious in her life. She could imagine the things they were thinking.

But she had put together pieces, figured out what had happened. Donovan, the warlock, had needed the black book. Summoning her had probably been rather easy, but he needed to know how Garrett had originally summoned the power, and have a way to block the psychopomps from finding her. Once they had a spirit's scent they didn't let go. Lady had remembered that ritual, vaguely, from studying the book herself. Though there was a bigger question running around in her mind.

What the hell did the warlock gain by keeping her from being dragged back into that place? Without the power he had taken from her she would have died rather quickly. Her body and spirit ripped to pieces and fed upon. When she was up for it that was going to be her job, finding Donovan. But until she was finished healing Bobby wouldn't hear anything about it.

Lady was in the back room, just laying on the cot and letting herself be warmed by the spring sun shining in through the window. Sunshine and moonlight, things she strangely enjoyed experiencing now. Before she barely thought of them. But being without them for so long she was trying not to take them for granted. The birds making noise outside were just birds, no threat to her. She'd been given her life back. Things were going to be okay. She was feeling better. Sam and Dean were there, and doing well. Sam had even told her that while she was gone they had retrieved the mystical Colt and managed to kill the Yellow-Eyed Demon. Her life wasn't all sunshine, at least not yet, but she felt like it was looking good. She felt happy.

"How long are you going to string her along?" she could hear Sam faintly in the kitchen.

"I'm not stringing her along. Shut up, man," Dean said back.

"Dean, you have to tell her," Sam said. "If you don't, I will."

"She hasn't been back a week!"

"She's strong. If you care about her one…"

"Shut up," Dean snarled.

"We aren't leaving until she knows the truth," Sam said. "And I know exactly why you don't want to tell her, but I think it should come from you."

"I have no problem with telling her because it doesn't concern her," Dean countered.

"You are scared to death to tell her," Sam said. "Because you know she'll agree with me."

Lady couldn't help herself, creeping out of her room silently and reaching the kitchen. "Agree with what?"

Sam and Dean looked at her with blank stares for a moment. "Uh…Lady, I thought you were sleeping," Sam said quietly.

"I wasn't," she said. She licked her lips, "Maybe I don't want to know…but what is so important that I need to know about?" She was more than happy to enjoy ignorance if something was happening, not like she was up for a job or very useful as blind as she was.

"We, uh…there is a job," Dean said. "Sam and I are heading out today. But we'll be back to check in on you. Sam, go gas up the car."

There was a moment of silence, and she could imagine the silent communication going between the brothers. She opened her eyes briefly to try and see it, but her vision was too blurry to make out anything but dark fuzzy shapes.

Alone in the kitchen Lady gave Dean time to think about his words. He let out a short laugh, "I still can't believe it's you standing there."

"Yeah, well, do me a favor and get over it quickly," Lady said. "I'm so sick of Bobby and Sam tiptoeing around me I'm ready to walk out as it is. At least you've been avoiding me, so if you have to talk just get it out."

Dean swallowed hard. He hadn't been avoiding her, he hadn't been able to take his eyes off of her. He'd always been there, listening to her slow movements. He had barely slept, watching Bobby's property to make sure nothing was coming for her. Doing everything he could to be available and protect her.

The lump in his throat wouldn't go away, his stomach was clenched. Sam was right, he was afraid to tell her. He thought if the day ever came that Yellow-Eyes and Garrett were both out of their lives that things would have been pretty damn excellent. Of course then she died and he sold his soul.

And before she was brought back to life things hadn't been all that bad. He had been high on life, living out his last year. He cleared his throat. "The Yellow-Eyed demon did quite a number on us," he started. "Sam told you how he gathered all the psychic kids for one final showdown, but, uh…he didn't tell you how he lost. Sam was killed in the fight," Dean said softly. Lady frowned a bit. Sam was most definitely not dead, she had been talking with him every day since she returned. "I did what I had to do. I mean, I had to save my brother. I made a deal with a demon to bring him back."

Lady was quiet for a moment. "You made a deal with a crossroads demon?" Lady's voice was barely a whisper.

"I had to," Dean said, already on the defensive for his decision.

She blinked a few times to see where Dean was, and took a few careful steps toward him. "Is Sam okay? After…I mean, how did it happen?"

"He got stabbed," Dean said, his voice a bit thick and tense. "I was barely two seconds too late to save him." He closed his eyes. He had forgotten his brother's death after he had brought him back to life, but thinking about it now brought that old terror back. His brother dying in his arms. Dean's eyes opened immediately when Lady's hand fell on his shoulder and she pulled him into a tight hug. Other than restraining her at the hospital or a gentle hand to guide her blind butt around Bobby's cluttered house he hadn't touched her, but now his arms wrapped around her to hold them together.

Lady closed her eyes tightly, trying to imagine Sam's death was harder than accepting Freddie's passing. "But, uh, he's okay now, right?" She asked with quiet urgency. The whole time she had been awake Sam had been doting on her, barely leaving her alone and now she wasn't sure if she missed something important.

"Yeah," Dean said. "They brought him back to life, he doesn't remember dying, and he's okay."

Lady released Dean from the hug and leaned against the counter. "Those demon deals…so, uh…you're going to hell? Like John did for you?"

"Yeah," Dean said, not ashamed of his choice.

"Well, how you live you probably wouldn't have hit forty anyways. Ten years isn't a half bad deal to save Sam," she said. Her head snapped up and she briefly opened her eyes, "One?" She said before he could correct her.

Dean looked away, "A little less than eleven months now."

"Why didn't you get ten?" Lady asked. That was the standard, she didn't know much about demons but she was sure on that fact.

"My soul was barely worth enough to get Sammy back," Dean said. "I took whatever I could get."

She was wrapping her head around it. She had never learned how to look at the distant future, and ten years was pretty damn distant to her. But a year, that wasn't very long at all. The past year seemed to have passed by faster than she could process it. With ten years, hell that could be like a lifetime for her. But only a year left with Dean alive? Lady was quietly stunned for a few moments before muttering, "I can't believe it."

"It was Sam...I..." Dean began angrily, ready to defend his choice.

"No, I...I believe it," Lady said. "And I get it. You saved his life."

Dean relaxed, finally someone who got it. He had been there to save his little brother. Bobby and Sam were the only others that knew, unless he wanted to count the demons which he didn't. Both of them had been pissed at him, but at least Lady understood. "Thing is, I'm dying in less than a year."

She nodded, understanding the tone in his voice. "You've been living it up as much as you can?"

Dean chuckled a bit. Lady had always understood him, even when he wasn't being straightforward. "It's sort of freeing, knowing that you are going to die," Dean said softly, relief flooding him. She didn't look happy, but at least she wasn't acting like Bobby or Sam had. "I mean, I finally understand how you must have felt. All those years knowing your number was going to be up soon. When you know you only have so much time left it just doesn't matter. I never thought it could be like this. I mean, I went toe-to-toe with, like, four demons without even flinching. And..."

"Stop," Lady said sharply. "First off, don't compare yourself to me. I didn't risk my life, Dean. I knew every time what I'm getting into and how badly I was going to get hurt. What you did was crazy and reckless and suicidal. Secondly, you have an exact time line. That you would risk any second of what you have left to live is stupid. Thirdly...you had a choice. I don't judge you for saving your brother, that was your choice. I didn't know what the hell I was getting into, I never asked for it. Fourthly, you have people who love you, family, that need you. I had no one, never had anyone, to leave behind or that needed me. And fifthly..." Dean raised his eyebrows as he waited for her to continue her tantrum. "I never knew where I was going once I was dead. I've caught a glimpse of hell, and I spent enough time in a corrupted spirit realm to know I never want to go back to either. That it doesn't bother you, bothers me. You don't know what you are throwing away, Dean." She finally closed her eyes. "And only one year? Jesus, Dean. You got screwed, man!" She shook her head, unable to talk further.

Dean waited a few moments and then asked, "If I start talking will you let me finish?"

"Yeah," she said hoarsely.

"You are being a hypocritical bitch," he snapped. Emotions that had been locked away since her body was pulled out of the ground unleashed the only way he knew how, in anger. "Talk about your god-damned double-standard. When you had your curse you said you were just fine. That you accepted it and you didn't want pity. You finally cure yourself and you sacrificed yourself the instant your plans went sour. Maybe you didn't have a choice. Well my choice was to save a life, that my life has to end is just part of the deal. One year, ten years. It doesn't matter."

Lady nodded, "You might be right, Dean. But let me tell you something, once you can start to hear the bell toll you'll be singing a different tune. A year isn't that long. Trust me."

"No, it won't change," Dean said.

"Stop being arrogant and listen to someone who's counted down the days until she died," Lady said. "You have no idea how terrifying it is…"

"I'm not you," Dean said hotly.

She nodded, "Yeah, that's right. Because you are so fearless. Mr. Tough Guy." Lady clenched her jaw to calm down. She was afraid for him. And angry at him at the same time. Didn't he see what he was missing out on? "Dean, you need to think about yourself for a minute..."

"That's the difference between us, Lady," he said angrily. "You bounce from hand-out to hand-out! You have since you were fifteen! Always looking out for number-one, right? So damn determined to take care of things your own way, on your own, that it got you killed! And left us blind to what you left behind! You were dead, and I was at the point where I was okay with it! But I couldn't handle Sam getting snuffed on top of it. I don't expect you to get it, Lady. You don't have a history, or a family. You never cared about anyone but your precious army of one, and your damn dog! You've never had to lose someone you care about! Someone that you love!"

Lady was very still and quiet, a bit shocked at Dean's final outburst. Dean let out an angry breath and left the room, a few moments later the door slammed shut.

A single tear slid down Lady's cheek that she quickly wiped away.

Sam returned half an hour later and Lady was sitting at the kitchen table still and silent. He'd gotten a chance to see Dean nearly steaming with anger and he knew whatever had happened after he left wasn't good. "Lady…?"

"I'm glad you are okay, Sam," Lady said quietly, trying to keep her voice even as her insides twisted around painfully. She opened her eyes and squinted at him, "Are you okay?"

"Not really," Sam answered after a few moments. "So, he told you about the deal?"

"Yeah," she said, looking away. "One year, huh?"

"Yeah," Sam sighed. "But I'm not giving up on him. I have to find a way out of his deal. I'm going to do whatever I can to save him. But he doesn't want to be saved."

"That's because he's an arrogant dickhead," she said, wishing throwing the insult made her felt better, but it didn't.

"I'm watching out for him," Sam said. "I'm trying to keep him in my sight all the time...and I'm working on a few things. But you, uh…just take care of yourself until we can make it back. He wants to leave right now, he's pretty pissed." Sam said. He was close enough that she saw more than just a dark blur, she saw a few lines of his face. "Lady, I…" Sam clenched his jaw as he battled with his first chance to talk to her alone. A chance to tell her that he had taken something from a warlock, something he didn't even know what was in it, and injected her with it. He pulled her into a tight hug, "I'm glad you are back. When you are better I could use your help."

"Okay," she said, holding him tightly. "Of course, Sam."

Sam let out a painful breath, "After you died it was just like Dad's death, all over again," he said quietly. "And I was…"

"Don't tell me that," she muttered. "John was your father, I'm just some stupid psychic."

"You were…you are our best friend," Sam said. "We both love you and it hurt to lose you. Lady, please, just…I know you've been trying to get information on this warlock. But please, give yourself some time. Give us some time. Don't run out there again so soon. I mean…after everything…"

"I get what you are asking," Lady said quietly. She held him in a tighter hug, her hands fisting clumps of his shirt when birds outside sang.

**June 10, 2007**

Lady put up a strong front when Bobby was around. She was healing quickly...at least on the outside. Lady was good at bitching about physical ailments, and she had plenty to complain about so she could hide behind them, ignoring the emotional pain she was in.

On the inside was a whole other story, and she was just doing her best to keep what little sanity she had escaped with. At night she tried to sleep with the lights on, but always she would wake up in the dark because Bobby shut them off. And it terrified her. There had been no sunlight in the spirit realm, no light at all. It was always twilight, where dark shadows held either hidden monsters or a safe hiding spot and you didn't know which until you ventured into them. During the day she couldn't sleep because of the damn birds.

Birds.

"I think you have a sparrow infestation in the garage," Lady said conversationally. The light wasn't bothering her eyes anymore and color had returned to her vision, but Bobby was still a bit blurry in her vision. He had her try out a few reading glasses but she had hopes that her eyes would finish healing on their own like the rest of her.

"Always have," Bobby said, turning his newspaper.

"Give me a .22, I'll take care of it," Lady offered. Half-blind or not, she was willing to bet she could shoot down a few birds.

Bobby chuckled, "They ain't hurting anything, kid."

They were hurting her. Just their delightful little songs sent fear deep into her heart. Bobby wouldn't understand what was so frightening of a bird that weighed only a few ounces. She wished she could explain it.

Psychopomps were, in a way, like Reapers. They guided souls from one realm to the other. A lot of different cultures had their own version of them, and her damn version had been birds.

Lady had to let it go. The sparrows nesting in the garage were just sparrows. Normal birds, they weren't there to scare her or pull her back into the spirit realm. Shooting them would only stop their chirping all damn day...but maybe that would be enough.

Bobby sighed, "You want to talk about it?" Lady looked at him, feigning confusion. It was her tactic to get him to elaborate, see how much he had noticed. Bobby was perceptive, and she was sneaky. It was hard to tell just how much she really got away with around him. "You know...about Dean?" She didn't have to be able to see his face clearly to tell he was uncomfortable about bringing it up.

"Not much to talk about, Bobby," she said. Just that she'd give anything to call him, tell him some of her crazier fears she now had, hear what he was up to, call him a son of a bitch for what he had done and what he had said to her. It felt like he had sucker-punched her right in the gut and she was still having a hard time catching her breath. Once she had accepted the reality that she was back from the dead she didn't expect things to go back to how they were, but she hadn't expected the world to turn so dark in the two months she was gone. She gave Bobby a brave smile, "You don't have to worry about me. I'm made of tough stuff."

He nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I know, believe me I know. But...well, if you need to...you know, talk. I'll listen. Not saying I can help you at all, but you don't have to keep everything to yourself. You went through a lot and…well, no matter what's bothering you I'm here for you. Always will be."

Her smile became genuine and appreciative, "Thanks, Bobby. It's, uh...nice to see that you haven't changed. Promise me you never will, okay?" Because she already saw Dean and Sam change. Dean seemed lost to her, and Sam seemed different. She'd have nothing left to hold onto if Bobby decided to change on her, too.

"That much I can do," he said. "I've been practicing being an old bastard longer than you've been practicing being a young brat."

Lady laughed and gave him a brief hug. She kept her face as even as she could while several sparrows chirped while flying past the window. The second Bobby went into town she was going into the garage to take care of those little motherfuckers. Hurting anyone or not, any more tweeting or chirping and she'd take a gun to her own head.

"Something has been bugging me," Lady said once her heart removed itself from her throat.

"Yeah?" Bobby looked at her.

"The Masons."

"Oh," Bobby frowned and uttered a curse under his breath.

"I'm worried about them," Lady said quietly. "I left them completely unprotected. All they have is Maxine. She freed all the spirits, and I don't know how well she can handle anything that might go into the area now."

"Maxine called a few times," Bobby admitted. "She had a vision that you were back. Lady…I get they were your friends, but after what Max did to you..." Bobby let out a breath. He wasn't her father, he couldn't tell her who to befriend or not. "I just don't think it's wise to go back to her granddaughter and expect different results."

Lady barely heard the disapproving tone in Bobby's voice, she was just happy Maxine was receiving visions and had received one of her. That meant Maxine was coming into her abilities as the tribe's medicine woman. And it also meant that knocking on her door wouldn't lead to Maxine thinking she was a ghost or something else appearing as her.

"Mind if I take a car? I'd like to check on them. And, uh, maybe get a few new wardrobe options?" Lady looked at him hopefully. Bobby hadn't gotten rid of the few bags of clothes she had left with him, but it was hardly enough to satisfy her. If she went to North Dakota she had a closet full of shoes and clothes, a room full of witchcraft information. Her trailer, her home. Plus, the Masons, her adoptive family. Derek would be home. The twins had just graduated high school, she'd missed out on seeing that.

"You sure you are up for it?" Bobby asked.

"I can tell the highway from the ditch," she said brightly.

It was just a week and a half of having her back, and Bobby didn't like the idea of letting her drive away on her own. But he'd been watching her, and she was really okay. A bit more skittish around sounds, but still easy to smile. She complained that her vision was a bit blurry, but she wasn't walking into walls. What it came down to was if he didn't let her go visit old friends, she'd get restless and start working on looking for Donovan. Better she kept busy with people he found repulsive than looking for a warlock who was holding onto the power of The Goddess. "Don't be gone too long, okay?" he asked. "Just…try and remember I spent two months believing you were dead. Be easy on me."

"Few days, tops," Lady promised. Relieved that she'd get the hell away from Bobby's house and his watchful eye. Her intentions were just to go reconnect with the Mason's, but she needed a chance to get away from Bobby's house and remember what it felt like to be alive again. Just a chance to be somewhere else, distract her from the sick feeling she had whenever she thought about what she had missed and what she had been through. Until Bobby got cable, she needed to get on the road for a bit.

**A/N** - _Sorry the chapters have been lacking in action, getting Lady ready to jump back into the saddle is taking some work. Honestly it's even a bit boring for me to write the chapters right now. But as always, hang out with me and we'll get her back up to speed._

_And I'm not trying to make Dean be a total prick, I just think with his personality it's easier for him to shut down and be angry instead of being happy, because he sees no reason why Lady would want to reunite with a guy who has less than a year to live. They'll patch things up...eventually. I promise. Of course, since we're talking about two people who like to hide their emotions behind snarky comments and anger it's going to take a few dangerous situations and a forceful hand...but we'll get there. I hope you guys are still finding the story entertaining and I'm sorry for the past few bum chapters.  
_


	63. On the Road, June 2007

**June 11, 2007. North Dakota**

Lady pulled into the Casino shortly before dawn. She was glad she was off the road before the sun came up. Her vision was still blurry at long distances, in all honesty she probably shouldn't have been driving, but it was much worse with a source of bright light. She had already called Maxine, and got out of her car to happily greet the old friend in the parking lot.

"You look good for a dead woman," Maxine said with a small smile as they hugged.

Lady let out a short laugh, "Yeah. I feel good, too. Mostly."

Maxine nodded and pulled back, "I can feel the fear you are holding inside. Don't worry, it will pass." Lady took a slow breath of relief, it was nice to hear Maxine predict that for her. "We need to speak."

"I bet I have some catching up to do," Lady said. "But I'd really like to see Mason, and the others…"

"We need to speak now," Maxine said firmly.

Lady became serious, "Something happen?" Her heart thumped nervously. Was her resurrection too late? Had something already happened to the family she loved?

Maxine leaned against the beat-up car Lady had drove there, and Lady stood to face her. "Besides what happened the night you died? No, nothing like that," Maxine answered. "But the lines of power have shifted, and are shifting still. I freed all of Max's spirits, and Max is gone as well. What was once a very safe place…well, it isn't anymore."

"I'm so sorry," Lady said softly.

"Lady, we've known each other a long time. We've been friends. You've saved my family, and my family has saved you in return. We can no longer protect you."

Lady nodded, "Yeah, I know. But...to be honest, the protection wasn't why I kept coming back."

Maxine looked tense, "We can barely protect ourselves. Lady...I have to ask you to leave for the safety of my family. I am asking you as a friend first." Lady's eyes widened. "If you do not accept that, I will set up a ward against you from entering our territory. The world has become dangerous. I won't make Max's mistake and ignore what happens beyond our land. But I won't make her mistake of allowing you to come and go as you please either. Continue your battle if you must, but keep it away from my family."

Lady blinked a few times and looked away, "You...you're evicting me?"

"More accurately it would be banishing, but yes," Maxine said. "My family is terrified of the power you possessed, of you. They don't understand the difference, but they sleep easier believing you are dead. That something so wicked is gone. Keep your distance, let them keep that ignorance. Let me keep them safe. From you and the darkness that likes to follow you."

Lady licked her lips and looked away as the sun broke the horizon and made her already stinging eyes ache. "Okay," she said quietly.

Maxine stepped away from her car, and Lady stepped out of her reach when she tried to offer her a comforting hand. "They've moved on from you, Lady. They mourned you, and I didn't tell them you returned. I'm not going to either," Maxine said. "It is just for the best to keep them out of this."

Lady could only nod, walking back to her car and getting in. The Mason's had treated her like family for years. They were good people, not normal but normal enough. She didn't blame them for being afraid of her. She couldn't even blame Maxine for wanting her to leave them alone. But it hurt. It stung. As if someone had stabbed her in the chest and made her hold still so they could poor salt into the wound to dry her up from the inside out.

She drove west, far enough to get out of Maxine's territory, and then went north until the sun moved far enough for her to drive east again. She wasn't ready to return to Bobby's. He had given her hospitality, shelter and friendship consistently for ten years, it wasn't fair to bring him down. And she still had other friends she wanted to see if she could make amends with.

Jo and Ellen had been in the hospital, but she had been rather out of it during that time. Ellen was someone Lady had immediately respected, but it had taken some time to get to like her. Jo had been someone Lady was actually frightened of, but had become a good friend. Jo had been there that night, had heard the only reason she was allowed to be there was so she could be sacrificially killed to keep Lady alive.

Lady didn't want to think about any of that. But for whatever reason, she was on her way to Duluth, Minnesota.

She reached the bar Jo and Ellen had late in the evening. It was fairly empty, even for a Monday evening. Lady went inside, trying to spot Jo or Ellen in the bar, squinting to recognize faces.

Jo was behind the counter, obviously bored with the three customers she had to wait on. Her eyes went to the door as soon as it opened and her face changed to surprise.

"Hey," Lady said, managing a small smile when she decided the bright blonde hair had to be Jo.

Jo let out a laugh and ran to her, wrapping her arms around her. "Oh! I'm sorry! Are you okay?"

Lady hugged her tightly back, "Yeah, I am."

Jo looked around the empty bar and shouted, "Closing early, boys. Get out!"

"Jo, you don't…" Lady began.

"Shut up, Lady," Jo snapped.

"Jo, what the hell are you…" Ellen called, walking in from the back. Her mouth turned into a smile, "Heya, Lady."

"Ellen," Lady said with a smile and a nod.

"Get over here, let me look at you," Ellen said. "How you feeling?" Ellen looked at her eyes with concern as Jo locked up the bar for their private reunion.

"Good," Lady said. "My vision is mostly back, just a bit blurry."

"Considering your eyes were on fire I'd say that's pretty damn impressive," Ellen said.

"You want a beer?" Jo offered.

"Uh, probably not for the best," Lady said. "I guess it's been a few months since I drank, and I have to drive."

"Not tonight you don't," Ellen said, making her smile again. "Sit down, girl."

"Do you remember anything?" Jo asked eagerly once Lady's butt touched the chair.

"Jo!" Ellen snapped.

"It's okay," Lady said. "And, uh, yeah, I remember most of it. I never got to say I was sorry. I never knew Max was going to do that."

Jo nodded, "Yeah, I could tell you were surprised. So…what happened to the hag?"

"She will never be heard from again," Lady said.

"You working again?" Jo asked after a few moments of silence, earning a new glare from her mother.

"Uh, not at the moment," Lady said. "To be honest I'm a little...cuckoo? More than usual, at least. It's not easy."

"Yeah, I get it," Jo said. "You came here alone?" Lady nodded. "Wow, I didn't think Dean would let you out of his sight."

Lady looked at her hands, "Yeah, well, that chapter is closed."

"Oh..." Jo's mouth opened and closed.

"A lot has changed in the past two months, it just didn't pan out. Things happened and…" Lady let out a few breaths to keep from letting out the sobs she wanted to spill, "It's nothing. Just, uh, how have things been?"

"We've had heartbeats the past two months," Ellen said. As hard as Lady was trying to contain grief it wasn't hard for Ellen to see through the tough shell. "Sweetheart, are you okay?"

Lady shrugged, "Not having the greatest time with my second shot at life. I'm holding it together, though."

"Jo, go grab the ice cream." Ellen ordered.

"What?" Lady was suddenly confused.

"Never had your heart broken, sweetheart? Only cure is time, and ice cream. We got both right here."

Lady let out a laugh, even though she really wanted to unwind and let herself cry. Over ice cream Jo and Ellen told her what they had been up to up until a week and a half ago when the Winchesters and Bobby came to get the book. Lady wasn't even upset that Jo had held onto the book, she was just glad that the Harvelle's were together, happy and safe.

And then there was a knock on the door. Jo went to unlock the door, and reluctantly opened it. "Little early to be closed, isn't it?" Roy asked, walking into the bar. He and Walt were together, like always. They both looked at Lady with surprise, and Lady looked away bitterly.

"Boys, we don't have room…" Ellen began to say.

"Actually I need to get going," Lady said. "I want to get back on the road. I'll stop back in sometime."

Ellen frowned a bit, "You do that, hun. You are welcome here anytime."

"Thanks," Lady said softly. She walked past Roy and Walt out the door, and tensed as she heard Roy follow her out into the parking lot.

"Haven't heard about you the past few months," he said as she reached her car.

"Yeah, I went underground for a while," Lady said. It was actually true in the literal sense. Being trapped within the ley lines was very far underground.

"There were even rumors you were dead," he continued.

"Because I came pretty damn close," Lady said. "Nice to see you, Roy. Adios." Lady glared at him as he put a hand on her car door. "I'm not looking for a buddy tonight, go hump Walt's leg."

Lady struggled briefly as Roy pressed her against her car, "Thing is, Lady, I've also heard rumors that you are running with the same coven you say you hunt. Which actually makes sense, considering how well you know their movements. I want to know how you are going to make me believe otherwise."

"Get. Your. Hands. Off. Of. Me," she said through clenched teeth. It was all she could do. The gun and knife Bobby had given her were in the car, all she had were her fists. She was sure Roy was packing weapons along with at least sixty pounds over her.

Roy expected the knee to the groin, and avoided it. They struggled for a few moments until he threw a heavy elbow in her face to make her go passive. "Since I heard it me and Walt have been thinking, comparing notes on what we know about you. Didn't come up with much. So you know what? I'm thinking you just might really be a witch."

She began struggling again and Roy slammed his forearm into her throat to hold her back.

"Hey!" Jo shouted, coming out of the bar and pulling a pistol out. "Get off of her, you son of a bitch!"

Ellen was right beside her, rifle loaded and aimed at Walt who was coming out to provide back-up. "Get back, Roy."

"Lady is a witch, I can prove it," Roy said to them.

"Why don't you just look at her wrist, you dumb ass!" Jo shouted.

"Show me your wrist," Roy said.

"Eat shit and die," Lady breathed.

Roy grabbed her arm and forced her sleeve back so he could see the inside of her right wrist, his fingertips pressing hard into her flesh to leave bruises. It was clean. Not a mark, just blue veins under pale skin. Roy licked his lips and backed away quickly. He raised his hands to show he was no longer a threat. "Another hunter told me she was a witch."

"What hunter?" Lady asked.

"Kubrick," Roy said. "He heard it from Gordon. That and more."

Lady kicked, the toe of her tennis shoe connecting with his groin hard enough to make him drop to his knees. She grabbed the pistol out of the back of his waistband and clicked the safety off while aiming it at his head. "What else did you hear?" she asked. Roy could barely get in a breath to talk, so she looked at Walt.

Walt lowered his pistol, "That you and Sam Winchester were…not quite human. Okay?"

"You listen to me," Lady said firmly. "And you make sure anyone else who heard that listens, too. Gordon is insane. He's upset because the Winchesters interrupted one of his hunts, so he's trying to get back at them. I get so much as a whiff of your stink again and I'll show you how much of a witch I can be. Got it?" Walt nodded and Roy groaned.

The women kept their weapons trained on Roy and Walt as they got in their truck and left. Lady let out a shaky breath and lowered the pistol slowly. "I'm really sorry," she said quietly to the Harvelle's.

"Don't worry about it. We were worried that would come back eventually," Ellen said. "Come back inside, get some rest, Lady."

Lady just shook her head and got into her car, shoving the pistol she had taken from Roy in the glove compartment. Why did this have to come back to bite them now? And it would only get worse. It sounded like since the Roadhouse Blaze that word wasn't spreading as fast as before, but it was still spreading fast enough to affect them.

And her showing up at Jo and Ellen's…putting them at the risk of a hunter backlash. Was no one safe to know her? It definitely wasn't safe to be at a bar visited by hunters.

Lady hadn't bothered the Winchesters since Dean had left. But now she called Sam.

"This is Sam," he answered lazily, sounding tired. She could hear the Impala in the background, they were on the road.

"It's Lady," she said quietly. "You have a minute?"

"What's up?" Sam asked.

"Gordon got the word out to other hunters," she said. "You need to watch out, okay?"

"I'll call you back later," he said. She understood immediately, he didn't want Dean to know he was talking to her. No one was safe with her, and no one wanted to be known associating with her.

Lady was halfway back to Bobby's when her cell phone rang. "Yeah?" she answered in a tired voice.

"Sorry, just, uh…" Sam began.

"I get it, your brother is a douche bag," Lady said.

"He has been lately," Sam muttered in agreement. "How are you?"

Lady glanced at the black eye Roy had given her, "Fantastic," she said, not even trying to sound believable. "Did you at least warn Dean that hunters might be looking for you?"

"No," Sam said. "He has enough to worry about. I'm watching our backs, making sure our trail is covered. I'm just trying to…just trying to let him have a good mood as often as possible. Since we left Bobby's, well…whatever you said really bothered him."

"Bothered him?" Lady hissed. "Whatever."

"Are you okay?" Sam asked.

"I've had a rough day," Lady said bitterly. "To be honest I almost want to find the closest ley line and see if I can jump back in. At least there I had it figured out what wanted to eat me and what would leave me alone…" Lady stopped abruptly. "I'm fine, Sam. Just a rough day."

"If Gordon told people about me…"

"He told them about me, too. I'm clean," Lady said. "Without the mark on my wrist I can get by. I already called Bobby, it's the first he's heard that the word is out. I'll just lay low…God, this sucks." Bobby wasn't going to let her leave again. One day out in the world alone and she already called him with bad news and would be coming back with a black eye. "Maybe you should come to Bobby's, too. Until we know."

"I doubt that will happen," Sam said quietly. "I need to…ugh, hold on a second." In the background she heard voices and feminine laughter before Sam said, "Dean, I'm on the phone. Why…fine, just give me the keys."

Lady's mouth was dry and before Sam could tell her he was back she asked, "Still getting kicked out of motel rooms, huh?"

Sam was quiet for a moment, "Lady, it wasn't…"

"I have to go, I'm driving," Lady said, hanging up and putting both hands on the wheel of the car.

Why did all of this hurt so badly? Maxine asking her to stay away, Roy and Walt suddenly becoming threats instead of annoying, Dean partying it up with some other woman. Maybe this side of the ley lines had sunlight, but it seemed just as dark as the spirit realm she was only recently saved from.


	64. Rabbit's Foot, June 2007

**A/N** - _This chapter takes place during 'Bad Day at Black Rock'. I changed the location to Chicago because having Lady trek across half the country would take too long._

**June 17, 2007**

Lady was ready to pull out her hair at Bobby's place. One afternoon he had left and she'd gone a little crazy with target practicing on all the feathery bastards on his property, even climbing into the rafters of the garage to get rid of nests, but that just meant a new family of the little bastards was moving in. Once she was feared by a whole coven of witches as their executioner and now…? She was freaking pest-control only because she was afraid of the filthy little birds and their happy damn songs.

"Hey, Lady, how's your Houdoo?" Bobby asked her.

"Better than yours," Lady said, immediately interested and excited at the possibility of a job.

"What do you make of this?" Bobby set a book in front of her. It explained a cursed rabbit's foot that gave the owner incredibly wonderful good luck, but once the owner lost it their luck turned sour.

"It's a curse, pretty damn nasty one," Lady said. "Actually, I remember John telling me about coming across one of these. Whoever loses the rabbit's foot dies within a few days, right?"

"Right," he said. "Got a theory on how to break the curse?"

Lady shrugged as she looked over the book, "I'm sure I could figure something out."

Bobby let out a relieved breath, "Good, because I just got off the phone with Sam and he's currently the proud owner of one of these curses."

"Damn it," Lady muttered. Before her mind had been working in leisure, now it got into gear while her thumb drummed on her thigh. "I got it."

Bobby looked skeptical, "Just like that? Three minutes of looking at this and you got it."

Lady stood up and flashed him a big grin, "Say it."

"Say…no, I don't want to!" Bobby frowned.

"Say it!" she said in a near growl.

"You're the bomb-diggity," he muttered. "Okay, how do we break it?"

Lady was already moving, "I do. I know where to get what we need, and how to do it. Where are they?"

"Chicago," he answered. "Kid, you sure you want to…"

"Trust me, I want to leave," she answered before he could finish. "Get on the road, destroy an evil cursed object. I am so loving this."

"Just…be careful, okay?" Bobby said. He was anxious about the other hunters that Gordon may have tipped off to Lady's questionable origins. Enough hunters knew that he and Lady were close, he may not be getting all the information he needed to warn her properly. Lady could set up a plan against a witch in a heartbeat, but hunters could come at her a number of ways that she couldn't handle and wasn't trained to expect. He wasn't too worried about Sam and Dean, their father had drilled military skills and paranoia into them before they could wipe their own ass. What it came down to was maybe Lady could see the future with enough time to spare to dodge a knife, if she was really paying attention maybe even avoid getting shot. The second someone got their hands around her neck, though, it was going to get snapped.

She flashed him a grin that didn't reach her eyes, "Of course!"

Bobby made sure she had a few weapons and the car was good for a long road trip. He couldn't go with her, he was in the middle of helping a few other hunters with some dicey situations across the country. Otherwise he would have been driving and had her back. At the moment he just had to settle on the idea that when things calmed down and he had a little time he'd press his contacts to see how far Gordon had gotten the word out.

Worrying about hunters tracking her down to snap her neck was Lady's last concern. Gordon's attack on her had shaken her to her very core, and Roy's attack had left her knees weak afterward. But she was confident that without the coven mark on her wrist that she could talk her way out of persecution. Any hunter that knew Gordon well enough to trust what he said also must know that Gordon was a freaking lunatic. But she was worried about Sam, he didn't have any sort of physical mark to prove if he was something dangerous or not.

There was nothing dangerous about going to help Sam. It wasn't even dangerous to get what she needed for the ritual. The ritual itself wasn't that dangerous, either. In a way it felt freeing, being able to leave Bobby's house and get back to work. That alone made the pain in her chest ease up. But what she was going to do wasn't very easy.

Maxine had asked her politely not to return to the reservation. And that was where Lady needed to go to get what the ritual required. She was willing to meet Maxine outside of the territory, whatever Maxine asked of her. But it wasn't easy to ask for help.

Lady called when she was on the road. Maxine answered quietly, "Yes?"

"Hey, it's me," Lady said. "I hate to ask but I need a wolf's tongue and a bladder. Preferably a bladder from a bison, but I can work with elk or cow."

Lady clenched her jaw as Maxine responded, "Lady, I said we could no longer offer you aid."

"Maxine, I need it to get rid of a curse. Sam Winchester touched a cursed object, and I just need to cleanse it to free him. Please, if I don't he'll die."

"Then that is his destiny," Maxine said. "I'm sorry, but no."

Lady listened to the silence long after Maxine hung up. Being asked to leave the reservation for good she could accept. Being asked to remain dead in the minds of the Masons, she could do that if it was easier for them. It hadn't felt good, but she understood why Maxine had to do it. But refusing to help Sam? Letting him die? Speaking about destiny?

Lady had made sure Max could no longer influence Maxine or the tribe, but she wondered if she wasn't too late in discovering what a witch Max really was. Maxine was still quoting her, still using old beliefs Max drilled into her. And turning away from a chance to assist someone outside of her family.

Just let him die? His destiny? Thinking about it was sending her blood boiling in anger.

Lady wasn't just going to sit back and let Sam die when she knew how to break his curse. Because if Sam died, then Dean sold his soul for just an extra month and a half with his brother. If Sam died in a year she'd have no one left. Even if she couldn't find the strength to call Dean she hoped in the future she could find a way to speak to him.

Suddenly her safe job became slightly dangerous. She had to invade the reservation and steal from someone who was once her friend. Strangely she didn't feel all that bad about what she was going to do. Some things were just too important to let morals get in the way.

Sneaking onto the reservation wasn't all that easy. Headlights of the car could be seen for miles and she was just hoping that Maxine's new ability to have visions was sketchy. But it seemed that Lady was having a lucky day because when she reached Maxine's place on foot the house was dark and quiet.

So far into the country no one locked their doors, and in a small community like New Town no one would steal from their neighbor even if they knew where Maxine lived. But Lady didn't even have to go into the house, she knew where everything was. In the teepee.

Lady used a small flashlight to aid her search in the dark. Apparently Maxine had been doing some spring cleaning. It still smelled like old lady in there, but Lady was willing to bet in a few more months even that part of Max would be gone.

Lady had just pocketed the wolf's tongue and was examining a few dried-out bladders when she froze. A gun cocked and Maxine said, "I didn't think you would go as low as to rob me."

Lady swiftly pocketed the last thing she need while she turned around. Maxine had a rifle on her, her large frame was blocking her exit. "You aren't going to shoot me," Lady said.

"I'd have the right to," Maxine said coldly. "I asked you to stay away from me and my family."

"And I asked you for your help," Lady said. "I'm leaving."

"Not with those items," Maxine said. "Watch your future carefully, Lady. I _will_ shoot you."

And Lady was watching her future carefully. If she tried to walk away with the items she needed Maxine was going to shoot, and Lady was going to get hit with a bullet. Lady swallowed hard, "What happened to you, Maxine?"

"You did!" Maxine snapped. "Don't you know what you being here causes? Pain and grief for my family! I see what your future holds, Lady. I don't want it anywhere near them. The path Max put you on, it isn't over. She intended for you to live, and now that you are alive again you are back on that path." Maxine looked tearful and even a bit scared. "I tried to keep you away from us, I saw that you would leave us alone and let us be safe. But…now the only way I see is to end this. I'm…"

"Whoa! No, wait a second! Maxine, we can't have an Ol' Yeller moment, here! Listen to what you are saying!" Lady said in a high pleading voice.

Maxine shook her head, "Would you believe that this would be the merciful thing for you in the end?"

"I probably would, considering my knack for jumping into trouble," Lady breathed. Lady's mind searched her near future, and talking sense into Maxine wasn't looking like the safest option. She saw an opportunity while Maxine was still unsure, and took it.

Lady surged forward, ducking under the blast from the rifle and hit Maxine in the middle with her shoulder. With the much larger woman on the ground Lady ducked out of the teepee and ran for her life.

Three more shots from the rifle were fired, and Lady narrowly avoided them. The bullets landed in the dirt, creating small explosions at Lady's feet. The spike of adrenaline was so high she could taste it, and a sick part of her really enjoyed the rush. The sane part of her, which had always been a very quiet part of her, was screaming in fear.

What about her future scared Maxine so badly that she thought killing her was better than just letting her go peacefully? She didn't know that, but she knew that no matter what she may need from Maxine in the future she'd just have to go without. The next time Lady tried to invade the reservation she didn't think she'd make it out alive.

And Lady shivered a bit as she remembered Max's cryptic words, that last year she had spent her last summer there. Lady had always assumed that meant she would be dead, but now she wondered if Max didn't have more insight. Perhaps instead of being dead Max was cryptically hinting that she'd use the last bit of hospitality her family would provide her and be banned from returning. "Fuck me," she muttered. She shook the thought out of her head, whatever was in her future didn't matter.

Lady had a long drive to Chicago to meet the Winchesters and she was shaking as she came down from adrenaline. She stopped in the next town to fuel up and stock up on energy drinks, and called Sam to let him know she was on the way.

"Hey, I got what I need," Lady said. "I just stopped for gas but I'll be back on the road soon." Lady felt her entire body go tense, "No, no, no! Do not say that!"

Sam sighed on the other end, "I'm sorry. The foot is gone. Bobby is trying to help us find who took it."

"I'm on my way," Lady said. "Just, uh...Jesus Christ, I think I'm getting an ulcer!"

"I'm so sorry, Lady," Sam said. "Is there anything we can do without it?"

Lady thought about it, off the top of her head there wasn't. "I'm not sure. Just hold tight until I get there, okay? If I have to…I'll figure something out, Sam."

"Thanks," he said quietly. "See you later, Lady."

Sam hung up the phone and looked miserably at Dean who was glaring at him. "What's going on?" Dean asked him.

"Lady knows how to break the curse, but she needs the rabbit's foot back," Sam said.

"Great, did she give you the instructions?" Dean asked.

"She's on her way here," Sam said.

Dean looked away with a clenched jaw, "She's supposed to be at Bobby's taking care of herself. She just got a rude resurrection a few weeks ago! She's legally blind!"

Sam looked at the ground, he had been hiding the fact that he was checking in on Lady from Dean. It made the long drives with his brother more tolerable if he didn't bring her up. "Her vision is mostly back to normal. And we need her help on this, Dean."

"No, we don't," Dean snapped. "We just need to leave her alone. She does her thing. We do ours. That's it."

"Don't get pissy at me because she won't talk to you," Sam said. "She says she can do this, we need her help. Look at how badly my luck has turned, pretty soon I'm going to kick the bucket. Unless you have an encyclopedia of counter-curses in your head like she does, you just need to suck it up."

Dean glowered out the window and uttered a few choice curses of his own.

Bobby got back to the brothers with information on the thief who had stolen the rabbit's foot from them. She was an expert at arcane artifacts, selling to the highest bidder, and went by the name of Bela Talbot. Bobby had a few contacts in the area and was able to narrow down where she was staying. Dean left Sam at a motel and broke into her place, stealing the rabbit's foot back. By then Lady was nearing Chicago and the brothers went out of town to meet her at a secluded cemetery.

While they were waiting for her to arrive Bela had tracked them down, threatening them with a gun to get the expensive trinket back, and even grazing Sam with a bullet to prove she really wanted it back. Dean managed to trick Bela into touching the rabbit's foot, meaning she was cursed with death unless the curse was broken.

Lady took a grateful breath when she saw Sam and Dean waiting for her, and barely noticed the woman standing with them. She got out of her car, quickly going to Sam. He looked like he had beaten up and his arm was bloody. "Oh, Sam, are you okay?" she asked urgently.

"Yeah," he said, taking a step forward and letting her take his arm.

"This is your savior?" The woman asked in an elegant British accent, turning her eyes to Dean.

"Lady, this is Bela," Sam said shortly. "She's who stole the rabbit's foot."

Lady's pale-blue eyes locked onto the woman in a glare.

Bela looked back, "If you don't mind, darling, I have important business to tend to. Can we get on with breaking this nasty little curse?" Bela held up the rabbit's foot.

Lady took a quick step back, "Yeah," she said. "Just keep that thing away from me."

"Curses make you nervous, dear?" Bela asked with a slight smile.

"Understatement," Lady replied, tensing as an owl hooted in the distance. "Come on, Sam." She walked with him through the graveyard, keeping him from tripping over his own feet.

"They make a very sweet couple," Bela said in her elegant accent as she watched Lady hold Sam's arm.

Dean glared at her, then back at Lady and Sam. Lady found a spot she liked and dumped the contents of her bag on the ground. Sam knelt beside her, holding a flashlight as she worked. She set out several coals in fresh dirt and started a fire. She added ingredients one by one.

"Are you sure this will work?" Bela asked.

"I'm sure," Lady said.

"I know who you are now," Bela said, a slow smile spreading across her face. "For a few days the spirits wouldn't stop talking about you. _The_ Lady?"

"Just Lady," she corrected. "Like just Mozart, but I never did master the piano."

Bela smirked, "Let me give you my card..."

"Stay back and keep that curse to yourself," Lady snapped. "Until I have this set up you will just stand there quietly."

Dean rubbed his forehead, "Can we just finish this and go?"

Lady stepped back from the red-hot coals, "Drop it in. It's ready."

Bela did as instructed, and they waited as the rabbit's foot caught fire.

"Did it work?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, it's done," Lady said quietly. Sam was free of the curse, she didn't have to be there anymore.

"Well, charming to meet all of you, but I must be on my way," Bela said. "Ciao." She gave a small wave as she walked away.

Lady let out a breath, "You okay, Sam?"

Sam let out a breath, "I fell on my face more times than I remember, lost a shoe, got shot in the arm, caught on fire once, and…oh yeah, Kubrick found me."

"Gordon's buddy?" Lady asked.

Sam nodded once. "They might still be in town, it'd be best if you didn't stick around."

"I'm not worried," Lady said.

"They nearly killed Sam, you should be a bit worried," Dean said.

"Yeah, well I'm not cursed and I can take care of myself," Lady said.

"Jesus Christ, I am so sick of hearing that," Dean uttered. She was great at taking care of herself, how many god damn jams had she been in the past year? "Take care of yourself? Do I have to remind…"

"Blow it out your ass, Dean," Lady snapped.

"Whoa!" Sam said anxiously to try and cut through the tension. "Lady, just…watch out for yourself, okay? Get a few towns over before stopping and…"

"Yeah, whatever," Lady muttered. "See you guys around."

Dean and Sam exchanged a look as she walked away. "Do you think before you talk?" Sam asked his brother.

"Shut up," Dean said. "Come on, let's get out of here and patch up your arm."

Lady was on the road as long as she could stand, which only got her into a suburb. She got a motel room and bunkered down with her current favorite man, Captain Morgan. Lady couldn't take it any longer. She had put up a brave face when she was around Bobby, not wanting to be coddled beyond what her injuries required. She had held it together when Maxine told her she no longer had a home with them. She'd even managed to keep her wits with her when Ellen and Jo had an almost ritualistic break-up ice-cream binge with her. And she'd held her own when Roy and Walt reminded her that even though she was out of the ley lines there were still plenty of dangers. And she kept her focus when Maxine had actually tried to kill her less than a day ago.

She was done with keeping herself together.

The bottle of rum went down her throat faster than ice cream, and it numbed the pain a whole lot more. It even made the room tip and spin. It would have been a perfect bender, isolated and in her motel room, if Sam hadn't interrupted her.

After leaving the cemetery Dean had followed Lady, letting out a stream of swears and criticizing her for not staying on the road longer. They went across town to get their own motel where they took some time to bandage Sam's arm before Dean went out to restock the cooler with beer. Before Dean returned Sam jogged across town to Lady's motel.

When she opened the door she was already swaying. "You don't look so good," he said, leading her back to the table.

"Meh," Lady mumbled as she sat back in her chair. She tried to keep the bottle of rum to herself but Sam pried it from her hand. "What do you want, Sam?"

"I was just hoping I'd get to talk to you," he said quietly. He had a lot of things he wanted to talk to her about, that he hadn't been able to yet. Like Donovan coming into her hospital room. His concern over Dean. His concern about her. But she was already too drunk to be coherent. "But, I'll settle for making sure you don't poison yourself."

Lady let out a soft breath, "Why are things like this?"

Sam moved his chair next to hers and put an arm around her shoulders, hugging her to his chest as her tears fell like rain. He rubbed her back and pressed his face to the top of her head. His brother was looking forward to being dead, and Lady was having trouble being alive again. And here he was, stuck in the middle.

"I'm so sorry, Lady," Sam muttered.

"It hurts so bad, Sam," she sobbed. "Everything...it's all gone. I hate it. God, I can't stand it anymore."

"You just need to give yourself more time. Things will get better."

Lady began choking on her tears, and without warning a stream of vomit spewed from her and onto both of them. For a moment Sam couldn't believe it, and the next moment Lady slumped over completely passed out. Sam let out a disgusted noise, and then took the job of cleaning up the vomit. Lady was completely limp as he pulled her out of her soggy shirt and pants, and he tried not to add to it as he dumped the messy clothes in the bathroom along with his own. He stuffed Lady into one of her clean shirts so she wasn't completely naked, and then cleaned their clothes in the bathtub before letting them hang dry on the shower rod.

Sam sighed as fatigue hit him hard. It had been a long and exhausting day and he was ready to crash. Luckily Lady didn't take up a lot of room. Sam got into the free half of the bed and went to sleep. So much was happening that he couldn't hold onto it all. His brother's deal, a demon named Ruby was saying she could help him save his brother, and of course Lady's heartache. Everyone he cared about was melting down around him.

* * *

Dean wasn't worried when Sam wasn't at the motel. He was even a bit relieved. He loved his brother, he sold his soul for his brother, but sometimes he just needed a break from the kid. And after the short reunion with Lady he just wanted some silence, late-night crappy TV and a few beers.

He had less than a year to live, ten months and some change, and he had some things to fix. There was no fixing things with Lady, not completely at least. He wasn't sure a conversation with her could happen without ending in a fight, but he was going to at least try to get back on civil terms with her before his number was up. If she didn't accept it that was fine, but it was important that he tried. An apology, look her in the eye and apologize. Extend a god damned peace offering, accept that while they had something they couldn't anymore but maybe have some sort of understanding that things didn't need to be awkward to the point of hostility. Maybe one day they'd be able to look at each other without hurting, without wondering what could have been. He'd settle just for her to not want to gouge his eyes out.

He drove across town to where Lady was holed up. It was a cheap motel, she didn't have the extra cash like she once did, with a large front window. The curtains were slightly open and a lamp was on. He parked the car at the far end and walked up, but stopped to glance inside. He was in time to see Sam stretching over to shut off the lamp.

Dean ducked behind the closed part of the curtain before he could be seen, and for several moments couldn't move because he was in shock. Then awkwardly he went back to his car before his mind processed what he had seen. His brother naked in bed with Lady. He sat in his car for several moments before he drove away. He wasn't sure what to think about it, but everything suddenly made sense. Sam's frequent phone calls. Ever since Lady came back Sam was the one holding her hand and talking to her. Dean went back to his own motel, finishing off his six-pack while sitting in the dark with his thoughts.

* * *

In the morning Lady groaned at the killer hangover, and then looked at Sam lying in his boxers next to her. "Oh god, tell me I didn't have sex last night," she moaned, putting her head under her pillow.

"Hair of the dog?" Sam offered her the bottle of rum.

Lady took it without question and sucked down several swallows. "What are you doing here, Sam?"

"Looking after you," he said, rubbing his eyes.

"Why are you naked?" she hissed.

"You threw up on me!" he snapped.

"Oh..." Lady let her head fall down. "Sorry."

"Me too," he muttered. "You passed out and I cleaned you up, that's all." He slowly sat up and scratched his head. "I just needed a few hours of…" He was trying to explain that he had just needed some sleep, and instead of running across town in wet clothes or his boxers to sleep at his own motel he had just crashed on the bed beside her. Not even under the sheets with her, perfectly platonic. And that he had wanted to wait for her to sober up so they could talk.

But before he could get any of that out Lady jumped out of bed, her stomach churning and head throbbing, while she ran to the bathroom to be sick again.

Once the worst was over, and Sam had brought her something to settle her stomach, she sat at the table with him. "Things really got screwed up," she muttered bitterly. "I don't know if I'm too hungover to care or if I just needed to drink enough liquor to forget, but I feel better today."

"You had to deal with a lot pretty quickly," Sam said sympathetically. "Freddie and Dean...and..."

Lady nodded. "You know, I love Dean. Even right now, I'd do anything...just...things are screwed up. I don't even know what to say to him."

"Maybe you can help me," Sam said gently. "I've been researching, but it's slow. A lot of these things are written in ancient Latin."

She nodded, "Of course."

Sam relaxed a bit. "He's having a hard time with you being back, too. He puts up a strong front, but I can see through it. He's torn up, he doesn't know what to do."

Lady took in a shaky breath, "That bastard…you know, we had a pretty good understanding in the beginning. But…I don't know what happened. And now I can't..." Lady wiped at her eyes before the tears could start falling.

Sam nodded, "Okay. That's fair. I...I'm sorry I'm even asking you..."

"I want to help," she said softly. She looked up at him with wide eyes, "Is there a way to save him? Do you really think so?"

"I have to try," Sam said. "He's my brother. I can't let him die for me."

Lady's jaw clenched, "Is there a way to save you both?"

Sam looked down, "I don't know. What Dean did...it wasn't fair. He hates himself because he wasn't able to save me. All he's ever had was his family, and he lost all of us within a year." Sam made her look up at him, "I'm including you in that. When he made that deal he wasn't thinking clearly. If he had just waited he...I don't know." Sam sighed as he looked at his phone. He answered it when he saw it was Dean and told him he'd be at the motel in fifteen minutes. "I better go," he said.

"Whatever you find, send it to Bobby," Lady said. "I'll do whatever I can, just tell me where to look. And, uh, take care of him, okay?"

"Are you going to be okay?" Sam asked seriously.

"I'll get through this. I'm good at taking care of myself," she said. "I sort of prefer it."

"I'll call you, okay?" he said as he reached the door.

"Yeah. I'd really like it if you did," Lady said, holding back tears. "I'm not good at, uh...I like hearing from you. If you think of anything I can do, I'm all over it. Like, uh..."

"I get it," he chuckled slightly as he opened the door to leave.

"Sam," she said, making him pause. "I'll do everything I can to help you. But I want you to do me a favor."

"Of course, anything," he said.

"If you come across anything on the coven, you tell me," she said firmly. Sam's face faltered and he licked his lips nervously. The look in her eye was almost feral. "Bobby doesn't want me trying to find them. He says I'll get killed again."

Sam nodded, "Yeah, well, that's a reasonable fear. Lady, if anything comes up, I'll let you know."

She gave him a grateful smile, "Thanks. And…everything for Dean will come first. I promise. I just…I can't stay out of the loop on what they are doing. You know?"

Sam nodded, hoping she didn't notice the uncomfortable look on his face. He couldn't tell her what he had done, that the warlock Donovan gave him what she needed to live. The look in her eye said old grudges against the coven were as deep as ever, the second she got a whiff of them she'd be obsessed again. Maybe she was healed and maybe she was even up for a real hunt, but he wasn't ready to risk her life by giving her that information. "See you around," he said, opening the door and taking a step outside.

"Sam..." she said, walking up to him and giving him a long hug.

"Lady, you are in your underwear," he laughed at her.

"I'm glad you are here, Sam," she said.

"I'm glad you are back," he said, leaning down and giving her a kiss on the cheek that she returned. "Don't forget to brush your teeth."

"Sorry," she whispered, closing her lips tightly.

Sam jogged across town to his brother's motel room, taking a shower and getting into a fresh pair of clothes before they went back on the road.

"Where'd you go last night?" Dean asked, giving his brother a chance to confess.

"Just felt like being alone," Sam lied. Lady wasn't a topic allowed in the Impala unless he wanted to be tortured for several hundred miles by Dean's moody silence and glares.

Dean nodded as if he accepted that. He knew that was a lie. Lying, it was practically their second language. But this was the type of lie he'd let Sam keep to himself. Probably for the best, if he heard any details he wasn't positive he wouldn't kick Sam out of the car while they were going a hundred miles an hour down the highway.

**A/N** - _Thank you for all the reviews and those that review w/ each update. Thanks, you keep me going! I'm working on future chapters still (always am, and last nights new episode has me giddy as hell! If I write Lady all the way up into season 6 it's going to be so much fun! I just have to remember I need to finish writing season 3s chapters before I can get sidetracked and start writing season 6 stuff). This story is the biggest (and best imo) I have ever posted on this site. The most words, chapters and reviews. And there is still a lot of story left to tell. Eek!  
_

_Thanks for reading! Please review!  
_


	65. Hanging at Bobby's, June 2007

**June 23, 2007**

Bobby put up with Lady for a lot of reasons. Even though he joked that she was a pain in his ass, which she often was, she was his friend. Over the years he had helped her out quite a bit, and she'd done the same for him. She had a lot of energy and liked to be busy. So maybe she had a tendency to disappear for weeks at a time only to return beaten and broken. And he really didn't appreciate her leaving her bras hanging on the bathroom door. The past ten years he'd seen her change from a capable street-wise teenager into a dangerous off-the-grid witch-hunter.

The past month, he had no idea what the hell to think, do or say about her. Some days it felt like she had never been gone, her mood was improving and she was keeping herself busy around his house. Hell, she was almost pleasant to be around. It was making him anxious as hell.

But every now and then he'd catch her sitting at Freddie's grave in the middle of the night. Sometimes she wasn't quick enough to put a smile on her face when he came into a room and he caught a strange look on her face.

"Sam and Dean are on their way," he announced, watching her carefully to gauge her response.

"Yeah, Sam called and told me," she said.

"They plan on staying a few days," he said, watching her face for a sign that it bothered her or not. It didn't seem to. "I can have them stay in town."

"We have room here," she said. "I'll even clear the air with Dean. It will be fine."

Or there will be bloodshed, Bobby wasn't sure. He'd known Lady since she was sixteen and the Winchester boys were the first people he'd ever witness her have a friendship with. And then, of course, the weird 'Dean' issue that he didn't really want to hear about. If he was honest, he felt sorry for her. Lady was friendly enough, she had met hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people over the years while she traveled and worked. But she didn't have relationships. He wasn't sure if she had ever even had a long-term friend before he and John entered her life. He knew enough about her past to guess that her mother hadn't been capable of teaching her how to maintain relationships. And since he knew that she had ran away after her mother died he knew she didn't handle it well when those relationships were suddenly cut off.

"We'll let them decide," he said after a few moments. If Lady was going to try and 'clear the air' with Dean, well…he'd let her give it a shot. Something had to happen. Lady's attitude wasn't anything scary or too wild, yet, but she needed to take care of what was bothering her.

"I'm going to clean out the gutters," she announced, pulling on her tennis shoes. "It's a nice day to be outside, and it's going to storm tonight."

Lady had been helping herself to random chores around the lot since she got back from Chicago. It kept her hands and mind busy, and kept her out of Bobby's hair. He didn't mind if she wanted to handle some of the maintenance around the property, gave him more time to work on other things.

Lady would rather be studying something to help out Sam with Dean's demon deal, but he had only sent a few things to her for translation and there was nothing there that could help them. But helping Bobby out doing mundane manual labor made her feel good. Since Chicago she had been feeling better. Not great, but better than she had since she woke up in the hospital less than a month ago.

Lady walked fearlessly on Bobby's rooftop, resting on her knees every few feet to pull out clumps of muddy and slimy leaves out of the gutters before running the hose a few minutes, and then moving down a few more feet. She was nearly reaching the end of her work when she heard the Impala pull up, but she was on the other side of the house and was unable to see it.

It was a disappointment when she made it all the way around the edge of the rooftop and found that cleaning the gutters was finished. Now she'd have to find a new task. A few birds flew by and she decided she knew what she had to do. Patch up Bobby's garage so those damn things couldn't nest again. And then she wondered how he felt about her chopping down trees around the lot to keep them from roosting so close…cutting firewood was productive, right? Maybe she wouldn't ask and just do it when he went into town for a few hours, but she'd have to check his chainsaw to make sure it was up for the task of taking down a few dozen trees in a short time frame.

Lady climbed halfway down the ladder before letting herself drop to the ground. Sweat was dripping off her face and her tank top was damp with it. Her nails were broken and ruined, her knee's and palms rough from work. She felt pretty damn good.

Sam and Dean were in Bobby's kitchen, listening to Lady working on the roof and watching the occasional glob of muck be tossed to the ground. "How's she doing?" Sam asked.

"She keeps herself busy," Bobby said. "When she runs out of things to do outside I'll have to buy cable so she doesn't try to clean up in here." Bobby frowned as he thought about his vast collection of books and journals. Lady was welcome to read them, as long as she put them back. The second she tried to clean inside his house there would be a problem. He didn't like what she considered 'organized'.

"Maybe you should go help her," Dean suggested to Sam.

"She's fine," Bobby said. "I'd be more worried if she wasn't doing anything. And it isn't like she's going to fall off the roof."

Just then Lady jumped down, landing easily. Her knees bent, absorbing the fall. The quick movement outside the window had sent the men's hearts racing. Bobby let out a breath, "See? She's fine. Reflexes like a cat."

They watched the door as she came in, wiping sweat from her forehead with her wrist. "Hey, guys," she said. "How long have you been here?"

"Half an hour," Sam said, stepping up and giving her a hug.

"Don't, I'm all sweaty," she said, but didn't fight the hug.

"They brought the Colt," Bobby said. "I found some old schematics, maybe we can find out how that gun ticks. Want to check it out?"

"Hell yeah," Lady breathed, taking a towel and dabbing at her sweating face and neck. "I'd be more interested in the bullets, though."

"Dean, you have the shell casing from the bullet that killed Yellow-Eyes?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," he said, and Lady had her hand out for it. He dropped it in her waiting palm, and suddenly he wanted to leave. For some reason Lady's more upbeat attitude was more unnerving than the steely gaze she had given him in Chicago a week ago.

"You didn't clean it, did you?" she asked.

"No," Sam answered when Dean didn't say a word.

Lady sniffed the casing and looked inside at the residue of gun powder left behind. "Smells normal," she said, sticking her pinky in the open end as far as it would go before pulling it out to look at the transfer of residue. A mix of scorched black and gunpowder silver. Before anyone could tell her not to she licked her finger and frowned as she tasted it.

"You didn't just do that!" Bobby snapped.

"I've tasted worse," she said with a shrug. "Taste's normal."

"You've tasted...never mind," Sam let out a short laugh and shook his head. "You think there is any way to get it working again?"

"Nineteenth century magic," Lady shrugged. "I can't tell if it is still there or not, and I'm not sure how they did it to begin with. All I know about it is the legend Elkins told me, which after being passed down so many generations I don't trust all that much."

"Well, let's take it apart and see what we find," Bobby said.

"Sounds like a blast," Lady said. She gave Bobby a grin and bumped him with her hip, "Get it, a blast?"

"Very cute, now get out of my way," Bobby said, giving her an amused smile.

"I'm going to walk into town, check out a few things. Sam, do you want to come with?" Lady looked at Sam.

"Sure," Sam said.

Dean watched out the corner of his eye as the pair left the house. How many times had he and Lady excused themselves from Bobby's hospitality to get a motel in town for an afternoon? But he had come to Bobby's for a few reasons. The first was to give the old man a chance to examine the Colt more closely while they had time. Another reason was so his brother could spend time with Lady. Sam hadn't asked for that, but it was a byproduct of being in the same area code as the little psychic. Part of Dean was even happy for them, when he was gone they could look after each other. But the part of him that still loved her wanted to pop Sam in the mouth. At least Sam wasn't talking about it and was trying to keep Dean from finding out. And Dean was going along with it for his own sanity.

Lady and Sam walked to town, talking quietly. "Dean's been weird the past week," Sam said. "You seem better, though."

Lady nodded, "I'm trying to be. Any new leads on how to break the deal?"

"Not really," he said. "Does Maxine have any insight on it?"

Lady licked her lips slowly, "No," she answered, trying to keep emotion out of her voice. Sam was perceptive to peoples moods, and bringing up Maxine was putting Lady into a sour mood. She hadn't asked Maxine, couldn't ask her…and if she was honest she wouldn't, either. But Sam didn't need to know the latest trouble she had with Max's descendant. If she told him she had nearly gotten shot by Maxine so she could get ingredients to save him from the cursed rabbit's foot…well, she was having trouble with them accepting her already. Knowing that she hadn't learned her lesson after being dead for two months wasn't going to help her case with any of them.

They returned to Bobby's house late in the evening. Sam, worn out after the long walk in the hot sun, sat at the table with a cold drink while Lady went into the garage to continue working.

Bobby's garage was old, but sturdy. Maybe things weren't shiny and new, but Bobby's things lasted a long time. He was handy, took care of his property, but things like a few pigeon holes in his garage weren't worth his time. Just about anything was worth Lady's time.

Lady eyeballed a few areas in the garage, and with a pencil made a few marks on the plywood so she could cut it down. Her patch wasn't going to be pretty, but it would be effective.

She started the electric saw Bobby had, getting three squares cut out before shutting it down. She was about to turn around so she could get some tools and start the work, but tensed when she realized Dean was going to be standing there. She put a neutral face on before she looked at him. "How you doing?" she asked, walking across the garage to grab a jar of nails. When she had told Bobby she'd clear the air with Dean she had expected time to think and figure out a way to do just that, and she hadn't really given herself time to think about it.

"Good. You?"

"Good," she said, shaking a handful of nails into her palm and putting them in her pocket. She looked at the set of ladders that were hanging on the wall, a few of the pigeon holes were high up.

Dean watched as she grabbed an aluminum ladder and walked across the floor to grab an end to help, "Listen, I've been…"

"You don't have to," Lady stopped his apology. They leaned the ladder against the wall of the garage and she looked at him. "You don't have a lot of time left, Dean. Don't spend it worrying about me."

"I'm sorry," he said it anyways. "For what I said and how I've been acting and…for probably more than I even really know of. And, uh, well, you and Sam, you'll watch out for each other when I'm gone. And I am glad you are back, and okay. All of that."

Lady bit back the frustration. Even when he was making a genuine effort to do what she couldn't she wanted to smack him. How he was making her feel, hurt and depressed, pissed her off. "Sam doesn't need me. But whatever he needs, I'll do what I can," she said stiffly.

"Thanks," Dean said, briefly meeting her eyes before walking around Bobby's garage. It was a treasure trove of tools and supplies. If Bobby wanted to he could make another house. He examined the plywood and watched as Lady lined up the ladder against the wall. "So what are you doing?"

Lady moved herself to the wall, "Just patching this up. Trying to keep animals out."

"Need help?" Dean asked, already knowing she didn't. She didn't need help, or want help. Definitely not from him. But at least they seemed to be on non-hostile terms and he wasn't about to give up that moment. She'd been back three weeks and they had barely spoken to each other.

"No," she said stiffly. "No, I don't need any…what the fuck?" Dean looked over at her curiously. She was near the top of the ladder, her eyes level with the wooden beams. "Guess I'm a little late. Uh, Dean, there is an animal trap over there, will you grab it?"

"Whatdya find?" he asked, and then heard a soft meowing.

"Just a kitten," she said, and she was inching herself toward it. She focused on it, wanting to get close enough to snatch it, but didn't want it to run off in fear. It was tiny, just barely big enough to be on its own. And completely black and camouflaged in the shadows. Now its yellow eyes looked at her, wide and scared. "How'd you get all the way up here?" she asked it quietly.

She caught the cat by the nape of the neck, and it was passive as it hung. With slow movements she worked herself down the ladder until she could drop the kitten in the small metal cage Dean was holding up to her. "Thanks," she said as he held up the cage to examine the mewing kitten. She looked at it as well, "I'll take care of it in the morning, there is an animal shelter that…what the…hey!"

Lady had been watching the black kitten carefully so it couldn't run off, and had been interested in checking it out once it got into the cage that she hadn't seen the little ball of white fluff that was its brother or sister. But now the white kitten, hissing and growling, was launching itself at her from the rafters above. It could have been funny, the kitten probably weighed one pound. However Lady was already leaning sideways on the ladder when the kitten fell on her left shoulder and scratched its way down to her elbow.

"Son of a…!" Lady let out a shriek as the ladder wobbled and the kitten tore into the flesh of her arm. She barely felt Dean catch her before she fell off, the only thing on her mind was getting the damn furball off of her.

The kitten lost its hold on her arm and fell, but caught itself on her bare leg just below where her shorts stopped. It slid down to her knee. Lady managed to grab the back of the kitten's neck. The kitten didn't let go of her leg, claws just sank in deeper and hooked in, any time Lady tried to pull the kitten she was pulling at those sharp little claws imbedded in her skin. "Ow…ow…" she uttered through clenched teeth as blood dripped down her leg and arm.

The kitten's claws freed themselves from her leg for one moment, but immediately the kitten swung from its neck and latched onto the arm that was holding it. Lady tried to shake it off as it sunk teeth into her hand. Its hind legs scratched up and down her forearm painfully. With a forceful shake she dislodged the cat and dropped it in the cage on the ground with its black sibling. "BITCH!" Lady shrieked as she looked at her arm and leg, both dripping with blood.

"You okay?" Dean asked.

"NO!" Lady snapped, glaring at the white kitten that was licking her blood from its paws. "You little furball, I'm…" she let out a huff of breath. She had the strangest urge to chop the head off, drip the juice from the spinal cord and use the intestines... Dark urges.

She didn't mean to give Dean a glare when he was about to offer help, but he saw it and backed away quickly. Patching up the garage would have to wait until she got cleaned up. Out of spite she kicked the cage the cats were in, the white one hissing at her, before going back to Bobby's house.

"Jesus, what happened to you?" Bobby asked as Lady walked in.

"I got mauled!" Lady said angrily, stomping to the bathroom and running water.

"You have a few cats caged up in the garage," Dean pointed. "One really didn't like her."

Lady let out a string of swears from the bathroom. "It gored me half to death! Nasty little monster."

Bobby sighed, "I'll take a look. Lady, just…" Bobby gave up when she continued her loud pissed off string of swears.

Dean led them back to the garage to show them the cage, and frowned when Sam started laughing. "I thought you said they were cats," Sam said.

"Yeah, cats," Dean said.

"Those are kittens," Sam corrected, kneeling down to look at them. They were cuddled together, an almost perfect ying and yang with their opposite colors. "They don't look rabid."

"No, they don't," Bobby agreed. "Don't put your hand in there…"

"Sam!" Dean barked.

But Sam was already slowly reaching his hand into the back of the cage where the cats were huddled. They watched him carefully, and the black one stretched its nose to touch his finger. "Aw, they are kind of nice." He said as he gave them a gentle pet.

"Sam, get your hand out of there," Lady snapped, walking into the garage. Her scratches and bite marks were wet and red and a few on her leg were still oozing blood. "I'm making kitty steaks."

"Hey! That's just wrong," Bobby said, surprised Lady actually had a knife in her hand.

"Look at me!" Lady shouted, and the white kitten hissed at her high voice.

"Sam, no coddling the things. Lady, no skinning the cats. And Dean…" Bobby was saying.

"I didn't do anything!" Dean said in defense. Damn it! He had just tried to be civil with Lady, and he had managed that. Hell, if that little white monster hadn't attacked her they may have been able to talk a few more minutes. All he had done was help her cage the furballs, and stayed out of her way when she glared daggers at him.

Bobby thought about it and nodded, "Just keep it that way. All of ya, inside." Bobby sighed as he led the way out of the garage. Unable to help himself he uttered, "Damn kids."

Lady didn't go to sleep that night. The lights were off in the house, and it was silent except for the occasional groan from the old house or a snore from one of the men. She silently went out to the garage, glaring at the offensive kittens.

She felt sick with what she wanted to do to that little snowball. Lady had dissected a lot of animals over the years, even folk magic required the occasional heart. And she wasn't thinking about using folk magic. She wanted to slice and dice the little kitty for revenge, that was sick enough. But she didn't want to be wasteful. There were a lot of useful things that black magic could do. The pelt of the white kitten would even make a nice trim on the hem of her jeans or add a bit of flair to an old pair of boots.

Lady swallowed back the bile rising from her throat. It wasn't her thinking like that. It was the pain of a broken heart that no amount of ice cream could heal, the aching pain of betrayal of Maxine, and throw in being resurrected from the dead and having a power of a goddess ripped out of her body. That had to leave someone's head unstable and Lady had always been teetering near the edge before all that happened. Lady's life hadn't been easy, but mostly she enjoyed it. Believing that she wasn't long for this world she had always made the best of things. Sure, she got upset and even depressed at times, but she never had time to waste on that.

But she knew now that she had loads of time. Years, decades of time. Time that she was going to be spending alone. No dog, no Native American Brady Bunch, no Dean. Just Bobby, who was obsessed with researching evil and organizing the remaining hunters. And Sam, who was obsessed with finding a way to save his brother.

Black magic could solve problems that she wouldn't have considered problems before. She could put a spell on herself, ease that pain and fear. She could put one on Maxine, gain entrance back to her home. Put a spell on Dean, convince him to fight for his own life. She could dig deep in her arsenal of black magic knowledge and resurrect Freddie.

The two kittens were locked in the cage in the garage. Bobby had put a small dish of water and a can of tuna in there for them until he could take them to the animal shelter in the morning. The kittens were just normal kittens, she had checked. Just a couple of kittens from a stray cat or part of an unfortunate litter that was dumped outside of town to fend for themselves. And she was going to let them fend for themselves.

"I know what you are," she said to the kittens that were watching her with wide yellow eyes. "Some sort of sick thing to try and tempt me. Make me think bad things. But not going to work. So get out of here before I decide to step on your skulls." Lady opened the cage.

Give them a few hours and an animal would snatch them up. Problem done, and Lady would have a clean conscience because that was just nature taking its course. Nothing magical or black about it, just the predator and the prey.

She opened the door to the cage and ignored the cats as they cautiously walked out, still watching her. She grabbed a handsaw, she didn't want to use the electric one because it may wake up Bobby, and began cutting off pieces of wood so in the morning she could get back to work securing the garage. Keep out birds and little bastard cats that liked to pick on things a hundred times their size.

Lady glared at the black kitten as it nudged her ankle with a soft fuzzy head and mewed up at her. Soon the white one joined it. "No. Go away. Go get eaten by something," Lady said, nudging them back. She heard the hoot of an owl, and those kittens would be a good sized meal for the large bird. Both her and the kittens tensed at the sound.

Lady looked at them sadly. Tiny, in a world much larger and more dangerous than they were. But that white one had gone after her without fear, clawed her up nicely. Lady didn't speak cat but she could imagine those hisses being a string of random swears and insults. When you were up against an opponent larger and stronger than yourself you had to throw in some insults to take them off guard.

"My god, I'm like the Grinch at the end of the movie," Lady muttered, scooping up both kittens in one arm and holding them against her chest. "You draw blood again and this is over," Lady warned the white one as she quietly went back to Bobby's house with the furballs.


	66. Sin City, June 2007

**A/N** – _This chapter is taking place during the season 3 episode 'Sin City'._

**June 24, 2007**

Dean was asleep on the floor, Sam had won the coin toss as to who got the couch and there was no way he was going to ask Lady if he could bunk in the spare cot in her room. He was slowly waking up with the warm sun shining through dirty curtains. But he was holding onto the last of his dream, Lady straddling his hips and leaning over him to nuzzle his neck. But he felt something wet and cold…and a rough tongue on his chin.

"What the…" he grunted awake, grabbing a fuzzy handful of black kitten. He let out a breath, "Shit." He held the kitten by the nape of the neck and got up. "Where is your evil partner? If Lady finds it first we'll be asking in how many pieces," he muttered. He found Lady on her hands and knees in the kitchen, looking through the bottom cupboards. She looked up at him with wide eyes. "Cats got loose," Dean said, letting the black one dangle. It let out a soft mew but wasn't fighting to get loose.

Lady got up and snatched the kitten from him, "I'll take care of it," she said.

Dean blinked and she was out of the kitchen, and he heard the door to her room down the hall close. Quietly he walked to her door, and heard muffled giggles. Dean was slightly afraid she made good on her threat and was not only skinning the kittens, but enjoying it. He pushed the door open, and what he saw was slightly more frightening.

Lady was sitting on the floor. One hand was behind her back and she had been trying to get her other hand that held the black kitten behind there as well. She paused when she had known she wasn't fast enough and looked up at him with wide eyes, "You tell Bobby and I will fillet you," she warned. And he believed her.

He looked around. The downstairs room was mostly used for storage and had a few cots, and for the past month had been Lady's bedroom. What little floor space was available had a litter box and a bag of cat food. Dean shook his head and walked out of the room, but turned back around quickly, "What'd you do to the white one?"

Quietly Lady moved her hand from around her back to show that the white one was all in one piece. "We made up," she explained softly.

"That's, uh…that's good," he muttered, turning around and closing the door. He rubbed the remaining sleep from his eyes as he shuffled into the kitchen, wondering if he was maybe still dreaming or not.

Lady sighed at the little fluffballs that were sitting in her lap, purring loudly as she pet them. "Yeah, this isn't going to last long," she muttered quietly. Bobby had put up with Freddie, but Freddie had been a good dog. And had only been like a part-time pet to Bobby. These were kittens, they'd grow into cats. They'd claw his furniture, not that it was that great to begin with. They'd rip apart his books, that would send him over the edge. And they'd get hair everywhere. Wrap themselves around peoples ankles until they tripped.

Lady wondered why she had always hated cats. The more she thought about it the more she decided how hilarious they were just to have around.

She heard Bobby come downstairs and start the coffee. It took him less than a minute to knock on her door, "What the hell are you up to?"

"Nothing," she said innocently.

Bobby opened the door, she didn't even look up at him. The two kittens were battling on her lap, playfully fighting with each other while purring. "I already called the shelter, they expect me to drop them off this morning."

"You don't have to," Lady said, looking up at him with her best innocent sad eyes. "Do you?"

Bobby looked disgusted, but mostly with himself. Lady's youthful face and pale-blue eyes could play a trick on men wiser than he was, and he knew the trick better than any of them. "God damn it," was all he muttered before walking out.

Lady chuckled happily and patted her new kittens, "That was easier than I thought it would be. C'mere, fluffies," she raised the two kittens to her face for a quick rub before getting up for coffee.

"They ain't staying inside," Bobby said when she joined him in the kitchen.

"As soon as they are big enough I think we can let them outside," Lady said. "They'll take care of your field mice." And hopefully the birds. God, Lady hoped they'd love to eat birds. She'd have to catch a few birds and start feeding them while they were young, make them get a taste for it.

"I thought you hated cats," Dean said.

"These two are funny," Lady said. "Watch this." She pulled out a laser pointer and turned it on. Immediately the two kittens pounced on the red dot on the floor, knocking into each other and wrestling until they searched for the little red dot again.

Slowly a grin stretched across Dean's face, "Here, let me see that," he held his hand out.

Lady watched as he guided the two kittens across the living room until the red dot was on Sam's arm that was hanging over the couch. She covered her mouth to suppress the laughter she was ready to let go.

Both kittens, claws out, attacked Sam's arm. Sam jerked awake immediately and with a flex the kittens dropped and scattered. "What the!" He sat up.

"Rise and shine, Sammy!" Dean laughed.

Lady let the laughter out, her spirits hadn't been this high since the night before she died. And before she realized what she was doing she had an arm around Dean's waist and gave him a one-armed hug before quickly backing off. "Sorry," she muttered, walking back into the kitchen. She took her coffee cup and retreated into her bedroom, the pair of kittens quickly following her.

The kittens, worn out from playing all night and morning, curled up beside her on her cot and purred themselves to sleep. They weren't Freddie, that was a lost pet that Lady could never forget or replace. But for the first time in a while Lady felt compassion that she had lost while she had been warped by magic. Holding onto the magic of The Goddess and being trapped in her realm had hurt her, and coming back hadn't been an easy transition. But the little fluffs of living and breathing kitten next to her felt nice. For how hyperactive and playful the kittens were they actually had a calming affect.

Sam came into her room after a while. "Hey, I just wanted to check them out," he said, sitting on the spare cot and looking at the slumbering fluff. He reached over and gave them each a rub. "You really keeping them?"

"Yeah," Lady said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "I ran into town to get them a few things last night. They are pretty tame, I think they were just scared last night."

"They have names?" Sam asked.

"Ebony and Ivory," Lady decided with a smirk that Sam returned. "What are you guys up to today?"

"Bobby and Dean are working on the Colt right now," he said. "You know, uh, it was Dean's idea to come here. He wanted to check in on you, without being obvious. You know how he is."

Lady's smile was gone, "Yeah, well, I guess I check in on him through you. Least he could do is use Bobby or you to spy for him. I, uh, I get things aren't going to be like they were before, but…it's still hard, you know?" Lady sighed and rubbed her new furry comfort-pets on their heads. "I always thought that it was really cool how he and I seemed to think alike. And I was impressed with how sharp he was, sharper than John and Bobby. Or maybe he just never let me get away with things. All the time I think I'm so damn clever, that I have a perfect cover for everything I do. But he understood everything I have done..." Lady shook her head, she wouldn't tell Sam how it had made her feel when he had criticized her. It had made her feel like jumping back into the less hostile ley lines. Sam didn't need to know how badly Dean had hurt her, he already knew too much about that. "You know, I tried to avoid having something serious my whole life. And damn, I was happy for the most part, too. How things are between me and Dean makes me so far from happy."

"Yeah, I get that," Sam said quietly. "If we get him out of this deal…maybe…?"

"I'm pretty far away from even thinking about that," Lady lied. It was all she could think about. Her mind was a mess of horrors lately and whenever she needed something bright to think about it went to Dean, and it was driving her closer to the edge of crazy. "I've been reading up on demon deals, Sam. I'm not finding a way out of it."

Sam nodded sadly, "Yeah, I know. They are pretty solid. But I'm not giving up."

"I won't either," she promised him.

Lady left the sleeping cats to say goodbye to the Winchesters as they got ready to leave. She put on a smile and a neutral face, Sam walked over to give her a hug while she never left her spot against the table. Dean gave her a strange look after his brother let her go, and she wondered what the hell he wanted.

Dean wasn't overly complicated, but he wasn't as shallow as he pretended to be. She knew his biggest likes. Beer, classic rock, his car, and sex. She knew his biggest traits. Loyalty and courage. And his biggest weakness, his family. Sam had said she was considered family, which didn't feel right to her. It was hard to trust and love someone as family when they weren't tied to you by blood. They could leave you, betray you in ways that tore you apart inside. It was scary as hell, trusting people. But Dean and her had trusted each other, and he'd even lowered some of his defenses with her. Now those defenses were there to stay, for both of them. But she wondered what the hell he wanted. What that strange look in his eye had been for.

That strange look Dean had given was himself wondering what the hell to do. Was he supposed to give her a hug goodbye? Or just wave? Lady wasn't the same as she used to be around him, and he figured that was to be expected. But that strange little hug she had given him earlier had felt pretty damn good. Dean had, since he met her, studied Lady to figure her out. At first it was because he didn't trust her. She was shady, and figuring out when she was lying had been a hard thing to learn until he found out that every damn word that came out of her mouth the first several months of knowing her had been a lie. But even though she could surprise him with some of her random comments he felt like he understood her. She'd been burned so badly by the witch that nearly killed her when she was a teenager that she didn't trust easily. But the few people that she did trust got to be her friend, and those people were the luckiest bastards because Lady was a good person to have around.

Dean cleared his throat and took a few steps toward Lady that made her eyebrows rise in surprise, and he decided he was supposed to keep a certain amount of physical distance. "I, uh, was cleaning out the Impala and found this. Figured you'd like it back," he said, pulling out her silver charm bracelet from his pocket. It hadn't left his person in months, some sort of twisted way to hold onto her memory. But she wasn't dead anymore, and he shouldn't be holding onto her things.

Lady's lips pressed together in a hard line. "I thought it got buried with Freddie," she said, reaching out to take it from him. She knew it was stupid, but she sort of wished it had been buried with her dog. The thought of Freddie decaying in the dirt without at least some piece of her threatened to bring tears to her eyes, but she held them back. "Thanks."

"Yeah, no problem," Dean said. He took a step back and without looking said, "Let's go, Sammy."

Dean and Sam were on their way to Ohio. Lady took a nap in her room with the kittens before joining Bobby in research. He was still tinkering with the Colt while she studied a book with the kittens curled around her ankles. So far Bobby only spared the kittens a few glares.

Bobby didn't hate cats. Didn't love them, either. Pets in general were something he didn't want to have around. Years ago when Lady showed up with a monster puppy that grew into Freddie he hadn't said anything because the damn dog made her happy. The same reason he wasn't saying anything about the kittens. For the first time since Lady had returned she looked more like her old self. If it took two pint-sized kittens to do that, he'd deal with it.

The next day Bobby was still tinkering with the Colt and decided he wanted to test it out a bit. "Kid, why don't you help me out with this?" Bobby asked, holding up the Colt. It was put back together and would fire bullets, however the magic that had been used to create it was gone. The original bullets were used up, the last one going into the Yellow-Eyed Demon.

"Yeah, sure," Lady said, giving the kittens that had fallen asleep on her lap a nudge to send them toppling to the floor. They looked up at her with annoyance but curled around each other to return to their nap.

Watching Bobby tinker with the Colt had been boring, but making sure the old gun didn't explode in his hand was important. And hell, maybe he'd even let her shoot it a few times.

Bobby had a short firing range in the back of the lot, where dead beaten cars stopped and trees grew thickly. Lady hadn't gotten this far in her bird genocide so she was tense as crows cawed within the trees. Bobby fired a few shots, adjusting the site of the gun as he did so. "Fires nicely," he said. "Want to try?"

If he handed her the gun she'd shoot the damn crow that was staring at her, and he'd wonder where that came from. Lady believed when Maxine said she'd get over that stupid fear of being pulled back into the spirit realm, no use in letting Bobby know she was afraid of their feathery friends and that whenever he gave her time alone at his house she was killing them...and that she was enjoying killing them.

"Nah," she said.

"That bird bothering you?" he asked as he looked down at the gun. "Or do you think it has a nice ass?"

"Funny," Lady said. So maybe she hadn't been clever enough to keep that fear hidden from Bobby. "I'm fine, let's just..." She stopped and spun her head, staring at the blonde woman that seemingly appeared from no where. Bobby, seeing her movement, looked too.

"Nice piece," the woman said, taking a few steps forward. "But it won't stop a demon, if that's what you think."

"How would you know?" Bobby asked, gently moving Lady behind him.

"Oh, I don't know," she said, closing her eyes. When they opened they were pitch black to show she was a demon. "Call it an educated guess."

"Well ain't I lucky then," Bobby said. "I found a subject for a test fire."

The demon chuckled, "Luck had nothing to do with it. But hey, by all means take your best shot." The blonde demon taunted, "Are you going to stand there like a pansy or are you going to shoot...!"

Bobby fired one round from the Colt into the demon's chest. Lady fisted the back of his jacket, unsure what she was going to do against a demon but watching the future closely to get Bobby from getting his head twisted off if she could.

The demon didn't go down, but looked at them, "Ouch. That smarts a little."

"What do you want?" Bobby asked.

"Peace on earth," the demon said, stepping forward. "A new shirt. Now, do you want me to help you out with that gun, or not?"

"Bobby," Lady whispered anxiously.

The demon looked at her, "I'm not here to hurt anyone. Your little psychic can watch me all she wants, I'm not even going to lay a finger on either of you."

"You're a demon," Bobby said.

"And she's a witch, but you two get along just fine," the demon countered. She smiled slightly, "You can call me Ruby."

"If I wanted to get my spine ripped out my ass I would just go down to Mexico for the weekend!" Lady hissed as she saw Bobby considering the demon's offer. "Bobby!"

"Just how can you help us with this gun?" Bobby asked.

"Considering I was alive when it was built, I think I can help quite a bit," Ruby said. "Even better, when we're done I know where you can find a few demons to test it out on."

"Lady, get out of here," Bobby said.

"Not without you," Lady said.

"If I wanted to kill either of you, you'd be dead," Ruby said. "Meet me back here in one hour, and I'll get that gun working as intended again."

When Ruby vanished Lady and Bobby faced off. Lady was telling Bobby how insane it was to even consider letting a demon touch the Colt. The Colt was the key to the Hell Gate in Wyoming. And god damn it, she'd been vampire chow for a week finding the damn thing to begin with.

And Bobby gave his case, which was what did they have to lose?

An hour later Ruby returned. Lady watched Ruby take the gun, a flask of holy water at the ready in case the black-eyed bitch turned on them. She watched the ritual but couldn't identify some of the things used in it. Demonic magic had never been a strong point, and this was demonic magic plus something ancient she had never seen or even read of.

And then the demon left. And they had the Colt. And then they were on their way to Ohio where Sam and Dean were, because Ruby told them there were a few demons to test the gun out on.

"I hate to admit it, but the ritual seemed legit," Lady said softly. "But why would a demon want to help?"

"Beats me," Bobby said. "Kid, you don't have to come with..."

"I want to," Lady said. "I know there is a war out there and, uh, maybe I'm not fit in it to fight with you guys. But I'm not inept, and I'm not helpless. Maybe if I show you that if I go into the field and don't get my ass shot off you'll loosen up a bit. I mean, it is okay to leave me alone for more than a day at a time. I haven't even set a microwave on fire in two years."

"You still owe me a toaster over," Bobby muttered.

"Sorry," she muttered, pouting slightly. "Forgot about that."

Bobby and Lady arrived in Ohio late at night, barely in time to reach Sam and hand over the Colt so he could use it on two demons that had been causing problems in the small town. Lady was put in charge of watching the car the entire time, but she wasn't going to complain about it.

Lady was still watching the car while Bobby helped the Winchesters clean up. She planned on complaining about not being included in getting rid of the evidence, but was going to wait until the men had finished. Just because she was sour about not being asked for help didn't mean she actually wanted to help with the messy part. Her and the kittens had done their nails earlier that day, all of them had nice pale-blue manicures and she didn't want to ruin hers so soon.

She got out of the car, she was parked in front of the motel the Winchesters had rented, when the Impala pulled up. But the only occupant in the car was Dean.

"Everything taken care of?" she asked, leaning against the car and trying to relax tense muscles.

"Yeah," he said. "Bobby will be another half an hour."

"So, the Colt worked?" she asked.

He nodded, "Yeah. Killed the demons, also killed their hosts." He looked bitter about that, and leaned against his own car. "Lady, demons are a bit over your pay grade. You shouldn't be here." He was trying to say, without offending her or tearing down the small bridge they had built, that she was stupid for tagging along with Bobby. Even if it was only to hand over the newly repaired Colt. There could have been more demons, demons may try and follow them. It was dangerous, and she didn't need to take that risk.

Lady let out a slow breath and did something very difficult for her. She kept her voice soft and even while frustration was threatening to explode out of her. "Did Bobby tell you how we fixed it?" She saw the look on his face that he didn't know. "Bobby had help from a demon fixing the Colt. Smart-mouth in a cute blonde costume. She came right onto his lot, never laid a finger on us, and he accepted her help. What sort of idiot does that?"

Dean's jaw flexed, "She call herself Ruby?" Lady glared at him before nodding. Was everyone buddying up with demons now? "Since the hell gate she's been showing up wherever we are. She has Sam convinced that she can help us. Well, I'm happy she fixed the Colt. Next time I see the black-eyed bitch, she's dead."

And as easy as that, Lady's tension began to unwind. At least she wasn't alone in wanting to get rid of the demons, instead of shake hands with them. "So where is Sam?" she asked.

Dean had looked tense and upset before, and he looked almost furious now. "Don't know. Call him, I'm sure he'll show up." He pushed himself off the Impala and took long steps to his motel. Of course she wanted to know where Sam was. He was trying not to be bitter about it. It really wasn't jealousy, he was just pissed that neither of them would come out and tell him that they had gotten together. It was awkward, sure. But…deep down he knew it was right. Deep down he was even grateful that when he was gone they'd be together. Lady was incredible, and Sam deserved that. And Sam would be able to protect her, maybe even reign in some of her crazy. And she'd be there for him, back him up.

He had the door to his motel room unlocked and opened, but he turned back to her. She was looking at her feet, looking small and defenseless as she leaned against Bobby's beat-up car. "I'm sorry," he said loudly. She looked up at him, confused and quiet. He shook his head, not sure what else there was to say. He had said it, a few times. No matter how many times he apologized, he always had to say it again. And he had no fucking clue what he was apologizing for anymore.

Before he could shut himself inside the motel room she was pushing herself inside, "That's it," she snapped, slamming the door shut so they were stuck within the small motel room together. Dean clenched his jaw, ready for anything. "Next time you say sorry, I'm going to scream. I don't even know why you bother! An apology from you is like asking a proctologist to pull a tooth! It leaves a shit-taste in my mouth and I'm sick of it!"

"Nice analogy," he said stiffly, turning his back to her so he could start to pack up the room so he could get the hell out of the town.

"I'm glad you appreciate it," she said hotly. "You know, I don't need an apology from you, Dean. Watching you tiptoe around me is making me sick."

"What am I supposed to do?" he asked defensively, giving her a hard stare. "Pretend you were on vacation in Cancun for two months? Doesn't change anything, Lady. This is weird. Me, standing here talking to you, it's weird as hell and I wish…" Lady glared at him, wondering what he was wishing for. But he just shook his head, unable to say it aloud. That he wished he had been able to save her, that he hadn't frozen up in fear when she returned, that he hadn't lost her several times over. It hurt worse than any physical injury he had ever sustained. "Do your worst, Lady. Yell, scream, kick…hell, if you want a knife or a gun I'm sure you can find one in here. Whatever makes you feel better."

Admittedly hitting him might make her feel better than what they were doing. A miserable shouting match where neither of them would get to the point. They were both hurting, and this was ruining what little progress they had made. She took a step backward toward the door, "Forget it," she said, her voice trembling as she worked hard to keep the volume down.

"You are the one who started this," he shouted.

She nodded, "Yeah. And I see where it is going." Either she was going to let loose and scratch out his eyes, or strip him naked and abuse him in another way. Some sort of physical action just to wear her out so she didn't have to think. "I'm sorry. What happened to me was my fault. I had to die because of it, and now that I'm back I have to live with it. And I have to live with it much longer than a year." She looked at him sadly, and quickly grabbed the door handle to let herself out before he could open his mouth and yell any more.

Sam was standing outside the door, a surprised look on his face at being caught eavesdropping. But his presence quickly killed the fight Dean wanted to continue. He'd rather be fighting with Lady than be stuck earning sad looks and the silent treatment.

"Hey, Sam. Everything go okay?" Lady asked.

"Yeah," Sam said slowly, glancing at his brother to gauge his mood before looking back at Lady. "Are you…"

"I'm fucking peachy," Lady said sharply. "You still have the Colt?"

"Yeah, I do," Sam said.

Lady saw Bobby standing by the car, observing but staying out of things. She hoped he'd keep that stance. "Good. Sam, I want the Colt."

"Hey, hey!" Sam said as Dean stomped out of the motel room to join them outside. "Lady, I'm sure we can work something out. Just, what do you need it for?"

"What do you think?" Lady asked. "The Colt is working, it can kill demons. I bet it can kill a warlock, even one possessing the power of a Goddess. Even if it can't I'm going to try. So I need it."

"No way in hell," Dean started in.

"Why not?" Lady asked, glaring at him.

"Because it's ours," Dean said.

Lady laughed right in his face. "Yours? That's fucking hilarious, Dean! It's not yours. It's a hell of a lot more mine than any of yours."

"That…" Dean began to argue.

Lady took a threatening step towards him, "I spent _weeks_ twisting Elkins' arm to find out about that gun. I had my life threatened multiple times, not to mention being fucking vampire-chow for a week because of that fucking gun! And you know what, John traded his _soul_ and the Colt so you could live. Considering you have less than a year left I'm going to say you forfeit any share of ownership you may have had on that gun."

It was a low blow, mentioning his father. Lady knew it, and didn't care at that moment.

"Lady, that's enough," Sam snapped.

Lady looked at him with wide eyes. She had forgotten he was still there.

"You find Donovan, you let us know and we take care of it together. Or else we'll take care of it ourselves," Sam said. "Fact is we're dealing with a war, which trumps your little vendetta against the coven. The Colt stays with us."

"Little vendetta?" Lady gasped at Sam.

"Yeah," Sam said firmly. "It's been almost a month, no one has heard a word from Donovan. Until he becomes a threat like the demons are, he's on the back burner. I know you can't think very far beyond the coven. But we have to look at the bigger picture. Now unless you plan on wrestling the Colt from me, I think you should get in the car and leave."

Wrestling the Colt from Sam wasn't going to happen. Lady had, on several occasions, picked his pocket for fun and sometimes for a piece of gum. It was just a way to keep her skills sharp, and it made her giggle when she managed to get one over on him. But Sam was aware, and he knew her tricks, and he had at least eighty pounds on her. It would be a very short fight that would end with Lady pinned against the wall or ground until Bobby broke it up and threw her in the car.

So she skipped the fight and got into the car. Lady was driving back to South Dakota with Bobby in the passenger seat. He was too tired to drive, but she was too wired to let them stop and rest.

Once they arrived back at home he started his tired shuffle back into the house. "Coming, kid?" he asked as Lady lingered in the lot. He needed to have a talk with her. It'd been a month, if she needed to start her hunt for Donovan he'd get on board to help her. That fight with the Winchesters hadn't been pretty and he didn't want to talk while she drove, but she needed to say something. He'd help her sort through things, if it took all of the good liquor in his cabinet he'd help her.

"No," she said. "Bobby, I need some time away."

The urge to sleep lifted and he looked at her with wide eyes, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, my head is a mess and if I hang out here any longer I might put a gun to it," she said flatly. "I'll call…or something. I just, I need to get away. Las Vegas or…somewhere other than here."

"Sure," Bobby said. "Kid, just give me an hour to change the oil in the car. We drove it pretty hard and fast to get to Ohio and…"

"I'll stop at Fast Lube in town. I just...sorry, Bobby," Lady said, getting in the car and driving quickly out of the lot.

**A/N** – _If you know any songs that seem to click with any chapters let me know, I'm still open for suggestions. Song for this chapter:_

_Bleed Well, by H.I.M._

_Broken, by Seether feat. Amy Lee (thanks to sam and dean crazy ass wrench for the suggestion! I love this song!)  
_


	67. Bedtime Stories, July 2007

**A/N** - _This chapter takes place during the season 3 episode 'Bedtime Stories'. Whenever I re-do an episode I sort of skip across the major details (depending on how heavy Lady is involved) with the idea that we've all seen them. If after reading this chapter if it didn't make sense please let me know so I can polish it up a bit more. _

**July 1, 2007**

Lady was putting a lot of miles on Bobby's car. A trip to Atlantic City before going north to Manhattan to do the only thing that might bring a bit of happiness into her life.

Shoe shopping.

It seemed her whole collection of shoes and clothes had been donated to the reservation, or maybe Maxine burned them, she didn't know and would never find out. A few shoes, a manicure and pedicure, just a day where someone else was taking care of her. Hell, maybe she'd go looking for some strange man to take care of her too.

It was a crazy mess of emotions that she didn't want to deal with. Fear, sadness, grief, anger, it all really sucked. She sort of wished she could go back in time just by one year. That way she could have gotten away from the Winchesters before it was too late, before she got emotionally invested.

Damn Winchesters.

The cash she had won at the casinos in Atlantic City didn't last long, and she was already on her way out of Manhattan. She figured she'd just start going west and probably end up at Bobby's again. He had let her take the good car, he'd want it back before she screwed it up. Well…she hadn't really asked to take the car, she had just said she needed to leave and left. Either way, he hadn't been bugging her to return so he didn't seem to upset.

As her mind wandered she remembered Independence Day was coming up, if she didn't waste time she could reach Texas by then. They had some pretty sweet barbeques down there and some of the best fireworks shows. Had to love southern patriotism when it was expressed in eating massive amounts of red meat and blowing stuff up.

The sun was setting in the horizon as she drove on a two-lane highway, undecided where she was going. She was watching for signs to tell her where the next town was, she was going to need some sleep soon and wasn't sure that pulling over to the side of the road for an hour or two was the best. She'd been running on fumes and energy drinks, but it wasn't cutting it anymore. Even as she squinted to read an upcoming sign her limbs felt numb and disconnected from her body…

And then she wasn't driving on the road. She was in someone's backyard, clothes were hanging on a line and a woman was taking them down one by one. Lady watched as a woman grabbed a pair of jeans, folding them once before taking her hand back quickly. There was a needle sticking out of her finger, something that had been missed and stuck in the jeans when they were washed. And without further warning the woman fell over. As for how her visions went this one was pretty strange. Usually she saw what caused a death. Another person, a freak accident…but this woman fell over easier than someone having a heart attack would have. A needle poke in the finger wouldn't do that.

The vision went to the back of her mind, and Lady sucked in a shocked breath as she returned to the present. The vision had hit her while she was doing eighty miles down the highway, and while she had been off in future-land watching it her foot had pressed on the accelerator so she was speeding along at over a hundred miles an hour. And she was in the wrong lane about to go into the ditch.

"Shit!" Lady shrieked, hitting the brake and turning sharply. For a moment the car was slowing down and in the right lane, but the rear tires wobbled and pulled her far into the right sending her into the ditch while she was still going sixty miles an hour. Her teeth clamped down as the car hit the ditch still going at a fast speed, and she couldn't help but close her eyes as the wheels left the ground and the car began to roll. She was sure she was dead, that after every thing she was going to die in a fucking car accident. How embarrassing was that?

When the car stilled Lady was trembling. The car was upside down in a field, and she was lying on the ceiling. The windshield had shattered, the engine had died but the radio was still playing.

She didn't move, trying to take a physical inventory of her injuries while the vision that had nearly killed her played over and over in the back of her mind. She'd hit her head, it hurt like a bitch. Her side ached, her arms and legs felt shaky. But damn it, she was alive.

She pulled herself out of the car, grimacing as her head throbbed. Once outside she looked at the car. "Oh…Bobby's going to kill me," she groaned.

Lady touched her forehead and found it was wet with blood. Slowly she moved her fingers up to her hair line until she found the nasty cut. She'd gone a while without losing blood, it was about time it happened again.

And then she looked back at the car. "Oh, Bobby's really going to kill me," she moaned.

Lady had been in a few accidents, but never something that had twisted a car into a pretzel like this. She wasn't sure if this particular car was registered, she'd have to get Bobby on the phone to find out. Grimacing as her back ached she retrieved her bags from the car and pulled out her cell phone.

"Yeah," Bobby answered.

"Hey, Bobby," Lady said as she began limping down the two-lane highway with one bag on her back and two more being carried in one hand. She let out a short laugh, "You ever hear the joke about the psychic who had a vision while driving on the highway?" Bobby was absolutely silent on the other end. "Yeah, not so much a joke that inspires laughter."

"You wrecked?" Bobby guessed. "You okay?"

"Yes, and yes," Lady answered. "Sorry about your car, I'll pay you back. I just don't know what to do with the remains."

Bobby sighed, "Well, get as far away from it as you can, and I'll report it missing in the morning. Where are you?"

"I don't really know. New York, somewhere."

"I'll come get you," he offered.

"No, don't bother. I still need to deal with this vision. Once it's over I'll take the train back."

"Okay, call me once things are squared away," he said.

Lady walked stiffly for at least three miles before she got picked up by a truck driver. He took her to the first truck stop, where she cleaned up and borrowed a car in the parking lot. Technically it was considered stealing the car, but she thought when she brought it back they'd understand her intention all along had been to borrow it. Although it was a nice two-door that had good gas mileage, maybe she could give it to Bobby in return for twisting up his other car.

She drove west and a bit north, following the internal compass in her head that led her to her visions victim. She reached a town called Maple Springs, still in New York, shortly after dawn. She stashed the stolen car outside of town and jogged through the residential area. Her head was still throbbing and her back ached, but she had to take care of this damn vision before she took care of herself. She'd been taking aspirin every few hours to try and kill the throbbing in her head, but it just kept right on pulsing.

Finding the nearly-deceased person was always easy, she just followed the internal compass in her head. She knocked on the door, it was around eight in the morning and time was running short for the victim. The woman she saw die in her vision answered the door. "Can I help you?" the woman asked.

Since Lady had no idea how this woman was dying, but knew it was going to be shortly, she said, "I'm really sorry to bother you, but my car died down the road. And my cell phone is dead. Do you have a phone I can use?"

"Oh, certainly, dear," the woman said with a smile.

"Thank you," Lady said, returning a forced smile as the woman led her inside. Lady would keep a close eye on her, and be close to the phone in case vision was just because of a heart attack. Call 911, do the chest pump thing. She'd try her best. "You wouldn't happen to have a phonebook? I'm not from around here, I don't know who I should call to tow me."

"Yeah, let me grab it for you," the woman said.

The woman was rather pretty. About Lady's age, or maybe a bit younger, with pretty blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Though she wasn't wearing a ring on her finger it seemed that there was a man who lived with her. But no kids, the house looked too clean.

Lady put a hand against the wall and leaned as her vision blurred and her head throbbed painfully, and she felt a bit sick. Too many aspirins on an empty stomach, she thought.

"Uh…miss, are you alright?" the woman asked when she returned.

Lady looked up at her, trying to clear her vision. "Yeah, I'm…" Lady frowned as she saw a young girl standing behind the woman. The girl had long black hair, pale skin and large blue eyes. She wore a pretty white dress with a red bow. Unlike most children Lady had met the girl just stood there silently. Lady took a shallow breath, trying to clear her head, and inhaled the sharp smell of ozone. There were only two reasons Lady knew of that would cause that smell. One, rain was coming, but it was clear skies. Two, a spirit. Her first vision after she came back from the dead and it was involving a spirit? Damn it. "Come on, we have to get out of here," Lady said, grabbing the woman and trying to pull her out of the house. "Grab your daughter."

"I don't have a daughter…" the woman said, grabbing onto Lady to hold her up. "Miss, you don't look so…"

Lady stumbled and fell into a table, knocking it over and spilling contents. A small sewing kit toppled onto the floor and Lady dropped to her hands and knees next to it. A needle had fallen on the ground and stabbed into her palm when she tried to push herself back up. Her vision went blurry and dark and she fell down again, not able to get back up.

**July 3, 2007**

Sam and Dean Winchester were having a hard time with their current job in Maple Springs. The week before three men had been attacked by something vicious, and considering the full moon peaked on June twenty-ninth they thought it had been a werewolf. However the men still had their hearts, and one man survived the attack. The survivor said the person who had attacked them did not have the normal werewolf characteristics.

And after that an old woman had drugged two hikers, stabbing one to death until the surviving one bashed the old woman's head into the oven to save herself. Sam and Dean were at the hospital and had just finished speaking to the survivors of both attacks.

"You got anything?" Sam asked as they walked down the hospital corridor.

"I have nothing," Dean admitted. "I think we need to head back to Grandma's house, check for sulfur and EMF."

"That's a…" Sam began, but tensed as they turned the corner and saw two police officers at the end of the hallway. They had been covering their tracks, but they hadn't stayed out of handcuffs by pressing their luck.

"In here," Dean said, and Sam casually followed him into a hospital room. Dean closed the door and clicked the lock. "Give them five minutes, then we're out of here."

"There is a patient in here," Sam said quietly, looking at closed curtain around a bed.

Dean shrugged and grabbed the chart. "Hey, a Jane Doe. Coma patient," he said.

"Really?" Sam's eyebrows rose. He let out a breath, "Lucky for us, then."

"Yup. Head trauma, subdural hematoma."

Sam walked around the curtain to take a curious look while Dean continued to read the medical chart to kill time. Sam froze when he saw Lady's still body on the hospital bed. There was a bandage around her head and a few quiet monitors hooked up to her.

"Looks like this idiot was taking aspirin while she was bleeding into her brain. Poor sucker," Dean muttered, closing the chart and putting it back. "I think we should be clear, let's go, Sam."

"Dean, wait," Sam said. Dean had been a dick lately, and maybe he was entitled to it since he had less than a year to live, but Sam knew that deep down Dean loved Lady. And he knew, just based on their history, that eventually the two of them would find some way to reconcile. Dean dying in less than a year or not, they had never been able to resist whatever magnetic force was between the two of them for long. He wasn't sure if he should call Dean to look behind the curtain to see the newest puzzle piece in their hunt or not, but before he could decide Dean's curiosity over the Jane Doe won and he took a peek.

"What the…" Dean muttered. "That...that's Lady."

"Yeah," Sam said.

"What the hell is she doing in New York?" Dean asked.

"Bobby said she was in Atlantic City a few nights ago," Sam muttered. "Maybe she got wind of the job and decided to check it out."

"Let's see how far she got," Dean said, pressing the call nurse button.

They didn't have to wait long for a nurse to arrive, "Uh…may I help you gentlemen?"

Dean and Sam flashed their fake badges and said their fake names. "We need some information on the Jane Doe here," Sam said.

"We need all personal items recovered, and we'd really like to speak with her doctor," Dean added, giving the nurse a forced smile.

"Oh, uh…of course. Just a few minutes," she said.

Dr. Garrison had already met the brothers a few times while they spoke with the other survivors. He was a patient doctor with silver hair and a gentle voice.

"Yesterday morning she stopped at a house, asking to use the phone," Dr. Garrison began. "Her injuries suggest she was in a bad car accident, and sustained a hard hit to her head. A bleed started in her brain, and she just collapsed. When we got her here we did what we could to relieve the pressure on her brain, but she hasn't woken up."

"But she will, right?" Dean asked tensely.

Dr. Garrison gave them a small shrug, "I wish I could say for sure, but these things so often depend on the people. I'd like to say her chances are good. She is a very healthy woman. However we just need to wait and see if she recovers. Right now we are just trying to identify her so we can notify her family."

The Winchesters both tensed, that wasn't a good thing. "Identify…how?" Sam asked.

"The police came in earlier today and took fingerprints. But no personal items were recovered. No phone, wallet, ID. Nothing." Dr. Garrison said.

Dean internally groaned. Lady was going to be in handcuffs before she woke up, if she ever woke up. He didn't want to even guess at how many crime scenes she had left her fingerprints at. Dr. Garrison left the room and the brothers talked anxiously.

"Okay, I'll go get her fingerprints before they run them," Sam said, hoping he could manage that. "Go check out the cabin where the hikers were attacked."

"What? You mean leave her alone in a hospital? That's a bad idea, Sam," Dean argued.

"Whatever is going on here may have gotten to her, too. We need to figure it out, and we need to do it quick so we can get out of here," Sam said anxiously.

"Fine," Dean bitterly agreed. "But I'll go after the fingerprints. In case things go bad I don't want you risking getting arrested. You go check out the cabin."

Sam frowned, but nodded. Sometimes Dean lacked finesse, especially when speaking with police, but there were just some fights he couldn't win with his brother. Once completing their separate jobs they returned to the hospital.

Dean was smiling, "Got to love small towns. Flashed the badge, fed them a big spoonful of bull, and I got the prints." His smile faded, "Found a stolen car outside of town, too. Had her stuff inside. An overnight bag and a few boxes of shoes. Her cell phone, too, but the battery is dead. How about you, you find anything?"

"Not really…but I have a theory," Sam said as they locked the door to Lady's hospital room. "I'm thinking about fairy tales."

Dean looked at his brother with a blank expression, "Fairy tales? You, uh…think about them a lot?"

"No, Dean, I'm talking about the murders. Okay, just follow me a minute," Sam pleaded with him. "The hikers, a guy and a girl hiking through the woods and an old lady tries to eat them? That's Hansel and Gretel. Then we got three brothers arguing over how to build houses, attacked by the big bad wolf."

Dean nodded a bit, "Three Little Pigs. Those guys were a bit chubby."

"And then, Lady," Sam said. He grabbed her right hand and showed Dean a small puncture wound on her palm. "I stopped by to talk with the woman who was with her, she says when Lady passed out she got poked by some needles she had knocked onto the floor."

"So?" Dean asked, wishing Sam would get to the point.

"Sleeping Beauty," Sam said flatly, and pointed at Lady.

Dean glared at him, "I'm still not buying this. Aren't those stories supposed to end with everyone living happily ever after?"

"No, not at all. The originals done by the Grimm brothers was kind of the folklore of its day. Full of sex, violence, cannibalism. It got sanitized over the years, turned into Disney flicks and bedtime stories."

"So these stories are being reenacted?" Dean asked. "That's a little crazy."

"Crazy as what? Every day of our lives?" Sam countered.

"Touché," Dean muttered.

"Here is what I'm thinking," Sam said. "The hiker and the woman who was with Lady said they saw a young girl, and I think it's a spirit. A vengeful spirit that is making these things happen."

"Then we got to find it," Dean said. "Let's go."

"Wait," Sam said, making Dean pause. "Dean, you know the story of Sleeping Beauty, right? She gets pricked by a needle and falls into an enchanted sleep."

"Yeah, sure," Dean said. "Then we go burn the bones of the ghost that did it to her, and she wakes up. Right?"

Sam rolled his eyes, "She stays in the enchanted sleep until being woken up by a kiss."

Dean tensed, why the hell did Sam have to tell him that? Couldn't he have just waited until he was out of the room to give it a shot? Dean was happy pretending to be ignorant of Sam and Lady's relationship, if they even had one after Sam had given her a piece of his mind in Ohio. Damn it, he really didn't want to watch this. "Well, what are you waiting for? Give it a shot," Dean said.

Sam looked a bit surprised and confused, "Dean, I get that you and Lady are more likely to draw blood than make-up at this point, but you can't be so pissed off at her that you won't try and save her."

"I'm not pissed at her," Dean said defensively.

"Are you sure? Because last time I checked people only scream at each other when they are fairly pissed off," Sam said.

"Fine, I'm a little angry," Dean admitted. "But more at you than at her."

Again Sam was surprised, "Okay, what did I do this time?"

"You think I'm stupid?" Dean asked. "I've known since Chicago, I saw the two of you. On accident. And I'm trying not to be angry. In all honesty the two of you make the funniest looking couple I have ever seen, but I know you two can take care of each other. I'm just pissed that you don't have the balls to tell me. Like I can't see what is going on."

Sam stared at Dean with wide eyes as he realized what Dean was accusing him of.

Dean cleared his throat, "Listen, I don't want any details."

"You think Lady and I have been sleeping together?" Sam was too horrified to manage a chuckle. "I've just been helping her out, we do favors for each other…"

"I said no details. I really don't want to have to punch you," Dean said in a warning.

Sam winced, "Not those kind of favors, Dean! Jesus! She's been helping me translate Latin, and I've been keeping an eye out for signs of Donovan for her."

Dean's face stretched in surprise, "You've been helping her hunt her coven?"

"Sort of," Sam admitted. He had been looking, but without the intention of passing the information to Lady.

"Are you stupid!"

"At least if I find something we'll know about it, instead of her being on her own," Sam said. "She's trying to be easy on Bobby. And she didn't want you to know, you have enough to deal with."

Dean ran a hand through his hair, "I'd rather strangle her than kiss her right now."

"Why? Because she's ridiculously happy to throw her life down? Sounds sort of similar, doesn't it?" Sam snapped at him.

"Don't…not now, Sammy," Dean muttered.

"Jesus Christ, Dean...she loves you. You love her. You are both just too damned scared to admit it. And it's probably for the best that you don't, considering you are checking out next May. Now we have a hunt to figure out before anyone else gets killed." Sam walked out of the room, knowing Dean would be a few more minutes.

Dean looked at Lady, wanting to be angry but at the same time he was scared. For the past few weeks he thought she was shagging his brother, and to be honest it'd be easier to swallow than knowing that she had been helping Sam look for a way out of his deal. Or that he was helping her find a new way to get killed.

He leaned over her bed and pressed his lips to hers, they were warm but unresponsive. He watched her face for anything…nothing. He tried a few more times, and a feeling of dread settled into his stomach. Lady coming back to life hadn't been easy, it had turned his world upside down. But he wanted her to be alive, and wanted her to wake up. But she wasn't waking up. If he had a second soul to sell, he would have been making another deal right then.

That night the Winchesters did research, in between rescuing Cinderella from a wicked step-mother and avoiding a frog. The next morning they returned to the hospital. They had decided that the little girl was portraying Snow White, and perhaps instead of being dead maybe she was having something more along the lines of an out-of-body experience. Still technically alive, but in a coma. Other than Lady and elderly people there was only one other person in a coma at the hospital, a young woman that was Dr. Garrison's daughter named Callie.

Dr. Garrison had a habit of reading to his comatose daughter, usually stories from the Grimm brothers. Callie had been poisoned with bleach as a child, and never recovered enough to wake up. Now her spirit was lashing out, causing fairy-tales to come to life. A version of Red Riding Hood seemed to be acting out at that time. Dean ran to keep the wolf, who was a man under the spirit's control, from harming a young girl. Meanwhile Sam spoke with Dr. Garrison in hopes that they could give Callie's spirit what she wanted. The girl had been poisoned by her stepmother years ago, and was frustrated that no one ever listened to her or discovered the truth. Once Dr. Garrison heard the truth Callie's spirit went to rest, and her body died.

Once it was over Sam and Dean went to check on Lady, expecting her to wake up now that the spirit was no longer at work. However she was still in her coma.

When they had figured out the job Dean had been hopeful. Even if she didn't wake up from a kiss then she would have to wake up once the spirit had stopped. But now he was concerned that maybe she wasn't part of the spirit's work, or maybe something else was at work. Damn it, he couldn't keep going through this. "Come on, Lady…open your eyes," he begged. "We stopped what was causing the attacks, you are supposed to wake up, now!"

Lady laid there peacefully, unmoving. Not even her eyes moved under her eyelids.

Dean's fingertips touched her hair and scalp, she was still warm. Still alive, still breathing…but if he didn't know better he would swear she was dead. He let out an angry breath, "Open your eyes, damn it!"

"Dean…" Sam said, not able to handle his brother yelling at a comatose patient. "We should probably go."

"We can't leave her here," Dean said.

"We'll call Bobby," Sam said. "Listen, I'm going to talk to the nurses and figure out what to tell them about her."

Dean ran a hand through his short hair and glared at Lady. Sleeping Beauty. It would be almost funny if a kiss had woken her up…something he thought even she could laugh at later. But he was no prince in shining armor these days…hell, he never was. He was a dead man walking, less than a year to live before his soul was dragged into hell. Bobby and Sam gave him no end of grief about it…but Lady understood. She didn't like it, thought he had gotten screwed, and was in a general bad mood around him…but she understood how important his family was to him.

"Bobby is probably going to kick our ass for not being here in time to save you," Dean muttered to her still form. "Hell, I want to kick my ass. Lady...you are a good friend. I'm not saying that because of the nights we spent together or the times we worked together…just you are a good friend."

Dean thought back to a year ago, meeting her and aching to satisfy her flirty grin. She had become a constant and reliable thing in his crazy life, the first person other than his family he felt like he could count on and could talk to. She always made him grin, and for some reason she had thought the world of him. And the more he got to know her, pealing back layers she rarely let others see, the more he enjoyed her. She was a nut job, broken and twisted inside. Just like he was. But she was also a genuine optimist, easily happy and she shared that with him.

Dean realized he had a few wet trails down his cheeks. He wiped his face dry. He couldn't keep dealing with loss. They hadn't even reached the one year anniversary of their father's death and he had seen both his brother and Lady die, and he was afraid he was waiting for her to die again because of a stupid bump to the head now. "Figures, huh? I finally get a girl I connect with and she dies. Then she comes back to life when I have less than a year to live, and now she's waiting for Prince Charming to wake her up." He let out a dry laugh. "Lady, I'm going to find a way to snap you out of this. If it's the last thing I do before I go to hell. You deserve that much." Dean leaned forward and his lips brushed against hers as he whispered, "I love you."

Fingernails scratched at his scalp as fingers tried to find purchase on his short hair to pull him back, finding none a weak hand smacked his ear. Dean backed away, his eyes wide as Lady was glaring furiously at him, and before his eyes the fury died away to confusion on her face.

The last thing Lady remembered was falling to the ground at the woman's house, and then she was woken up with someone's face pressed against hers. She didn't even recognize it as Dean before she tried to pull him away, thinking that someone was trying to take advantage of her while she was passed out. "What's going on?" she asked, her eyes darting around.

Dean looked at her with surprise, and the next instant he let out a happy laugh and leaned down to kiss her again.

Lady didn't fight with him, but mumbled around his lips, "Where am I?" Dean backed away and Lady's heart sped up as she realized where she was. "Oh god, I'm in a hospital again, aren't I?" She looked around. "Where are my clothes…"

"Take it easy," Dean said. "We'll get you out of here, but you can't jump out the window."

"Yes I can!" she argued.

"We're on the third floor," he said. "Lady, hold on one minute."

"No!" She snapped as she tore an IV out of her arm and moved to get out of the bed, slapping Dean's hand away when he went to offer her help. "What the hell is wrong with you! Why did you bring me here!"

He laughed. He couldn't help it, he was relieved she wasn't dying. That she was awake!

"Stop laughing!" she hissed as she struggled to close the back of the hospital gown.

"Sorry. Just…I'm glad you are all right," he said, trying to tame his smile.

"All right? Do I look all right to you?"

"Just…yeah, you do," Dean said, smiling appreciatively at the short hospital gown she wore and down her bare legs.

Lady arched an eyebrow, "Right…okay, then. I'm going to go find some underwear."

"Lady…" Dean said, taking a step towards her.

"Oh good, Sam is coming. Maybe he'll make sense," Lady muttered, working on the tie on the back of the gown so she wouldn't embarrass Sam.

Lady turned to stare at Dean, "What is wrong with you?"

Dean shook his head, "Nothing," he said, and she let him put his hand on her shoulder. "Just…nothing."

Lady looked confused but didn't slap, smack, punch or try anything to get him away as he leaned down to kiss her. Ever since she got back there had been a roller coaster of emotions, and it had taken Lady going into a coma to decide which was the most powerful. He adored the quirky little psychic, and even though he knew he shouldn't waste her time he couldn't hold back what he felt for her. His fingertips went down her spine, finding the fold in the gown to brush bare skin. Lady gently pulled back so she could warn him Sam was there, but he held her closer and deepened the kiss.

Sam quietly opened the door to the hospital room and backed out quickly when he saw the bare rear of a woman while she was being molested by his brother. He blinked a few times as if trying to wipe away the image, and knocked on the door.

Lady's hands were around Dean's neck and he was still kissing her as she said, "That's Sam." Her words were muffled against his lips. She was in no hurry to end this spur of the moment affection from Dean, but she knew that in the very near future Sam would be knocking again to make sure everything was all right and she didn't think it was. There were several things that she should be concerned about. Where her underwear was, what happened to the woman in her vision, how long she had been out…but it had been a very long time since she had been kissed. And Dean had always been a very good kisser. Something had happened, she'd get the story later. Right now she just wanted to enjoy a moment.

Sam knocked loudly on the door and called, "Dean! Cut it out!"

Dean held Lady close and let out a frustrated breath against her cheek. "What?"

"Uh…can I come in?" Sam asked shyly.

Lady turned in Dean's arms and worked on tying the stupid gown again, "Come in here and help me," Lady said anxiously. Hospitals and Dean acting this way…something _really_ bad must have happened, and it was probably important that they get out of there quickly.

Sam cautiously opened the door and glanced quickly before stepping inside. He smiled broadly at Lady who was trying to step away from Dean and tie the hospital gown, but Dean's hand was on her waist and holding her close to him. "Something is wrong with your brother," Lady said quietly. She was sure there were things wrong with her, there often was when she woke up in a hospital, but she was more concerned with Dean's new mood than her own issues.

Dean laughed and pulled her to him again, forcing Sam to look away as Lady's gown flapped open in the back.

Lady pulled away, "Okay, seriously!" She snapped, "Sam, can you please tie this?"

"Yeah," Sam said, grabbing the strings and tying it tightly in the back. "I am glad you woke up, Lady. We were worried."

"Yeah, can we get me out of here before someone runs my prints before we go over what I missed?" she asked anxiously.

"Don't worry, you were only out day," Sam said. "We need to get you out of here."

"Okay, let's go," Lady said.

Dean was laughing again, "Come here, Lady."

"No! I just woke up from something somewhere I don't know in a hospital which I do not like and I think there is something wrong with you to where you may need to stay in a hospital and be checked out!" She said in one hiss of breath. "Thanks for whatever it was that you did but can we just go and can you keep you hands off of me while we are on our way out, please?"

"Please," Sam added, staring at his brother.

"I can behave," Dean nodded.

"I'll find your clothes," Sam offered.

"Don't leave me alone with him!" Lady said quickly. She was not to be trusted alone with Dean when he was in a good and playful mood, especially when all she was wearing was a hospital gown. "Dean, do me a favor and find me some damn underwear."

Dean laughed again, "I never get tired of hearing that."

Dean slipped out of the room. Lady and Sam locked eyes, "What the hell is going on?" she asked desperately.

"We almost lost you, again," Sam said, pulling her into a brief hug.

**A/N**_ -Warning, don't get too used to Dean's giddy mood...new chapter will be coming soon.  
_

_Song for this chapter:_

_Savin' me, by Nickelback_


	68. Independence Day, July 2007

**July 4****th****, 2007**

Escaping the hospital was easy once Lady was dressed, she kept her head down and no one tried to stop them. While they drove they discussed what happened, sharing both sides of their stories. She called Bobby to let him know the Winchesters had picked her up, but didn't tell him about the trouble they had ran into.

Dean's mood quieted down. The relief that she was going to be okay settled and he knew the long drive to Bobby's was going to be awkward. Sam had already told her how he thought they had been sleeping together, and she had laughed at that. He knew there were some things to figure out, had no clue how to do that, and wanted to avoid it as long as possible.

They stopped at a motel that evening, all of them tired and a bit burned-out after the job. From the motel parking lot they watched fireworks while drinking a few beers. Dean went inside the room he was going to share with Sam, getting a shower and getting ready to go to sleep.

Sam and Lady leaned against the trunk of the Impala, watching they sky as it lit up with bursts of colorful explosions. "You feel okay?" he asked her.

"Dude, when that car crashed I thought I was dead," she sighed. "How about you? Everything else going okay?"

Sam shrugged, "Dean's as stubborn as ever. I, uh, suggested we take the Colt and go after the crossroads demon. Since then he's had the gun on lockdown. Doesn't help that he thinks you might steal it."

"Would killing the crossroads demon work?" Lady asked.

"Dean managed to get a guy out of his deal by threatening to exorcise it before," Sam said. "We have the Colt, we know it kills demons. Why not? I just haven't gotten the chance to try. If he finds out what I'm trying to do he'll stop me."

"What if he had a distraction?" Lady asked, finishing off her beer.

"He can't be distracted," Sam said. Lady arched an eyebrow. "Oh…you mean, you want to distract him?" Sam thought about it, whenever Lady was around Dean was a tense mess. "That would work."

They went into the motel room. Sam retrieved the Colt from Dean's bag and left. Lady was lounging on a bed when Dean came out of the shower with a towel around his waist.

Dean looked around, "Where's Sam?"

"I asked him to make himself scarce for an hour. I want to talk to you," she said.

Dean looked back at her. He wasn't ready for this. "Lady, we should probably talk. But talking, you and me, it never works." He grabbed his bag and went back into the bathroom. He came out a few minutes later with a pair of jeans on. He let out a breath and sat on the other bed, looking at her to talk. "Alright, talk." The sooner they got started the sooner they'd find out if it would end up the type of fight were blood was shed, or just angry tears.

"I suppose I owe you a thanks," Lady said tensely.

He shook his head, "No, you don't."

"Come on, Dean, I'm a total Disney junkie. I know how Sleeping Beauty wakes up," she said. "I know what you were doing when I woke up."

"I'm sorry…"

"Stop fucking saying that!" she snapped, and then bit back her anger. She took a slow breath and curled her legs under her while she moved to face him. "I don't know how this is supposed to work, Dean."

"That makes two of us," he muttered.

"I don't like thinking about what is going to happen to you," she admitted.

Dean got off the bed, "Then don't think about it. I'm not thinking about it."

"Liar," she called him out. Her head turned so she could watch him start to pace uncomfortably. "Do I scare you, Dean?"

"A little, yeah," he said. "I'm not sure if you are going to hit me or just talk, you are a little hard to read. I'm just playing it safe."

"I'm just talking," she said. "Dean, I'm helping Sam try and find a way out of your deal. I don't know if there is a way, but I'm trying."

"Stop it," he said.

"No," she glared at him. "Shut up and listen, I'm trying to talk. What you did for Sam, I'm glad you did it. I can't imagine Sam not being around. But the thing is, I can't imagine you not being around in a year. I can't do it. And I don't want to."

"If the deal is broken Sam dies again," Dean said evenly. "You want to do that to him? To me?"

"Of course not," she said softly.

"Then you have to stop." They stared at each other for several long moments before he looked away. He shook his head and walked toward the door. Car or no car, he couldn't stay in the same room with her. Tension was brewing rapidly and he couldn't stand it.

Lady couldn't let him leave. If he did he'd call Sam, make him come back to the motel, and Sam was on an important mission. He was saving Dean's life. She jumped on Dean's back, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. "I'm still talking," she said.

Dean's hands grabbed her arms to keep her from choking him, and then trying to disentangle her, "I really don't want to talk, Lady," he said.

"Then you have to listen," she said. No matter how many times he dislodged one of her limbs another one tightened to keep her on his back. "I can play spider-monkey all night, I don't care."

"Lady…"

"Dean," she said in a mocking tone back to him. "I may only have a fraction of understanding of what goes on in your twisted brain, but I get it. Before John died he told you to take care of your brother, and when you failed you took a page out of his book to fix it."

"Get off of me," Dean said.

"Not yet," Lady said. "Can't you even admit that part of you isn't ready for it to be over?"

"Lady, I…let me go," Dean said tensely. Sure, he was scared. He'd been given the chance to have a civil conversation with a demon and he knew hell wasn't going to be a picnic. He wasn't looking forward to it, but it was too late to change anything. He just wanted to live out his last months. Spend time with his brother, kill some evil things and get laid a few last times.

"Tell me that you have absolutely no desire to live longer than what you have, and I'll quit. Tell me there isn't a piece of you that isn't wishing you had more time."

"Stop it, Lady," he said.

"I'll stop talking," Lady said. "But I'm not letting you go. When your back starts hurting you can sit down. Sit down soon because this isn't necessarily comfortable for me. Now unless you are actually going to shove an elbow into my gut, which I don't think you have the balls to do, we're just going to have to deal with this."

The many, _many_, times Lady had tap-danced on his nerves and made him want to hit a wall, this wasn't one of them. It was her stubborn tactic to be close to him, she'd pulled the same damn thing in Vegas after one of his nightmares.

With a sigh he sat on the closest bed, "Come here," he said, and she unwound her legs from his waist and moved so she could hug his front. "Lady, I'm dead in less than a year. It's better if you just let it go now. There are a lot of things I don't like about the deal, but it was my choice. And I'm not regretting it, or taking it back."

She smiled as she pressed her face into his neck. She had high hopes that after tonight that would not be the case. She was feeling excellent, better than she had in months. Sam was going to save Dean's soul. And she had proof that her stubbornness was still more powerful than his.

"I'm not letting this go," she said, sliding her lips up his neck and over his jaw until she met his mouth.

Even right after a shower the smell of leather and gun smoke still lingered around him, mixing right in with motel soap. She felt his chest move with his breathing, and the soft exhale of air against her cheek as their kiss deepened. His arms stayed wrapped around her in a warm embrace, holding her comfortably against him. Her hands kept moving, unable to decide what part of him she liked to touch the most. Sliding through his wet hair, over his bare shoulders or down his sides. Her hips shifted slightly and he groaned as the pressure of her weight adjusted on his lap.

Dean's lips left hers and he held her a bit closer so he could catch his breath while softly kissing her neck. His fingers found the hem of her t-shirt and slipped underneath to feel the warm skin of her back. When her arms raised he needed a few seconds to think about what they were doing. He understood his motivation very clearly. He loved her and there weren't many things he wouldn't do for her, or to her depending on the occasion and opportunity. But he didn't know why Lady wanted to take a chance with a dead man.

Slowly he raised her shirt until he pulled it over her head. Their lips met again while she slipped out of her bra and pushed him backwards on the bed. She let out a low moan as their tongues collided and she felt him growing hard.

Dean rolled them so he was on top, moving his lips slowly down her neck and chest while taking an inventory of her. Scars he remembered from before seemed smaller or nonexistent, others he didn't remember were there. The bird tattoo on her left ribs was there and as brilliant as before.

Lady shimmied her hips out of her jeans and Dean pulled them off the rest of the way. She wrapped her arms around him, making his attempts to get them under the sheets difficult. Unable to help herself she giggled happily as they gently teased each other. Feeling his lips pull into a grin against hers and his chest rumble with his own happy chuckle before she pulled his jeans past his butt so she could take his erection in her hand to make his breath hitch.

A few times he almost tried to say something, but Lady never let his lips be unoccupied long enough for him to get it out. Dean was easily influenced by physical action, and she was going to be easily turned off by any stupid thing he might say. Ever since she had been back it had been a stupid tug-of-war in her head figuring out how to deal with what she felt for Dean. She didn't have to deal with it anymore, Sam was taking care of her biggest worry right then and she was just getting a jumpstart on the celebrations while keeping Dean out of the way. If she thought about it she was actually rather proud with her multitasking.

The blankets of the bed were a tangled mess on the end of the bed when Dean finished kicking his jeans off. She rubbed her legs against his while her hands pulled him close. Lady couldn't recall a single time where she had wanted anyone as much as she wanted Dean at that exact moment. And he didn't make her wait any longer. The sensation of him entering her sent a ripple of pleasure up her spine and came out as a needy breath. As she met his rhythm she gave his ear a gentle nibble and his supreme butt a firm squeeze. She kept up with him as his hips fell into her more swiftly, until her head fell back with soft cries of passion.

She sloppily returned Dean's kiss as he moved from between her legs, both of them trying to catch their breath. For a moment she couldn't move and was like a ragdoll as Dean held her close to him while throwing a blanket over them.

"I missed this," Lady said, adjusting herself until she found a comfortable way to use Dean as a pillow. His arm wrapped around her shoulders as she wrapped one of hers around his chest. Without Freddie the only thing she had gotten to sleep with lately was one of the flat pillows at Bobby's. The kittens she had just adopted, while soft, just weren't a big enough to really snuggle properly.

"Yeah, me too," Dean agreed softly. "But…"

"Shut up," she said. "Or I'll stab you. Maybe not in an important part, but I'll twist it to make sure it hurts and never heals properly. And you better hope it isn't with a serrated blade."

Dean let out a breath while reaching over to shut off the lamp. One nice night, he'd let them both have that. In the morning he had no idea what to do. He couldn't string her along, not when he was going to be dead in less than a year. He wanted to go out without leaving too many strings attached. But at the same time Lady was a string he couldn't cut. She knew what he was up against, unless she made the decision to cut herself off from him he just didn't have the willpower to say no.

Lady tried to stay awake for when Sam returned, but somewhere between finding a comfortable spot within Dean's arms and rejoicing that she had, in her mind, won their argument she fell asleep. When she woke up her face was against his neck so she could feel his pulse, and it was light outside. He made a noise as she began to kiss his neck and his arms tightened around her, and then she remembered something very important.

Lady jumped out of bed and looked out the window, and grinned when she saw the Impala had returned. That meant Sam was back, and he was probably aching to tell them how it went down.

Dean had been pulled halfway across the bed when Lady jumped out. For a moment he thought she had come to her senses and realized the night before probably hadn't been the best thing. But she jumped back on the bed giggling while tackling him and planting a firm kiss on his mouth. "I'm going to go get something to eat," she said happily before jumping off the bed again to pull on her clothes.

She practically skipped out the door, and went down to the motel room that had been hers. As expected Sam was inside. He was dressed and stretched out on the single bed, but he wasn't sleeping.

"How'd it go?" she asked with a smile, eager to hear the story. And her smile faded.

Sam shook his head, "It didn't work."

"Why not?" Lady asked.

Sam got to his feet, "It just didn't work. We should pack up and head out soon."

Lady grabbed some fast food and coffee before returning to the motel. Sam and Dean were dressed and packing. Lady sat down and watched while keeping her hands occupied with her coffee. She had been so hopeful that things were going to be okay, would go back to how they should be…but they had failed.

Sam watched Dean out of the corner of his eye. Sam had snuck the Colt back in Dean's bag, and Dean had already found it. So far if he noticed anything was up he didn't mention it. Probably for the best that Dean didn't know what Sam had tried to do.

"Sam, one of the bullets are missing," Dean said.

Sam looked at the floor, that didn't take long at all.

Dean glared at Sam, "You went after the crossroads demon, didn't you? After I told you not to."

"Yeah…"

"You could have gotten yourself killed!"

"Well, I didn't," Sam said flatly.

"And you shot her?" Dean snapped.

"She was a smartass," Sam said, his shoulders sinking a bit.

Dean looked at him, trying to mask any emotion, "So…what? Does that mean I'm out of my deal?" He was trying to be nonchalant, but there was a glimmer of hope and excitement that he would be. Even Lady who couldn't see his face right then heard it, and it tore her apart a little.

"No," Sam said. "Don't you think I would have mentioned that little fact, Dean? Some other demon is holding the contract."

"Who?" Dean asked.

"She wouldn't say," Sam frowned.

"Well, we should find out who. Of course, our best lead would be the Crossroads Demon. Oh, wait a minute...she's dead," Dean barked angrily.

"Just stop it, Dean. You are my brother. No matter what you do, I'm going to try and save you. And I'm sure as hell not going to apologize for it, all right?"

"Apologize? I'm not asking for an apology, Sam! Damn it! Can't you just look out for yourself? I'm not going to be here to save your ass in the future! And you run off pulling crap like that?" Dean shouted. Dean tensed as he put together the clues. Lady and Sam, working together while working against him. He turned to look at her, "You knew where he was last night, didn't you?"

"Yes," Lady admitted.

"You are a manipulative bitch," Dean said, realizing what the night before had been.

Lady cocked an eyebrow, "You actually sound surprised. I thought you already knew that."

"You let him go after a demon?" Dean snapped. While Sam had been summoning a demon trying to get him out of his deal Lady had wrapped him around her little finger. "I feel sick and vaguely dirty," he said.

"I'm sorry, Dean. We thought it was going to work," Lady said softly.

"Or he could have been killed!" he shouted at her.

"Well, he wasn't," she said. "All I did was keep you occupied for a few hours, Dean."

"Sam, get out," Dean said as evenly as he could.

Sam grabbed their bags and got the hell out of the motel room.

"What is wrong with you, Lady?" he asked.

"That's a long list," she muttered, meeting his eye.

"You really hate me that much to screw with my head?" he asked her.

She studied his face and realized he was being serious, "I don't hate you, Dean. Sometimes I do, but I really don't."

"So last night, Sam just pimped you out to me so he could go gank a demon?" he asked.

"I liked last night," Lady said. "You didn't seem to be complaining either. Jesus, Dean…the only way I know how to handle you is through jokes, violence and sex. Other than that I'm pretty much out of tricks to use with you." She stood up to face him. She studied his face and the future for several moments while she decided what to say. "Is wanting to keep you alive such a bad thing?"

"It is! Because if we break that deal Sam dies," Dean shouted.

"It was his idea, I just went along with it. What do you want from me?" Lady asked.

"I want you to stop…" Dean clenched his jaw. "I lost you once. I can't do it again. I can't keep seeing you in hospital beds, busted up and not knowing what happened. And I can't be there for you all the time, Lady. It just isn't right."

"That's just something you'll have to learn to deal with," she said.

He shook his head, "I can't."

"That's too bad. Because sooner or later Donovan will rear his ugly head and I'm going…"

Dean let out a frustrated growl, "That's what I'm talking about! Lady, you have to stop this. You know what I want from you? Nothing. All I want is for you to go home, and stay there. Be safe. Give up the damn hunt."

Lady blinked a few times, surprised. Softly she uttered, "I can't do that."

"Yes, you can!" He argued loudly. "You got a second chance, and it's only been a month and you nearly lost it again. Go home! Back to North Dakota. Have barbeques and go fishing. Have a life. Give yourself a life. Lady, you being back should have been one of the best things in my life. But now I can only think about you getting yourself killed again, and it makes me sick. If you give one damn about me, you'll just get out of this life. Sam and me will find Donovan and take care of it. You can find a way to protect yourself in North Dakota, you'd never have to leave. Do that. Have a life I won't get a chance to."

Lady swallowed hard as they stared at each other. Dean was begging her to get out of his life, out of the only life she knew. That she had been banished from North Dakota was something only her and Maxine knew. She shook her head, "You don't understand, I don't have anything…I can't…"

"Can't? Or won't?" he asked. "Lady, you can do this. I'm begging you."

She sniffed loudly, "Fine," she said. If he wanted her out of his life, she'd give him that. "Just go back to thinking I'm dead. You'll never see me again."

He grimaced, that wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to know she was alive and safe, preferably happy. He pulled out his wallet and took out his cash, at least a grand in large bills, and offered it to her. "Should be enough for a plane ticket. Bus or train if you want."

Lady slapped his hand away and the money fell to the floor. "The things I would do for you, Dean, and this is what you ask of me," she said painfully. "You'd be better off just shooting me to take care of the problem."

"Damn it, Lady, don't you get it! I can't…I want you to be alive. You…I love you, Lady. I do. I love you so much it scares the crap out of me!"

Lady's eyes went wide with his shouting rant. "Don't tell me that."

"There you have it," he said forcefully.

"You shit!" she screamed. "That's what you tell someone to get them to stay! Not when you are kicking them out! What the fuck is wrong with you!"

"Because I'd rather know you are safe instead of risking your life there is something wrong with me?" he shouted back.

"YES!"

Dean let out a frustrated growl, "Just get out of this life, Lady. I'm begging you. I'll get on my damn knees and beg if it will just get you out of the damn door! Instead of waiting for me to die, go live your life. Turn thirty and forty!" He said angrily.

"And that scares me worse than a gun to a head," Lady said.

"You're going to be okay, Lady," he said, understanding her fear.

She nodded, "Yeah. Well, I usually land on my feet. Even when I land on my head, I'm okay. Doesn't mean I like this. Enjoy the rest of your life, Dean. I won't interrupt it again."

Lady wasn't sure what was suitable for a farewell. How many times had they said goodbye a long kiss, or more recently a strange smile with a nod of the head? This time all she could give him was a tearful glare before turning away, otherwise she would have kicked him in the balls. She grabbed her bag and left the motel room, not even looking at Sam as she walked across the parking lot and down the street on her own. She didn't know where she was going yet. Where did someone go when a chapter of their life closed?

**A/N** – _Song for this chapter:_

_Savin' Me, by Nickelback (yes, again)_

_Better than Me, by Hinder_

_Swans, by Unkle Bob  
_


	69. Intermission, July 2007

**July 5, 2007**

Instead of following Lady Sam went into the motel to check on his brother. Dean was standing still beside the bed, his bag half packed and he wasn't moving to finish.

Sam glared at Dean, "What'd you do now? Couldn't you just…"

"Shut up, Sam," Dean muttered, finally moving into sluggish action to finish packing. "She's going home."

"It's a damn long walk to South Dakota," Sam said.

"She's not going back to Bobby's," Dean said, at least he hoped she wouldn't change her mind. "She's going back to the Masons. She's done with this life. Out of ours. She can finally be safe and far away from us."

Sam looked at Dean with wide eyes. "Safe? Dean…"

"If she needs help she'll call," Dean said. Probably not them, but Bobby was going to be a day drive away if she needed help. "Otherwise she's out of the game. Don't tell me that isn't the best thing for her."

"Best for you, or for her?" Sam asked.

"Both," Dean said.

"Dean! If she isn't around we can't keep an eye on her," Sam said anxiously. "She's only been back a month, we still don't know if she's really okay."

"Why wouldn't she be? If something was wrong she'd have figured it out by now, don't you think?" Dean countered.

Sam looked away, hoping his brother was too unfocused to catch the uncomfortable look he had now. "We can't just…"

"Sam," Dean met his brother's eyes. "Let it go. I just…I can't take another fight or argument. Let it go, bro."

Sam and Dean got into the car and drove. Sam said nothing when Dean took a strange route that gave them a chance to see the bus depot and Amtrak train station before they left town. Lady could have just as easily stolen a car, or fallen off the face of the earth. Sam would wait until they took a break from driving so he could call her. Just because Dean had convinced her to stop hunting didn't mean he couldn't still check in on her.

Dean was sure the bad mood he was in would pass. Soon enough the fight with Lady would fade into the back of his mind and he'd know she was in North Dakota, with her friends and adoptive family. But right then he didn't fell very good at all. He pulled out his phone, deciding if he was going to get yelled at anymore he might as well take now, and called Bobby.

**At Bobby's Place**

Bobby nudged Ivory, the white kitten, with his toe so he could reach the phone without tripping over the cat. "Singer Auto Salvage," he answered.

"Hey, it's Dean."

"You guys still on your way here?" Bobby asked.

"Uh, that's the thing…uh, no," Dean said. "Listen, uh, did Lady call you?"

Bobby tensed, "What did you do now, Dean?"

"I'm not going to give you the details," Dean muttered. Bobby didn't need to know that Lady seduced him for the night so Sam could kill a crossroads demon. "I convinced her to get out of the game."

Bobby was quiet. "You did?"

"Well, I told her to do it. And she said she would. You think I'm in the wrong for trying?"

"No," Bobby muttered. "She say if she's coming for her cats?"

"No, she didn't mention that," Dean said. "Listen, if she just calls or stops in…you aren't going to try and convince her otherwise, are you?"

"If she's serious about getting out of the game I'll get her anything she needs to do it," Bobby promised. "I'll let you know if I talk to her."

"Thanks," Dean said before hanging up.

Bobby sat in his chair, moments later Ivory hopped into his lap purring loudly. He sat awkwardly so he wouldn't disturb the kitten on his knee while he went onto his computer. He pulled up the GPS on Lady's cell phone, he had made sure to put the child locator on it so he could follow her location. Best damn five dollars a month he ever spent. He thought about giving her a call, but something told him it was best to leave her alone for a while.

Throughout the day he checked it frequently as it moved south and west, inching across the map toward the Midwest. Late in the afternoon it stopped, and then the phone was shut off. Either she had let the battery die, or she had abandoned it to keep from being followed. He was betting on the latter. With a drink in hand he toasted to her kittens, "Good luck, kid."

**Lady's Journey**

Lady looked out the window of the Amtrak. In the distance was a highway running parallel to the train tracks and she thought she could see a black vehicle traveling on it. She watched it for several miles, sadly hoping Tweedle Dee talked sense into dip shit and that the car was the Impala. Following her progress until the Amtrak stopped at the next station so they could tell her to get into the Impala. Dean was through talking, and so was she. But Sam might have a few words to talk sense into both of them. Remind her it was stupid to be on her own. That they'd need her help to track down Donovan.

But over the miles the tracks crossed the highway and she saw the black car had actually been a small black pick-up. No Impala being driven by the Alpha Winchester with his trusty sidekick on the passenger seat. They weren't going to come after her. Dean had been as serious as he ever was.

Part of her was trying to be optimistic. A danger-free lifestyle, be normal and find somewhere nice to settle down. Hell, in a few years maybe she'd meet a guy who didn't bore her. First she'd need a few years to get used to living a stationary type of life.

Another part of her was scared. Lady had been on her own a long time, but she had people to fall back on most of the time. Somewhere to go when things got a bit too hot to handle, or when she just needed some time to unwind. Anyone she knew was associated with the _wrong_ life now, and she couldn't go back to them. But she would do this for Dean and Sam. She'd stop getting in their way or distracting them. Let Dean live out his last year in peace, not worrying about her.

She hated him so much right then that if she had a handful of pepper and some chicken bones she might send him a curse to make him sick.

But as she looked at her phone, waiting for a phone call she wasn't sure she'd receive, she wondered if she could weasel her way back. One more day to try and make things right. One more night with Dean so she could tell him she'd rather spend his last few months with him instead of being alone. If he had meant it when he said he loved her wouldn't he rather spend his last months with her instead of throwing her out of his life?

Maybe Lady wasn't a good person. Last night could have been a perfect prequel to the rest of their lives if Sam's idea had worked. Instead it just showed him how low she would stoop to get what she wanted. But Dean had to have an idea of what she would do for the right reason.

And Sam. Damn it, even after Ohio he had been calling her to apologize for how he had acted, and apologize for his brother. He was always quick to check in on her, but now nothing.

The train rocked gently as it went down the tracks and she watched out the window miserably.

At the first stop she counted her money and examined her options of destinations. Lady didn't believe in destiny or fate, but she paid attention to strange coincidences. She had exactly the right amount of money for a train ticket all the way to Louisiana, her home state, and it would be boarding shortly. Dean had begged her to go home, so she bought the ticket.

Once she had a destination her mind became set, and she even had somewhat of a plan. She was still trying to convince herself that this wasn't a bad thing. In a way this was a favor to Dean. He didn't want her around. This was the adult version of taking a pet out to the farm so they had lots of room to run and play around. Out of sight, out of mind. And maybe this would be good for her, having him around wasn't easy on her, either.

She shut off her cell phone and threw it in the trash. She made up her mind, and it was too late if Dean wanted to change his. It hurt, but she knew enough about pain to know it would get easier. Maybe she wasn't going into her new plan for her life with high hopes and big dreams, but she knew where she was going would have plenty of distractions.

**A/N** – _Songs for this chapter, in no particular order, are:_

_What it Takes, by Aerosmith_

_Metro, by Alkaline Trio (originally done by Berlin but I like Alk's version better)_

_Bruised, by Jack's Manniquin_

_One More Night, by Phil Collins_

_Float, by Flogging Molly_

_**Another note -**__ Wow, I think this is the shortest chapter I've ever posted. I just wanted a short intermission because…it is time for another break to the story, folks. Here is the deal, usually I'm about ten chapters ahead of what I am posting. I try to spread them out to keep the story at the top of the updated list, but these few chapters all fit together and I wanted to get them posted so I can really focus on future chapters. Currently I am only 3 chapters ahead. The mini-arc we are about to get into is those whole 3 chapters, and it is not finished yet. So I'm giving you a bit of a cliffhanger. Lady is on her way to Louisiana and we'll hear about some of her past, maybe even get a few answers about it as well. My current plan is to finish the Louisiana arc and get ahead on a few chapters. I'm hoping once I get over this bump the writing will get easier again. I'm not sure how long it will take me but I promise I will have a post on or after Easter (depends on how crazy my family drives me when I go visit), whether I'm completely happy with it or not. Until then, please share the story with others. Share with communities, forums, pals, even your cats. Review, add the story to your update list so you get a notification when it is back, yada yada. Also thank you to everyone who reads and reviews. I swear every time I get a review I get giddy as hell, it just tickles me to no end that people are enjoying the story and I want to make the next few chapters as great as they can be for it. Thank you all!_


	70. Louisiana, July to Aug 2007

**A/N** - _I wanted to get this posted a few days ago but my Easter trip to visit family left me just as crazy as Lady in these upcoming chapters (teeheehee). I plan on posting every couple of days until I get myself farther ahead but my Louisiana arc is (mostly) complete. Expect about 4-5 chapters of hanging out in Lady's home state, I've been having such a hard time cleaning it up and cutting it down. But we are about to get a close look at Lady's past and some answers. *sigh of relief*_

**July 10, 2007 **_**(feel free to reference chapter 32-33)**_

Louis Fusiler was a politician who came from a very wealthy family. He was still on the board of executives for the family business, and the business was money. It was a financial company that helped ridiculously rich people set up trusts for their children and plan investments for retirement. Lately he had been taking more of an interest in the business than his political career, after being visited by the ghost of Bernadette LaCroix the previous December he was terrified if he became too much of a public figure she'd come back. She was supposed to be dead, and sometimes he thought it had all been a horrible nightmare.

He was in his office, working late so he could avoid his wife. He had called a favorite girl of his and she was coming over. When there was a knock on his office door he smiled and quickly moved across the large office to let her in.

Lady was standing there with a pleasant smile, "How's it hanging, Louis?"

He stumbled back, his hand on his chest as his heart hammered away in fear. He stammered incoherently as she stepped into the office and locked the door.

Lady gave him a pitiful look, "Seriously? I didn't even bring a gun with me this time. Take a seat, Louis, I want to talk business."

Lady waited patiently for Louis to get behind his desk and take a seat. He watched her carefully as he opened a drawer in his desk. Slowly she smiled as he pulled a small revolver out of his desk and pointed it at her. "Get out," he ordered, trembling slightly.

"That any way to treat the girl who you bought braces for?" Lady asked with a grin, and didn't flinch when he pulled the trigger. The gun only clicked, and he quickly cocked it to try and fire again. Slowly she pulled her hand out of her pocket to show a handful of bullets, "Dude, I'm no genius. But I sure as hell ain't stupid. I came in during your last bathroom break. You took a while; you might want to get your prostate checked." She sat down across from him and leaned back comfortably. Her face appeared calm and patient, but her insides were crawling. "Sorry about dropping in on you back in December. You know if you got hookers from a more respectable place, it'd be harder for me to get to you. It only cost me three hundred to get your girl to take the night off. Either you are a pain in the ass to service, or you don't pay enough. I'm guessing it's both." Lady sighed and leaned forward. "Last time I saw you I would have rather died than ask you for your help. Now I'm not even going to threaten your life when I ask for it."

"What do you want?" he asked nervously.

Lady ignored his flinch as she dug in her pocket, and she pulled out a large diamond. "I need to sell this. It's worth, at least, two-hundred grand. I'm willing to take half of that."

"Is that real?" he asked. She set it on his desk so he could examine it, and his flabby chin trembled as he realized it was a real diamond. He let out a breath and handed it back to her. "This is stolen, has to be. No. This is illegal."

"You really want to try and take the moral ground with me?" She snorted a laugh. "What I want, you are going to give me. A new identity. A bank account with a hundred grand already deposited in it. And I'm going to give you this diamond."

"There is…"

Lady's face hardened and she grew serious, "Louis, the past month has been very difficult for me. You know people who can get this done. Get. It. Done. The phrase 'or else' should be running through your head right now."

He swallowed fearfully and nodded, "I'll need time. Give me a week."

"I'll be back in a week," she promised.

**July 19, 2007**

Lady was new to the whole 'normal' thing, but she was giving it her best shot. Armed with a new identity that included a social security card and a birth certificate with the name of Betty Normal. The closest she had ever had to an identity the past decade was a forged passport with the name Clarice Jenkins that Bobby had gotten for her, and that had been destroyed along with her old Beetle when Gordon nearly killed her.

Now she was starting her new life in New Orleans. First on her list of things to do was getting a place to live. It was something she was actually looking forward to. A little place of her own, buying furniture and filling up the closets. But it wasn't that easy.

The only thing Lady knew about credit reports was that catchy jingle on TV while the dude wore a pirate hat. Apparently having a high number was good, a low number was bad, and no credit at all was even worse. And if you wanted to rent a decent apartment, even if you had the cash to do so, they turned you down if you didn't have a nice paper trail of bills. So she ended up stuck at the only apartment that would allow her to move in. It was in a noisy neighborhood, not very safe, and she was considering bending her rule so she could carry a pistol in a shoulder holster. But she was making the best of it. She never knew that having an address had to be so expensive.

The next thing on her list was to become a licensed driver. Lady believed she was a good driver. Considering her extra sight sometimes things got confusing when driving at high speeds, a few fender benders had to be expected. And that she never left a note or called the cops to report those accidents didn't mean she was a bad driver. Just a bad person. She knew how to drive, and after ten years she was finally going to get the little plastic card to prove it to the world.

The driving test was not what she expected. Lady had followed the rules of the road perfectly. She drove the speed limit, never going more than five miles over. She stopped completely at stop signs…if there were obviously other cars coming, otherwise the stop sign was just a suggestion. She used her turn signals. But the man administering the test, once it was over, looked pale and declared she had failed. She didn't understand how cutting someone off or sneaking through a yellow light, which was perfectly acceptable practice on all roads she had ever driven on, was frowned upon.

Lady handled her disappointments. She spoke to a bank about building a credit score and looked at a few flyers for a defensive driving class that she could take, determined to stay on track with the 'normal' thing. Those things were alien and confusing in her mind, but she'd get it done if it killed her.

The thing that had really made her go back to Louisiana was a chance to actually find a home. Eleven years ago Lady had ran from Louisiana, her home. The death of her mother had terrified her, and she just needed to escape. In December she had found out that the man who she was told for her entire life was her biological father wasn't, and she was searching for the real one now. She hired a private investigator to assist her. His name was Richard Priestly and he was based in Lafayette. She never met him, only talked to him over the phone. He asked a lot of questions that she didn't like, but she forced herself to answer without telling him her real interest in the investigation. Every few days she spoke with the PI to see how things were going, and every day he'd tell her a few facts that he learned about the deceased LaCroix's. Like her mother had been born in New Orleans, same as her grandparents. Her mother had been raised there until she moved to Lafayette. Her grandparents had liked Bingo and jazz festivals. He had discovered the cash that her mother had received from Louis for years, but she told him to ignore that lead because she already knew where it would take him. She gave him names she remembered, letting him do the dirty work of seeing old faces that she couldn't.

Billy Ray and Emma LaCroix were buried in an old Catholic cemetery. Lady had never met her grandparents, had never even known she had them until her mother had told her they had passed away. Back then Lady didn't go to the funeral, if there even was one. Beside their graves were two more. One for Winifred LaCroix, she had been buried next to her parents. And there was a tombstone where there had been no coffin or body to bury for one Bernadette LaCroix.

The cemetery had been hit hard from hurricane Katrina, like most of the city. The tombstones were intact and legible, but there were chunks of granite that had been broken off. There had been a hard rain that had splashed mud upon the stones and Lady slowly rubbed the dirt away until the chiseled letters were clear.

**WINIFRED BEATRIX LACROIX**

**JULY 4, 1964 – MARCH 19, 1996**

**BERNADETTE ELLIE-MAE LACROIX**

**FEBRUARY 18, 1981 – MARCH 19, 1996**

That was it. No 'Loving Mother' or 'Cherished Daughter' or anything. According to the private investigator one of Winifred's old friends had coughed up the money to give them a funeral and a memorial service. Maybe they charged by the letter, Lady didn't know. But in her mind it didn't matter. That someone had cared enough to put her mother to rest meant a lot to her, but she knew that in the grand scheme of things a person's body wasn't what needed rest after death. Her mother was gone, had been gone a long time, and nothing would change that. Checking out the graves had been more of a curiosity than looking for closure. Lady had ignored the pain of loss for a long time, but being there now she was relieved to find herself keeping it together. She smiled slightly at the granite slabs that marked her family's passing and gave them a short wave before walking away.

New Orleans was a bustling city, and it had many opportunities for Lady to keep herself busy when she got fed up with looking into the history of an extinct family. She liked Louisiana, she even found herself slipping into the southern accent when she talked.

Lady's mind was often busy, and distractions were easy to come by. But no amount of good food or parties could keep her mind perfectly busy. At least once a day she'd find herself lost in her thoughts.

She thought about Freddie, her best friend and loyal dog, rotting in the ground at Bobby's house. If he was still around she wouldn't have minded the move to New Orleans, or to anywhere. She'd have her buddy with her and they could spend their days playing and nights cuddling. Freddie had provided unconditional love that she hadn't experienced since her mother died, which was why he had been named after her.

She thought about Bobby, wondering if she should have called to say goodbye…but he had put up with so much from her over the years he deserved to be left alone.

She thought about Sam. She had barely caught the confused look he had when she walked away, but Dean would have got him up to speed. Sam was her friend and she hadn't really taken the chance to apologize for their argument in Ohio. She wondered if he was doing okay, if he was making progress without her assistance…she hoped he was. And she worried what he would do at the end of Dean's year if he didn't make it.

And of course she thought about Dean, but not as much as she thought she would. His dying wish was to see her, or technically not see her, live a safe life. When her thoughts went to him she missed him. Not the him she had come back to life to witness, the him that she had said goodbye to before she had been pulled into the spirit realm. They were one in the same, but at the same time they were different.

If almost anyone else had given her an order she would have taken it and done exactly the opposite just out of spite. Why did she care what he thought or wanted? She didn't know why, but she did. She remembered Sam, months ago, another lifetime ago, tell her she shouldn't have Dean on some sort of pedestal. Well, damn the guy for meeting standards she never knew she had.

If she thought about it long enough she could make herself feel physically sick. So she tried not to think about it, substituting thinking for drinking or smoking pot when she could get it.

Lady often found herself at a bar not far from her apartment called the Splintered Saddle. There was a healthy mix of people that ranged from bikers to cowboys to construction workers. The music was a live band that was protected behind a chain-link fence. They played a mix of bluegrass, Dixieland, country-rock and classic-rock. The band was taking a break when she walked in one evening. She quickly took the only available stool and tried to catch the bartender's eye until she could order a beer.

Lady enjoyed her drink, the music, and watching the other patrons of the bar. And listened in interest as the owner of the bar loudly humiliated a waitress before firing her. The waitress, a loud southern broad, had to be carried out by two bouncers after throwing three glasses.

"Rough night," Lady said in her own southern drawl as the owner fumed angrily behind the bar. "Does that mean you are hiring?"

He looked at her with a steely gaze, then nodded for her to walk behind the bar. He led her into a backroom where the music was muted. "Who are you?"

"Betty Normal," she answered. "Who are you?"

"Cletus," he answered. "You looking for a job?"

Getting a real job was something she had been trying to do. She'd filled out more applications than she could remember, but her phone never rang. Accidentally she had filled out a few applications in Latin instead of English, that may account for a few places not calling her back. And others kept asking her about references and past job experience. She didn't have it.

"No, I just like to ask people if they are hiring for no reason. Yeah, I'm looking for a job," she said.

Cletus gave her another look over, and then grabbed an application off a stack of papers to offer her.

Lady frowned at the stupid paper, and didn't take it. This was a new life, and she was being haunted by old nightmares. It fucking sucked. "Listen, pal, I'm dyslexic as hell. I can barely read and write on a good day, and today hasn't been a good day. But I know how to bartend and waitress. Being on my feet for hours at a time doesn't bother me. I've wrestled drunks and worse. Me scribbling on a stupid piece of paper means jack shit. You need help. I'm offering it."

He looked her over, and then crumpled the paper in one hand while offering his other to shake hers, "When are you available?" Cletus asked her.

So Lady had everything she needed in a 'normal' life. Well, mostly, at least. A job at the bar and an apartment that didn't meet housing codes.

Lady started work the next night, six at night until two in the morning. Cletus wasn't a joy to work for, not like Mason. He was a bit of a Nazi, barking orders and snapping if things weren't done fast enough. But the customers, mostly working-class men, seemed to like her. With a flirty smile and skimpy clothes she was making some nice tips.

There were several other bartenders and waitresses, along with a few regular bouncers. Lady was trying to get to know them and be friendly considering she'd be spending a good amount of time with them all. A few were alright, but Lady seemed to step on their toes. Lady understood competition. Even though she had never held a legal job she had worked for Mason off and on for years. Everything she was accustomed to doing, which consisted of wearing as little as legally possible and flirting shamelessly, to entice men to shove a few extra dollars her way seemed to upset the other women that worked with her. Being a big earner her first few nights on the job and instead of welcoming smiles she received hostile glares.

"Don't let those bitches scare you," Reno, one of the bouncers, said as they left the bar.

"They don't," Lady said. She was far from scared of a few waitresses with a grudge against her. However it didn't feel nice not being liked. "I feel like I'm in fucking school again. The new kid, no one likes me. Tomorrow night I'll be eating my lunch at the teacher's table."

Reno laughed, "Don't worry. Me and the guys will have your back. It's Betty, right?"

"Yeah. Betty Normal," Lady muttered.

"Where is your car, Betty?" Reno asked as he stopped beside a newer model Mustang.

"I walk," Lady said. "See you around."

"Let me give you a ride," he said in his southern drawl.

Lady shook her head, "No thanks."

"It's going to rain," he warned her. "Come on, Betty, get in."

Lady glanced at the dark sky and caught the faint smell of ozone. Her apartment was nearly a mile away, not very far but she had already spent several hours on her feet. "Okay, thanks."

Reno became her first friend. And pretty much her only friend. Her apartment was on his way to the bar so he got in the habit of picking her up for work and dropping her off afterward.

As normal as Lady tried to be, she still had to lie. All the damn time, everything coming out of her mouth was a mix of half-truths and lies. She had never been forced to keep up one lie for so long, and it was hard to keep up with it. As sharp and clever as she was, over the weeks Reno caught her in a few lies. However he didn't react as most people who discovered her lies react. Most people were shocked and angry, as if a pretty blue-eyed girl was incapable of bending the truth. Lady had accidentally changed her cover story from growing up in Shreveport to growing up in Baton Rouge, a stupid small detail that just came up in small talk.

Reno just asked, "What's so bad that you don't want me to know about?"

Lady could have changed her story. Accused him of mixing her up with someone else. Instead she just shrugged, "My life before moving here was pretty screwed up. I'm trying to leave it all behind and start new."

He gave her a small smile, "Our history is what makes us, Betty. Don't run from it."

Lady looked at him with wide eyes, "You wouldn't say that if you knew. You'd say run faster and farther."

"But you aren't going to tell me about it, are you?" he guessed.

"No," she answered.

"Okay," he said. "You aren't, like…some serial killer running from the law, are you?"

Lady was scared how close he actually was, but she laughed with him and shook her head. "No, I'm not. Don't be silly, I'm too good the law can't stop chasing their own tails long enough to chase me."

Reno laughed harder at her joke.

Reno's intentions, like many men, wasn't simply a platonic friendship. But he was very subtle when trying to make it be something more. The moment Lady saw the signs she wasn't sure what to do. The last relationship that she had, well, it ended with her being banished to Louisiana. Reno was a good guy. Fun to chat with, friendly and caring. She tried not to compare him with Sam, but he was like Sam. To be honest guys like Sam had never really interested her. Her brain had a lot of loose wires because guys like Sam were amazing in their own way, but just didn't do it for her.

Lady did the only thing she could do. She started hooking up with any guy looking for a one-nighter and made sure Reno knew about them. But he didn't run away. He didn't even stop picking her up for work.

**August 19,2007**

"Betty, can I ask you something?" Reno asked as he drove to the bar.

"Uh huh," Lady answered. The night before, and most of the morning, was spent at a party across town and she was still a bit hungover. And possibly still high. She had trouble sleeping but enough liquor and pot made sure she got at least four hours of sleep so she'd be ready for work the next night.

"Why is it that girls always go after guys that are complete dicks?"

Lady turned to look at him, "What?"

"Like you," he said. "You are a sweet…"

Lady couldn't help the snort of laughter. "Reno, I'm not sweet. I'm not a good person."

"I think you are," he said. "I'm just wondering why women would rather be treated like a napkin. Used once and thrown away. Than be with a nice guy that…thinks they are sweet and wants something more."

If the car hadn't been moving Lady may have jumped out and walked the rest of the way. "Who's to say it isn't the guys that are getting used once and thrown away? I'm not a victim here, Reno. I'm admittedly a slut. Why would a decent guy want someone like that?"

Reno looked thoughtful at that information. "You know, whoever the guy was that hurt you…"

"No guy ever hurt me," Lady said firmly.

"He isn't worth you throwing your life away," Reno said.

Lady rubbed at some imaginary smudge on her hand, "He died." That wasn't far from the truth. Dean had made a serious effort to make things okay between them, and she was the one who screwed it up. He was going to die in less than nine months now, and no matter how much she tried to avoid thinking about it she had an internal clock counting down. But why couldn't he be dead to her now?

"Sorry…I didn't know," Reno muttered. "You think he'd want to know this was how you were living?"

"No," she admitted. Dean wanted her to be sitting at the lake with the Masons, drinking beer and fishing. "But it's my life to screw up as I see fit." And he had no god damned say in what she did, or who she slept with. "And you know what. There is nothing wrong with me!" Lady snapped as Reno pulled into the parking lot. "I have lived however I wanted to live for a long time. And it suits me just fucking fine." Reno's eyes widened as he was inside the small Mustang with Lady during her angry rant. "What is wrong with men? They want sex, but then it isn't enough. Soon they want to cuddle or spoon. Then they want to kick your dog out of bed so they don't have to share. Then they want monogamy. Before you know it you are so emotionally wrapped up in this one person that when they are gone you don't know which way is up anymore. Everything you have is broken around you and all you have left when you realize you are still alive is a…a…nothing. Nothing left. Because everything was tangled up in that one person. So you know what? I get to live how I want to. If that means getting blackout drunk every night after work, getting banged by a biker before I find my way home…that's how I'll do it."

That night Lady didn't wait for Reno to give her a ride home, and the next day he didn't come pick her up for work. It was late August now, she'd been living as Betty Normal for a month.

Lady wasn't sure who she was fooling, she sure as hell wasn't fooling herself. She was failing at this 'normal' thing, and in a few months she'd run out of cash and she wasn't sure what she'd do. Even with her job, plus tips, she barely had enough to cover her rent for a month. When she wasn't working or out trying to drink enough to give a mule liver disease she was trying to find out more about her blood family and having no luck in finding her biological father.

Since ranting at Reno and finally scaring him off his chase she couldn't shake the feeling she was being watched. At first she thought maybe Reno had been one of those nice guys that was quietly a stalker. If that was the case she wish she had known, if he was as mentally unstable as she was maybe they could have worked something out. But a few nights of watching him proved that wasn't the case, that he really was a genuinely normal and nice guy. Years of being a hunter told her not to ignore her gut, and her gut was telling her that something was following her. But no matter how many times she looked over her shoulder or retraced her steps she didn't see anyone. Either the pot she'd been smoking was giving her the willies, or someone had following her…not just following, it felt more like stalking.

**A/N** – _Songs for this chapter:_

_I love this bar, by Toby Keith_

_I hate everything about you, by Three Days Grace_


	71. Louisiana part 1, August 2007

**A/N** - _In celebration of Supernatural officially being renewed for a 7th season (woot woot!) I had to post another chapter._

**August 23, 2007**

Sam and Dean Winchester were in Lafayette, Louisiana investigating a few strange occurrences. And because Dean was aching for a crawfish boil.

"Hey, Sammy," Dean was holding up a red boiled crawfish and dangling it a bit. "Suck the head and pinch the tail," Dean gave him a cheeky grin and a wink before cracking open the shell.

Sam rolled his eyes, the past few weeks he'd been watching his brother slut his way down the east coast as they made their way south in search of a job. He didn't want to try and kill his brother's good mood, which was why he didn't say anything. A few times he had caught his brother checking in with Bobby to see if he had heard from Lady. And the longer Lady stayed in the safe haven that was North Dakota without calling them or Bobby was affecting Dean's mood in a good way. Or maybe it was just Sam thinking that. He had tried to find an excuse for them to go up to North Dakota to check in with her, and Dean had seen through it rather quickly.

In the back of his mind, even though Lady seemed fine, he was worried. People like them didn't get to hide from the life, no matter what their intentions were. Sam had gotten out for over two years before being dragged back in. And he kept wondering…what had he done to her? Giving her that, what? Potion? He wasn't too bad at recognizing witchcraft, but the whole realm of witchcraft was so huge that he couldn't even begin to fathom the possibilities. A few ounces of greenish looking water had repaired Lady's body after it had been horribly abused. If it could do that it could do a lot of other things. The more time that went by the more he thought that they were in the clear. Lady had been doing fine for a month, healing and pretty much back to her old self. He was worried about long-lasting affects and without having her around he couldn't watch for them. And he couldn't shake the guilt or anxious feeling in the pit of his stomach. And the more time that passed the more he was desperate for no one to find out. He couldn't explain why he had kept it a secret for so long.

"You going to binge all day or are we going to check into this case?" Sam asked Dean.

Dean pulled his eyes from the attractive waitress and looked at Sam, "Tell you what tail I wish I was pinching," he chuckled as he grabbed another crawfish.

"Dean…" Sam let out an exasperated breath.

Dean rolled his eyes, "Just tell me what you got so far," he snapped. Dean wished Sam would ease up a bit and enjoy life like he was. Or at least get off his case and quit making him feel guilty.

Dean didn't feel great about pushing Lady away. It was for her own good, and he missed her. But she got to live out her life within the safe chaos that was Mason's large family. So between enjoying his remaining time alive he liked to imagine her at a barbeque, helping Greta babysit grandchildren, helping Maxine with her weird and safe folk magic…just being with people that enjoyed her quirks like he did. He nearly flipped out when Jo Harvelle called him a few weeks ago asking where she was. Jo was another woman that, while she could take care of herself, he'd rather see her in college than with a rifle. But unlike Lady, Jo would not listen to him. At least Jo was back with her mother. Ellen was one women Dean would never even attempt to ask to settle into a safe life, she could scare the bejesus out of him.

"Okay, we have two people recently committed into the mental ward of a hospital. Both of them diagnosed with severe psychosis."

"So locals are going loony," Dean snickered. He knew there was more to the case but getting under Sam's skin was enjoyable.

Sam let out a huff of breath, "Did you not listen the whole drive here?"

Dean was happily reminded of the time Bobby had accused them of acting like a married couple. Dean was willing to bet his car that no married couple in the world spent as much time together as he and his brother did. They worked together, they lived together, and it wasn't until they were sick of breathing the same air that they split up to get some time apart.

"Normally I wouldn't care too much about this," Sam continued. "But there is a connection here, and I'm wondering if we aren't dealing with some sort of curse. The two people were Elliot Hoser and Marjorie Devereux, back in the nineties they both were in the same band that played at a club here in Lafayette. I made a few calls, turns out at least three other people who were also in the same band have in the past fifteen years had serious mental illness, two of which killed themselves. Five people who knew each other all turning into babbling psychos, that's why we are here. Not so you can eat your weight in shellfish."

"Crustacean," Dean corrected as he cracked open another crawfish.

"Same thing," Sam said.

"Tell me about this band. What kind of music did they play? Anything good?" he asked.

Sam shrugged, "I don't know. It wasn't important."

Dean scoffed at that. It wasn't important? Okay, maybe it wasn't important to the case, but it was an interesting tidbit to know. Dean loved music. But not much produced after 1990 was worth it. Louisiana had some excellent music festivals during the summer. Although he wasn't big on jazz, he enjoyed blues. Maybe once they finished the case they'd stop at one.

The job came up on Sam's radar when there was an attack reported, but the attacker reportedly vanished immediately afterward without a trace. That had been the latest victim, Elliot Hoser. Currently Elliot was completely out of it, not making a lick of sense and was nearly catatonic with the psychosis and not allowed visitors.

"This possibly started back in the 90's. The first one to die in the group was Roger Morris in '94. He got T-boned by a semi, they weren't able to prove it was suicide but he had a history of obsessive compulsive disorder. After that was Winifred LaCroix, I haven't found much information on her, but another suicide. Apparently she was schizophrenic with a side of bipolar. Elliot's wife, the bands manager, killed herself after her son went missing back in '96. Also a drummer, Juan Corona went missing around the same time."

"Holy crap, how big was this band?" Dean asked.

Sam shrugged, "They were in business from 1980 until 1995, they went through some changes in line-up I guess." Sam grimaced as he watched Dean eat a few hushpuppies between crawfish. It was like watching Animal Planet. "Elliot's neighbor said she saw someone through his window, but didn't get a good look. But never saw anyone leave. He was attacked in his home, I think we should check it out."

Dean nodded, "Yup. Look for sulfur and EMF. Breaking into a crazy man's house. I like it," Dean grinned as he finished off the last crawfish. They got up and paid for their meal, and Dean waited until he was outside to show Sam the receipt that had the waitress's phone number on it.

"How do…" Sam let out a breath and shook his head. He wondered how the hell his brother got women so easily. All Dean had done inside the restaurant was give the waitress a few smiles. Not that Sam wished for that sort of ability, his life was complicated enough without adding romance to it. However Dean wasn't looking for romance.

"Think we can hold off on that breaking and entering for…half an hour?" Dean asked.

"No," Sam said.

"Come on, man. My dipstick needs a little lipstick," Dean chuckled at the look Sam gave him.

"Dean!" Sam snapped and looked away quickly.

"Ha ha!" Dean laughed harder, enjoying making his brother uncomfortable. "Don't worry, I'll get to her later."

The Hoser home was empty. Elliot lived alone, and one of the neighbors was collecting his mail for the time being. The closest next-of-kin lived in Texas and they hadn't bothered to come check in on him. Sam and Dean prepared to act the part of federal agents investigating Hoser should they get caught breaking and entering in the middle of the day, but they didn't think they'd have any difficulties.

They split up, each going through the separate rooms to look for evidence of the supernatural. They met in Elliot's office on the ground floor, "Nada. You?" Dean asked.

Sam shook his head. He had already given up looking for signs and started looking through Elliot's things. "I'd say it was just a crazy coincidence, but…"

"Yeah, how often is that the case?" Dean finished for him. He looked at the old-fashioned answering machine that was blinking. "You listen to this yet?"

"Uh, no," Sam admitted.

Dean pressed play and continued to look over the room with interest as the messages played.

"Mr. Hoser, this is Richard Priestley. We had an appointment to meet yesterday but you didn't stop by. Please give me a call back." The first message ended as Dean examined a few guitars that were hanging on the wall, he was already inching towards the record collection that filled several shelves on the wall.

"Elliot, its Hank. That son of a bitch keeps bothering me, and I don't like it. You better not be feeding him any crap, or so help me god I'll finish you," the voice was gruff and hostile and Dean believed him.

"That didn't sound friendly," Sam said, already moving to the phone so he could write the number down.

Another message began playing, "Elliot, it's Lily. This whole thing is getting Hank riled up, and I'm so sorry. Please, we used to be close friends. We'd appreciate it if you'd come over or at least give us a call so we can talk. Thank you." The woman sounded genuinely apologetic and gentle.

"Same number," Sam said as the messages stopped flashing.

"What do you think they were talking about?" Dean asked, turning away from the records once he saw they were mostly bluegrass and Dixieland. His eyes fell on some posters and photos in frames hanging on the wall.

"Guess I'll call and find out. The messages are from a few days after he was attacked," Sam said.

Dean's eyes moved over a framed photo. "The Screaming Sparrows?" Dean snorted, pointing at the picture. There was a hanging banner with the name and a group of people holding instruments. From the looks of the ten-piece band they had been playing similar music to what Elliot had in his collection. Bluegrass and Dixeland, judging by the banjo and fiddle two people were holding.

"Yeah, that was the name of the old band," Sam said.

Dean nodded as he searched the faces on the photo. He thought he recognized a younger Mr. Hoser holding a guitar. The collection of mullets had him thinking about Ash and he was taking a moment to remember his lost friend when his eyes landed on a familiar looking woman. Her face in the photo was small, but it had the same happy smile as she stood between two men.

"I'm wondering if this is even our kind of job," Sam muttered as he looked through papers.

"Oh, it's our kind of job alright," Dean said, trying to swallow the lump in his throat.

"Why? What'd you find?" Sam asked anxiously.

Dean put his finger on the picture as Sam looked. It took Sam a few moments to react. His eyes going wide and his mouth hanging open. "That's Lady!" Sam's heart hammered at the realization. The photo was at least fifteen years old, but the woman Dean had his finger on was Lady. Their Lady.

Sam and Dean both went to the car quietly, just sitting in it outside of the Hoser's house as they came to terms with what they had stumbled upon.

"Makes sense. Black magic could drive a person insane," Sam muttered. "If she was in Louisiana in the 90's maybe she was responsible for all of it."

Dean shook his head, "She would have been ten years old when that picture was taken! Unless you are telling me she is actually in her forties instead of in her twenties. There are a lot of missing pieces here."

"Yeah, like Lady's whole life that we never got to hear about," Sam snapped. He took a few breaths to calm his nerves, "You and Lady were real close, Dean, she ever tell you anything?"

"No," Dean said. It had never been important. Not to him. He had just wanted to be with her, and digging into her past had seemed like a quick way to get her to run away again. Had they just stumbled into why she ran away?

"Maybe we should call Bobby," Sam suggested.

"No. Hell no!" Dean snapped. Bobby didn't outright disagree with Dean telling Lady to get out of the life of hunting, but he hadn't been happy to hear how it went down. Bobby was used to having Lady around and knowing what she was doing, he didn't like being cut off from her. If they had to tell Bobby that they had stumbled into Lady's past and that there was a possibility they may have to _hunt_ her it'd break the old man's heart. "Not until we have this figured out. Until we know...just, let's figure this out, Sam."

Sam called one of the numbers that had left Elliot a message, and spoke to Hank Legend. Hank had been the man to form the band the Screaming Sparrows and was willing to speak with them. He lived across town but they made it there quickly.

"Nice to meet you," Hank said in a gruff voice after they introduced themselves as federal agents. He was a bit shorter than Dean and a bit stockier. His whole house was decorated in music memorabilia and instruments, from guitars to electric guitars and a grand piano. "You said you are looking into the attack on Elliot?"

"Yes, we are," Sam said. "We are actually a bit curious to your history with him."

"You think I had something to do with it?"

"No, of course not!" Sam assured him. "It's just…"

"We have to admit, this is an interesting case and we don't have much to go on," Dean interrupted. "See, we came across a few things at his house and we were wondering if you couldn't shed some light on them. Might be nothing, might mean everything."

"Whatever I can do," Hank said. "Elliot and I, uh…we haven't talked much the past ten years. Not in a friendly way, at least. I feel bad about…"

Dean didn't have the patience to hear Hank's sad confession of being a lousy friend, and showed him the picture he had taken from Elliot's house. "You remember when this was taken?"

Hank took the photo and studied it a few moments. When he reached for it Dean saw a familiar looking bird tattoo on the inside of his left forearm. The same kind of tattoo that Lady had on her ribs. "I'm thinking '92 or '93. Juan didn't join us until '92 and Robin left sometime in '93, and they are both there," Hank answered.

"That's, uh, some nice ink you have there," Dean said, pointing to the tattoo.

"Yeah…I was in the Navy in the '70s," Hank answered. "Sparrow was sort of a good luck charm to sailors. My buddy, Roger, and I both had it. He started the band with me, it's how we chose the name."

"That's great," Dean said impatiently. "What can you tell us about this woman?" Dean's finger pressed down on Lady.

"That's Freddie," Hank said.

"Freddie?" Sam and Dean both said.

"Winifred LaCroix," Hank answered. "Afraid she died a while ago."

"Let me guess, she had that same tattoo?" Dean said, having a hard time looking away from the sparrow on Hank's arm. The sparrow looked a lot nicer on Lady's ribs compared to Hank's hairy arm, but it was damn near identical to what Lady had.

Hank looked confused, "No. No, uh, Freddie was terrified of needles. She didn't even have her ears pierced."

Sam and Dean exchanged a quick look. A while ago, it felt like years ago, they had been listening to Lady and her Las Vegas friend Al chat. Al had laughed when talking about Lady's fear of needles, however Lady had several tattoos.

"Winifred's death was a suicide, right?" Sam asked, looking away from Dean and back to Hank.

Hank nodded. "Pretty tragic. She and her kid had just gotten settled in a nice town and…"

"Whoa, wait…she, she had a kid?" Dean asked, eyes nearly bulging out of his head.

"Yeah, Bernie went missing and ended up being declared dead not long after," Hank said.

"Bernie," Dean said slowly. Lady had been a mother? With a kid named Bernie? What in the hell?

Hank looked tired and even sad, "Why don't you boys follow me into my den."

Hank's wife, Lily, was sitting in the den looking through an old photo album and a box of tissues. She looked up with wide eyes as the entered. "Lil, why are you…" Hank began.

"Our friends…it's all coming back at us," Lily sniffed and wiped at her eyes quickly. "I'm sorry, I've just been going down memory lane. When you get as old as we are, that is a long lane to walk."

"Hank, do you have any old articles or anything about the time that Winifred killed herself?" Sam asked.

"We do," Lily answered, setting the photo album down to walk to a shelf. "The LaCroix's were very close friends of ours. We were the ones who claimed the body. Paid for the funerals, everything."

"There was a body?" Sam asked.

Lily sniffed, "Yes, there was. For Winifred at least. Poor Bernie…there was nothing left."

Lily brought down a box full of loose pictures and papers and began looking through them. Every now and then a picture would catch her eye and her eyes would water again, but she kept from letting the tears fall. "There she is," she pointed, finding a picture she liked. "Freddie was always a pretty young thing."

The photo looked like it was twenty years old, but Lady was easily recognizable. And she had her arms wrapped around a six year-old girl with dark curls and a round face. "That's Bernie?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," Hank said. "Well, Bernadette, but we all called her Bernie. She was a sweet girl. One hell of a goofy looking teenager, though," Hank added as Lily pulled out another photo, both of them getting caught up on the nostalgia.

Dean and Sam watched as Hank showed him pictures of the LaCroixs. They watched Bernie age over the years from a tiny six year-old to a gawky teenager with braces. And the missing pieces fit together. Lady was not Winifred. Lady was Winifred's daughter, and the mother-daughter resemblance was scary.

When Dean was a teenager he had been moving from town to town with his father. He was never in one school long enough to see his female classmates go through the awkward puberty phases. However in the span of five minutes of letting Hank go down memory lane he witnessed Bernadette LaCroix go from little girl with curls to gawky teenager with braces. It was a metamorphosis that rivaled freaking caterpillars turning into butterflies. One minute Bernadette had been indistinguishable from a boy or girl, the next she wasn't far from being the woman he had feelings for and he had only known as Lady.

"This was Freddie's thirtieth birthday party," Hank said as he found another picture. The picture was of the LaCroix women smiling at the camera, and Lady had gotten past the worst of puberty. Her hair had straightened out while her mother's was starting to curl. Her braces had been taken off and her face was thinner, and while she still had to finish growing into her looks the resemblance between the two was very clear. Dean would have guessed they were sisters before saying they were mother and daughter.

Dean wanted to ask Hank to leave the photos out, but they were put away before he could get the words out once Lily had found a funeral announcement and the copy of an obituary. He felt like his head was swimming, and he actually felt a little dirty. He had always told Lady he wouldn't dig, and they were digging now. Now he couldn't avoid the fact that Lady was up to something.

"What can you tell us about Winifred and…Bernadette?" Sam asked. He didn't feel much better than Dean by stumbling into this hunt. Even worse because he had been the one to find it.

Hank sighed and looked a bit sad, "Freddie was a good friend, like a little sister to me. I tried to help her, we all did. We were family, we tried so hard to look out for her. But she was schizophrenic. Back in the '90s we knew what that meant, but there wasn't much help for people with it. Most of the time we could just say she was eccentric, but right around the time Bernie turned ten or eleven it started getting bad. And just kept getting worse."

Lily put a hand on her husband's shoulder, "We bailed her out of jail more than once. Sometimes she would just go missing for a few days, once two weeks, and Bernie would stay with us or one of the others." Lily sighed and looked sadly at one of the pictures, "That little Lady broke my heart."

Dean and Sam both jerked when she called Bernie by the name they knew her by, but Dean was the one who vocalized it. "You called her Lady?"

Lily chuckled, "No one ever called her Bernadette after she was five. It was always Bernie or Little Lady. Uh, I was the one who started calling her Lady. I was out shopping with her and Freddie and she was only eight years old. Her hair was short then and some old woman called her a boy. Sent her into tears she was so upset! So I just made sure to call her Little Lady because, well, she did look like a boy at that age."

Sam and Dean both thought about that. Dean had always assumed Lady had just been a convenient name Lady had taken on, but instead it had been a nickname she had answered to for years.

"But that girl turned eleven to thirty when her mother started to go downhill," Hank said.

"Destroyed her whole future trying to keep her mother afloat," Lily muttered. "She'd never been very good at school, but she got held back twice because of her grades. She could barely read but she was balancing her mother's checkbook and doing the grocery shopping."

"That would have been a lot of hot pockets," Dean muttered and grunted when Sam elbowed him in the side.

"Maybe Bernie couldn't read Charlotte's Web, but she could bake a cake that would make blind men see," Hank chuckled.

Sam and Dean both looked confused. Lady had trouble remembering that tinfoil and microwaves didn't mix, she wasn't allowed to touch the oven at Bobby's house.

"But eventually Freddie just became too much. Elliot's son, Scott, got mixed up with Freddie," Lily said sadly. "They used to share drugs, had this affair. An older woman with a younger man back then was still a bit scandalous. Tabitha, Elliot's wife, wouldn't stand for it. And when Freddie was with Scott was when she was her worst. Tabitha gathered everyone, trying some sort of intervention. Told her to shape up or ship out. She decided to ship out." Lily sucked in a shaky breath, "Scott ran off. He was maybe twenty years old then. Freddie and Bernie moved to a small swamp town. Every now and then Bernie called but…we had to cut off all help. Before that we had been like family, but the whole thing ruined the band and all of our relationships."

Dean looked at the couple evenly, "You turned your backs to a teenage girl with a mentally insane mother? You said they were like family, you knew them for years."

"I don't like what we did," Lily admitted. "I wish we hadn't, maybe they'd still be with us today. But it got to the point that when Freddie was around, we were afraid for our own safety."

"It was about a year after that when we heard the news that Freddie killed herself," Hank said. "Bernie was considered missing, but they found evidence she was killed in the swamps."

"Tabitha believed that once Scott heard Freddie was dead he did himself in," Lily added. "Not long after that she took her own life, too depressed to go on."

Hank let out a huff of breath, "Now I got this private investigator asshole trying to dig around. Bringing up these bad memories."

"Private investigator?" Sam looked concerned. If another hunter was already in the area that could cause problems for them. And serious problems for Lady.

"Yeah, Richard Priestley. He's looking into the history of the LaCroix's for some damn reason," Hank muttered. "Elliot had been talking to him, but I've been avoiding him."

Sam took a quick look at Dean, and decided it was time they ended the interview. "Thank you both so much for your time. We'll call if we think of anything else."

Dean drove them back to the motel, thankful that their last case had ended with a cash bonus from Bela so they could afford it.

"Dean, we have a problem," Sam said. "Lady has reason to attack Hoser. It sounds like his wife turned their friends against them. And I'm sort of scared of all the things she knows how to do."

Dean was quiet as the gears in his mind turned. Sam was right. Maybe Sam was the brains of their operation, but Dean sure as hell wasn't stupid. And when it came to Lady Dean understood things better than Sam. He and Lady thought alike on more than a few things. Lady sure as hell had a reason to want to attack Hoser. At one time he had been a friend of her and her mother, and then they had abandoned her when she needed them most. "I can't believe she named her dog after her mother," Dean muttered.

"Dean! This is serious!" Sam snapped.

"I know!" Dean snapped back. "Just…she hasn't killed anyone. We don't know that for sure. I mean…what if the cases in the 90's were just normal crazy? What if these cases are just normal crazy?

"Sure, maybe," Sam said. "But we damn well better find out."

Dean nodded. "We look into this Richard Priestly guy that's been snooping around. Look into other people that used to be close to the LaCroix's. And...Jesus Christ, Sammy." Dean let out a heavy breath, but it did nothing to ease the weight he felt pressing on him. Just knowing Lady's real name, Bernadette LaCroix, felt like it added ten pounds of knowledge on his brain.

"Maybe we should at least call Mason, make sure Lady hasn't left home," Sam thought out loud.

Dean tapped his fingers on his thigh as he thought about it. Mason would probably tell Lady that he called, but right then he needed to put these sudden concerns to rest. There were dozens of explanations to what was going on. Lady using black magic to get revenge on people who had pissed her off when she was a teenager was only one of them. He knew when he called Mason he'd hear that Lady was there and okay, maybe even talk to her for a minute or two to make sure she was doing well. He didn't want to do that, but for the peace of mind he was looking for he'd do that.

"Okay," he said, searching his contacts for the phone number. He didn't want to chance talking to Maxine so he called the Casino and asked if Roy Mason was working. He was lucky that Mason was working late because a few moments later he heard the familiar deep voice.

"This is Roy Mason."

"Mason, hey…it's Dean."

"Winchester?" Mason asked after a few moments.

"Yeah, that's right," Dean said.

"It's nice to hear from you. But…I guess I'm a bit concerned why you are calling."

"It's nothing, really," Dean assured him. "Listen, I just wanted to check in real quick. Make sure things were going okay."

"We are doing well," Mason told him. "Carrie left for college. Erin and Derek are still having trouble dealing with what happened, they are staying at home for now."

"Yeah, but…about Lady, does she seem to be doing okay?" Dean asked.

Mason was quiet for a few moments, "Well, Dean, I don't know. Maxine tells us that there is no way to summon her spirit to speak with her, but we hope wherever she is that it is peaceful. There is just no way to know for sure."

Dean felt cold as understanding fell on him. Maxine hadn't told Mason or his family that Lady was alive. "So you haven't seen Lady in…any form?"

"No, Dean. Should she ever appear I will surely tell you. But we believe she is gone from this world for good."

"Mace, you need to speak to Maxine," Dean said. He knew damn well Maxine was aware of Lady's rude resurrection. The bitch had called Bobby's house to let them know she had seen it in a vision. He hung up the phone angrily.

"What is it?" Sam asked.

"Lady never went to North Dakota," Dean said, dread filling him. For almost two months he had believed she was there, but now he had no idea where she was. Although he was more afraid that he did know where she was…right there in Louisiana among the fun nightlife and rich history of magic while enjoying some revenge.

Sam and Dean didn't take a break, they went to Richard Priestley's office. Richard Priestley was in his early thirties with thinning brown hair and a lazy eye that was freaking Dean out. But thankfully he wasn't a hunter, just a private investigator. And he was refusing to give up any information that he had gained on the LaCroix's. So after his office closed the Winchester's broke inside and hacked into his computer.

"This guy is pretty organized," Sam muttered appreciatively. "Set up a whole time line of Winifred LaCroix's life. Names and addresses of old friends he has met or tried to contact and...uh...oh no."

"What?" Dean asked anxiously as he looked up from a file cabinet.

"We may have another victim. A woman, Margaret Ashley. She lived in Lafayette but moved to Missouri after Hurricane Katrina. She was admitted to a mental health unit for severe depression and bipolar disorder after a failed suicide attempt. Just last week."

Dean tensed. Using black magic to drive people insane like Winifred, and causing them to kill themselves. "Damn it," he hissed.

Sam felt a little sick as he continued to scan through the information and found a few reports from people in a town called Indian Bayou, where Winifred died. A few different rumors that countered the official report were there. He debated on whether or not to tell Dean. "Dean, we always joked that Lady was a bit nuts. I mean, she even joked herself. You know, mental illness has been linked to genetics and..."

"You want to say Lady is institutionally insane?" Dean asked him seriously.

"I don't want to say it, but I want to find an excuse for her," Sam said defensively. "I don't want to think she'd do this." Sam licked his lips nervously, "The town where Winifred was killed...there were rumors. They were the ones who saw them last, and a favorite rumor was that Bernadette killed her mother so she could run off."

Dean stared at his brother across the dark office. He wanted to tell him something like that while they were breaking and entering? But he shook his head, "No. Lady wouldn't have done that."

"I don't want to believe it..."

"Sam, her mother's name was Freddie," Dean said flatly. "She named her dog after her mother. Which is creepy enough. Lady has done a lot of things, but she wouldn't have killed her own mother."

Sam nodded once and continued looking through the computer. "You find anything in the files?"

"Yeah," Dean said, closing the cabinet and locking it back up before wiping off his prints. "Richard has been digging into the LaCroix's trying to find family members and check in with old friends. Specifically trying to find Bernadette's biological father. And the person who hired him is named Betty Normal."

Sam's eyebrows raised, "Betty Normal? Lady couldn't come up with a better alias than that?"

"Guess not," Dean said. "Got her address and phone number. We've learned all we can, it's time we go see Lady and ask her what the hell she is doing."

Sam made a copy of Richard's hard drive before wiping his prints from the office. They snuck out, the private investigator would never know he had given them everything they needed to hunt down his client.

**A/N** - _Yup, Lady is about to be hunted by the Winchesters. She's sort of screwed, isn't she? Now we know why she had that creepy feeling at the end of last chapter. See, there is a method to my madness, I just make people wait to understand it :)_


	72. Louisiana part 2, August 2007

**August 23, 2007**

Lady felt uncomfortable. It had been four days and it still felt like someone was watching her. Bobby and John had both drilled a fair amount of paranoia into her, but she rarely had fears that she was being followed. However she hadn't survived this long by ignoring her gut, ignore the fact that she had already died once.

So she went into a paranoid state of alertness. Moving and stopping, scoping out people, then doing the same thing to see if anyone had followed her.

"You're late," her boss Cletus snapped when she arrived for work.

"Sorry," she muttered as she hastily clocked in. It had been long enough she was sure she hadn't smoked any bad weed, her head was clearer than it had been in a month. She didn't want be at work, she wanted to narrow down what was freaking her out and take care of it. But, she needed to work, she needed the money.

Lady was never going to be stellar at reading, but she had managed okay with math. She knew within a few months her supply of cash was going to be gone and she was going to need a second job just to cover rent and living expenses. Why had no one told her that living a real life was this freaking hard? Taxes, social security, Medicaid. By the time she got her damn paycheck half of it was gone. Already she had made the painful commitment of no unnecessary spending for clothes or shoes. She was trying, so hard, to be normal. But damn it, unless she went to a casino to earn a quick few grand she was going to be homeless.

Mason had always paid her under the table, letting her keep her tips for the night. Normally that was less than what the legally hired employees made, but it had never bothered her. The trailer on his property he let her live in was rent-free, and often she was invited for meals at his house. Damn it, even when she was living on the run in Vegas she had an easier time managing her cash. And Bobby barely accepted any cash she offered him, she had to sneak it into his wallet and he'd sneak it back into her bag once he found it.

There weren't many places that would hire her. Why the hell did someone have to know how to read and write to flip burgers or clean hotel rooms? At least Cletus, no matter how much of a shit he was, decided to let her bartend. But he cut her off after thirty-five hours, refusing to pay overtime. Lady didn't even know what the hell overtime was.

At the bar things were normal. Her ass was nearly bruised purple after getting pinched so frequently, but she had a good night in tips. She went home, still feeling the sickening sensation that she was being watched.

At home she counted her tips and in a notebook wrote the number in while looking at a bank statement she had just received. She only had twenty grand left from fencing the diamond, and she had hoped to buy herself a car. A real car that was registered with insurance. A car was last on the list, she still needed that stupid license to drive and she'd failed her second driving test. But rent, for her crappy apartment, along with bills added up to being over a thousand dollars a month. If she wanted to eat that was a few hundred dollars a month. She pinched her stomach and wondered if she couldn't lay off the snacks to cut that down. And the private investigator was charging her a hundred dollars an hour, and so far his bill was over three thousand and he had barely scratched the surface.

Her math guessed that she'd be homeless in three months. Two if the private investigator still hadn't finished his job by then.

"God, just kill me," she muttered.

She was miserable. Part of it was from digging into her own past. Trying to find her biological father was something she wanted to do to see where she came from and find a place where she belonged. A home.

Not that she expected, after twenty-six years, for a strange man to take her in. She wasn't looking for that. Hell, if she ever found the guy she didn't even know if it was smart to meet him. Stalk him a bit, figure out what he was like and a bit of his history. See if she had any half-siblings, if only so she didn't accidentally bump into them. How sick would it be if she found out she had knocked boots with one of her half-brothers?

With a huff she opened her window, letting in a cool breeze while wondering if she could spare a few hundred dollars to buy an air conditioner. She decided not, when fall came and the temperature dropped she'd need to buy new clothes.

When did the spending money ever stop?

It was hard to sleep without the aid of something, alcohol or pot. But maybe it was better that she wasn't sleeping. Something was feeling off. If she didn't get over the strange bout of paranoia that had come over her she'd have no choice but to set up some serious protection. Mix up some houdoo to give her some piece of mind. And get a gun, a few sharp knives…

Just thinking about it seemed to improve her mood. But that was what she had been avoiding the past month. Using magic, even folk magic, and arming herself. Be out of the life, and stay away from the temptations to go back in. If she had what she needed to go after witches or other monsters then, chances were, she'd probably go after them. After so many years she needed to find new hobbies. Preferably hobbies that didn't cost money and did not require her to slip into illegal habits.

**August 24, 2007**

Lady jerked awake at the first signs of dawn after only sleeping a few hours, her heart pounding in her chest. The city was beautifully quiet at this time…but something was coming…

Lady let out a shriek when a small bird flew in through the open window, chirping loudly and heading straight for her. She rolled out of her bed, knocking her head on the nightstand while trying to get distance from the small sparrow. The bird kept flapping its tiny wings, chirping wildly, and coming at her.

With a scared fling of her arm Lady knocked the bird to the floor and grabbed the first thing her hand touched, a black boot, and started smashing the offensive bird.

Lady didn't know how much time passed, but her arms ached and her breath was coming in pants while sweat dripped from her forehead, and the bird was as flat as road kill on her linoleum floor.

She fell backwards and worked on catching her breath. One of the reasons she had put up with this apartment building was that the bird population in the area was very small. She barely saw them flying overhead, and their chirps were far enough away that they didn't bother her. This one had seemed to be attacking her.

Lady got to her feet, the muscles in her arms trembling from exertion, and went to the bathroom. There was blood smeared on her hands and splattered on her shirt. She undressed and cleaned up. She grabbed the first set of clean clothes she saw and got the hell out of her apartment and onto the street.

She had no where to go. The only friend she had made, Reno, was keeping his distance. Probably for the best. Lady spent the day walking the streets of New Orleans, looking over her shoulder and trying to pinpoint what the hell was going on. For hours she walked around, looking in shops while looking for the source of her paranoia, until the morning turned into late afternoon. She went back to her apartment only long enough to shower and dress into clothes for work. The bird was still squished on the floor, dead and unmoving, but she could barely stand to look at it.

Lady entered the back of the bar at eight, clocking in and taking a few breaths to clear her head.

"Betty, you look spooked," Reno said. It was the first thing he'd said since the night she had freaked out at him.

"Yeah, well, I am," she admitted.

Reno looked genuinely concerned, "What's wrong?"

"Betty! You are half an hour early," Cletus snapped at her. "What did I say about no extra hours?"

Lady leaned against the counter, she just couldn't win. "I was half an hour late yesterday, I'm just…"

"Just nothing! Either work the damn schedule I wrote down for you or don't work at all!" Cletus barked. "Now both of you get your asses out there, we're busy tonight."

Reno gave her an apologetic look as he walked into the bar to start his shift at the door. Lady hung back a few moments to look at herself in the mirror. Bloodshot eyes, dark circles, the bones of her clavicle seemed to stick out too far. This life was killing her. She felt anxious and nervous, like any minute a sword was going to come down on her.

"Betty, you listening to me?" Cletus asked.

"Yeah," she said.

"Listen, if you had a bad day you leave that crap at the door. When you are working for me you forget about that, got it?"

"Cletus, I'm having a bad fucking life," she said. "But don't worry, this job is actually keeping me sane and from killing people. So far."

"Get out there," he ordered, giving her rear the first swat of the night as she walked past. By the end of her shift both her cheeks were going to be sore from the handsy patrons at the bar.

Lady put on her best fake smile, letting the patrons she knew put her tips in her bra or pocket for her. Exchanging jokes and laughs, some simple flirting to earn more money. This was easy, this was easy to fake. Strutting around in short shorts over fishnet stockings with a tiny tank-top, it was like taking candy from big over-grown babies that wore leather and had beards. The band started playing 'Louisiana Saturday Night' that cleared out most of her tables while people got up to dance. It was nearing midnight and the bar was still as busy as it had been when she first came in, and Cletus called her to work behind the bar.

Lady preferred bartending to walking around the crowded tables. The biggest reason was her butt was safe behind a few feet of wooden counter. But she liked mixing drinks and showing off a bit. A biker ordered a dozen shots of whiskey and Lady grabbed the bottle by the neck and then tossed it in the air to spin once before catching the bottom and pouring the shots. Her mind focused on the job she didn't look up when someone called, "Hey, Coyote Ugly, can I get a beer?"

"One sec," she called back, sliding the shots to the biker and taking his cash, giving him another grin when he gave her a nice tip. "What would…" she was turning to the next customer and stammered on her words so hard she actually bit her tongue. Dean Winchester was leaning against the bar casually, as if he had been waiting several minutes for her attention. His face was unreadable, his hazel eyes staring right into her.

Dean was on an emotional lockdown. All day he and Sam had been cautiously tailing Lady. They scoped out her apartment and kept tabs on her while she walked around town window shopping, and he hadn't been entirely confident that they had been stealthy enough. But the surprise on her face now told him they had pulled it off.

When he had followed her to the bar he thought she was coming for a drink and a good time. He was glad to find her working, if she had been joining in with the line dancing he might have lost it. As much as he hated to admit it, he knew what she had been up to. That she would celebrate or party after using magic to drive people insane made him sick. Every fiber of his being was hoping that she had a damn good reason, he was even trying to make excuses for her himself. Sam was watching the back in case she tried to run, but all she was doing was staring at him with surprise.

Lady had thought, the first few weeks she had been in Louisiana, that someone would find her. But no one ever came. And she never expected it to be Dean to find her. But at least she understood why the hell she felt like someone had been watching her, it'd been him. Creepy damn stalker. And although she was relieved she was too shocked to show it.

"Hi," was all she managed to squeak out.

"Betty, line is queuing up!" Cletus gave her a shove that nearly sent her toppling. She grabbed onto the bar for support. "Get to work! What are you, retarded?"

Dean didn't think as he reached across the bar and grabbed Cletus by the front of the shirt and pulled him forward. "You never lay a hand on her, unless you want me to cut them off…"

"Dean…" Lady was getting over the shock and putting herself between her boss and Dean.

Reno got both arms around Dean from behind, "Alright, buddy, you are out."

Lady jumped over the bar, "Reno! I know him, I got this."

Dean went compliant as Reno loosened his hold, but gave the man a deadly look.

"Betty! Your fired, get your ass out of here," Cletus barked. "I see you or him in here again and I'll call the cops."

Lady looked back at Cletus with wide eyes, fired? FIRED? This job let her deal with outlaw bikers and cowboys crazy enough to pick a fight with each other. She needed this job, it was keeping her from gouging out her eyes.

"I need to talk to you," Dean said, his hand grabbing her wrist so she couldn't run.

She met his eyes again, they were intense and serious. She didn't fight as he led her out, Reno and the other bouncers watching them closely to make sure they left.

Once outside she took her hand back, "What are you doing here, Dean?" She turned and saw Sam walking toward them. Sam was a sight for sore eyes, or would be if he didn't look sick and afraid.

"Like I said, we need to talk," Dean repeated.

"Okay," she said. "Talk."

"Not here," Dean said. "Come on."

She rode in the backseat of the Impala, it felt very strange because Sam sat in the backseat with her. Neither of them talked, and it made her feel a bit sick. They parked in front of an abandoned house. One that had been damaged by the hurricane but not completely torn apart. Not habitable by normal means, but it was okay for squatting.

"I'd really appreciate it if you sat down, Lady," Dean said after they were inside. "Or Betty, whatever you want to call yourself."

Lady looked at the wooden chair in the middle of an empty living room, "You guys are scaring me a bit. What's wrong?"

"You really want to play stupid with us?" Dean asked quietly, again meeting her eyes.

She looked away from him and looked at Sam, "Sam? What happened?"

"Sit down, Lady," he said, the first thing he had said to her. He sounded unhappy, almost pissed.

Lady obeyed, and sat in the provided chair. She nearly jumped out of it when Dean pulled out a length of rope. "Whoa! Wait! What are you doing?" She asked anxiously, her muscles tensing as Sam pulled his pistol out of his waistband. He held it at his side, but she knew if she tried to move he'd aim it at her.

"You expect us to believe you don't know about the black magic being used?" Sam asked, his nostrils flaring angrily. "You don't think we would have investigated it? You think we couldn't find the connection between it and you?"

Lady looked over him to judge how serious he was. He was very serious. Carefully she asked, "You think I'm using black magic?"

"Thing is, Lady, we know you are," Dean said in a low voice, sounding more disappointed than angry. "We want to give you a chance to explain yourself…but at the same time we want to get through it without having our brains fried in case you are really far gone. Please, don't make this hard."

Lady shook her head, "I don't use black magic. You know that. Anything that is happening, it isn't me." Lady looked between the brothers with pleading eyes, but all she got in return were hard gazes. She glared at Dean, "Damn it! I'm here doing what you asked me to do! I've been practically killing myself trying to be normal because of you! I haven't done _anything_. I…well, okay I did sort of sell a stolen diamond for some start up cash. But that's it!"

"We've connected several people to you that have had their brains rewired so they are blubbering messes," Dean said in a soft voice.

"Who?" Lady asked.

"Old friends of yours," Sam said darkly. "Or, at least, old friends of Bernadette LaCroix."

Lady's mouth went dry and she could feel color draining from her face. She looked up at Sam, "How…"

"The victims so far were all once part of an old cover band," Dean said. "You probably remember the Screaming Sparrows, your mother was part of it. Found some pictures, we stumbled across a few of you. Even met a guy who has the same tattoo as you. You were the last person I ever thought I'd have to investigate, Lady."

She swallowed hard, "I haven't killed anyone, if…"

Sam took an angry step forward that she couldn't help but flinch at, "You left them worse than dead!" he shouted.

"Sam!" Dean snapped. Sam took a step back. "Lady, we're going to tie you up," Dean said seriously. "To be honest we don't know what to do here, but we know we can't let you keep hurting people. And we aren't entirely sure if we're safe around you."

"Dean, I haven't…" she started, but clamped her jaw shut. Arguing would make her look guilty, but she really didn't want to get tied to a chair to prove her innocence. She swallowed hard and worked to unhinge her jaw, "And if I try to run?"

"We really don't want to have to chase you down," Dean said. She looked away from his gaze and was still as he tied each of her wrists to the arm of the chair. Once they were secure he searched her pockets, taking out her cell phone and a small pocket knife and putting them in his pocket. "We're just going to talk, sort through this…and we're going to help you. However we can," Dean said, taking a step back from her.

"Yeah, sort of wished I had gone to the bathroom before we left," Lady muttered, tugging on the ropes to see how secure they were. Secure, but not so tight that they'd cut off her circulation.

"Don't crack jokes," Dean said in a low voice. He wasn't sure what would be worse. If she sat there laughing like what had happened was nothing, or if she broke down in tears begging to be untied. He wasn't sure he could take either.

Lady let out a breath, "Well let's get to it so I can go searching for a new job. Tell me what is going on so I can prove to you I'm not responsible for it." Lady looked between the two of them. They knew her real name, but to be honest if they had asked her to tell them months ago she might have told them anyway. It didn't matter. Something was happening that made them think she was being wicked, so they finally tracked her down just so they could tie her up. She knew her own innocence and would figure out a way to convince them of it.

Her eyes followed Sam as he moved to grab his bag. He dug around inside and Lady began to pull on her restraints anxiously. "Whoa! Wait, Sam, no!" Lady began struggling as Sam pulled out a hammer and four nails. Gordon Walker has used the old torture method of hammering nails into a witches thumbs and toes to prevent them from using magic on her months ago. Lady's thumbs were still a bit crooked because of that. Not only had it been painful, it had been terrifying. It was effective, it completely cut her off from the ley lines that provided her with the ability to catch glimpses of the near future. She couldn't go through that again. "No way in hell, man!" Lady shrieked.

"Sam," Dean said through clenched teeth.

"I don't like it, either, Dean!" Sam said with wide eyes. "How can we know if she's even powerless right now?"

"I'm tied to a fucking chair!" Lady screeched. "I let you tie me to a chair! Just fucking talk to me, man! Let me know what is going on so I can help you! And keep myself from getting maimed in the process!"

Dean grabbed Sam's arm and tugged him out the door. "We can't leave her alone…" Sam said anxiously.

"I know!" Dean barked. He let out a breath. The they had spent the whole day watching her from a distance. She seemed to know that something wasn't right because she kept retracing her tracks and taking strange routes, but she hadn't managed to catch them. The whole time he couldn't believe that they had resorted to stalking Lady, trying to determine what she was up to and how dangerous it would be to approach her. He had managed to keep his head focused until he saw that asshole shove her in the bar. Now he was the asshole having her tied up in a moldy condemned house. After all they had found out part of him said she was entitled to a bit of revenge if she felt it was due. But the irrational emotional part of him was saying there had to be some other reason for all of this. "Sam, I can't do this," Dean said.

Sam studied his brother carefully, "Its okay, I…"

"How can you be okay with doing this?" Dean asked seriously.

Sam averted his eyes, "With what she knows alone, if she is using black magic she is too dangerous. I hate this, Dean, I really do. With everything we know, we barely know anything when it comes to this! I'm praying that we can find a good reason to…I don't know, man. I don't like this, I'm scared to death for her. But we can't let our guard down."

"Shoving nails in her thumbs?" Dean snarled.

"Okay, let's not do that," Sam said quickly. "Let's just…let's talk to her. Tell her what we found. But we can't give her an inch of sympathy, we need to interrogate her until we are sure she's telling the truth, or she confesses and then tries to kill us. And you know what we have to do if that happens." Sam took a few calming breaths, "I think it's time you call Bobby."

Dean nodded, "Yeah. Get back in there." Dean pulled out his cell phone, feeling sick as he thought about what to say to Bobby. '_Hey, Bobby. Remember Lady? Yeah, got her tied up, think she's using black magic to make people go insane. Trying to find a way not to kill her, but, uh, could use some help._' This was not going to end well.

Before Dean could make the call his brother shouted at him from inside. "Dean!" And Dean ran in immediately. The chair was empty, a few coils of rope on the ground. "She got free," Sam said, moving to look out the backdoor that was open.

"Shit!" Dean snarled. "Go after her, I'll get the car."

Sam searched on foot, looking for signs to track Lady. Eventually he lost the trail and called Dean to pick him up.

"How the hell did she get free, Dean?" Sam asked hotly. He had watched Dean tie the ropes, they had looked secure. His brother wouldn't have made it easy for Lady to give them the slip, would he?

"I don't know," Dean snapped.

Sam glared at his brother, then turned to glare out the window.

They went to the obvious place, her apartment. She wasn't there, but they looked through her things to find other places they could search for her. The apartment was small. The kitchen was stuffed inside what would even be considered a small closet, and all it had was a small fridge and a microwave. The living room had a small television with no cable and a nice futon. There was a small square of space that separated the bathroom from the bedroom.

"This place really doesn't seem like Lady," Dean said. Her trailer in North Dakota had been musty, cheap furniture that was uncomfortable, smelled like dog, and was packed with personal items that she couldn't carry around with her in a car. The apartment seemed cramped in a cheap way that the trailer never had. No room dedicated to hunting her coven, trapped within the confines of the walls with no yard, and noisy neighbors.

"Yeah, check out this bank statement," Sam muttered. "Over twenty grand, she could have spent a little to get a bigger place."

Dean opened the coat closet in the living room and jumped when overflowing shoes toppled out. He let out a breath, "I take that back, Lady definitely lives here."

Sam let out a nervous laugh when Dean jumped. "Dean, we're going to do this the right way. We find her, we talk to her."

Dean looked at him seriously, "Lady's rule. Get a witch talking…" Dean frowned as his eyes found the dead squished bird on the floor next to her bed. He took a step inside the small bedroom and looked for anything else out of the ordinary. They hadn't found anything useful for witchcraft, but a dead bird was pretty freaking creepy.

Sam followed his brother and looked away from the dead bird in disgust. "I've looked through her bank statement, I don't see anything too weird. Well, it's just weird that Lady has a bank statement, but you know what I mean. I don't see any payments to a storage locker, no second apartment, no second alias. Nothing."

"This whole thing feels wrong," Dean said. "We can't call Bobby, man. This is looking so bad for Lady, it'd kill him if he knew."

Sam nodded, "Yeah, well, I'm not doing so well myself. I don't think Lady will hurt us. From what we found out it seems like she's on a revenge streak. Maybe we can talk some sense into her?"

Dean nodded solemnly, but he knew that wasn't the case. Black magic was a bitch once you got a taste for it. If Lady wanted revenge she could have done a more effective job with a gun. All those times she had spoken with disgust about black magic, it didn't make a lick of sense for her to start using it now. "Okay, I don't think she's going to come back here until she thinks it is clear. Take the car, check out the other places she went to today. I'll stay here in case she comes back. Just, Sam, be careful."

Sam nodded as he caught the keys. "Dean…you too."

Dean checked his pistol and tucked it back in his waistband. He really hoped Sam was right, but the sick feeling in his stomach told him it wasn't the case. Whatever was going on, Lady was smack-dab in the middle of it all.

* * *

Lady was glad to be wearing tennis shoes. Sam could run fast, and his legs were a lot longer than hers. Luckily she was fairly fast herself, sneaky as hell, and knew New Orleans well. Her heart didn't start to calm down until she was in the clutter of downtown.

She knew what she needed to do. Find some way to prove to the Winchesters that she was innocent. She wasn't going to let them hammer nails through her thumbs and toes, even if they felt safer with her in that position. The thought alone scared the hell out of her.

She didn't go back to her apartment, it wasn't safe or secure. She went to Reno's, knowing where he hid his spare key and that he would be at the bar for a few more hours.

Once there she used his phone and called Richard Priestley. He was confused, and a bit unhappy to be woken up after midnight, when she asked if anyone recently had their brain fried, but after a few probing questions he told her about the recent attack on Elliot Hoser. He didn't have many details on it, though. And then he mentioned that two FBI agents were asking about his investigation the day before.

Before Lady could think too much about it she hung up the phone and ducked behind the couch as someone picked the lock to gain entrance. She knew she was too late to hide from him, but really didn't want to come face-to-face with the pistol he had out. "Sam, please, just listen, okay?"

"Running off like that doesn't make me believe you," he said.

"You think I was going to let you impale me with nails? What happened to you, Sam?" Lady poked her head above the couch to see him.

Something changed across his face, and he lowered his pistol. "Lady, I want to believe you…"

"I can't prove it, yet," she said. "But I have a working theory. Witch, yes. Me, no. Please, one minute." He nodded and she slowly stepped into the open. "Okay, yes, my real name is Bernadette LaCroix. I knew Elliot, he was like an uncle when I was growing up. Whatever is happening it might be about me. I called Richard Priestley, he said a few feds went to talk to him yesterday. That was you guys, right?"

"Yeah, it was," Sam admitted. "We found out all about this yesterday."

Lady looked at him seriously, her eyes pleading, "Sam, I think someone is after me. The past few days I've felt like I've been being stalked. I thought maybe you two, but it wasn't you. Was it?"

"We just got into New Orleans this morning," Sam confirmed.

Lady took a few careful breaths, "Sam, I might need some help. Someone is after me. Someone is using black magic, and I'll do whatever I can to prove that it's not me. I'm not the one, please, Sam, believe me."

Sam studied her carefully. In his head it made sense, she seemed genuinely disturbed and surprised. But his knowledge of Lady told him she was clever enough to make him believe her, and he already wanted to believe her. His gut told him Lady couldn't do it, and that was what he went with. He put his pistol in his waistband.

"You believe me?" she asked anxiously.

"I shouldn't," Sam said. "But what it comes down to is I'm not going to hurt you until I know for sure. And if it really is you doing all this, I'm still not sure if I can. So help us figure this out."

Lady relaxed and took a relieved breath, "Jesus Christ. Thank you, Sam! You scared the fucking piss out of me dickhead! What the hell were you thinking? Hammering nails? Oh my god! After this is done I'm kicking your ass for even thinking that! I should make you bend over right now!"

Sam couldn't help the short laugh that bubbled out of his chest at her quick rant. "Later, later, okay? Come on, Dean is at your apartment. We'll put our heads together and figure this out." Sam led the way out of the apartment, his muscles tense as Lady walked behind him. Well, either they'd figure it out or Lady really was the witch and she'd kill them. Or make them go insane like her mother and so they'd kill themselves.

* * *

Dean examined every part of Lady's miserable new life as Betty Normal, and wondered why the hell she hadn't gone to Mason so he knew she was alive. Examining bank statements her money was being eaten up pretty quickly with her excessive spending and bills. He was in her bedroom looking over notebooks, the pages were filled but everything was written in Latin except for a few pages dedicated to what looked like a money budget. There were a few letters from PI Priestley, his notes and transcriptions on interviews he had conducted so far. Dean rubbed his eyes and turned to examine the bathroom for the third time, but nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw Lady was standing in the small square that served as a hallway between the bathroom and bedroom.

He went still, not reaching for a weapon or even feeling the need to. He hadn't heard her come in, but Lady could be as quiet as a mouse when she had to be. She had changed out of her bar clothes, wearing tight wranglers and a button-down blouse. She must have another place she goes to than her apartment…damn it he didn't want to hunt her.

"You need to talk to us," he said. "Lady, I…I want to help you. Let us, let _me_, help you."

She looked up at him with the saddest expression he had ever seen, "I don't want to be bad," she said quietly.

He nodded, that was something, at least. It was almost a confession, which he didn't want to hear. But at least if she wanted to take back the things she did maybe there was some hope. "We're going to help you," he promised, tensing slightly as she took a step toward him. "Whatever you need, we'll do. Just tell us…" His words cut off as she rested her hand on his chest, her face raised to meet his. His body reacted how it was trained to react with Lady's body, he tilted his head to meet her lips. Her hand wrapped around his neck and she opened her mouth to deepen the kiss. Her moist tongue sliding over his lips before entering his mouth and gliding against his own. His hands were balled up in fists, but even that didn't stop him from letting his knuckles graze her cheek softly as he returned the kiss.

The door of the apartment opened and he heard the sound of his brother's heavy feet. But it was the female voice that said, "What the fuck?" that made him break the kiss to look up.

Dean froze in shock as he saw Sam and Lady standing in the doorway. Lady was still in her bar clothes, a shocked look on her face as well. And he looked down at Lady that still had her hand wrapped around his neck, her sad eyes pleading with him and her wet lips still open and raised for him. The Lady he had been kissing turned to see the intruders.

Lady turned paper-white as she locked eyes with her doppelganger, and choked out, "Mama?"

The woman Dean had been kissing took a few steps toward Lady, and then vanished into thin air.

The next instant Lady fainted.

Sam was barely quick enough to keep Lady from cracking her head on the hard floor, lifting her in his arms and putting her on the futon. "Dean?" He looked at his brother.

Dean wiped the wetness leftover from the kiss off his lips, "It really is a spirit doing this, not a witch," he said roughly. "God, I just made out with Lady's dead mother."

Lady slowly came to, and immediately sat up only to put her head between her knees. She was deathly pale and sweating. She thought she had finally accepted her mother's death, but seeing the ghost of Winifred LaCroix wasn't something she could handle. All this time she had believed her mother to be at rest, instead she was lurking around as a spirit? She was very close to being sick.

"Lady, I'm very sorry," Sam said gently. They had the proof they needed. The resemblance between Lady and her mother was hard to tell who was who, and they had quickly assumed Lady's guilt instead of considering the possibility that her mother's spirit was still hanging around. They had interrupted her normal life, gotten her fired from her bartending job, tied her up and even threatened to hammer nails in her. "I am so, so sorry," Sam repeated.

"Yeah," Dean agreed quietly. Without thinking he asked, "Lady, where was she buried?"

Lady looked up at him in a furious glare. "You think I'm going to let you dig up my _mother_?"

Sam got Lady to look at him. Asking strangers that question led to confusion, but Lady knew what Dean wanted to do with that knowledge and he wanted to quickly calm her anger. "We don't expect you to help us. Thing is, Lady, she's hurting innocent people. Someone already attempted suicide, others are already in the mental hospital...look, she's a vengeful spirit."

"No, she isn't…this is all wrong," Lady muttered, putting her head in her hands.

"Lady, we screwed up," Dean said bluntly. "We should have figured this out before coming here. But you understand the job, you know what we have to do. You know the right thing to do."

"We have to put her to rest," Sam added gently.

"No! You don't!" she got to her feet. "You can't just show up after nearly two months telling me this! You can't tie me to a chair and then tell me this and just expect me to help you! And you sure as hell aren't digging up my mother! No one is digging her up! She went through enough!"

Dean faced her. There wasn't much he didn't know about Lady, anymore at least. But he had known the important stuff for a while. Her personality wasn't always predictable, but he understood it. And he could tell how this was going to end. Lady had a bad stubborn streak and in most cases Dean was not patient enough to do anything other than give in, and usually letting her have her way benefited him. However he had seen Bobby and even Sam shut her down with a firm stance. A quick show of dominance to tell her who was in charge, and that they weren't going to back down even if violence started.

"Listen, Lady," he said firmly. "I'm sorry this is hard for you, we don't like it either. You don't have to help us, but we're taking care of this spirit. Whether you…"

Dean had expected Lady's face to change from the hostile glare to something a bit more submissive, or at least turn her back in defeat. He did not expect, and was not prepared for, the swift kick she landed right between his legs.

"Jesus! Lady!" Sam shouted in shock as Dean's words cut off and he fell to his knees while guarding his groin from further attack.

"GET OUT!" Lady shrieked.

"Yeah, we're going!" Sam said quickly while helping Dean to his feet. He flinched as a few things, a television remote and an empty bottle of beer, where thrown at them before they made it out the door.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked once they were down the stairs of her apartment building.

Dean let out a high moan of pain and began awkwardly walking on his own. Dean had been in more fights than he could remember. He had learned at a young age, thanks to his father's training, to protect his vital and sensitive areas when in a fight. As a rule Dean did not get into brawls with women, human women that is. Shapeshifter, demon or witch and then gloves came off. Otherwise hitting a woman, even when she _really_ deserved it, was wrong. They were smaller than he was, it wouldn't be a fair fight. However he had, over the years, taken his more-than-fair share of slaps and knees to the groin from women who were surprisingly quicker to turn to violence than he was. Admittedly he deserved some of those.

He was still trying to figure out how he deserved the pain he was in right then, but there was no way he'd go back inside to ask Lady what her reasoning was.

"Dean?" Sam looked at him with concern.

Dean was standing at the driver's side door, leaning against his car. "Oh god," he finally gasped, and awkwardly wobbled around the car. Sam got the hint and moved so Dean could take shotgun.

"What were you thinking? Trying to bully Lady like that!" Sam said once he started driving.

Dean rolled down the window so a cool breeze could flow in and take away some of the heat that had risen to his face, "I thought she'd have a bit more respect for the twins. Oh god," he said in a pained voice. "Where are we going?"

"First, away from her," Sam answered. "Then I'll look through some of the stuff I got from Priestley's computer. Maybe we'll find out where Winifred was buried." Sam gave his brother a concerned look. "So I have a theory."

"Yeah?" Dean said.

Sam winced just at the pain in Dean's voice and adjusted himself uncomfortably. "Ignore the attacks in the '90s, all the other attacks happened when Lady came back to Louisiana. What if Winifred's spirit got worked up with her daughter back in the area? Along with that private investigator digging around? Lady said that the past few days, before we were even in the state, she felt like something was stalking her."

"Makes sense," Dean said and took a few slow breaths. "Then we need to take care of this tonight, Sam. Before Winifred reappears and fries anyone else, including her own daughter."

**A/N** – _Song for this chapter:_

_Louisiana Saturday Night, by Mel McDaniel_


	73. Louisiana part 3, August 2007

**Early morning, August 25, 2007**

Lady didn't stay in her apartment for long. There was still a dead bird squished on the floor, with the heat and humidity she really should clean it up. It wasn't very big but soon enough even small dead things would start to smell.

Lady had been good, for so long. Nearly two months seemed like a long time to her because around every corner she had the temptation to do something abnormal. She dressed in comfortable jeans, she needed to be able to move freely and also the full-coverage protection that her shorts wouldn't give her. With the summer heat she wore a t-shirt, but tied a sweatshirt around her waist.

Running to the first ATM she withdrew some cash. And then she performed a minor, in her mind, criminal act. There was a pawn shop not far from her apartment. It was small, but open twenty-four hours along with most of the bars. While the man was appraising her silver charm bracelet she grabbed a small pistol out of a display case. She didn't even have to pretend to be pissed when he told her that the bracelet would only be worth thirty bucks, the bracelet had been a gift and was priceless to her.

Leaving the pawnshop she was armed, but needed bullets. The next store she stopped at she pocketed a box of ammo for her newly acquired .22. She had the pistol loaded and hidden within her sweatshirt as she made her way to the cemetery.

Her mind was clearing a bit. Had she really just armed herself so she can protect her mother's grave? Did she really intend to use it as anything more than a scare tactic? A .22 wasn't a big gun but it was still deadly. She decided firmly that the gun was for her protection, and not from the Winchesters. They wouldn't hurt her, but something else was out there and it was dangerous. She needed to get them to listen to her. The pea-shooter she had now would make them stop and listen. She knew there was more than just a spirit hanging around in Louisiana. And it felt like it was still stalking her, she'd find a way to draw it out.

She half expected the Winchesters to already be at the cemetery, but it was as deserted as ever. It was an old cemetery and had been damaged during Katrina, and since her last visit it hadn't received much care. The city was still trying to repair where the living resided, they hadn't gotten to fixing up where the dead rested.

The ground was dry this time, still soft but not squishy with mud. She already knew where to go, and instead of looking at each of the headstones she kept running right to the graves of her family. Three deceased LaCroixs plus a slab of granite to mark her own passing. She finally stopped running, her knees wobbly and her chest burning as she sucked in breaths.

She leaned against her mother's gravestone, trying to regain her strength and be prepared for a firm show of near-violent stubbornness for when the Winchesters got there. While she understood a grave marker was often used by people so they could talk to dead loved ones, she knew that graves were the least likely place to communicate to the dead. Spirits didn't hang around their own resting place, they went to where they had spent the most time or around people that they once knew. Give her the right ingredients and Lady could summon a spirit just about anywhere, including a cemetery, but that wasn't what she wanted. She just wanted to protect her mother, keep her from being completely destroyed.

"Maybe running after it happened hadn't been the smartest thing," Lady said to the grave, testing out the talking to granite thing. She knew her mother couldn't hear her six feet underground, but if anything Lady liked to chat, even with herself. "But, uh, fuck, you wouldn't believe…well, maybe you would. You believed a lot of strange things." Lady let out a breath.

"Bernie?" a soft voice called.

Lady nearly jumped out of her skin as she turned, her heart pounding as she faced her mother's spirit once again. Last time she had walked in on the spirit kissing Dean, that alone was freaky. But now it was speaking to her.

The physical differences were few. Lady had grown into a near perfect duplicate. Winifred was more generous in curves, but both of them had petite frames. Lady was firmer in muscle where Winifred was softer and more feminine. Winifred's eyes were a bit darker and larger. Her nose just a bit longer, eyebrows a bit thicker.

"Jesus Christ," Lady breathed.

"Baby, is that you?" Winifred said softly, taking a few steps toward her.

Lady swallowed hard. "Yeah…yeah, it is. More or less."

Winifred looked absolutely solid, and Lady didn't detect the scent of ozone as she stepped closer. Winifred studied her daughter and slowly smiled, "I've missed you so much, baby."

Lady's eyes burned with hot tears as she felt her chest squeeze. She let out a ragged sob and grabbed her mother in a tight hug. Lady knew that Winifred was a spirit. She had seen her mother die. Years of learning about the shadowy things that most people didn't believe in she liked to think she was able to handle a spirit. But facing her mother she could feel herself unraveling. The normal cold that spirits created wasn't there. There was no smell of ozone. And Winifred was completely solid. And the moment Lady was touched by the spirit all she knew was that she was falling into the warm embrace of her mother. Lady wrapped her arms around Winifred, hugging her tightly to her.

"Mama, I miss you so much!" Lady cried. Maybe this was why she had been drawn to Louisiana. She had avoided her history like the plague for years, terrified at the mere thought of facing it. She was finally brave enough come back and look at what she had lost years ago, and now she got to have it back.

* * *

The Winchesters had no problem finding the cemetery, and they had plenty of practice finding tombstones in the dark. However Dean had needed several minutes just to get over the initial throbbing pain in his groin, and some extra time with a cup of ice to try and ease the swelling.

"Dude, you okay?" Sam asked as they grabbed their gear from the trunk of the Impala.

Dean was leaning against the car, he wanted more than anything to sit down and put the ice back on his balls but they needed to take care of the job. "Yeah. I never wanted kids anyway," he said as he carefully adjusted his jeans to give his boys more room.

Sam winced, almost able to feel the pain Dean was radiating. "Hang back, I'll find the grave and give you a call," Sam offered.

Dean grimaced and groaned, then nodded. As soon as this job was done they were getting as far away from Louisiana, and Lady, as possible. Good food or not, he'd rather be dealing with a gunshot wound than the deep ache that was in his groin all the way up to his bellybutton.

Armed with a flashlight, a shotgun loaded with rock salt and a shovel Sam went ahead of his brother. The cemetery was large and chances were it'd take a while to find the right grave. From the private investigator's legwork he had an approximate idea where to look. He didn't even turn on his flashlight, letting the glowing moon help him avoid the oldest tombstones that came up from the dirt. And he never had to turn on his flashlight, once he got close enough he saw the moonlight shining on a person in the distance. He got closer, and he saw it was two people. Before he could see the features through the dark he knew who he was about to come across.

Sam's footsteps were silent as he approached Lady in her embrace with the spirit of her mother. Before he could announce his presence Lady pulled out of the hug and pointed a small pistol at him.

"Lady, whoa! It's just me!" Sam said, his hands up. He had a shovel in one hand, a flashlight in the other. He hadn't expected her to have a gun. He had his pistol in his waistband and a sawed-off sticking out of the pocket of his jacket, but he wasn't going to aim either at Lady.

"Go away, Sam," Lady said.

He looked at the pistol, then to her eyes. "Lady, you won't shoot me," he said calmly.

"I won't let you take her away," Lady said.

Sam looked at Winifred who was hiding behind Lady. Stroking her hair gently while her eyes glinted mischievously at him. "Lady, please, put the gun down and come here," Sam pleaded, lowering his shovel. "I'm your friend…"

"Friend?" Lady breathed. "You tied me up!"

"And I'm going to let you kick me in the ass for it," he said quickly, the look on the spirits face was worrying him. "Please, Lady, lower the gun and talk to me."

Lady shuddered a bit and shook her head, "Talk all you want. You...you can't hurt her. I promise I'll keep her in line. I know how to take care of her, and I'll make sure she doesn't hurt anyone anymore. Just go, leave us alone. Like I left you and your brother alone."

"I don't like him," Winifred whispered in her ear.

Every single one of Sam's muscles contracted as he saw little sparks of electricity from Winifred's fingers arch into Lady's hair. He didn't dare move with the pistol still aimed at him. "Lady! Please! Just come here!" Sam pleaded urgently. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Dean flanking them, his shotgun loaded with rock salt. But Sam didn't think Dean would take the shot to disperse the spirit, not when Lady was right next to it. Not like rock salt would kill Lady, but it did hurt like a bitch.

Lady's eyes went out of focus and drooped briefly, but quickly locked on him again.

Sam swallowed hard, "Lady, are you still with me?" he asked breathlessly. "Lady, please…"

Lady caught a bit of movement out of the corner of her eye, and turned to aim at the new threat. Her teeth ground as her vision, the future and present, blurred. She tried to change her actions, but her finger was already squeezing the trigger when she recognized it was Dean coming toward her. The pistol went off, a quick flare of fire from the barrel accompanied by a loud bang.

Dean dropped the shotgun when hot pain hit his right arm above the bicep. "Son of a!" he hissed as his other hand went to cover the hot wound, pressing on it to slow the bleeding.

Lady's eyes were wide and terrified. She aimed the pistol at Sam when he took a step toward her. "I didn't mean to do that!" she breathed. "It was...I..."

"I know. It's okay!" Sam said quickly, dropping his flashlight and shovel so his hands were free to grab his own pistol or shotgun if he thought he had a chance. He didn't want to hurt Lady, but if it came down to hurting her so she couldn't kill them he'd have to do that.

"Get rid of them," Winifred hissed in her ear.

The hand Lady held the pistol in trembled as it was aimed at Sam, her finger off the trigger. She swallowed hard and squeezed the handle until the clip ejected and fell to the ground, and she kicked it toward Sam. With slow movements she ejected the bullet that remained in the chamber, ready to be fired, and dropped the gun.

"You pathetic little brat," Winifred snarled.

Lady hung her head, breathing hard from the effort of resisting the magical force she was under. Winifred was right by her, effectively using her as a shield from Sam and Dean.

"Exactly like your pathetic cowardly father," Winifred continued, her voice vibrating inside Lady's skull. "The fat bastard was good for nothing. Just like you. You drove me insane. I killed myself to get away from you. I hate you. You are a nasty little brat. I should have gotten rid of you with a wire coat-hanger," Winifred's voice whispered to her. "Why don't you just kill yourself? Get it over with. One less piece of trash to worry about in this world."

Lady went limp as Dean wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her to the ground as Sam aimed his shotgun to blast the spirit with rock salt.

"Got it?" Dean looked up, not seeing Winifred.

"Yeah," Sam breathed. "You okay?"

Dean didn't answer, looking at Lady and was about to ask the same question. But Lady was curling herself into a ball on the ground and wrapping her arms around her head. She wasn't okay. Far from it.

"Did you see it?" Sam asked his brother. "The spirit did something to her."

"Probably the same thing as the others," Dean said. He gently tried to shake Lady out of her ball. "Lady? Can you hear me?"

"Check her for weapons," Sam warned.

Dean patted her pockets to make sure she didn't have any weapons on her. Other than some cash and the disposed of pistol she was clear. "I'm going to get her away from this. Take care of those bones," Dean ordered.

"Got it," Sam said.

Lady was curled so tightly Dean couldn't unwind her, so he lifted her in his arms as she was. It was a good thing she was petite, between the two injuries she'd given him in the past two hours the only reason he was able to manage carrying her was the adrenaline. But even with that if she had an extra ten or twenty pounds he wouldn't have managed it.

"What are you doing to me?" Lady muttered halfway back to the car. Dean's arm was weak and burning from the bullet wound, his arms and legs burning from the run across the cemetery moments ago and from carrying her.

"Getting you somewhere safe," Dean said.

Her limbs started to unwind and he couldn't handle her weight shifting in his arms. He set her down and watched as she swayed. "I can walk," she mumbled, leaning against his good arm as he led her back to the car.

Once she was in the backseat of the Impala tears began streaming down her face.

"That's not my mother," she said.

"Not anymore," Dean agreed. "I'm sorry."

"It's a witch. Doing something. Something to get me," Lady muttered.

Dean looked away, "It's a vengeful spirit, Lady. And it hit you with some of its mojo. But you are going to be okay, we're taking care of it."

"You don't believe me," Lady said flatly.

"I believe what I see," Dean said. "And we've seen a spirit."

"I suppose I like to see witchcraft more than I'd like to see my mother trying to convince me to kill myself," Lady said numbly. She wiped at her face and sniffed a few times. "Your arm okay?"

Dean took a moment to check it. The bullet was still inside, he was glad it had been a small caliber. "It will be," he said. So far Lady seemed better than the other victims. Freaked, but coherent. She was tough, not much phased her and he didn't blame this particular case for causing her to lose it. "I need to grab some stuff in the trunk, I'll be right outside the car and be back in one minute."

Dean stepped out of the car. He opened the trunk of the car to look for their first-aid kit. There was no way he could go to the hospital, they reported gunshot victims to the police. That is a problem that none of them could handle. Which meant he had to go through one of Sam's patches, and he wasn't looking forward to it. Right now the pain had dulled from adrenaline, but it still hurt like a damn gunshot wound.

Dean's eyes went wide when his car started up, "Lady! Don't!" he shouted. Out of habit he slammed the trunk down before moving to get to the driver's side and pull her out, but the tires spun and the car sped forward. He put his hands on his head as his far drove off with Lady behind the wheel. "FUCK!"

* * *

Lady had always respected Dean's car and his unhealthy love for it. He'd grown up in it, and it had been gifted to him from his father when he was eighteen. Personally she thought it should have been retired, not because it was old but because it already had a few hundred thousand miles on it. She wondered if Dean had ever turned back the odometer, but she thought he'd wouldn't. He was probably proud of the miles the car had traveled in its lifetime. Dean took better care of his precious Impala than he did himself. Sam rarely got to drive the car, and Lady had never been allowed.

For how firm he had been that she was not allowed to drive his car he probably shouldn't have showed her where they kept a spare set of keys. It really was his own fault.

However she quickly became aware that stealing the car right from under Dean's nose right after shooting him, accidental or not, and kicking him in the jewels, definitely on purpose but he had deserved it, was the most dangerous thing she had done in her short life. He was going to kill her for this. But he wouldn't listen to her any other way. And it wasn't like it was worth waiting around the cemetery, she already knew what they would find when they finished digging up the coffin.

Lady shivered as the car accelerated on the highway. Her mother's voice was whispering inside her head, and she didn't like the voice in there. It was hard to focus on the road and what was going on with it talking to her.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Lady shrieked, her hand shaking as she searched Dean's box of tapes for something hard, fast and loud. She shoved it into the tape player and turned the volume up as loud as possible. She drummed her thumbs against the steering wheel and checked the mirrors anxiously. "LA LA LA! SHUT UP!" Furiously she shut the stereo off as the voice just got louder in her head, and was joined by a new voice. "Fine, you want to talk? I know what you are. You are witch. Screwing with me. And congrats, you've rattled my cage." Lady waited, but the voices didn't answer her. They just kept spewing the same torturing comments that were distracting her and making her insides twist. Her lip twitched in a smirk, "But you will be sorry. Oh, you will be sorry. I know how to find you. And when I do...I'm going to enjoy it. Me and the voices you put into my head are going to fucking enjoy it."

Lady reached into the glove compartment to pull out one of Dean's spare cell phones. It took a few tries but she managed to dial her own cell phone number, expecting him to still have it on him from when he stole it out of her pocket earlier.

"Lady?" he answered, his voice a snarl.

"I get that you are angry..."

"PISSED OFF!" he corrected. "Jesus, Lady! Where are you?"

"In your car," she answered. "It's taking me to Baton Rouge."

Dean was quiet for a few moments, "You are lying."

"No, I'm not," Lady said. "I firmly believe that the second you catch up to me that I'm going to be in a world of trouble, but you have to...you have to know. What you saw, that wasn't my mother."

"I know it..."

"No, you believe it is her spirit. That isn't her," Lady said. "I've figured things out...mostly. Partly, at least. Trying to. I mean, it's sort of hard to think clearly right now, I have these voices in my head and they keep arguing with me but I think I have it figured out." Lady thought a few moments, "Or I am just insane."

"You aren't insane," Dean said. "Lady, pull over and tell me where you are. I will come and get you."

"About ten miles out of New Orleans," Lady said, in the background she heard an engine accelerate and a few horns honk. "You stole a car, too?"

"I sort of had to, didn't I? You know I do have a warrant for me in this state," Dean barked.

Lady's stomach sank a bit, if Dean got caught he'd go to jail for the rest of his life, which ended in May. "Well, I don't think you'll catch up to me. But give me a call when Sam finishes digging. That's what you did, right? Left him at the cemetery, trying to finish the job while you come to drag me back?"

"Once we get rid of the spirit we hope the victims will get their sanity back," Dean said, not adding that she was included in that.

"When Sam calls you back, you'll believe me," Lady said. "I think. Or at least I really hope. Not looking forward to being wrong here."

"Lady..."

"Dean, I'm trying to juggle a sudden case of schizophrenia, driving on a busy highway in a car I can barely reach the peddles in and figuring out this witch's spell. I don't want to stay on the phone very long, it is distracting."

Dean hissed a curse, "Damn it!" He growled, hanging up the phone. The car he had stolen was an old Pontiac that started to vibrate once he hit sixty on the highway, but he sped up until it felt like the car may fall apart. He could just imagine Lady having a turn of bad luck while behind the wheel of his car, destroying her and his car at the same time.

But he knew he'd catch up to her, even with the piece of crap car he was in right now. What Lady didn't know was that his gas gauge had stopped working before they got into Louisiana, it was stuck at the three-quarter mark. He knew how many miles his car could go before he needed to fill it up, and she wasn't going to get much farther. Dean had wanted to take an afternoon to fix the gauge, however Sam had talked him into holding off until they were between cases.

Lady let out a fearful cry when the Impala began coughing and sputtering. Dean might forgive borrowing the car for a few hours so she could prove her point as long as it was returned in good condition, but if it wasn't returned in good condition...oh god. He wouldn't kill her, he'd yell at her for hours until he explained the hundred of different ways she screwed up his car while he fixed it. That was worse than being killed.

She got the car onto the shoulder before it died completely. The gas said it had three-quarters of a tank. The gauges had looked normal, it hadn't been overheating. There was no smoke. The inside of the car sort of smelled like dirty feet but she didn't smell burning oil or anything else. "Oh, fuck me!" she whined as the voices in her head laughed at her distress.

She debated on calling Dean, she really didn't want to get the jump start on his yelling. She let the car cool down for several minutes before trying to turn the key, but it only sputtered and coughed. "Please, please, please!" she begged the car, trying several more times until the sputtering turned into whining to signal she had killed the battery. "Oh, fuck me!" she whimpered, slamming her head against the steering wheel.

Headlights from a car that had pulled in behind her shined through the back window and she stepped out of the car, grateful that another driver had pulled over to help her out. Hopefully it was someone with a bit of knowledge of cars. And then hope crashed when Dean got out of the car.

"Ah, shit," she grimaced.

Dean looked over his car, seeing it was undamaged he looked at Lady. "Are you okay?"

Lady swallowed hard and got ready for the fury to build up in him, "Your car died."

"Yeah, that happens when it runs out of gas," Dean said.

"You have more than half a tank," she argued.

Dean grabbed the keys out of the ignition and locked the door. No way she was getting into the car again. "The gauge is stuck."

Lady looked offended, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't tell you so you would run out of gas and end up stranded on the highway," Dean said. He put a hand on her shoulder and led her to the trunk, he wasn't going to let her out of his sight.

"That's mean," she muttered

"Mean? What are you? Twelve?" Dean snapped. "You stole my car! Shot me! Not to mention nailed me in the balls so hard I still hurt! You want to talk mean?"

"Not really," she admitted in a small voice as he dug around in his trunk. He grabbed a gas tank and a hose before leading her back to the car he had followed her in. "I'm sorry but if..."

"No," Dean snapped. "Lady, I get that this job is screwing with you. But you know what we're dealing with. I can't..." He rolled his eyes and shook his head without finishing his sentence.

Lady studied his face and silently told the voices to shut up. "Can't what?"

Dean frowned. "You know your stuff, you do. You've saved my ass a few times, and handled some nasty things without batting an eyelash. But sometimes you revert into something that makes you resemble a stubborn child and I don't have any time or patience to deal with that tonight. I can't, I'm done. Stealing my car, last straw. This isn't witchcraft, Lady! It's a vengeful spirit. It's pissed. I'm sorry it's your mother, and I'm sorry it attacked you. I wish it hadn't, but it did."

"I'm right," Lady said firmly. "I'm not..."

"Lady! Stop!" Dean shouted.

"NO!" she shouted back. "I know I'm right!"

"You aren't," Dean said. "I'm not even mad that you want to believe it. But can you at least make my job of keeping you safe until it's over a bit easier?"

"That's it? You won't even listen?" Lady asked.

"Talk all you want," Dean said as he shoved a hose into the Pontiac's gas tank.

Lady went silent and leaned against the car as he prepared to siphon the gas from it. She stayed quiet as his phone rang and watched the other cars pass them quickly.

"Sam, I caught up to her," Dean answered the phone. "You almost done there?"

"Well, not really," Sam said on the other end. "I just finished digging up the coffin and...well, it's empty."

Dean's eyes flashed to Lady who was keeping her face neutral, "What do you mean?"

"Empty. No bones. Where are you guys?"

"I'll call you back," Dean said, hanging up the phone. "You aren't talking."

"You don't want to listen," Lady said, not looking at him and keeping her jaw tense.

"Never stopped you before," he said.

"You are right," she said, finally looking at him. "I thought about it carefully. Binding a spirit can be done a number of ways, it just depends on how much control you want over them. If you want them tightly bound you need pieces of their physical body. Bones work, organs are better. Now, if I'm wrong that means Sam just told you he called to let you know the bones were burned. If that is the case I'm in trouble because I still can hear voices. But since I know I'm right, I think you should call your brother back to let him know that we are on our way to Baton Rouge."

Dean let out a breath, the night just kept getting worse and worse. "We'll go back to get Sam and drop you off at..."

"No," Lady said, her voice becoming urgent. "Dean, there isn't time. Baton Rouge is half an hour away I need to get to..." Lady winced and looked away.

"You are going to start that again?" Dean asked. "Tell me what is going on and how to stop it."

"The voices keep telling me to do stuff," Lady said. "Throw you into oncoming traffic, lay myself down in the middle of the road, take the gun out of your waistband...but they are also telling me to go to Baton Rouge."

Dean tensed, hearing voices was never a good thing. Those kind of voices were the worst. "Why Baton Rouge?"

She looked at him and very seriously said, "Because I have to kill my father. The voices say I have to kill him. So I'm going to."

**A/N** – _Songs for this chapter_

_Calling all Skeletons, by Alkaline Trio (sort of fits for all Louisiana chapters)_


	74. Louisiana part 4, August 2007

**Morning, August 25, 2007**

Dean siphoned the stolen car until it was almost dry. He fought the urge to get upset when he discovered the battery of his Impala was also dead, but jumped it with the stolen car so they could get back on the road.

Without the focus of driving Lady fidgeted in the passenger seat. For a few moments Dean tried to get her attention but she seemed to be in a whole other world until he snapped his fingers in front of her face. She looked at him with wide eyes. "You need to fill me in, Lady," he said. "I don't like that I'm taking you to the person the...voices want you to gank."

"I'm sure everything will be perfectly clear once he's dead," Lady said calmly.

Dean had locked up every deadly weapon and most of the painful ones in the trunk before they went back on the road, all he had to figure out now was how to keep Lady in the car and from killing her father and herself while he and Sam figured out the rest of the job. If Lady was right and it was a witch, well…unfortunately she had finally been pushed off the deep-end and wasn't very useful with her sudden desire for homicide.

"It doesn't sound clear to me," Dean said, driving slower than the speed limit to give him more time.

Lady turned to face him, "Here is what I'm thinking. Old bones aren't that great for binding a spirit. The witch is using my mother's…appearance, but it is more of a strong illusion or manifestation than a real spirit. No ozone, no temperature drop."

"But it vanished with a load of rock salt," Dean reminded her.

"It'd still be weak to iron and salt," Lady said thoughtfully. "Yeah, sort of have it figured out. Thing is, it was saying things that weren't true."

"Spirits can lie," Dean said.

Lady fought the urge to punch him in his bloody arm. "There are certain things that only a few people alive know. Or maybe I'm the only one alive. The thing in the cemetery and in my head is saying I'm responsible for my mother's death. That I made her kill herself and…"

"That's ridiculous, don't try and blame yourself…" Dean quickly said. He understood guilt pretty damn well, it was the type of thing that ate away at your insides.

"I don't blame myself," Lady snapped. "I…my mother didn't kill herself. She was off the chart nuts some days, but she didn't kill herself."

"How do you know?" Dean asked.

Lady turned and looked out the window. The voices were screaming inside her head, taunting her and making old images flash inside her brain painfully.

"Lady? Lady!" Dean snapped his fingers at her to bring her back.

Lady shook her head to try and make the voices dizzy and it seemed to work, "She was murdered."

"You are sure?" he asked.

"Yeah, I saw it," Lady said softly.

Dean swallowed hard, "And…this guy you feel the need to kill, your father? He's the one who did it?"

Lady snorted a laugh, "Louis is a fucking wimp. He couldn't beat his own dick if it threatened him." Lady tensed and grabbed a handful of her hair, "I don't want to kill him. I can't. It's bad. I don't want to do this."

"I'm not going to let you," Dean promised her. "Come on, keep talking. Don't let the, uh…whatever it is, get their hold in you. Channel some of that ADD to keep them too busy to talk to you."

It was actually the best advice Dean had ever given her. She laughed a bit, "We haven't seen each other in a while, I don't know what to talk about."

"Start off why you are here instead of in North Dakota," Dean said. "Why does Mason still think you are dead?"

Lady tugged at the strings of her cut-off shorts, "I was banished," she said in a small voice. "Maxine told me not to go back. It is too dangerous for them if I'm there."

"But you could have helped keep them safe, too," Dean countered.

Lady shook her head, "I couldn't even protect myself here. I can't do anything." She mumbled, repeating what the voices in her head were telling her. She let out a soft whimper and brought her feet onto the seat so she could wrap her arms around her knees.

"Tell me about the Screaming Sparrows, the band your mom was in," Dean suggested quickly, wanting to keep her talking and her mind occupied, and hopefully get her out of the ball she was curling herself in again.

"Ah," Lady said softly. "It was a good group. She was a singer."

"Any good?" Dean asked.

"Think Joan Jett, but she could do Janis Joplin after a few cigarettes," Lady said. "And she was fun to watch. And she played keyboard, too. She loved the whole group, she was with them for seven years and then…they fired her."

"Yeah, I heard…"

"It was a mess," Lady muttered, slowly unwinding herself and putting her feet back down on the floor. "Is Elliot Hoser doing okay? I heard he was in the nut house."

"Psychiatric unit," Dean corrected. "He's not doing well."

"He was like an uncle to me," Lady said. "He used to live in Las Vegas. Used to show me pictures and tell stories. Taught me my first card trick, gave me my first deck of cards. His wife, Tabby, god what a bitch. I never could stand her. Mama couldn't, either. But their son, Scotty, was sort of like a brother to me. He got really into drugs when I was maybe twelve, probably earlier than that. But that's when we started noticing. We started calling him Beam, as in Beam me up Scotty, because he was always so damn high. Then, uh, my mom got some real manic phases. He used to get her pot to even her out. They started dating, but then he started stealing her meds. Our medicine cabinet was a freaking pharmacy, you wouldn't believe how many pills we had. Mood elevators, mood balancers, pills to counter side effects. Not to mention my Ritalin."

Lady blew a breath to fog up the passenger side window and slowly rubbed the condensation away with a finger. "I tried, so hard, to keep her in line. But everything fell apart around us. But then we moved. This shit swamp-town called Indian Bayou. God, I hated it."

"Really? Wrasslin' gator's sounds right up your alley," Dean said, mocking the southern accent she hadn't even realized she was speaking in.

Lady's lips stretched into a smile, "I missed our friends, but they weren't talking to us anymore. I was trying to fit in at a new school. In Lafayette I could disappear in the crowd. Indian Bayou was so small…everyone knew. I was the retard with the insane mother, no father."

"You aren't a retard," Dean said.

Lady licked her lips, "Dyslexic and ADHD. I was still in seventh grade when I was fifteen. The only reason I even got into junior high was because I cheated. I'm a junior high drop out." Her cheeks turned a bit red. There wasn't much Lady was embarrassed about, but her learning disability had been a thorn in her side since she was five.

"Yeah, but there are college professors with doctorates that can't read and write Latin like you can," Dean said, trying to be helpful.

"Having a dead language burned into your brain by a backfired ritual doesn't count toward smarts," she said.

"You sure as hell aren't stupid," Dean said.

"I know I'm not," Lady muttered. "I sure as hell felt like it when I was in Indian Bayou, though. We were there about a year, went through some ups and downs. Things were going well. She had this on and off relationship, his name was Juan. I always liked him. He was fun, and when she said these crazy things he'd just give her this look…" Lady thought about it and snorted a laugh, "Sort of the look you give me sometimes when I go off the wall."

"Juan Corona?" Dean guessed, another missing person from Lady's past.

She nodded, "You find out where he is?"

Dean shook his head, "Missing person. Illegal immigrant that probably fled the states."

"He was going to move in with us," Lady said softly. "They were making plans to start their own band, he was a drummer. The only thing either of them really knew about was music. Both high school drop outs. Anyway, he was there the night Scott came. High as a damn kite, trying to get mom to go out with him, or get money from her, or get some pills." Lady closed her eyes as the voices went silent, "Juan was taking me to the back of the house, Mama was right behind him. I turned and it just…happened before I even knew what was going on. Scott stabbed her once, and I still didn't understand what was happening. Things had gotten crazy before, but I had never seen anything like it."

Dean was quiet, not sure if he should tell Lady to quit or continue. Before he could decide which was better she continued on her own.

"Juan was after him in a heartbeat. Mama was already dead, stabbed right in the neck. It had been quick. I followed them, it was the middle of the night. Juan had chased him into the swamps and was beating the living crap out of him. I couldn't see what happened, somehow Juan got hurt and got off of him. Before Scott could get off the ground, uh…a gator came up."

"Seriously?" Dean asked.

"It was dark, we were in the swamps. There had been a big gator not two feet away the whole time just waiting to strike. Juan was terrified. We got out of there, and then we just didn't know what to do. He was an illegal immigrant, he left before the cops got there. And I just ran. Packed one bag, and ran. Two people I had known my whole life were dead. Everyone I had ever trusted blacklisted me or ran to save themselves. Guess I just did the same."

"You were just in shock," Dean muttered.

"Maybe," Lady muttered back. "I kept wondering why I never went back afterward. I still don't know. The longer I stayed away the more it all felt like it had been a bad dream. Then, of course, I got zapped by a magical backlash and never dreamed again. Wow, even talking about it, feels like I'm doing more of an oral book report than anything else. Of course, I never did a real book report before. I only chose books I could find movie versions of." Lady closed her eyes, "People never looked for me. Declared me dead in less than a week. I didn't know that until I learned how to use the internet years later."

Dean had already driven through Baton Rouge, and pulled over to the side of the road as the sky began to lighten. "Guess it makes sense. I know my dad tried his damndest to find out who the hell you were. Sam and I were just lucky to stumble across it."

Lady smiled a bit, "John knew. I don't know how much he knew. Bobby found out, less than a year after I started hanging around." Dean looked surprised. And Lady gave him a quick explanation of what had happened in December when Bobby had taken her on a quest to find her biological father. "Which is another missing piece here. Mama didn't give two cents about Louis. He was a piggybank. Even if he was a total dick she never really hated him."

Dean had to smile a bit. Maybe it was morally dirty to sucker a rich man into paying for an illegitimate child that wasn't his, but Winifred had made sure she had the funds needed to take care of her daughter and herself. In fact he could imagine Lady doing the same damn thing without stretching his imagination too far.

"How is Bobby?" Lady asked.

"Same as ever," Dean answered. "You want to give him a call?" Dean quietly hoped she would. Bobby understood Lady better than anyone else, maybe he could keep her calm and help her through what the spirit had done to her.

"I'm not looking forward to telling him that I shot you," she said in an ashamed tone.

Dean thought about it and nodded. "Not looking forward to telling him we tied you up. You, uh, you know Sam was just trying to scare you into talking with the nails right?"

"I didn't know, but I guess I'll believe it," Lady muttered. Her shoulders pulled inward and she began chewing on her fingernails.

"I'm curious about something," Dean said. "A few things, actually."

"I'm an open book with dancing words," Lady said.

Dean gave her one of his eye rolls then that made her smirk, "How'd you get free last night?"

"I untied myself," she answered.

"Yeah, but how?" he asked.

She gave him a sly smirk, "Why would I tell you? I may need to keep that information incase you think you can get away with it again."

Dean looked away while trying to resist her smirk. "Okay, fine. Another question, though. Sam and I chatted with Hank and Lily for a while. They said something that confused the hell out of the both of us."

Lady looked confused herself, "What?"

"You baked cakes?"

"Yeah, so?" Lady said defensively.

"Lady, the only thing you are allowed to even heat up are pop-tarts and hot pockets," Dean said.

Lady smiled a bit, "Jesus, Dean, you think I can mix up Houdoo spells and folk magic with my eyes closed, but can't figure out how to mix cake batter? Baking and mixing spells aren't all that different."

"So…what, you just liked setting Bobby's microwaves on fire for fun?" he asked, still confused.

Lady looked a bit embarrassed, "I never used a microwave until I stayed with Bobby the first time. We never had one. I set it on fire and he just assumed I was incompetent in the kitchen. I never corrected him. And I like hot pockets, so it worked out."

Dean laughed, unable to hold it in any longer. And soon Lady joined him. "How are the voices treating you?"

Lady shrugged, "They chatter, sort of giving me a headache now."

"Good. Get in the backseat."

"I really don't feel like having sex," Lady said. "I just told you I have a headache."

"Me either, but I need to take care of my arm and I don't want to make it easy for you to steal my car again," he said, laughing again.

"Oh," Lady said, and with a sigh she climbed over the seat to land in the back while Dean grabbed the first aid kit from the trunk.

"Want help?" Lady asked as he set the items from the first aid kit out in the back seat between them. "I was awesome at Operation as a kid."

"This is a little different than a board game, Lady," Dean said through his teeth as he poured whiskey over the wound, making it burn. It was going to be a bitch doing this with his left hand, but he didn't want to wait until they got back to New Orleans.

"I am really sorry," Lady said as he sucked down a few swallows of the whiskey. She picked up a tool and pinched it a few times, "Just hold still."

Before he could protest she grabbed his arm firmly in one hand, making him grimace. His teeth clamped down as she poked the medical instrument into the hole and it touched the burning and throbbing wound and he couldn't breathe as he waited for the pain to intensify. Getting shot hurt, getting a bullet removed hurt a hell of a lot worse.

Lady watched his face and listened carefully to hear if she was being too rough. Blood began to flow from the wound again as she worked her way into it, and then as gently as she could she pulled the bullet out. She flashed a big smile, "See! I didn't even make you buzz once."

Dean let his head fall back as she pressed sterile gauze onto the hole, "That's only because my batteries are almost dead. Fuck."

Lady wanted to apologize again, explain that she had been rather freaked out and startled when she had pulled the trigger. She wouldn't have even minded coddling him for a while. However it was Dean. "Stop being a fucking pansy," she said, giving the covered wound a quick slap that made him grunt.

Dean gave her a brief glare, but finished getting the wound covered. It could have been a lot worse. Sam was good at a lot of things but he wasn't very delicate when it came to fixing up injuries. The hole was small enough and the bleeding had stopped on its own so Dean didn't want to deal with stitches. He had learned a lot of things about Lady the past day, he didn't want to find out if she knew how to sew, too.

"Thanks," he breathed once the gauze was securely taped on. There was a small spread of blood showing, but he was going to be okay.

Lady had adjusted a bag of dirty clothes and curled up to rest on them. Her eyes where unfocused and a few times he saw her lips moving silently. "Listen, Lady, I'm a royal dick." He watched her face but she didn't look at him. "Can you hear me?"

Her eyes moved to look at him, "Sorry, I was listening to them. What?"

He swallowed hard. It was scary watching her battle with something he couldn't help her with, or even see. "I'm sorry. I, uh...I imagined a lot of things about your childhood. But I was never close to the truth."

Lady's lip twitched in a smile, "My mom was awesome. One of her good days was worth a hundred of her bad ones."

"When you came back...what I said..."

"It doesn't matter," Lady muttered. That he had accused her of not understanding the pain of loss, trying to justify his reason for selling his soul, had been painful. But if she had wanted him to know her past she would have told him.

"It matters," he said. "And that's why I'm sorry."

"You suck at this," she said, leaning back on her smelly pillow of dirty clothes. "The things I would have done ten years ago...well, let's just say if I knew what I knew now, I would have done things differently. Make a deal with a demon, necromancy, the darkest black magic. I would have done it in an instant."

"And now?" Dean asked.

Lady glanced at him briefly, but didn't say anything. She could. She knew things that could bring the dead back to life...however it would never be a true life. She wouldn't turn her mother into a zombie, that was just tasteless. Not to mention she'd need to find her mother's remains, and sacrifice a few people to get the job done. And her glimpse into hell last year she couldn't make a deal with a demon, she wouldn't be sent there. The spirit realm was bad enough. There were a lot of things she could do, but would she do them? The voices in her head gave her a few more suggestions to think about while Dean gave up waiting for an answer.

Dean called Sam as the sun broke the horizon, immediately the temperature inside the Impala seemed to increase by ten degrees. "Where are you at?" Sam asked.

"East of Baton Rouge," Dean answered.

"Lady doing okay?"

"That's still to be determined. I think she'll be fine once we find the witch," Dean said.

"Well, I'm running on fumes as it is. I'm going to find somewhere to get some sleep. Figure I'll just go to Lady's apartment. When are you going to be back?"

Dean glanced at Lady who was fighting to keep her eyes open, "I'll get back to you on that. We'll figure out what we can, I'll check in with you later."

Dean moved to sit behind the wheel again, leaning against his window to get some sleep as well. For a few moments he forgot that Lady was hearing homicidal and suicidal thoughts and he just gave into the fatigue and crashed while she did the same in the backseat. A few hours later the temperature became too hot, forcing them both awake. Lady appeared distracted and was spacing out, but was quickly speaking about her thoughts for how to track down the witch and places she wanted to check out. Anything to keep her from giving into the voices and turning into a drooling mess Dean went along with, though he didn't expect to come up with anything.

* * *

Sam had uncomfortably slept on Lady's futon. It wasn't nearly long enough so his legs hung over the edge, and barely wide enough for him. When Lady had stolen the Impala she had also stolen his computer, so he had been limited on any research he could do. However he had spent a little time on his cell phone looking up what he could before he could no longer keep his eyes open.

When he woke up the sun was shining brightly through the windows and his watch said it was almost eleven in the morning. He still felt sluggish and was ready to close his eyes to try and get a bit more sleep when his cell phone rang.

"Yeah?" he answered, expecting it to be Dean to let him know they were on their way back.

"Agent Young?" a panicked woman said.

"Yes, this is Agent Young," Sam said as he sat up. He and his brother used so many aliases he didn't even hesitate to confirm it.

"This is Lily Legion. My husband, Hank, he…he was attacked this morning," she said.

All thoughts of sleep vanished from Sam's mind, "Are you okay?"

"Yes, but…he isn't. He's…he's saying crazy things and he…" Lily began crying hysterically. "Is it the same person who attacked Elliot?"

"We're going to find out," Sam promised her. "I'm on my way, Mrs. Legion. I'll call you once I'm in town."

Sam grimaced as he got up from the futon and the cheap wood creaked and even splintered a bit under his weight. If Lady was really attached to that piece of furniture he'd help her find a way to fix it, right then he had to get moving. He called Dean as he pulled on his shoes, "Are you guys almost back?"

"You kidding?" Dean asked, sounding just as tired as Sam felt. "We pulled over to get some sleep. We're heading back to Baton Rouge, Lady has a few places she wants to check out."

"Hank Legion is the newest victim, we need to get to Lafayette."

"Shit," Dean groaned and relayed the information to Lady. "We need to get going."

"The witch could be anywhere," Lady countered, her voice sounded shrill and as panicky as Lily Legion's had.

Dean groaned again, "Sam, I have to keep an eye on Lady. She's fighting whatever the spirit did…"

"THE SPIRIT DIDN'T DO ANYTHING TO ME! THE WITCH DID!" Lady shrieked so loudly that Sam had to pull the phone away from his ear.

Dean cleared his throat, "Lady, why don't you go stand outside the car for two minutes?"

"DON'T TALK TO ME LIKE I'M A GOD DAMNED KID, DEAN!" Lady shouted again, but soon after he head the car door slam.

"Sam, she's losing it quickly," Dean said quickly and in a hushed voice. "She's hearing voices, chewing her fingernails, pulling her own hair. She's still doing better than the others, but she's losing this fight quick."

"She sounded pretty normal to me," Sam said in a low humorless voice.

"You can't see her. Every damn nervous tick in the book she's doing," Dean said just as quietly. "I don't know if she's really onto anything here or not, but going along with her keeps her calm. You heard her a moment ago? That was calm. You don't want to hear what her un-calm voice sounds like. My ears are bleeding."

"Yeah, I get the picture," Sam muttered.

"Take a look in Lafayette, see if you come across anything."

"Great," Sam muttered. "Just call me when you are on your way. And, uh, good luck."

Sam didn't mind going off on his own. The witch causing this to happen was powerful, possibly even Donovan, and it was going to be dangerous. But even that didn't bother him. What did bother him was all he had was a pistol, everything else was in the Impala.

Sam stole a car and drove to Lafayette. Lily Legion didn't witness the attack on her husband. In the middle of the night he went insane, screaming that someone was in the house, and even attempted to attack her before the police arrived. Sam spoke with her and calmed her down the best he could before promising her that her husband would be all right. He hoped he could keep that promise.

Normally when witchcraft was involved Lady was the best person to call for help. Maybe she went in a bit messy, but they always got out alive. Not counting the time she died. But right then she wasn't a reliable source of information or assistance.

Sam returned to Richard Priestley's office, it was closed on Saturday but that didn't stop him from entering. He looked through more of the LaCroix's history, writing down notes, before leaving to check out a few hunches.

It was late afternoon when Dean called him. "We're on our way to Lafayette now," Dean told him.

"How's Lady doing?" Sam asked.

"Sleeping," Dean answered. "Man, she went total OCD on me. Nice thing is the Impala doesn't smell like ass anymore."

"You guys find anything or just sharing housekeeping tips?" Sam joked.

Dean actually let out a soft chuckle, "Lady thinks the witch isn't based in Baton Rouge. She's worked a few spells backwards and thinks the witch may be using the spot where her mother died as a focus. We don't know if the place is still there after all these years but we'll only find out when we get there. Once we grab you we're heading to Indian Bayou."

"Sounds good," Sam said. "I'm going to check into a few more things here, but I'll meet you at the motel tonight."

Sam ditched the stolen car, not wanting to press his luck, and walked through the residential area until he found the house where Winifred had lived until Lady was about thirteen years old. The house was abandoned and condemned now, it had been hit hard by the hurricane and so far no one had bought it with the intention to fix it up.

He tried to imagine the house a decade ago. It was a moderate sized two-story house. A bit more house than a single mother whose income was singing for a cover band should be able to afford, but Dean had already filled him in on Winifred's sugar daddy that paid ridiculous amounts of cash to keep his affair with her a secret. He knew after Winifred left Lafayette she had moved her daughter into a trailer in Indian Bayou. According to Richard Priestley's notes Winifred's legal and hospital fees were sucking a lot of her money dry at that time.

Sam stepped into the house. There were remnants of destroyed furniture that hadn't been cleared out, broken glass and the sickening smell of mold. He told himself that years ago this house had probably been lovingly taken care of by the LaCroix's, but he couldn't get past the almost poisonous stench of thick mold and…something a bit sharper. Ozone, he decided. A smell associated with most spirits and rain. But something else was mixed with it and was hard to pin down.

Sam's head began to feel light and fuzzy, he was trying to turn around to exit the house but only got a few steps before his long legs failed him and collapsed. On the floor the stench didn't seem so bad, or maybe he was getting used to it. "Is that…sulfur?" he muttered to himself as the sunlight outside grew dark.

**A/N** - _Wow. Ok, here are the stats for 5/1/11. 151 reviews and just hit 15k hits. Wowzers! I was going to wait until tomorrow to post this, trying to trickle these chapters out but it's hard to resist requests to keep posting. Just so you know there is only one more Louisiana chapter. We'll reach the conclusion and move on with the never-ending story. Also I forgot to add on the previous chapters that the Winchesters had just completed season 3 episode 'Red Sky at Morning'._

**A/N** – _Song for this chapter:_

_Sorry, by Buckcherry_


	75. Louisiana part 5, August 2007

**Evening, August 25, 2007**

Lady and Dean arrived at the motel he and Sam had rented in Lafayette. He didn't want to wake her up, he didn't want to see what new mode of crazy she had reached while napping, but the moment he stopped the car she jerked awake. "Where are we?" she asked.

"Lafayette," he said, getting out of the car and making sure all sets of keys were with him. If Lady _really_ wanted to take his car again she wasn't bad at hotwiring, but he wasn't going to make it easy for her.

Lady followed him into the motel room, "Thank god. I need a shower," she muttered.

Dean fell on the bed while she helped herself to the bathroom. He called Sam and left him a voice mail that they were waiting for him. Unless Lady had another manic episode maybe she could ease up enough so they could all get some sleep. Dean even started to doze off until Lady came out of the bathroom.

"Is Sam coming or what?" she asked, starting to chew on her fingers again. The nails were pretty much gone and if she kept going at it she'd only have bloody stumps left.

Dean dialed Sam's phone again, and then dialed Sam's spare cell phone number. Both were ringing, but Sam wasn't answering.

"I'm hungry," Lady said, looking around the motel room for evidence of food.

"Yeah, I could eat," Dean muttered. "Sam isn't answering his phone, though."

Lady locked eyes with him, "Where did he go? Where was he? What was he doing?" She asked rapidly.

Dean put a hand up to silence her. "Damn it, Lady, if you are going to talk a mile a minute drop the accent. The reason southerners talk slow is so the rest of us can understand them." Lady gave him a glare. "I don't know what he was doing, he just wanted to check out a few things." Dean opened Sam's laptop and began to log into their cell phone account. Following Bobby's lead they both had child-watch features on their cell phones so they could easily look into each other's GPS locations on their cell phones.

Lady began saying out loud the things the voices in her head were saying, "What if the witch got him? What if they are sacrificing him? It's almost sundown, the witching hour is short this time of year. But it isn't quite the full moon. But the growing moon is powerful. What if…"

"I found him," Dean said, writing down the address.

Lady nearly fell into his lap so she could look at the address, "Oh…oh no! Why there? I mean, it makes no sense. Nothing happened there, it isn't a focal point of energy. No one died…that I know of, at least. Unless you count…"

"Lady," Dean snapped.

"That's my old house," Lady said shortly. She chewed on her lip, "Tweedle Dee found the witch…I think."

Dean uttered a curse as he stood up. "Okay. Lady, I'm going to salt the windows and doors. All you need to do his hang tight, half an hour this will be over."

"What?"

"I have to go get Sam," Dean said.

"I have to go with. The witch is there. Probably there. I mean I don't know why they wouldn't be there, or why they would be there. But I'm pretty sure, now almost positive, that is where it is. And if…"

"It's too dangerous!" Dean snapped.

Lady took a step back, and Dean guarded his genitals at the look she gave him. "Too dangerous?" she said slowly.

"Lady, you know you aren't thinking clearly," Dean said as carefully as he could.

"Why do you make me want to strangle you?" she asked.

"Believe me, not a fetish of mine either, I guess I just have that affect on people," he said with a forced smile.

Lady pulled at her hair in frustration, "Okay, listen carefully because I don't have the patience to go over this twice. Here's the deal, Dean. I'm a witch-hunter. It's what I'm good at, and I enjoy it. I tried, Dean. For you, I gave it a shot to be something else. But I was screwing up the normal thing long before you showed up here. All day hunting down this witch is the best I've felt in _weeks_. Hell, probably since I got back. Vandalism makes me giddy, fire gets me excited. And stealing your car was better than gorging on chocolate, and I know I should feel bad about knocking you in the nuts but I don't. I think you had it coming to be honest. I guess I have some violent tendencies. So here I am, Dean. You know just about everything there is to know about me that I never wanted to visit again. I can't read, I'm dyslexic. I'm a junior high drop out. My mother was murdered, right in front of me. And I watched the guy who did it get eaten by gators. I don't fucking need a protector or someone to tell me what is dangerous or what is not. I have that figured out and I make my own choices. I appreciate that you care, I think it's fucking adorable, Dean, I really do. But I don't need a daddy watching out for me, and I sure as hell don't want some dickhead trying to tell me what is best for me. There you go, take it or leave it. But you sure as hell aren't leaving me behind."

"Nice rant," Dean said uncomfortably.

She flashed a smile, "Thank you!"

"But we aren't going in half-assed here," Dean said firmly. "We take two minutes to think this through and figure out a plan."

"I have a plan!" Lady said brightly. "Voices or not, this witch and I need to have a chat. And she gets to find out what happens when you mess with my crazy mama."

"Then we'll…" Dean began. But Lady grabbed the front of his shirt and cut off his words by crashing her mouth against his.

Lady couldn't help herself. Every single vulnerability had been violently opened up and the whole day Dean had been there. If he hadn't stayed with her she would have succumbed to the voices. Ending someone else's life, her own, or just curling into a ball lost within herself. She knew it couldn't have been easy for him, and she hadn't necessarily made it easy for him. But he had stuck it out, and he wasn't making it difficult for her.

Lady broke the kiss and gave his rear a firm pinch, "That sounds like a great plan."

Dean licked his lips and cleared his throat, "Okay, psycho-psychic, let's go."

* * *

Sam let out a slow groan as he came to. "Are you okay?" a woman asked him.

Sam blinked as he fought against the fog in his head. He was tied to a chair, and it smelled like he was still in the same place. Moldy and damp, with an underlying smell of sulfur. But it appeared he was in the basement. And it felt like he had been thrown down the stairs while he was unconscious.

"Hey, you okay?" A woman asked again.

Sam's eyes focused on the woman, "Lady?"

"Well, I ain't no mister," she answered in a southern drawl.

Sam blinked a few more times and realized he was looking at the spirit of Winifred LaCroix. Only she didn't appear to be the same as she had in the cemetery. Her eyes looked at him with concern and confusion, she even looked a bit scared. She was also trapped within a circle of salt. He looked around, they were alone. "Where are we?"

"Some bitch has taken over my house," Winifred said angrily. "And she ruined it! Look at this place! And I can't…I can't move. I can't leave." The temperature dropped and the smell of ozone came off of her as her anger rose.

"Calm down a bit. Uh…um, Winifred…"

"You know me?" she looked at him with wide eyes.

"You, uh…don't remember meeting me?" Sam asked. Winifred just shook her head. "Hi, I'm Sam. Sam Winchester."

She shook her head, "Sorry, not ringing a bell," she answered.

"What do you remember?" Sam asked her.

Winifred looked more afraid than angry, "I've been stuck here a while. This woman keeps…she keeps talking to me. Asking me things. Says I can't leave until her work is done."

"You don't remember leaving this basement at all?" Sam asked.

"I haven't been able to," she said. "I don't know why, but I can't move. I keep trying….I have to get out of here. I have a daughter. She's in danger! The last thing I remember is Scotty coming at us with a knife. I have to make sure she's safe!"

Sam's eyes widened. Winifred didn't seem to understand she was a spirit. "Your daughter, Bernadette? She's alive!"

Winifred looked at him with wide eyes, "Are you sure?"

"Positive!" Sam promised her. "And, uh…Winifred…"

"Call me Freddie, sugar, everyone does," she said.

Sam had associated that name with a two-hundred pound dog for a long time and had a hard time associating it with the petite spirit, but he gave it a shot. "Freddie. I, uh, I hate to be the one to tell you this but the night Scott attacked you and your daughter you were stabbed."

Winifred thought about it and nodded, "I remember. Juan was dragging Bernie back, I was following them. Scott grabbed me from behind and then…and then I was here." She tilted her head while she thought, something he had seen Lady do a hundred times. "Am I dead?"

"Yeah," Sam said.

"But Bernie…?"

"She's alive," Sam assured her. "Freddie, its August of 2007."

Winifred folded her legs beneath her to sit within the salt circle. "So…where am I? Is this…hell? It sure ain't heaven. I had planned to go to confession at Easter, I really did. And I was going to start going to church again."

"No, it's not hell," Sam said. "You are a spirit. A ghost."

"Oh," Winifred uttered. "Are you one too?"

"No, I'm alive," Sam said, tugging at his ropes again. "That circle you are in is salt, spirits are weak against it. Maybe if I can," he hopped toward her in the chair, trying to get a bit closer. "Maybe if I can move some of it away you can step out and untie me."

"And then what?" Winifred asked while he tried to inch his way closer.

"Normally I'd, uh…well, I don't know," Sam admitted. "Thing is, Freddie, there is a witch involved. We believe that your spirit is tied down by this witch and she's been making you do things. You can't remember them, which is probably a good thing. But I'm not sure how we set you free."

"Who is we?" She asked.

Without thinking Sam answered, "My brother and Lady." He looked at Winifred. "Lady is, uh…that's what we call Bernadette."

Winifred looked utterly confused, "What?"

"It's hard to explain," Sam said. "Let's just work on getting free first."

Sam managed to get a few inches closer to the circle but stopped when the basement door opened and a woman began walking down the steps. "Sam Winchester, pleasure to meet you," she said in a silky voice. She was tall, about 5'10", with voluptuous curves and an olive complexion. Her eyes glinted, "Just what do you think you are doing?"

"Who are you?" he asked.

"With dimples like that you can call me whatever you want," she said.

Sam squinted a bit and noticed the triple-moon tattooed on the inside of her right wrist, "Witch," he uttered.

"I'm glad to see this symbol can still be recognized," she said. "You know most of my family was killed off. I heard you helped with that."

"And you are pissed, I get it. Why didn't you just kill me instead of tying me up?" Sam asked lazily.

"You stumbled into my lair, I wasn't quite prepared for that," she admitted. "You shouldn't spend too much time in the abandoned houses here, Sam, some of this mold can be deadly."

"Sulfur, too?"

She grinned slowly, "Not a favorite smell of mine, but it's a fair trade for the power it provides." She chuckled and walked toward one of the half-windows to look up. "Word on the grapevine was that the Winchesters abandoned their witch. If you are here that means your brother is, too. I have a few friends that would _love_ to meet you."

"Demons?" Sam guessed.

"Clever boy," she said silkily. "Ms. LaCroix, how are you this evening?"

"Go to hell!" Winifred snarled, getting back to her feet. Though she was several inches shorter than the woman she looked up at her fearlessly. Another thing Sam had witnessed Lady do several times before.

"I have a first class ticket," the witch smiled. "Sweetie, we've been at this for weeks. Tell me about your darling Bernadette."

"No," Winifred said defiantly.

The witch sighed, "Well, I'm sure she'll find us soon enough. I really wanted to play this game a bit longer." The witch turned to Sam. "But you Winchesters, always sticking your noses into things. I had her just where I wanted her. Looking over her shoulder every two minutes, so scared she could barely eat. I was showing her the terror she inspired in my family, finally, after so many years of being methodically hunted down by that sick little serial killer.

"Lady's the serial killer?" Sam snorted a laugh. "She wasn't the one stringing people up for sacrifices."

"What are you talking about? My Bernie…is what?" Winifred looked horrified.

"Just…it isn't what it sounds like," Sam assured the spirit.

"Oh, but it is, Ms. LaCroix," the witch said in a soothing voice. "Your Bernadette…she's absolutely insane with bloodlust. She's killed my whole family. My brothers and sisters…and she enjoys it."

"No…no, not Bernie," Winifred muttered.

"That's not true, Freddie," Sam said. "Lady is a good person. You'd, uh…" Well, he wasn't sure he'd say anyone's mother would be proud that their daughter was a witch hunter. Even one as good as Lady. But he said it anyway, "You'd be so proud of her. You would," he said. "This woman, she is a witch."

"But…she's not ugly," Winifred said in a small voice.

"Thank you," the witch said with a smile.

"She's a witch," Sam repeated. "She's twisted and evil."

"Enough with the chatter," the witch said. "Tell me, Sam, where is Lady?"

"Curled up in a ball talking to herself," Sam said, hoping it wasn't true.

"Not yet, but she will be," the witch said happily.

"When did the coven start working with demons?" Sam asked, looking around and testing his binds so he could work on escaping.

Both he and the witch went still at the sound of a crash upstairs, and then a few muffled shouts. The next minute the door to the basement opened and a woman was thrown down the steps.

"Lady!" Sam winced as Lady landed at the foot of the steps, her face twisted in pain. At the top of the stairs a man shut the door and walked down.

"Here she is," he said, his eyes flashing black. "No sign of the other Winchester."

"You said he'd be dead in a few months anyway. Why bother?" The witch asked as she helped Lady to her feet. "Nice to finally meet you, Lady."

The next instant Lady was thrown across the room and pinned against a wall. "Ouch," she grunted. "Oh, hey, Sam. I'm here to rescue you. Ouch."

"Where is Dean?" he growled at her.

"He was being a dick. I had to handcuff him to the bathroom sink," she said.

"Bernie?" Winifred said in a small voice, looking at her daughter with wide terrified eyes.

Lady looked at the spirit, then away. "Mama, do me a favor and be quiet. Five minutes, all I need."

"No, Bernie! Baby, what's going on?"

"Sort of trying not to get killed by a powerful witch," Lady winced. Lady's eyes locked on the witch, "When did you guys start working with demons? I've been out of the game a while, I must have missed the memo."

"You left me with no choice," the witch answered. "You see, while you were trapped within the ley lines you made it difficult to summon the power. Donovan promised me he'd get you out of there so we could go back to how things used to be. Even better, because Garrett was dead. Instead he took your place and he's made it completely impossible. The bastard has taken all the power for himself and anyone who tries to use it gets killed. But thankfully I got a nice little offer."

Lady's lip twitched, "Sold your soul for demonic powers?"

"No. See, all I had to do was declare war on you. Destroy you so completely that there was no way you could return, and I got them for free. Along with a few demon henchmen." The witch took a few steps toward Lady, "Seems you made a few enemies down under."

"That's impressive. I've never even been to Australia," Lady said in a light tone.

"The demons…they don't like you, Lady," the witch continued. "They don't like anyone who helps the Winchesters."

Lady nodded a few times, "Did you try telling them that I nearly get them killed more than I actually help them? Because considering how many near-death situations I get them stuck into you'd _almost_ think I was playing for the other side. But then you could say the same for them. I mean they just like to die, it seems. Because they just don't stop. I mean, take Sam here for example. Total flat line and now he's back! Better than ever and…" Lady coughed and sputtered a few times.

"Don't you shut up?" the witch snapped.

"Sorry," Lady squeaked. She sucked in a few breaths. "Nice trick, you learn that from Garrett?"

"As a matter of fact, I did," she answered.

"Do I get your name?" Lady asked.

"Gardener," she answered.

Lady burst out laughing. "YOU! You're Gardener. Wow, I totally was expecting that to be a dude. I've heard of you. Loosen up the hold and we can shake hands before you kill me."

"Lady!" Sam hissed.

"Hold on, Sam. I'm still a little insane. Let me have my manic moment," Lady said, giggling harder.

"What is so funny, Lady?" Gardener asked.

"Just, ah, demons and witches," she snickered. "You guys are funny to me."

"Funny how?" Gardener asked.

Between Lady's giggles there was a sound upstairs. Lady giggled harder as Gardener's calm smile vanished.

"He's here. Do whatever you want to him," Gardener said to her demon.

"Gladly," the demon clunked back upstairs.

Sam was about to shout Dean a warning but Lady gave the smallest shake of her head.

"Okay, Gardener, let's chat a bit," Lady said, her face red from her laughter. "How many of the coven are left?"

"You are looking at it," she said. "But there is a whole new coven forming. Demons all across the world are converting sweet housewives and lonely teenage boys to their cause."

Lady's face grew serious, "Bad idea."

"For most of those people, yes," Gardener answered. "But for someone who knows what they are doing, like me, there are ways to leverage them."

Lady looked down and muttered a few things before hissing, "_Shut up in there!_"

Gardener's smile returned, "Ah, not so strong after all. Look at this. I've heard so much about you, Lady. To think you could possess the power of a Goddess, but you can't quiet your own voices in your head?" Upstairs there was another crash and a shout before going silent. Gardener smiled at Sam, "My condolences."

Sam looked at Lady, wanting assurance that Dean was okay. That she and him had formed a plan. But dread settled into his stomach. Lady and Dean were the two people who would always run into a burning building two seconds before everyone warned it was going to collapse. Lady's eyes were unfocused and she was grimacing while muttering to herself. "Oh, no," he muttered.

"And looks like Little Lady finally lost her war with sanity," Gardener said as she studied Lady. "Sort of anti-climatic, isn't it, Sam?"

"Bernie! Bernie, baby?" Winifred was at the edge of her salt circle and pleading for her daughter.

Gardener turned her back on Sam as she walked to her altar. "Well, this has been fun. But she was just a loose end. Garrett should have killed her years ago, I just finished the job he couldn't. Lady and the Winchesters will be dead after tonight, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to get a promotion for it."

Sam inched his chair closer to the salt circle and winced as his leg pulled on the rope. He managed to get his toe on the salt circle and swiped a section of it away.

Winifred felt the freedom the moment the salt had an opening. "What did you do to her!" she demanded, going after the witch.

Gardener turned just in time and repelled Winifred back with salt. Winifred howled in pain as the salt touched her spirit and flickered a few times, but did not disperse completely.

"Sam, you naughty boy. You are supposed to kill spirits, not set them free," Gardener scolded him.

Winifred went over to Lady, "Bernie, baby? Bernie, please…"

Lady met her mother's eyes. Growing up in the deep south there were several dialects she had learned before she was in kindergarten, and being exposed to that when she was young had made it easy to learn other accents. And she had even been fairly fluent in French by the time she was six. Though she hadn't spoken it in years she muttered in Cajun French to her mother. "_Everything is going to be okay, just stay right here next to me. Whatever happens, I love you. I've missed you so much. Trust me for a few minutes, and if I can I'll explain._" Lady said rapidly, but she knew her mother would understand. Winifred's eyes grew wide and she nodded once.

The door to the basement opened and Sam looked up, a relieved smile spreading across his face when he saw his brother descending the steps. He looked a bit beaten up, but most of that had been from Lady.

"Dean Winchester survives another demon," Gardener said.

"My guess is you've used up most of your mojo reigning in Lady," Dean said and flashed her a smile. "She's good at wearing people out."

"I hope you don't consider yourself a gambling man," Gardener said.

"I actually do," Dean said. His eyes flashed to Lady and Sam, then back to the witch. "We ready to roll?"

"Rock out with your Glock out," Lady called coherently.

Gardener's eyes flashed to Lady, before she could look back at Dean he had retrieved the Colt from his pocket and fired one bullet into her. A bit of electricity flickered through her body as she collapsed to the ground.

"It's a Colt. Not a Glock," Dean snapped. "How are the voices?"

Lady shook her head, "We need to destroy the altar. Should take care of it."

"Bernie?" Winifred said in a small voice, looking at her daughter with wide eyes.

Lady swallowed hard, "I wasn't sure if you'd still be here after she was dead." Lady let out a shaky breath and wrapped her arms around her mother. "Everything is okay, mama." Lady looked over her mother's shoulder and gave a pleading look to Sam and Dean. "Destroying the altar should set her free, too, but…just not yet, okay?"

Dean nodded and gave his brother a signal to move up the stairs. They sat on the top steps to watch.

"What do we do?" Sam asked quietly.

"We shut up and wait," Dean answered. He wasn't ruling out the possibility that Lady was unstable enough to do something stupid, so he wouldn't take his eyes off of her. But he knew if he had the chance to see his mother or father, even as a spirit, he'd want all the time he could.

"What happened that night?" Winifred asked Lady.

The two women, side-by-side, were sitting against the wall. Lady had an arm around her mother's shoulders and was resting her head on her shoulder. "Scott ran. He didn't hurt anyone else."

"He in jail?" Winifred asked.

"He got trapped in the swamps," Lady said, that was all the explanation her mother needed.

"I can't believe you are all grown up," Winifred said with a soft smile. "Hell, you turned thirty before I did. But just look at you, baby. Are you okay? Are you happy?"

Lady had to think about that. "Most of the time," she answered, and she believed that.

"Who are the Yankees?" Winifred asked, nodding toward the boys that were sitting on the basement steps watching them.

Lady laughed, "Friends. Good friends."

For a long time Lady and Winifred chatted. They talked about old friends, the hurricane that had destroyed their old house, a bit about Lady's new life, and shoes. Winifred loved shoes almost as much as Lady, and Lady told her all about her collection.

"So, what happens next?" Winifred asked her.

Lady sighed sadly, "When we destroy the altar it is going to set your spirit free, and break the curses the witch put on people."

"You have to do that?" Winifred asked.

"Yeah, I do," Lady said.

Sam and Dean were both surprised. If Winifred's spirit could be bound to this world without being vengeful it meant Lady could, in a way, have her mother back. They were surprised she was willingly going to do it.

"I'm sorry, mama, but you…you don't belong here anymore," Lady said softly.

"I know," Winifred said. "Being here doesn't feel right, but…I'm scared."

"From what I've seen there is something after death," Lady said. "Not all of it is good, but I don't think it can all be bad, either."

Winifred took Lady's hands and looked at her, "I am so sorry, baby. For how I was. For everything that happened."

"Don't be sorry," Lady said. "Mama, you did your best. I wasn't always the easiest kid to have."

Winifred smiled, "I guess I did something right, because you are perfect. Still my little Bernie-bear."

"Oh god, I haven't heard that in years," Lady said with a laugh.

Winifred squeezed her daughter's hands, "Before I go, can I have one last dance with my Bernadette?"

Lady pulled her mother in for a tight hug, "Sure."

Lady couldn't meet the Winchester's eyes. She knew they had been watching and listening, and her time with her mother had been very personal. "Sam, can I borrow your laptop?" she asked in a low voice.

"It's in the car," Dean said.

"Sure, I'll grab it," Sam said, getting up. Lady followed him up the last few stairs and outside.

Dean watched Winifred, and she watched him back. "You boys mute?" she asked.

"Uh, no. Just trying to give you and Lady some privacy," he said.

"Doin' a bad job of that," she said. She gave him a pretty smile, "What's your name, sugar?"

"Dean," he answered, barely resisting her smile. Damn it, Lady was a spitting image of her mother. Same smile, they moved the same, they even sounded the same.

Winifred walked up a few steps and looked Dean over, "You and your brother help Bernie out with this sort of stuff then?"

"Sometimes," he answered, wishing he hadn't been left alone with the spirit. She was chatty, just like Lady. "Your daughter is damn good at what she does. She's saved our lives a few times."

Winifred smiled at that, "That must be emasculating for two big boys."

Dean had to chuckle, "Yeah, well, she does like to rub our noses in it every chance she gets."

Winifred looked at him seriously, "Do you have children, Dean?"

"No," he answered, and silently added 'thank god' afterward.

"Bernie was all I ever had. All we ever had in the world was each other. Everyone else, they just turned their backs on us. I didn't always do right by her, I know that and it breaks my heart. But knowing she is alive and happy…it's all I ever wanted. Look after my little girl for me, will you?"

"I will…for as long as I can," Dean promised her.

"Thank you," Winifred said.

Lady and Sam returned. "Dean, come with me," Sam said. "It's okay, just come on."

Dean went up the rest of the stairs to join his brother in the damp kitchen, "What?"

"Let them have some time alone," Sam said.

From the closed basement door Dean heard music playing from Sam's laptop, it sounded like an old Motown song. Shortly afterward he heard womanly giggles.

Lady and Winifred laughed and for a moment Lady felt like she was fifteen again, dancing with her mother and being happily goofy. The song was one Winifred had loved as a child and throughout Lady's childhood played. The song was by the Four Tops, and it was titled 'Bernadette'.

Once the song and final dance was over Lady hugged her mother close. "Mama, I need to know something," Lady said.

"Yeah, baby?"

"Who's my real father?"

"Louis is. You know that," Winifred said.

Lady looked at her mother seriously, "Mama, I'm twenty-six. I know he isn't."

Winifred looked a bit guilty and even a bit ashamed, "I only knew his first name. I don't even know if it was his real name. He said his name was Mario, the Italian Stallion. I met him at a Styx concert I had snuck into. He said he could get me backstage, and he did."

Lady bit back her laughter, "That explains where you got the James Young autograph. And why I love pizza."

"I'm sorry, baby. I…when I was pregnant my parents…they were going to make me give you away. They said I either gave you away or I had to go away. And I chose you. I ran away from home, and I convinced Louis you were his because I needed money." Winifred smiled, "On the bright side, you have his ass. He had a nice ass."

Lady let her laughter loose and hugged her mother tight again.

"I guess this is goodbye, right?" Winifred asked sadly.

"Yeah," Lady said. "Maybe in one more minute, okay?"

Sam and Dean listened. Nearly twenty minutes had passed since the music stopped. They were about to check on Lady when they heard her coming up the stairs. The basement door opened and they could smell the smoke of the burning altar. Over her shoulder was a bag that carried the remains of her mother so she could put them where they belonged.

Lady wanted more than anything to be left alone, but Sam tugged her arm and pulled her into a hug. She felt him kiss the top of her head. "We'll take you back to New Orleans," he said.

"Nah," Lady said, walking outside and taking a breath of fresh air. "I'm getting the fuck out of Louisiana, man. People here are crazy, haven't you noticed?"

She flashed them a wide smile until they laughed.

"But not you, right?" Dean asked.

"Altar is gone, all the magic the witch was holding is gone. My voices are gone, everyone else should be back to normal," Lady said. "You guys should hang around until morning, just to make sure. If I show up I'll probably cause heart attacks, those dudes are old. But I'll find my own ride. I'll see you guys around."

"Lady…just, uh…is everything okay?" Dean asked.

Lady nodded, "Yeah, it is, actually. And hey, found out I'm half Italian Stallion."

Sam and Dean watched Lady walk across the street and look into a car that was parked on the street. They both flinched when she smashed a rock into passenger window so she could open the door. After a few moments of digging in the glove compartment she pulled out an insurance card and she said, "It's cool, they have full coverage! Bye, guys!"

Lady declared the day as her happiest and saddest day ever. Having the chance to say goodbye to her mother was bittersweet, and she'd hold onto that memory forever. Winifred had a lot of problems, but she had been the best and only mother Lady would ever have. And Lady made sure she knew it this time around.

As for her father, well, Lady wasn't all that surprised. She'd seen her mother go through several boyfriends growing up and never thought much of it. Even if she had more to go on than Mario the Italian Stallion who was at a Styx concert twenty-six years ago Lady was giving up the father search. She didn't need one growing up. Lady's family had always been just her mother, but over the years she had made friends that were like family. Some had left her, but through it all one had always been there. Never changing, never giving up on her and giving her a kick in the ass when she needed it.

**August 26, 2007**

Bobby was scrounging in his fridge for supper when there was a knock on his door. It was the normal time of the day where customers of the salvage lot he ran might be coming around to bother him, but still he checked his pistol before making his way to the door.

Halfway there he gave the kitten Ivory a nudge with his toe, and the kitten quickly began playing with his foot. "Let me go you idjit," he muttered, shaking his foot until the cat released him and ran off to play with his brother.

He opened the door to find Lady standing there. She let out a breath, "What do I have to do to come home, Bobby?" she asked. There was no batting of eyelashes or an innocent look of pleading. Just Lady asking an honest question, wanting to know what it would cost her so she could live with him.

"Take about two steps forward, kid," Bobby said. "And move your ass, you are letting the cold air out."

**A/N** – _Songs for this chapter:_

_Fix Me, by 10 years_

_My Immortal, by Evanescence_

_Bernadette, by Four Tops_

**A/N** – _Okay, Louisiana is done! Woot! I feel bad because I sort of speed-edited these past few chapters. If there are any missing pieces please let me know. There was a lot of information going into these chapters and I did a lot of cutting to squeeze them into 5 chapters. _

**Another note** – _Fun trivia. Saint Bernadette was a young woman from Lourdes in France who claimed to see visions of the Virgin Mary. I actually did not know that before I chose that to be Lady's real name, but pretty freaking cool. I wanted to give Lady a unique French name and I came across Bernadette. Bernadette actually means 'Brave as a bear'. I say Lady is more stupid-brave, but I liked it enough to stick with it. And then I found the song by the Four Tops and I thought 'Aw, that's totally Lady and Freddie dancing'. So I really like the name Bernadette and it fits with Lady very well. As for Lady naming her dog after her mother I did that because both were sources of unconditional love for Lady. A mother and a dog are two people that no matter what you do they are always going to be happy to see you._

_Anyways, I hope you guys are happy. I ran out of chapters to post again! Don't worry, I'm still writing. I think I'll have a bit of a fluff chapter next before we throw Lady back to the wolves._

_Be back in a few days!_


	76. Bobby's House, August 2007

**August 27, 2007**

Sam and Dean arrived at Bobby's house not long after Lady and between the three of them he figured he got about half of the story of what went on in Louisiana. All he knew were all three of them were a bit banged up but alive, other than that he wasn't sure he wanted details. He let Lady put her mother's bones in the ground next to where he had buried her dog months ago, helped her get rid of a stolen car and had to hear how proud she was that she had stolen the Impala right from under Dean's nose. That alone had him wishing he had just kept quiet and not asked her what had happened the past two months.

But Bobby was happy to have her back. And was already looking into the coven working with demons. Just because Gardener had said she was the last remaining member of the coven didn't mean that was true. In fact Lady knew it was false because Donovan was still out there somewhere. And Bobby didn't enjoy the fact that demons were recruiting people to use demonic magic.

Lady was up before the sun, sitting outside in the cool night. It was a relief to know she didn't have to go to work again, god that had been hell. And there was a heavy but comfortable weight from being able to speak to her mother one last time.

Lady turned when she heard a car door open and close. She got up and walked behind the house to see Dean had set up a work station and appeared to be putting away tools after working on his car.

"Whatchya doin'?" she asked, grinning when she made him jump.

"Couldn't sleep. Figured I'd fix the gas gauge," Dean said.

"Need help?" she asked as she skipped forward. The sun wasn't quite up yet, but the sky was turning a steel blue color. There were heavy rain clouds that blocked out the moon and any stars.

Dean laughed at that, "No. You don't get to touch my car. But it's done, it was a quick fix."

Lady smiled wickedly and put one finger on the car, "I'm touching it."

He smiled and shook his head. "That's mature."

"I am very mature," Lady said, leaning against the rear of the car while she watched him.

"Sure, if your age was your shoe size," Dean joked. He let out a breath, "Everything is okay between us, right? No more, ball kicking or shooting me?"

"Mmhm," Lady nodded quickly.

"Good," he said, looking away before she could change her mind. "Damn it, I still hurting until we got halfway through Kansas."

"Aw," Lady said in mock sympathy. "Want me to kiss it and make it better?"

Dean let out an uncomfortable laugh, "I'm good, but thanks."

Lady watched him for a while and then asked, "So today is sort of a crappy day, huh?"

"I didn't think so. You going to change that?" he asked, looking at her.

She shook her head, "No, I can just tell." She lifted herself to sit on the trunk of the Impala, ignoring Dean's glare as she did so. "I lived like I was dying for ten years, I sort of know the look. Some days are fun and fantastic. Others are mellow and thoughtful. Others are dark and depressing. Some are just sort of blah and crappy. You look like it's one of those blah and crappy days."

Dean thought about it for a few moments and then shrugged.

"You know, its okay," Lady said.

"I don't feel like talking about it," he said shortly.

"I've been sort of a shit friend since I came back in a ball of blue fire," Lady said apologetically.

"We're both shits," Dean said, giving her a forced smile. "But you are fine, Lady. Just nothing to say. I've beaten this dead horse with you, Sam and Bobby. I'm just sick of it."

"Hm," Lady looked away and thought for a while. "Oh! I know. How about we rape the dead horse with a zebra, then we can beat a mutant-zombie zorse."

Dean looked at her with wide eyes, "What drugs have you taken?"

"None. I'm actually completely sober for the first time in a few months," Lady said.

"That explains it," he laughed a bit and leaned against the trunk next to her. "I don't know, Lady. I get that you've been where I am, but at the same time it's different."

"I know. I'm not sure if my situation was better or worse," Lady said. "I don't know if I'd want to know an exact date."

Dean looked down at his feet, "Some days I feel great. Not a care in the world. Then other days I wake up and I hear that clock ticking so damn loud I can't focus on anything but it." Dean didn't tell her that those days were becoming more frequent. Still no regrets on his deal with the demon, but regrets on things he could never have. "Nothing to do but soldier on, though."

"Anything you want to do before the number is up?" she asked.

"No," Dean said, and let out a laugh. "How pathetic is that? I mean, I'm twenty-eight and no goals. No dreams. Nothing. I just, well, if I have a choice I want to go out on my own terms."

Lady nodded, "Yeah, I can relate with that. Make sure your last act is giving someone the finger."

"And take as many evil bastards out with me along the way," he agreed.

Lady sighed as the first drops of rain started falling down on her, "Listen, in Louisiana…"

"We don't have to bring that up," Dean said.

"You don't even know what I was going to say."

"Pretty much everything that happened there, we never have to talk about," Dean assured her. "It was a mess."

"I seem to do better when surrounded by chaos and anarchy than anywhere else," Lady said with a smile. "Just, hear me out. I had to face things that I've kept hidden from everyone for _years_. I thought it I ever went back there I'd go insane and…well, I guess I did temporarily, but in the end it was worth it. And it's just made me think about a lot of things. Dean, I know you only have, like, eight months to live. Like it or not you'll probably see me fairly often, I'm going to be there until the end." The rain was now soaking through her hair and she wiped away some of the drops from her face. "I just don't know what role I'm going to have until then. Happy little sidekick. Friend? Is that it? I just…I'm not good with this, Dean. I just want you to tell me what to do."

"I'm not worth wasting your time over," Dean said simply.

"I'm asking what you want," Lady said. "If you can figure it out, let me know. It's your life…"

"I don't know," Dean admitted. What he wanted? What he wanted wasn't good for any of them.

And Lady laughed at him. "Dean, I know what happens to me after you die. It's going to hurt like a bitch. But, uh, I'll have time afterward. You don't have a lot of time to be indecisive. You don't want May to come around and have regrets."

"Thing is what I want isn't fair to you," Dean said in a low voice. "I'm not stupid, I know what happens when I die. I'm leaving people behind. Not many, but I know what it feels like to lose someone close. Sam, he's stuck with me. You don't have to be. I don't know why you would want to be."

"I know right?" Lady laughed. "There must be thousands of guys like you that can meet my low standards." Lady sighed and hopped off the Impala. "I don't know, Dean. I'm not good at letting go of people I love. You either have to die or tell me to get lost. And even after that you'd need to shoot at me a few times to get the point across. What it comes down to is I'd rather end up with the worst broken heart in the world, than never have something. Which is strange because I never wanted anything. You sort of screwed me up and changed my thought process. But that's just me. Whatever you decide, let me know."

"You are just going to walk away?" Dean asked as she began to walk toward the house.

"It's raining," Lady said, and thunder rumbled in the sky above them. "Dean, I'm sorry to put you on the spot. I am. I've thought about this since I left Louisiana, I'm prepared for whatever you want. But I won't sit around playing games. I said my side. You said yours."

"I did?"

"Didn't you? Words came out of your mouth…pretty sure they did. If not I'm hearing voices again," she said, looking a bit unsure of herself. "Yeah, you definitely talked."

"Just, give me two seconds?" he asked.

Lady wrapped her arms around herself as the rain soaked into her clothes. While it was still warm the wind was picking up and she was trying to keep from shivering. She watched Dean, he'd meet her eyes for a brief moment before looking away in thought. Or maybe he was just making sure she was still waiting. Lady was prepared to do whatever she had to do in the next several months. Helping Sam find a way out of Dean's deal was still on the list, but she needed to track down Donovan and take care of him before he came after her like Gardener did. She also needed to help Bobby and maybe even other hunters with the increase of demons on earth. Between all of that she just wanted there to be a clear understanding between her and Dean. She loved the idiot and maybe she didn't have to stay by his side until the day he died, but she wanted to be.

Dean was trying to figure out his life and the jumbled mess in his head while Lady stared at him with her pale-blue eyes and rain began to drench him. There wasn't much to think about on his side of things. Chasing strange women, while exciting, had sort of lost its appeal. He liked the relationship he had with Lady. The selfish part of him was saying go for it. Lady was a big girl, she knew what he was dealing with and that if at the end of his deal if she was hurt it was her problem. But he was sick of hurting people he cared about. Of letting them down and disappointing them. As great as the two of them were together it wouldn't change the fact that he'd be dead in less than a year. All he was missing was a gravestone, he was already dead.

Lady let out a huff of impatient breath and took a few steps forward. She grabbed Dean's face between her hands and kissed him. Gently sucking the raindrops away from his mouth before moving her lips against his. "Did I kick you so hard you became a woman? Do I need to decide for you?" She asked, her lips brushing against his as she spoke.

Dean circled her waist with his arms, "I think you just did," he said, leaning down to continue the kiss.

Thunder boomed loud enough overhead to make the ground vibrate and the wind whipped around them. Dean blindly felt the side of the car until he found the door handle to open the backseat and dragged her into the shelter of the car with him.

Lady leaned against Dean to share warmth with the sudden temperature drop, her fingers running through his wet hair as his hands moved across her back. And unable to help herself she began giggling.

"I probably don't want to know the answer, but what is so funny?" Dean asked.

"I'm touching your car," she snickered.

He held her a bit tighter and kissed her grinning mouth. "You gonna come with when we leave tomorrow?" Dean asked, moving his fingers across her cheek and then into her tangled wet hair.

"No," she said, settling herself in his lap and moving her hands up his chest and around his neck.

Dean looked confused, "Why not? Are you just using me for a quick lay because you know I'm leaving?"

"If that was all I wanted I would have said so," Lady promised. "I want to spend some time with Bobby. And there are some things I need to take care of. Give me a week and I'll come with, but ask yourself if you _really_ want me tagging along all the time."

Dean thought about it. The Impala was a big car, but they didn't have much space to spare. The trunk was full of their cache of weapons and random things they had picked up over the years to assist in their fight against evil. Lady fit in there just fine for temporary trips but long-term was a different story. "Yeah, I do," he decided.

Lady leaned back a bit, "Serious?"

"I'm serious. You thought I'd say no?"

"Yeah," she laughed.

"Well, I'm not. If we're doing this again it isn't going to be part-time," he said.

She smiled as she looked over his face, "I think you'll take what you can get."

"I think you are right, but I'm going to get whatever I can," he said. "Lady…"

"Shut up," she said, she didn't want to hear anything else. If Dean was going to die in eight months she would have to deal with it then. She could quietly hope that Sam would find a way out of his deal, but what she had found out so far were that the demon deals were solid. All she wanted was any time he had left, and she was going to take it forcefully if she had to. He wasn't going to die without knowing she loved him.

Dean closed his eyes as her mouth moved against his, letting out a soft moan as she pressed her weight into his lap. His hands moved up her thighs to rest on her hips.

Lady worked on pealing Dean's wet t-shirt off of him. Once it was thrown into the front seat she kissed down his neck, shoulder and arm until she reached the healing gunshot wound that was only a few days old. It was bruised around the hole and felt hot to the touch. Before she could apologize for that wound again he shifted, laying her down on the backseat with his body covering hers. Lady managed to nip at his ear before he worked on unbuttoning her shirt. He looked up at her briefly, his eyes bright and smiling at her before he bowed his head to kiss her chest. Her skin was cool from the rain but his mouth left warm dots everywhere it touched.

Dean let out a low growl of frustration and a chuckle of amusement as Lady's tight jeans were glued to her legs because of the rain, and it took several minutes to get her completely free. His fingertips trailed up her leg as she wrapped them around his waist to pull him close.

Lady wasn't even going to complain that her back was sticking to the vinyl seat. Dean's body hovered over hers as he worked his jeans down, and he teased her with a wicked smile before taking her. Lady's hands moved up his back and gripped his shoulders as he moved inside of her. Already the heat of their bodies and heavy breathing had fogged the inside of the windows.

Dean let out a low groan as Lady reached down to grip his rear, squeezing it with each flex of muscle. Her other hand ran through his hair while she pulled him down for a kiss. Lady let out a soft moan as Dean kissed her firmly, his tongue sliding over her lips before invading her mouth. He kept his rhythm as slow as he could stand it, but it was difficult with Lady's soft noises urging him on. Her head fell back as she let out escalating whimpers of ecstasy and he put his mouth on her throat, feeling her pulse and the vibrations of her sounds before he let out his own low moan.

Lady held Dean tight as she was overcame with pleasure, pressing his face in her neck while her fingers curled within his hair. She wrapped a leg around his waist to keep him there as she came down from the orgasm.

Using each other for warmth along with a flannel jacket that had been left in the Impala she curled up next to him. He was leaning against the car door with her leaning against him as a pillow, both of his arms wrapped around her. A few times he almost opened his mouth to say something but she pinched him in warning before he gave up.

Having Lady like this wasn't exactly what he wanted. A time limit just didn't seem fair. He couldn't help but think about the wish the djinn had granted him. Sure, it had all been a dream in his head, but he wouldn't have minded something like that. But he was going to take what he could get.

When they went back inside Bobby's house to get shelter from the thunderstorm that was still raging outside Sam was at the computer and Bobby was in the kitchen.

Sam looked up when Dean sat in a nearby chair, "I think we might have a case in Maryland. Looks like demonic activity. Give this storm a few hours to clear up and we can go."

Dean ran a hand through his damp hair. That was his life, always on the road. Looking for the next demon, monster or spirit to get rid of. "Yeah, sure," he said. What else could he say? It was their damn fault the hell gate in Wyoming got opened, they had to clean up their mess.

"I thought you were going to stay another day?" Lady asked.

"Guess not," Sam said.

Sam and Dean worked on getting a few hours of sleep before they left and Lady went to work helping Bobby around the house and playing with the kittens.

"Kid, got to ask. You know what you are doing?" Bobby gave her an uncomfortable look.

"I'm just cleaning out the sink. How can I do that wrong?" Lady asked in confusion.

Bobby frowned and glanced in the living room to check that both Sam and Dean were still asleep. "I'm talking about Dean. I've watched you get torn up over him. I'm sick of watching it, and if it happens again I might just shoot him myself."

"To be fair, I did not mean to shoot him. That was really an accident," Lady said firmly. She let out a breath, "Bobby, I can't stay away from him. We sort of have this figured out."

"Yeah. Last time you sort of had it figured out you ran off, wrecked my car and then disappeared for two months." Bobby sighed, "I can't tell you what to do. I wouldn't know what to say, either. I just want to hear that you are thinking."

"I do think," Lady said with a smile. She wrapped her arms around Bobby's middle and pressed her face into his shoulder, "I'm going to be okay, Bobby. I have a good feeling about everything."

Bobby put his arms around her to return the hug and patted her back a few times before she let him go, "Okay. Guess that's all I can ask for. Come help me clean out this room so you have a place for all your crap. I don't want these shoes all over the damn place."

Lady grinned as she followed Bobby down the hall. This was why he was her best friend. No long drawn-out chat about her repeating old mistakes. No lecture. He just threw his thoughts out there to let her know he was concerned, and then took her word for it when she lied to his face that everything was fine.

Sam and Dean left that afternoon. It was still raining but the storm had broken up. Sam had watched from the car as Dean gave Lady a long kiss goodbye, and could barely look at his brother's happy face as they began the long drive to Maryland. Sam held it in until they crossed the state line before he couldn't take it anymore. "Dean, what are you doing?"

Dean turned down the radio, "What was that?"

"What are you doing?" Sam repeated.

Dean looked at him briefly before looking back at the road, "Driving? What do you mean?"

"With Lady," Sam let out a breath. "You can't just string her…"

"Sam, stop," Dean shut his brother's long rang down. "Lady's a big girl, she knows what is going on."

"Oh, so every time we pass through Bobby's place you have a woman waiting there for you?" Sam said angrily. The past few months he'd been the one watching his brother go after women like they were there for his amusement, and he'd mostly let it go. He wasn't going to let it go if Dean was doing the same thing to Lady.

"It doesn't work like that," Dean said. "She's going to come join us in a few days or so."

"What?" Sam hissed.

"Yup," Dean's lip twitched a bit at Sam's surprise and anger, but this wasn't nearly as amusing as he wished it was. "Sam, I don't know how well this is going to work. Or how long it will work. Lady won't take no for an answer, and to be honest I'd rather not fight her on it."

"So when your number is up you are just going to let her watch you die? Is that it?" Sam looked away from his brother. "You are such a dick."

"You are a bitch," Dean countered. "What the hell is wrong with you? You say I deserve to have a good time, then you get pissed when I do."

"Lady is our friend, not a good time," Sam snapped.

"She is both," Dean corrected. "Lady and I don't work as just friends. I'm very aware this might blow up in my face, again. But until then, it's really none of your damn business."

Back at Bobby's Lady was hard at work. She thought she had deserved some vacation time, considering holding an actual job for a few weeks had sucked for her. But Bobby was interested in looking into finding Donovan. But whatever Donovan was doing he wasn't making headlines anywhere that he saw. His other concern, of course, was that demons were recruiting humans into demonic witchcraft and started putting his feelers out for that.

Also there was a little bit of work required for Lady to really move in. While Bobby didn't mind having her bag in the living room or a basket of her laundry by his washer, there just wasn't room for what she brought back from Louisiana. There was no way in hell he was putting up with two dozen shoes in a pile by his door.

The downstairs bedroom had always been used for storage, but had a few cots for when the Winchesters or Lady were staying. They spent a few afternoons cleaning out the boxes of junk that had piled up, watching the kittens chase after the spiders they had unearthed, and setting up a real bedroom for Lady. With a real bed. The bed was just full size, but much larger than the cots or the couch. Some curtains for a window that had been blocked by boxes before. And a closet for her stuff.

"Hey, Bobby, I have about twenty-thousand dollars left from fencing that diamond. Think you can help me use it to get a vehicle?" Lady asked him one day.

"Sure. With that kind of money I can get you about anything," Bobby said. "How much did you get for that diamond?"

"About a hundred grand," Lady said.

Bobby was quiet for several moments. "Kid, what happened to eighty-thousand dollars? You were gone less than two months."

"Dude, I have no idea. I just sort of kept swiping that debit card everywhere I went and soon enough…" She ended it with a shrug. "I don't think I can be trusted with plastic."

Bobby nodded in agreement, then shook his head in disbelief.

A few days later after searching and looking at different vehicles Lady and Bobby both agreed on a large truck. It was a '94 Ford F350 pick-up. Four doors, dark blue, nearing two-hundred thousand miles. It was giant, and Lady loved it. Bobby wanted to do some more work on it, maybe put a cover over the bed or add in a tool box for some secure storage. Until then the backseat had more than enough room for the things that she traveled with.

And then she was on her way to the east coast to meet up with the Winchesters.

**A/N** – _Songs for this chapter:_

_Enjoy the Silence, by Depeche Mode (Anberlin does a very nice cover of this song)_

_Make Your Move, by New Found Glory_

_Sex on Fire, by Kings of Leon_


	77. Fresh Blood part 1, September 2007

**A/N** – _This is based off of season 3 episode 7 called 'Fresh Blood'. When I rewrite actual Supernatural episodes I do so with the belief that people have seen them before. It is changed up a little but, the in the end there is the same result. Lady's situation is a bit different than the Winchesters for the most part, but I tried to keep you filled in with how the Winchesters are doing while they are separated. Please let me know if anything was confusing or difficult to follow so I can fix it. Also,_ c_hapters to reference. 11 and 12 are from Lady's first encounter with vampires. And then chapter 30 is Lady's first encounter with the deadly antagonist that returns in this episode._

**September 13, 2007**

So hundreds of demons who hadn't seen sunlight for hundreds, maybe even thousands, of years were now free. There was a warlock who possessed the power of an ancient Goddess that could kill her with a stray thought. And demons were recruiting witches. All those small itty-bitty problems weren't bothering Lady.

She had a new car that in her mind rivaled her old Beetle. She got to be with Dean and while they bickered it was the fun kind of teasing instead of the tear-inspiring fighting they had been doing. Lady felt like she had her place in the world back, and she wasn't going to give it up for anything.

Sam and Dean had continued driving north while she went to Atlantic City, New Jersey to earn some cash. After purchasing the truck she was back to being broke. Since the Winchesters were still working on evading the law they weren't using stolen credit cards, except in emergencies, and she knew their own cash supply was very short. She knew that because she had picked both of their pockets to see what they were carrying for cash and it wasn't much. Also she knew that Bobby was struggling to keep things afloat in South Dakota, and she had a new respect for everything he did. So her current plan was to make as much cash as she could so she could spread it out amongst all of them.

Already she had gained a decent amount of cash and was looking forward to joining the brothers again. However their current hunt was dealing with vampires in New York.

Just the thought of vampires made the hairs on Lady's arms stand up. Over a year ago in Colorado a few vampires from a nest escaped the Winchesters, and those vampires had their scents. All of their scents. Lady had spent a week being slowly bled by vampires, and she'd witnessed them kill two men. She knew what they were capable of, and they scared the crap out of her. It was her fear that Kate, one of the vampires that escaped death, would come across her one day and make her pay for her part in killing off her nest. So Lady was more than happy to chill out in casinos getting free drinks while she played the easy games that her future-sight allowed her to win at.

Sam and Dean's hunt in New York was strange. They had come across vampires a few times since their first encounter with them over a year ago. Their father had believed the vampires to be hunted to extinction until a nest in Colorado killed his old friend Daniel Elkins and penned Lady up like cattle. They had killed all but two women from the nest and had been unable to track them down, but at the time they had more pressing issues then chasing after a few bloodsuckers. Then a few months after that nest they came across another group of vampires that had managed to stay off hunter radar for years by feeding off of animals instead of humans.

The vampire they came across in New York was doing something rather disgusting. He was changing young unsuspecting women into vampires. Sam and Dean managed to figure out his hunting ground and were preparing to stake it out until they could find the vampire and end him.

Vampires had nearly been sent into extinction a few times, barely surviving as hunters discovered their weakness to dead man's blood. A few decades ago they had cursed Daniel Elkins' name because of his part in thinning out their numbers. But more recently it had been Gordon Walker's name that was blamed for their severe decline.

Gordon Walker had been sent to prison in Indiana nearly a year ago by Sam Winchester. It had been a rather brilliant plan at the time. Gordon had several warrants out for his arrest due to crimes he had performed across several states, beheading a vampire did leave a body that had to be cleaned up by the police. His fingerprints led him to be associated with several more crimes and he was barely able to keep up with the charges being brought against him and several states were arguing their reasons for wanting to extradite him for his trials. Sam knew the legal system fairly well from when he had studied to be a lawyer in Stanford and had anticipated all those things, and expected Gordon to have several years to cool down and lose interest in killing him. It had been a very good plan that had served them well for nearly a year.

But Gordon broke out of jail. Maybe he was on the run but he had several contacts that didn't hold that against him. The hunter grapevine was broken since the Roadhouse Blaze, but he didn't have to wait for long until he got the lead he was looking for. He cornered Bela Talbot, who was rumored to have worked a job with the Winchesters just a month earlier, and managed to purchase information on the Winchesters whereabouts.

From there he got with his good friend Kubrick and another contact, Creedy.

"The Winchesters are in New York," Gordon told them. "But we have to go in carefully. I've tried every contact I know that will still talk to me, I'm having trouble finding information on their witch whore, Lady."

Kubrick shrugged, "Word is she's dead."

"She's not," Gordon said. "Because she convinced Roy and Walt a few months ago that she wasn't a witch. She has them fooled, but I can't blame them for that. Roy always had a soft spot for a pretty face."

Creedy snickered, "Not just her face. I heard he made her squeal like a pig this one time they teamed up together."

Gordon and Kubrick both looked at Creedy with disdain. And Creedy looked away uncomfortably.

"We have the Winchesters," Gordon said, looking away from Creedy. "Kubrick and I will go in and get them. We'll finish them."

"But Dean is human," Kubrick countered.

"I doubt he'll give us a choice," Gordon said calmly. "Creedy, you need to draw out Lady."

"How?" Creedy asked.

"Throw the word out on the grapevine that you came across her old coven. Make sure the Harvelle's and Singer hear, they'll make sure she gets the message. Just don't fall under her charm," Gordon warned him with a cold glare.

Creedy did as he was told and waited. No one could, or would, give him Lady's cell phone number. Mistrust ran rampant through hunter circles, even between those that were friends. But eventually he got a solid lead. With Kubrick's help they traced a cell phone number that was currently turned on in Atlantic City.

"That's not far from the Winchesters. Best lead we have, take it," Gordon ordered. He fixed Creedy with another solid glare, "You watch out. Once you figure out it's her, don't hesitate. Two in the head, and burn that body to ash. This witch is dangerous and deadly."

* * *

"Mmmbop, ba dubi dop ba do bop, ba dubi dop ba do bop," Lady sang along to the radio. She was stretched on the front seat of her truck taking a break from her gambling.

She turned the radio down when Bobby called, "Yo," she answered.

"You sound like you are in a good mood," Bobby said roughly.

"Yeah, I've been getting laid. That usually helps," Lady said, a grin spreading across her face at the sound Bobby made. "What's up?"

"Hate to ruin that good mood, but I got some interesting calls this morning. I'm still sorting through it but figured out I better get in touch with you before someone else does. Got reports that the coven might be having some activity, a few hunters have been trying to find an expert on them."

"You kidding? This is better than sex. Where at?" Lady said excitedly.

"Don't know," Bobby said. "Can't even figure out which of the guys is asking for help. Just rumors. Something doesn't feel right."

Lady frowned, "When it comes to the coven most hunters know to call you. You know more than enough to get them started."

"Exactly," Bobby said. "I'll keep you posted, just watch yourself. I got a bad feeling."

"Will do," Lady said.

Lady turned the radio back up, disappointed that the song she had been listening to was now done. "Aw, I really liked those Hanson chicks."

She knew Sam and Dean were catching up on sleep. They had been up all night, and would be again tonight. Instead of waking them up she made a mental note to give them a call and fill them in closer to sunset. She could already imagine Dean's response. Witch hunt, woohoo! But the longer Lady thought of it she was starting to feel a little out of her element. The witch in Louisiana had been accompanied by a demon, and using demonic magic that Lady wasn't entirely familiar with. Recognizing demonic from pagan was easy enough, the smell of sulfur was a dead giveaway. But countering and protecting herself from it was a bit different.

All forms of magic had a similar base. What changed was just where the power was being drawn from. In the case of her coven the power had been pulled straight from ley lines. Ley lines were sources of energy that were within the ground, and they were found all over the world. However intersections of ley lines were required for rituals, they were strong focus points. Demonic magic came, from what Lady could guess, straight from hell. It didn't require certain ritual sites, that she knew of. Demonic magic was deadly enough, but demon henchmen were far more dangerous.

If something like this had happened a year ago Lady would have been at Bobby's doing what she could to prepare herself, instead of tagging along with the Winchesters so she could spend time with Dean. When had she changed from an independent hunter to a girlfriend who got dragged across the country just so she could be with someone she loved?

Lady kept her eye on the time when she returned to gambling. Until Bobby called her back there was nothing to do. But she could still earn a few bucks while she waited. She called Bobby back that evening but he didn't have anything new to tell her except that the calls had stopped coming in. Either the hunter who had come across the coven had taken care of it, gotten killed or had been mistaken. She called Dean to hear how their progress was.

"It all depends on how often he stops at this club," Dean was explaining. "I'm hoping we'll be done tonight, if not we may be stuck here a few more days. You getting restless in Jersey?"

"New Jersey smells like unwashed ass," Lady complained. "No, I'm doing fairly well I just don't want to hang around long enough to be noticed. I'll give you guys tonight but then I'm driving up."

"Fine by me," Dean said. "Hey, send me a nudie picture."

"I'm going to see you tomorrow, I don't want you spending all your energy on a picture," Lady teased.

"Come on," he urged. "I'll send you one if you send me one."

"Last time I fell for that all I got was a picture of you rubbing your nipple," Lady countered.

Dean chuckled, "I thought it was pretty hot." In the background she could hear Sam talking and Dean let out a sigh. "Okay, we're getting to work. I'll let you know how it goes."

Dean hung up the phone and grabbed his gear. He was ready to follow Sam out the door but his phone chirped to tell him he received a message. He dug it back out of his pocket and grinned when he saw a new picture sent from Lady.

"What is it?" Sam asked when Dean let out a happy chuckle.

"Oh, I'd show you but you'd never look at Lady the same," Dean said, putting his phone away and walking out the door.

While Sam and Dean were waiting outside a club in New York, Lady was sitting at a bar in an Atlantic City casino. She was working in her head how much money she made, how much she needed and how long she could wait before hitting another casino.

Lady had a hard time sitting patiently while waiting for Bobby or the Winchesters to call her back. And gambling at the casino was beginning to wear on her patience as well. Lady enjoyed money, it bought her cute shoes and allowed her to fill up her truck. Not to mention she liked to eat. But her attention span of earning money was wearing thin.

It was after midnight when she walked back out to her truck. She didn't want to call either of the Winchesters, she knew they were busy in their hunt now that the sun was down. Though she wished she could just to chat. Bobby was probably awake, but he wasn't much of a chatter and he hung up on her if she tried to talk dirty. At least Sam would laugh uncomfortably and Dean would participate. Poor old Bobby just couldn't take a joke, or had a lot of repressed sexual energy.

Lady had been in the casino for over four hours and was content to just sit and relax in the comfortable seat of her truck for a few moments. The stools at the slot machines hadn't been user friendly at all. But she got her keys in her hand and went to start the truck.

Lady's future-sight showed her putting the key into the ignition and turning it. The first few chugs as the engine came to life, and then a massive fireball that deafened and blinded her before everything went black.

Lady's hand froze an inch from sliding the key into its place, and then pulled back as she recovered from the intense sight. She searched the future a few times, and she quickly figured out that the instant she turned her truck on it was going to blow up. Either Bobby had missed a deadly issue with the truck's engine that had held together her whole trip across the country, or someone had planted a bomb in her car. Maybe Bobby wasn't OCD about taking care of cars like Dean was, but he did a damn good job. Her money was on a bomb.

Lady's paranoia button was officially pushed. So was her pissed off, scared crapless, and curious buttons. An exciting combination that sent adrenaline pumping through her body and a small smile tug at her lips. The kind of excitement that came from someone trying to kill her had no rival, and she couldn't wait to repay the favor.

As Lady gathered her gear she wondered what was after her. She doubted demons would use a car bomb, they were sadistic motherfuckers that preferred to use their hands. A witch might, but a witch would also want to have pieces left over to use. An explosion wouldn't leave many pieces. She considered vampires, only because that was what the Winchesters were looking into a few hours north of her, but vampires liked to get close and personal.

Wearing a sweatshirt she walked back into the casino. Under the sweatshirt she had put on her shoulder holster, her pistol was loaded and ready. There was a switchblade knife tucked up her sleeve for easy access, and a can of pepper spray in her pocket. The pepper spray was more of a condiment than a weapon, she sort of liked the taste of it on her breakfast burritos and had forgotten to take it out of her pocket.

* * *

Creedy had been watching Lady from a distance for hours. He had seen her leave her truck earlier that evening and she had fit Gordon's description. To be sure it was her he got into her truck, finding a few arcane items and a couple of weapons cemented his belief that she was Lady. He didn't want to approach the witch, so he rigged her truck to explode. And he watched her. When she didn't start the truck he had been briefly concerned that maybe she was onto him. But he quieted those concerns by reminding himself the only way she'd be able to tell the truck was going to blow up was if she had climbed under the truck to see the explosive device strapped to the gas tank. And she hadn't done that.

He watched when she reentered the casino, she had put on a sweatshirt to battle the cold wind that had picked up. Instead of going back to gambling she went to the bar, giving men flirty looks and receiving compliments. He had tried, for hours, to avoid being spotted. But now he went to the bar and took a seat a few stools down from her. "A light beer, please," he ordered. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lady looking him over and even giving him a flirty smile. Gordon was right, she was cute. And he couldn't help but glance over and return her smile as he paid for his beer.

"You should really go for the regular beer," she said. "That light stuff just tastes like water."

Creedy turned to face her and shrugged, "I need to keep my girlish figure."

She giggled and casually flipped her hair away from her face. "You a local?"

"No, on a weekend getaway," he answered. "You?"

"Same," she answered, her eyes going over the bar once before back to him. "Hi, I'm Lady."

"Mel," he answered. No one called him by his first name, few people even knew it. But he wouldn't give her the name Creedy in case she had heard of him.

"Nice to meet you," she said, reaching over with her right hand, offering a shake.

Creedy took her hand, and couldn't help but glance at the inside of her right wrist as he shook it. And he was suddenly concerned, there was no tattoo like Gordon had warned him. But there were ways to cover tattoos up. And she said her name was Lady. "Likewise."

Lady went back to her drink, watching the man out of the corner of her eye. It had taken nearly half an hour, which really wasn't bad timing, to figure out who was after her. It was the guy sitting down the bar from her drinking a light beer. She saw his eyes move to her wrist, but she hadn't been looking for someone to do that. As she assessed the situation, no sulfur or incense, no mark of his own on his wrist, she realized that it wasn't a monster coming after her.

It was another hunter.

Her stomach sank a bit, she wasn't necessarily prepared for that. It had been a concern, sure, but it'd been so long that she had hoped it was done with. But she pulled herself together and worked a plan.

"You here with family, Mel?" she asked.

"No," he answered. "Divorced, kids are in college. How about you? Here with a…" he made a show of looking at her left hand which had no ring, "Boyfriend along?"

"No," she answered, giving him a wicked smile. She licked her lips as she looked him over, and his eyes grew wide at the look she gave him. For a middle-aged dude he wasn't bad looking. Wasn't great looking, either, but she didn't really care that much. His hair was very dark, nearly black, with streaks of silver. He had a thick goatee. His height was around 5'10", and he appeared to be well-built. Most hunters were in decent shape, a lot of monsters ran pretty fast and it was helpful if they could to. "You know, I just got a room for the night. I wasn't looking forward to going up there to a big empty king sized bed all alone. I think it might be fun if you came with me."

The man blinked and even blushed a bit, "Are…you serious?"

Lady giggled and put her hand on his, "What's the matter, Mel? You are a nice looking guy, I bet women come onto you all the time."

He shrugged a bit, "Usually have to buy them a few drinks first."

"I've been drinking all night," she said. "So, what do you say?"

Creedy thought it over, and nodded. He'd get her alone in her hotel room, and then finish it. "Okay, yeah." But maybe he'd wait until afterward.

In the elevator Creedy put his arm around her waist, casually checking for weapons while pulling her a bit closer to him. He felt none. And when she looked up at him he leaned down to give her a long kiss. Whatever she had been drinking was still sweet in her mouth, and the way she sucked on his bottom lip made him want to shake his leg. He hadn't lied about being divorced, and it had been a long time since a woman had kissed him like that.

In the elevator alone Lady managed to lift the guys wallet, keys to his car and a handful of poker chips. She felt a pistol, a big one, hidden in a shoulder holster like her. Two pocket knives, and she felt another knife or small pistol strapped to his ankle. When the elevator door opened she broke the kiss and gave him a wickedly eager smile, "Oh, Mel, you are in for a long night," she promised him in a husky voice. She gave his butt, which was a bit flat, a pinch to get him moving down the hallway toward the room she had rented just for this occasion.

Once inside the room she didn't let him do anything, forcefully kissing him while pushing him backwards onto the bed. He fell on his back and before he could try to sit up she was on top of him, ripping his shirt open and giggling as her hands ran through his chest hair.

"My, you are, uh…you know what you want. I respect that," he breathed as he reached for her.

Lady grabbed his hands and slowly raised them over his head and pressed them onto the bed, "I'm glad," she breathed.

The next second metal handcuffs snapped closed around his wrists. The handcuffs were slipped through the headboard and immediately the man was trying to get free. "This is…uh…" he stammered.

"This isn't meant to be kinky," Lady said as she grabbed his pistol from his side. "Nice, I think I'll keep this one." She got off of him and patted down his pockets. Once his pockets were empty and he was completely defenseless and smiled at him. "Your name is Melvin Creedy?" She held up his wallet and let him watch her take the cash out of it and made a show of stuffing it in her bra. "Shitty picture." She said, commenting on his driver's license.

"Fuck," he hissed, closing his eyes and tensing. "Get it over with."

"I'm not going to fuck you," Lady said flatly.

"Just kill me, you witch," he said.

Lady pulled out her own pistol and aimed it at him, "Calling me names isn't very nice. Now, we're going to play a game called answer my fucking questions or I'll start taking off pieces of you. It's very easy. First question, you a hunter?"

"Go to hell," he answered.

Lady holstered her pistol so she could have both hands free, "The game is only easy if you answer me," she said, and began pulling his boots off. She got kicked a few times before she managed it. "Are you a hunter?" she asked again.

"Do your worst," he said.

"Pride will get you nowhere," she said. "You are a hunter, point one goes to me for answering for you. Second question is worth five points, buster. Who told you I was a witch?"

"I won't talk, bitch," he said.

Lady jumped on him, straddling him and undoing his belt. "It's been so long since a man has talked to me like that, making me sort of hot," she said as the belt came free. She smacked him with it once across the face. "Who told you I was a witch?" She unbuttoned his jeans and began to open them. "Pal, I'm not getting you undressed so you can have a happy ending. You might want to start talking, and talking _soon_. I have no respect for a guy who doesn't have the balls to save his own dick. Especially when the person they are protecting sent him on a suicide mission."

Mel was silent, and Lady began pulling his pants and boxers down to expose him. "Alright. After I cut them off I'll feed them to you. You ever had Rocky Mountain Oysters? Fry them in oil for ten minutes and I bet they'll taste just like that." Lady pulled out her switchblade knife and looked at him. Her pale-blue eyes were glinting with dangerous mischief and excitement.

* * *

Sam and Dean were staking out a club in New York when they caught sight of the vampire they were looking for. They followed him into an alley and narrowly stopped him from infecting another young woman from being turned. The vampire quickly became defensive and went on the run, but the brothers chased after him immediately. They were hoping to get him alive, they still wanted to find out where their nest was. As they rounded a corner chasing the vampire they nearly ran right into Gordon and Kubrick who had been staking them out as well.

Sam and Dean barely escaped with their lives from the ambush. They split up and met back up at the motel around one in the morning. It didn't take Dean long to figure out Bela was the only person other than Lady and Bobby that knew where they were, and he angrily called Bela. Even though she said that Gordon had a gun on her he didn't care, she nearly cost them their lives.

His next phone call was to Lady. "Hey, I was just about to call you!" Lady said urgently.

"Not now, Lady, this is important," Dean tried to get in.

"Not as important as what I have to tell you!" she said. "Gordon is out of jail."

"How the hell did you find out?" he asked.

"Oh, well…a little birdie told me," she said. In the background Dean heard muffled noises. "SHUT UP! I'M ON THE PHONE!" Lady screeched. "Sorry, that was the birdie asking me to take the dirty socks out of his mouth."

Dean let out a nervous breath, "Who came after you?"

"Some douche named Melvin Creedy," she answered. "But Gordon knows where you and Sam are, you need to hightail it out of there."

"They already found us," Dean said. "We can't run, they'll just keep coming."

Lady was quiet for a few moments until she was sure Dean had subtly told her that they were going to kill Gordon. "Dean, he's human."

Dean let out a breath, "Wow. I expected that from Sam, not from you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked quietly.

"Nothing," he muttered. "Watch your ass, Lady. There might be more of them. We'll meet up as soon as we can."

Lady hung up the phone and looked at Mel. She let out a sigh and casually dropped the blanket over his naked bits. "I get it, it's cold in here. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." She pulled the dirty socks out of his mouth.

"Go to hell," he said, a few tears leaking from his eyes.

"Oh, please, don't cry," she said, looking away.

"You have what you wanted to know. Kill me. Gordon will anyway," he said.

Lady understood that right then Dean and Sam were working on a way to repay Gordon's favor of trying to kill them. She knew Dean was right, if they just ran Gordon would keep coming. He'd spread the word, and soon they'd be constantly looking over their shoulders in fear of the next ambush or car bomb. Lady had killed more witches than she could count, but she'd never killed someone who wasn't corrupted by black magic. She'd never killed a human being, and it was a line she didn't want to cross. Maybe she had never been religious but the commandment of 'Thou Shall Not Kill' had always seemed like a good one to follow, she just bended it to suit her needs. She figured once Sam and Dean found Gordon they'd have to kill him in at least self defense. But the man she had unarmed and handcuffed was defenseless, and she thought she made him pee himself.

Lady did the best thing she could, she decided to talk sense into him. "Mel, I'm going to tell you something. I'm not a witch. See my wrist, I don't have that mark. Nothing is covered up." She rubbed her wrist until it was red to prove there was no make-up covering a tattoo. "Gordon Walker is insane. And sadistic. I'm a witch hunter, I do carry a lot of things to protect myself from black magic. But I don't use black magic. I don't suppose you believe any of this?"

"You are a sick bitch," he growled.

"That I admit to," she said. "But ask yourself if I have actually hurt anything other than your pride. Here is the deal, I'm not going to kill you. I'm not a murderer. I can't do it. You can call me every name under the sun, and I can't do it. I'll probably stab you in a non-vital area out of spite, but I won't kill you. I'm leaving you here, as you are, knowing that eventually housekeeping is going to find you. You'll get free. And I'm afraid you'll try to kill me again. What you should do, though, is declare victory right now. Tell Gordon that you killed me, tell every hunter you know that I'm dead and buried. Because if you don't, if you come back again, you won't be lucky enough to fall for my tricks. I say that because the only reason I didn't have to kill you tonight is because I got you unarmed in less than one minute. It's a mistake you won't make again, which means next time we both have to be ready. To die, or kill. I don't want to have to do that."

He was silent as he looked at her, and didn't struggle as she gagged him again. Lady left the hotel room, making sure the 'Do Not Disturb' sign was on the door as she walked back to the elevator. The room was paid for three days, he'd make it that long without food or water.

It took Lady fifteen minutes to find and disarm the explosive on her truck. Bobby had given her a few pointers on explosives after her first run-in with Gordon months ago, and with her future-sight she figured it out without blowing herself, truck or anything else up.

And then she was on her way to join the brothers in New York.

Lady had one flaw in her plan to leave Creedy behind. She had taken away his weapons and anything she felt was valuable to her, but she hadn't even noticed the paperclip he had on the cuff of his shirt. Once she left he worked on freeing himself from the handcuffs, and did so in under five minutes. After getting his pants back on and recovering from the near-death experience he went back to his car, he was only minutes behind Lady when he made his way to New York. He even saw her truck on the highway before he passed her.

He called Kubrick and found out the ambush against the Winchesters had failed, and Gordon was currently missing in action. They set up a meeting place, a campsite where Kubrick parked his camper.

* * *

After Gordon and Kubrick ambushed the Winchesters they split up to finish them off. Kubrick went after Dean while Gordon focused on his main target, Sam. But before he had managed to kill the youngest Winchester he was ambushed by the vampire that the brothers had been hunting. He woke up in the nest and antagonized the vampire a bit before the vampire did the worst thing he could do to a hunter.

The vampire infected Gordon, changing him.

The transformation from human to vampire didn't take long. Gordon had gotten a good dose of vampire blood right into his blood stream, it took less than an hour before the thirst set in. At first he was disorientated. Lights were too bright, noises too loud, but he was getting the hang of it. He freed himself from his chains and killed two vampire girls that were hanging in chains in the same position he was. Newly turned and so hungry.

Once escaping the nest he couldn't resist the urge to feed, and did so on a helpless victim. More of the blood spilt then made it down his throat, but he felt the hunger ease. From there he traveled to see his friend Kubrick at the campsite they had taken lodging at. It was early in the morning and already the sky was beginning to lighten. He was hoping Kubrick would listen to him, and then provide shelter during the daylight hours.

Creedy had barely sat down in Kubrick's camper when Gordon arrived.

"Gordon, are you okay?" Kubrick asked, shocked at Gordon's ill appearance. His eyes were bloodshot and his face was sweating.

"Not really," Gordon admitted. He looked at Creedy, "Lady is dead?"

Creedy looked at Gordon with the same fearful concern Kubrick had and then answered, "Yeah. Bomb in her truck, barely anything left of her."

Gordon looked relieved at that information, "At least one plan went correctly. Good work, Creedy."

Creedy shifted uncomfortably. "Gordon, you don't look so good, man."

"I don't feel so good," Gordon said. "Something happened."

"What?" Kubrick asked, offering Gordon a chair.

Gordon shook his head at the offer. "They turned me."

Kubrick look at him in surprise, "Those fangs? I'm sorry, you know what we have to do."

"It means you have to kill me," Gordon said. "But not yet."

"What do you mean?" Kubrick asked, keeping Gordon's attention on him while Creedy pulled out a machete behind his back.

"You have to let me do one last thing first," Gordon said.

"What?" Kubrick asked.

"Kill Sam Winchester," Gordon said.

Kubrick shook his head, "Gordon…"

"Listen to me," Gordon said forcefully. "It's the only…it's the one good thing to come out of this nightmare. After tonight it can all be over."

"Gordon, I'm sorry, you know I can't let you walk out of here," Kubrick pleaded with him gently. Trying to appeal to his sense of logic and camaraderie they had shared for years.

"There is nothing more important. Please. I can do one last good thing for the world," Gordon said. He looked past Kubrick to the crucifix that hung on the wall of the camper.

Kubrick moved behind Gordon and took the machete Creedy offered him. His heart pounded at what he was about to do, "Yeah, I hear you. You know, Gordon, you're right. One last good thing," Kubrick said to calm down his vampire friend.

Creedy let out a shocked gasp as Gordon turned around and punched a hole right into Kubrick, killing him almost instantly. He couldn't move. He had never see anything like that happen, and he'd seen a lot of things. But a partner in arms being turned into a monster and then turning on them…

"I'm sorry," Gordon said, looking at Creedy hungrily.

"No! No! Gordon, no!" Creedy cried out as Gordon's fangs descended and he tore into Creedy.

**A/N** - _Song for this chapter:_

_MmmBop, by Hanson - I actually apologize for this song, but I thought it was amusing to have Gordon warning that Lady was dangerous, and then have her rocking out to the least-threatening song I could think of. And this was what popped into my head.  
_


	78. Fresh Blood part 2, September 2007

**September 14, 2007**

Sam and Dean had gotten a call from Bela Talbot, and to earn forgiveness for giving their location to Gordon she gave them his location. A warehouse near the river. By the time they got there Gordon had already escaped and was gone, but the vampire they had followed out of the club was there mourning the loss of his two vampire children. He told the brothers what he did, bringing Gordon Walker there and turning him into one of them. The Winchesters killed the vampire, but they were now aware of a more serious threat.

They began covering their tracks. Destroying their cell phones so Gordon couldn't trace the cell signal and find them. And then they started a search of motels, abandoned buildings and warehouses where Gordon might have himself holed up, but came up empty handed. They returned to their motel when the sun began to rise.

Dean was checking the Colt and made sure the edge of his machete was still sharp, "Sammy, stay here and wait for Lady," he ordered.

"What? Where are you going now?" Sam asked.

"I'm going after Gordon," Dean said in an obvious tone.

"What?" Sam snapped.

"You heard me," Dean said back.

"Not alone you're not," Sam said.

"Sam, I don't need you to sign me a permission slip, okay? He's after you and Lady, not me, and he's turbocharged. I want you to stay out of harms way and watch over Lady. I'll take care of this," Dean said confidently. Maybe he'd make it out alive, maybe not. But at least two people he cared about would be spared.

"You're not going by yourself, you're gonna get killed," Sam said.

"Just another day at the office," Dean gave his brother a grin. "It's a massively dangerous day at the office."

"So you're the guy with nothing to lose now, huh? Oh wait, let me guess. Because, uh, it's because you're already dead, right?" Sam said angrily. He was sick of going back and forth with Dean on this, but he wasn't about to let his brother walk out of the motel room to hunt down the most dangerous predator they had ever come across.

Dean hated hearing about it more than Sam hated to bring it up. "If the shoe fits," he said with a shrug.

"You know what, man? I'm sick and tired of your kamikaze trip," Sam snapped.

"Whoa! Whoa! Kamikaze?" Dean looked offended. Then he smiled a bit and said, "I'm more like a ninja."

"That's not funny," Sam said flatly.

"It's a little funny," Dean said with a smirk.

"No, it's not," Sam frowned.

Dean shrugged, "Lady would have laughed," he muttered. "What do you want me to do, Sam, huh? Sit around all day writing sad poems about how I'm gonna die? You know what? I got one. Let's see, what rhymes with 'Shut up, Sam?'"

Sam looked at Dean angrily, "Dude, drop the attitude, Dean. Quit turning everything into a punch line. And you know something else? Stop trying to act like you're not afraid."

"I'm not!" Dean snapped. It was a bold lie, he knew that, but Sam didn't have to know that.

"You're lying," Sam called him out. "You may as well drop it because I can see right through you. Maybe Lady buys it, but I don't."

"You got no idea what you're talking about," Dean muttered, looking away.

"Yeah, I do. You're scared, Dean. You're scared because your year is running out, and you're still going to hell, and your freaked."

"And how do you know that?" Dean asked mockingly.

"Because I know you!" Sam shouted.

"Really?" Dean scoffed.

"Yeah, I've been following you around my entire life! I mean, I've been looking up to you since I was four, Dean. Studying you, trying to be just like my big brother. So yeah, I know you. Better than anyone else in the entire world. And this is exactly how you act when you're terrified. And, I mean, I can't blame you. It's just..." Sam looked at his brother sadly and looked away.

Dean waited a few long moments before asking, "What?"

Sam looked back at his brother, "I wish you would drop the show and be my brother again. Because…just 'cause," Sam said.

Dean looked away. He wasn't looking forward to dying. That day or in a few months. No idiot looked forward to death. He was trying to enjoy as much of his life as he could, and it hit him that he hadn't been treating Sam very well the past few months. He only had so much time to make that up to his little brother. "All right, we'll hole up, cover our scent so he can't track us, and wait the night out here," Dean decided.

Sam and Dean were working on barricading the motel room, making it a fortress, when Lady arrived.

"Hey, stopped for breakfast," she said. "Your cell phones are just going to voice mail."

Dean pulled her inside and looked around cautiously before shutting the door. "I told you to come straight here," he said.

"McDonald's was on the straight line here," Lady said with a smile, and her smile slipped away as she looked around. "What's with the boarded up windows?"

"Gordon Walker…" Sam began.

Lady dropped the bag of fast food and took a step back, "What?"

"Got turned into a vampire," Sam finished.

Lady searched the brother's faces while waiting for a punch line. When one didn't come up she sat on the edge of a bed, "How the hell do you guys…never mind," she muttered. She wanted to ask how the hell they ever turned twenty. Lady admittedly got into some sticky situations, but the Winchester's ability to find trouble was rivaled only by their luck of having trouble land in their laps. Gordon Walker and vampires were two things Lady feared, rolling them into one was massive trouble.

"We had to ditch our cell phones," Dean explained. "You better do the same. Sam will go out and get new ones activated for us."

"Yeah, okay," Lady said, handing her phone over and wincing as Dean crushed it under his boot.

They talked for a while. Lady made a list of things they would need to make incense to cover their scent from a vampire, and then gave Sam the cash he needed to purchase them new cell phones. They only had so many hours of sunlight that would prevent Gordon from coming after them, and Lady wasn't a fan of waiting around for him to come looking for them.

Sam left the motel and took Lady's truck in case Gordon spotted the Impala. Lady and Dean sat around the motel room just looking at the walls for ten minutes before speaking.

"What'd you do to Creedy?" Dean finally asked.

"I left him handcuffed and naked in a hotel room," she answered. "I wasn't up for putting two bullets in a defenseless man's head."

"Sorry, I…I uh…I thought that what Gordon put you through you'd be relieved we were going to kill him," Dean said.

"I'm going to be relieved when we don't have to worry about him anymore," Lady said. "What about Creedy and the other guy Gordon was with?"

"Worry about them second," Dean said. "Not really looking forward to having to look over our shoulders either, but I don't want to have to hunt them down. It isn't right. We shouldn't have to, either."

Lady tensed a bit as she saw signs of Dean's anger coming out. She walked over to him and pulled him to stand up. She gave him a smile, "You know, its borderline hilarious that Gordon got turned into a vampire. In an ironic way."

Dean fought the smile. It shouldn't be funny that anyone could be turned into a vampire, but she had a point. He brushed his fingertips across her cheek as he tucked some hair behind her ear, "You get hurt at all?"

"Few bruises is all," she said. "He kicked me a few times while I was pulling off his pants."

Dean couldn't resist the smile now, "You put a knife to his balls, didn't you?"

"I tried, but he had a freaking wolverine down there I couldn't find them!" Lady laughed. "I talked to him a bit. I don't think I got through, but, I tried to convince him I'm not a witch. I don't know, maybe if I'm lucky he'll just say he killed me and people will stop looking."

"Maybe," Dean said doubtfully.

She stretched her neck and kissed him shortly. "We're going to be okay, Dean. Gordon won't find us tonight, tomorrow we'll track him down."

"Tomorrow I'd really like it if you started driving west," he said.

She shook her head, "I'm not that easy to get rid of."

He nodded, "I know. Just, I only have so much time and if I have to spend what time I got left burying you or Sam…I'm not going to bother with it."

Lady didn't know what to say to that. So she chose to ignore it. "Okay, you look like you could use some sleep. Take a nap, I'll keep a lookout until Sam gets back."

Dean didn't argue, he'd been up all night. He laid facedown on the bed, and Lady sat next to him. Sam returned with their phones, lunch and what she needed to make incense. Sam stayed awake until Lady finished burning the incense that smelled like skunk spray, and then he got a few hours of sleep. Lady was the last one to get a nap in when Dean woke up.

After sundown none of them slept. Lady was the best lookout anyone could ask for with her future-sight, and because of that she had the Colt resting on her thigh in case they hadn't covered their tracks well enough. There wasn't much talking, no radio or television. Just eerie silence and the occasional sound of an impatient sigh from Lady.

Lady tensed slightly before Dean's phone rang and broke the silence.

"You've had the phone less than a day, who'd you give the number to?" Sam asked. They hadn't even called out from the cell phones yet. Lady hadn't even contacted Bobby because it was too risky.

"Nobody," Dean frowned, answering the phone. "Hello?"

"Dean," Gordon said.

Dean's eyes widened in surprise, "How'd you get this number?"

"Sam's scent was all over the cell phone store. Of course, I can't smell you now. Where are you?" Gordon said.

"I guess you'll just have to find us," Dean said, giving Sam and Lady a confident smile.

"Really? I thought you'd be searching for me," Gordon said. "After all, I was the one who told Creedy to kill your witch."

Dean frowned a bit, "What?"

"I spoke to Creedy last night," Gordon told him. "He blew up your witch in her own car. She's dead, Dean."

"And where is Creedy?" Dean asked.

"Afraid he didn't survive the meeting," Gordon said apologetically. "If you want revenge for that whore, you should come meet me."

"Nah, I'm good," Dean said. "I'll just watch the Wizard of Oz and get nostalgic."

"I really think you should come here, Dean," Gordon said. And a few moments later Dean could hear a woman whimpering. Gordon continued, "Factory on riverside off the turnpike. Be here in twenty minutes or the girl dies."

"Gordon, let the girl go," Dean said, already standing up from his chair. "Don't do this, Gordon. You don't kill innocent people. You're still a hunter."

"No, I'm a monster," Gordon answered. "Bye, Dean,"

Dean angrily closed his phone. "Gordon has a hostage."

"This is obviously a trap," Sam said.

"Obviously," Dean said, and turned to Lady. He opened his mouth to tell her to stay where she was, then closed it. A curse slid through his lips, "We need you."

"I'm ready," Lady said, standing up.

"Gordon believes you are dead. He said he talked to Creedy, and Creedy told him he blew you up," Dean said.

Lady's eyes widened, "He did? But how did…how did Gordon find him?"

"Don't know. Don't care," Dean said. "Thing is Gordon won't be expecting you. And you are the best shot we have."

They didn't have much time, luckily Dean and Sam had been prepared. They grabbed their gear and loaded into the Impala to where Gordon had told them to go.

Lady hung back from Sam and Dean until they were inside, sure that Gordon would be watching them instead of her getting out of the Impala. Her scent was covered, her clothes dusted with the skunky smelling incense just like Sam and Dean.

The building was dimly lit, if it wasn't for the moon shining through large high windows she didn't think the occasional hanging light bulb would have done much. She stayed in the shadows and watched her future-sight carefully so she'd have extra time to get a shot off. The Colt was heavier than she liked, but that didn't mean she couldn't handle it. It just meant she kept both hands on the grip.

Sam and Dean were far ahead of her and found the hostage. They untied the woman and were leading her out. So far Gordon hadn't made himself known. Dean had an arm around the woman as he dragged her along, Sam covering their rear. And just as they went through a doorway a metal door slid down, blocking Sam off from his brother and Lady.

"SAM!" Dean hollered.

Lady surged forward, "What happened?"

"Sam is behind this door, he's trapped," Dean said, pounding on the metal door without progress.

"I'll look for something to pry it up," Lady said, giving his arm a squeeze before going into the shadows.

While Lady searched the ground blindly for anything that might help them get to Sam the woman who the brothers had rescued was making soft whimpers of fear. Lady thought nothing of it when the whimpers went quiet, to be honest she was a bit relieved. Dealing with hysterical and traumatized victims was something she liked to avoid. However after a few moments Dean let out a surprised shout that made her turn her head and raise the Colt. "Dean?" She called as she moved to get him back in her line of sight.

The woman had a mouthful of fangs, her chest heaving hungrily as she pinned down Dean's wrist that had the deadly machete. Dean was struggling with her superior strength as she went to tear out his throat.

Lady fired the Colt and hit the vampire in the forehead. Electricity sparked and the woman convulsed a few times before Dean threw him off of her. "You okay, babe?" Lady called from across the room.

"Yeah," he said, pulling himself off the ground. "I have a feeling that Sam isn't. Help me get this damn door open."

"Okay," Lady said, putting the Colt in her pocket so she had both hands free and began walking toward him. After a few steps she paused, looking around in confusion, and then she moved backwards as fast as she could.

The next instant the wall that separated the room Sam had been trapped in and the room they were currently in broke. Lady was hit by one of the large men that toppled through and fell backwards several feet, getting the wind knocked out of her.

"Sam!" Dean hollered as he saw Sam grappling with the vampire Gordon.

Gordon snarled as he picked Sam off the ground and threw him into Dean, knocking both the men down. Lady was on her feet and was retrieving the Colt out of her pocket as Gordon turned to look at her. In the time it took her to cock the revolver he was right in front of her, grabbing her arm and squeezing until she dropped the Colt. With a quick movement he kicked the Colt and it went skidding across the floor and into the shadows. His other hand grabbed her by the neck.

"You are supposed to be dead," he said, his lips pulling back as fangs descended. "I'll fix that."

Before he could bite her neck she got her free arm to block him, but he just bit into that instead. Lady didn't try to pull her arm back as the pain sank into it, she knew from experience that vampire fangs had an excellent hold and unless she wanted to hurt herself further struggling was a bad idea. His hand tightened around her neck so she couldn't breathe. Her legs kicked at him in vain, his strength was too sturdy for her to do anything to.

And then Gordon released her on his own, backing away and gagging. He spit bright red blood from his mouth and looked at her in disgust. "You aren't even close to human," he said in a pained voice. "What are you?"

Lady went completely still at those words. Over a year ago a few vampires hadn't complained about her taste one bit, and at that time she had a curse running through her blood. Gordon had reared back as if she had tasted like bitter poison and almost looked like he was in physical pain.

Gordon was too distracted to hear Sam coming up behind him. With a quick movement Sam wrapped razor-wire around Gordon's neck and pulled the ends until it was tight around the vampire's neck. The razors cut into his flesh and continued to dig deeper, until the wire went right through and decapitated Gordon.

Sam panted with exertion as he let the razor-wire that was dripping with Gordon's blood fall to the ground. And then in the dim light he looked at his own hands, covered with blood. He had received several cuts from the razor wire himself and he had a bit of spray from Gordon on his shirt. He swallowed hard as he let the wounds bleed, afraid he may have gotten some of Gordon's vampire blood inside the cuts.

Dean let out a relieved breath, "You just killed Gordon without any weapons. Bit reckless, don't you think?" He patted his brother on the shoulder before going to Lady. "Babe, you okay?"

"Yeah," Lady breathed. "Uh…give me your flashlight, I need to find the Colt. He kicked it somewhere. I'm sorry I…"

"Don't worry about it," he said. "Sam, come help us look for the Colt."

"Dean," Sam called.

Dean turned to look at his brother and for the first time saw his bloody hands. His heart stuttered in his chest, "You didn't…you didn't get his blood on you, did you?"

Sam looked at him with large eyes, "I don't know."

Lady's mouth went dry as she looked at Sam. She knew how a vampire was created, transferring blood. "You are probably fine, Sam," she said, giving him a smile.

"Yeah, yeah, of course!" Dean said. "Uh, Lady, find the gun. Make it snappy."

Once Lady found the Colt they left, going back to the barricaded motel room as they waited.

"According to Elkin's journal a vampire can take as little as an hour, as long as six hours, to change," Dean said as he read. "The change seems to happen in a few different phases, but after six hours anyone tainted with vampire blood will have fangs and become bloodthirsty. Hungry for some tomato-juice, Sam?"

Sam looked up at his brother, "No, but it's only been an hour."

Lady went to the bed Sam had decided to sit on, and sat next to him. He opened his mouth, about to ask her to stay away from him. But she sat right next to him and took one of his cut-up hands in her own, "I'll play along with this waiting game, but you aren't going to become a vampire."

Lady's hand was tiny within Sam's giant mitts, and to even it out she decided to hold his one hand with both of hers. Sam had been there for her while she was coming back to life doing the same thing. Holding her hand and giving quiet words of encouragement. She wasn't sure if he was terrified the whole time like she was right then.

Dean packed up his gear. The machete and Colt in his bag, out of reach in case Sam did in fact turn. But he wasn't going to leave them out like he was waiting for it to happen.

As the hours ticked by Lady leaned against Sam, closing her eyes as if she was too tired to keep them open as she rested her face against his arm. She wasn't tired, she just couldn't watch Dean's hidden anxiety as they waited.

After a while, they were nearing the four hour mark, Dean got up to use the bathroom.

"How you holding up?" Lady asked Sam quietly, keeping her eyes closed.

"So far I don't feel any different," he said.

"Good," she said, letting some of her relief show. "Because I really need you to stick around, Sam. You had to of heard what Gordon said, and what he did after he bit me. There is something wrong with me."

Sam's pulse throbbed in his ears, "There is nothing wrong with you, Lady."

"There is something in my blood," she said. "It made Gordon sick for a moment. When I had a curse in my blood a vampire never reacted like that. I think that after I came back…something that Donovan did. I don't know what, I have no clue. But I'm going to need your help. I can't sit around waiting for the answer to drop into my lap, and when it comes to the things that are wrong with us Dean turns a blind eye and pretends they don't exist. He'd rather wish they'd just go away than look for the answers. Like when your visions started, the whole time searching for Yellow-Eyes. But you, you are good at searching for answers. Looking for the truth. I need _you_, Sam."

Sam squeezed her hand slightly and looked straight ahead. Guilt had never felt worse than it did right then. It mixed with his own fear and he could almost smell it rolling off of him. He was afraid he might have to be killed in the next few hours if it turned out he had been infected. Could he die and leave Lady in the dark about what he did?

Dean came out of the bathroom, looking at his watch and back at Sam. Lady looked like she was peacefully sleeping, but he knew she wasn't. "How you feeling, Sam?" Dean asked.

"I don't know," Sam admitted. Was the pulse in his ears his own? Or was he starting to hear Lady's heartbeat? Was the sick feeling in his stomach the bloodlust settling in? Or just the sick feeling of dread and guilt making his stomach churn?

"You're going to be fine," Dean said with confidence, trying to ease Sam's worry. "You need anything? You don't want me to hold your other hand, do you?"

Sam looked away from Dean, wishing he wouldn't try to crack jokes right then. The next few hours he battled with himself on whether or not to finally come clean, knowing it may be his last chance.

And then the sun started to come up. Sam held his hand under the sunlight coming from the window. It didn't burn, it didn't hurt, it just felt like the normal warmth of the sun. He had survived, and he came out of it still human.

There wasn't a celebration. Dean said, "I told you so," and finished packing so they could get out of town. But they all knew it had been a close call. A dangerously close call.

Lady finally removed herself from Sam's side and interrupted Dean's hurry to pack. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, they were hard as steel with the tension he had been carrying all night, and gave him a long kiss. They didn't have time for anything else and Lady was just relieved that things had worked out okay.

As Sam packed up his own things he watched their kiss from the corner of his eye. He'd seen their shows of affection several times and in several different ways, most of the time he didn't even think anything of it. But he was thinking about Dean's relationship with Lady right then. And he was thinking about what Lady had said.

When Sam had first started getting visions over a year ago Dean had tried to brush it off like it was nothing. The only person Dean had asked for advice on them was Lady, and she couldn't help. It was Sam that figured out his visions occurred when the demon was nearby or working. And it was Sam who took the initiative to search for others like him when Dean was asking them to lay low. Dean didn't know why Sam was one of the demon's chosen children, but Dean had been so terrified to admit that maybe Sam wasn't quite right. That maybe his little brother had something dark and evil in him. That there was something _wrong_. Dean had done everything but stick his fingers in his ears and chant 'LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU' whenever Sam tried to work with him on it.

And at that moment Sam could see Dean doing the same thing with Lady's new issue. If Lady wasn't human like Gordon had said, the question 'What was she?' had to be asked. Or if there was something deadly in her blood, what if it meant she was cursed again? Living on borrowed time. All of those were things they needed to find out, and he was willing to bet that Dean didn't want to think about those questions. Sam knew he didn't want to think about those questions, because he was responsible for all of them.

He couldn't leave this alone anymore. He had to tell her what he had done while she was on the hospital.


	79. Small Town Motel, September 2007

**September 15, 2007**

Lady was relaxed and tired enough to sleep by the time the brothers were ready to get out of town. She never knew that holding someone's hand took so much energy. But they couldn't stay long enough for any of them to get a nap in. The Winchesters felt like they had overstayed their welcome in New York. Four dead vampires, one dead vampire-hunter hybrid, and somewhere out there were two other dead hunters. It was time to leave.

That afternoon they stopped at a small town motel and got some sleep. That evening needed to be spent doing a few things that hadn't been important while they were in New York.

Lady woke up as the sun was setting. She was sharing a room alone with Dean, Sam was a few rooms over. When they had made it into the motel room they had only taken the time to go to the bathroom, strip down to their underwear and go to bed. Dean had fallen asleep on his side with his back to her. On his bare back she could see a few scrapes and bruises, along with multiple healed scars. While she knew Dean could probably enjoy a few more hours of sleep after the past few days she was unable to resist sliding across the bed to wrap an arm around his neck while pressing her front to his back. He was slow to respond as she gave the back of his neck a nibble.

"Mm, who said you got to be the big spoon?" Dean mumbled as he woke up.

"Spoon? I'm more like a Swiss Army Knife. All purpose little gadget."

He chuckled and stayed still as she continued to drag her teeth against his neck between blowing cool breaths of air over his ear. Maybe he would have liked to get more than four hours of sleep, but he didn't mind waking up to something like that.

Lady's arm wrapped around his middle, rubbing up his bare chest and then back down toward his boxers. Dean let out a soft moan as she rubbed him through his boxers, and he couldn't stay still any longer.

He rolled onto his back, Lady shifted with him and let him pull her toward him for a passionate kiss. Wasting no time he pulled her shirt off, his hands caressing her soft skin. He got to see some of her bruises from the night before, and the vampire bite on her arm was now scabbed over and healing.

Lady slipped out of her underwear and Dean's hand slid down her back to cup her ass as soon as she kicked them off the bed. The past few days had been exciting and terrifying, and Lady was still riding the high of surviving along with the supreme relief of getting out alive and without Sam being turned into a vampire.

Lady put a knee on either side of Dean's waist and he shifted himself so he was comfortable. Lady put the palm of her hands on his abdomen and slowly moved them up his chest until she had his face in her hands. Leaning toward him her hair brushed his bare skin gently. He raised his face to hers but she only let their lips lightly touch before slipping the tip of her tongue across his bottom lip. His tongue reached out to meet hers and draw her in for a longer kiss. Lady leaned back, gliding her hands back down his chest and abdomen firmly.

Dean let his head fall back as she pulled his erection out of his boxers and guiding him into her. Lady moved slowly as he slid deep into her wet core. Dean's hands moved up and down her thighs as she rotated her hips on top of him. "Mm, Lady," he let out a deep moan.

Lady's breath hitched as his hands caressed the insides of her thighs while he began to raise his hips to meet her. She put her hands on his abdomen to keep herself steady as she felt her pulse speed up. She let out a few soft moans as she moved more quickly, desiring the sudden rush she felt building up. Her breath came in quick pants marked with soft noises as she came, her body pulsing around Dean as he joined her.

Lady let out a few happy chuckles as she let herself rest on top of Dean. He moved her hair from her neck and nuzzled it softly while his breathing slowed down.

"I'm going to get in the shower," Lady said, and giggled when his arms tightened around her to keep her from moving. His face rubbed against hers until their mouths met.

Dean finished the kiss and let her go, watching appreciatively as she walked across the room and into the bathroom. Definitely the best way to wake up and start the day.

They all had things that needed to be taken care of. All of them were running low on clean clothes, laundry had to be done. Sleeping had been important, too. And Dean was getting ready to go out to a local bar to try and earn some cash.

"Actually, I almost forgot with the whole being scared for our lives thing, that I have money for you," Lady said.

Dean looked at the few thousand she was holding out to him as if it might bite him. "That's yours, keep it," he said.

"It's mine, and I'm giving it away," Lady said. "It's just a few grand, Dean."

"Keep your money, Lady," Dean said. "We don't need it."

She smiled, "You did it yesterday when you needed to buy a new phone."

"We'll pay you back," Dean said. Silently he corrected that he'd be paying her back, considering he was the main breadwinner.

"Okay, macho-man, how do you plan on earning money hustling when you have no money to put down in the first place?" Lady asked smartly. And earned a dark glare from Dean. She grinned, "Why don't I just give you a loan? You are so awesome at hustling losers in pool, double the money. Keep what you earn, and give me back my half."

"I don't…"

"Unless, of course, you can't manage to make two thousand dollars in one night. I mean, I made over ten grand in one day, a measly two in a few hours should be nothing. I mean, unless you are a loser," Lady shrugged.

Dean looked offended, "You cheat."

"Hustling is cheating," Lady countered.

"No. Hustling is a skill," he argued. "And I'm damn good at it."

"I've watched you work, not that great," Lady said.

"Considering I have to actually work instead of having the future tell me how to turn things in my favor? I'm freaking great without seeing the future."

Lady just shrugged and began counting her money over. She fought the smile when Dean held out his hand. "Alright, I'll prove it. Two grand, two hours."

Lady held the money just a bit out of his reach, "If you lose my money I will never let you live it down."

"I don't lose," he said. "See you in a few hours."

"Good luck," she called as he walked out.

"Don't need luck. I got skill," Dean called back before shutting the door.

Half an hour later Lady was going through her truck, trying to get the incense smell out of it with half a can of fabric freshener.

"Hey, Lady, where'd Dean go?" Sam asked her.

"He is at the local bar, trying to hustle some money," she said, turning to look at him. "I offered him my gambling winnings, but he actually looked offended. I had to really twist his arm to take a loan so he could gamble a bit. Well, not so much twist as manipulate and tease. But, you know how it goes."

"Yeah, I can imagine," Sam muttered. "Listen, I really need to talk to you."

She smiled at him, "We are talking, Sam!" Her smile faltered when he didn't join in, "Okay. Is it about Dean?"

"No," he said. "It's about you. What Gordon said."

She looked at him hopefully, "You found something already?"

The look she was giving him nearly killed him. Several times he had seen Lady's eyes look at Dean with love and admiration, and most of all unquestioning trust. But she was looking at him like that right then. Lady had always been a friend, but she had always migrated more towards his brother. But she had never pushed Sam away when he had just wanted someone to talk with.

"Sam, what is it?" Lady asked eagerly.

Sam swallowed hard, "After Donovan performed the ritual, uh…during it we were all paralyzed. But afterward we could move again, and it wasn't until he had vanished that we realized you had been pulled out. You were on the ground, not moving. Covered in dirt, I was sure you were dead. That he had just pulled your body out of the ley lines. And then I touched you, and I felt your pulse. And it was the most incredible thing ever."

Lady looked at him with confusion, but didn't interrupt him.

"I was holding you the entire drive to the hospital," he continued. "You were in such bad shape but I kept thinking, what if? You know? I mean, what if you could be alive. I just, I had that hope. But right as we were pulling into the hospital you stopped breathing. We got you inside and the doctors revived you. They had to revive you a few times. Then we were told you were brain dead." Sam's eyes began to water as he pulled at those memories. "Dean was…Dean was scaring me then. He was only a month into his deal, the crazy things he was doing scared the crap out of me. I was losing my brother, and I had to watch you die all over again. Lady, you are like my sister. It hurt so bad, watching you in that hospital bed being kept alive by machines. I was praying, for you and all of us."

"Sam, you don't have to tell me any of this," Lady said, a little uncomfortable as a few tears began to fall down his face. "I…listen, I'm sorry. I know I've put you guys through a lot. And…I guess I don't know if I can put myself in your shoes but…I'm sorry. Sam, I'm so sorry you had to go through it."

Sam sniffed back his tears, "I was at your side as much as I could be, because I didn't want you to be alone. And I was sitting beside your bed holding your hand…when Donovan came to see you."

Lady looked stunned, her pale-blue eyes looked silver in the moonlight, "What did he do?"

Sam wiped at his eyes self-consciously, "He talked to me a little bit. He said that he didn't want you to die, that he was a big fan of yours. And, uh," Sam swallowed hard as he thought about it. But there was no turning back now, and he continued with the truth. "And he gave me something, and said I had two options. I could either watch you die, or I could give it to you and you'd survive." Before Lady could speak he quickly continued, giving her the details that he remembered. "It was a small bottle, just two ounces. The liquid was thin as water, bit of a green tint. Donovan said he got it from the place that you were, that after he took the magic of the Goddess out of you he could get it. And I filled a syringe and put it into your IV. Less than a minute later you were…well, you know that part of it."

Sam looked at her surprise. Her eyes were wide, her lips parted. And he waited. Lady's reactions weren't always typical, and he wasn't sure how she would take this information. After several long moments she had barely moved, "Lady, I'm…" he said, taking a step forward and reaching to touch her shoulder.

She backpedaled quickly and backed into her truck, her movements a bit clumsy. "Don't touch me," she breathed.

Sam took a step back and finally looked away from her eyes, "I'm sorry, Lady. I'm sorry I didn't' tell you, but…"

"SORRY!" She shrieked. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? HOW COULD YOU DO THAT? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT, SAM?"

"I'm sorry," was all he could say.

Lady ran a hand through her hair and walked away. Her limbs felt light and disconnected as she walked down the street, away from the scene of what felt like a brutal and messy crime. Away from Sam.

Lady had been abused and tortured a few times. She didn't consider herself a masochist, it wasn't like she enjoyed pain, but she had a high pain tolerance. Or, at the very least, an overactive mind that could distract her from the pain when needed. There was no distraction to what Sam had told her. It was running through her mind and she could barely see because it was taking all her attention.

_That son of a bitch. It's been four and a half months and he didn't tell anyone. I could have been figuring this out, I could have this figured out by now. Four and a half months! Why? Why would he do that to me?_

_ Green tinted liquid, something that came from the spirit realm within the ley lines. There had been plants there, an extract? Some of the plants I couldn't recognize, maybe there were ancient or extinct in the real world. Or maybe the never even existed in the real world._

_ Why did Donovan give Sam the option to keep me alive? He has to know once I was healed up I'd be aching to kill him. Garrett had mentioned Donovan, that he was worried Donovan was pitting the rest of the coven against him. But Gardener also said she had teamed up with Donovan, until he betrayed her to take the power of the Goddess for himself. Did he have his own coven by now? Or was he a one-man show?_

_ Think, a few ounces of liquid, some sort of potion. Heals brain damage, kept me from dying. It gave me an intense fever, a fever that would have killed a normal person in seconds. Made me delirious? Or that could have been the fever or my own paranoia._

_ Why would Sam do that? Why…_

Lady was half a mile from the motel, having walked almost blindly just to get away. She sat down on a dark patch of grass and listened to the crickets chirping while she looked up at the moon and stars. It had been months since she was trapped within the ley lines, a realm where there was no sun, moon or stars. She had gotten over the excitement over seeing them again quickly, but every now and then something like relief and wonder hit her when she looked up at them. As she looked at them right then there was no feeling but sick dread and angry hate.

Sam was her friend, she had trusted him. And he had kept this from her for months. The whole time. She had been asking for his help finding Donovan, and he had just played dumb. And she had believed him when he said he didn't now, that he didn't have anything. Losing faith in someone she had long adored and considered a friend was hard. Lady had gone through it a few times and it kept getting harder. "Damn you, Sam," she muttered.

Sam had told a lot of lies in his lifetime. Most of the time he didn't feel guilty, a lot of the lies were for peoples own good. But he remembered the few times that he had felt the guilt, and the relief afterward when he had been able to tell someone the truth.

There was no relief now that Lady knew. The guilt and dread were still heavy in his stomach. When Dean returned he'd have to tell him, too. And sooner or later Bobby would find out. It would take a long time for them to forgive him.

Sam was waiting outside for Lady to return. If she didn't get back before Dean they'd have to go look for her. Two hours passed when the Impala rolled up, and Sam wasn't sure if he was ready to do this again.

Dean got out of the car with a big smile on his face while waving money at Sam, "I just made us three thousand dollars. How do you like that?" Dean let out a few laughs as he strut to his motel room, ready to show off to Lady and repay the loan he had taken from her. And very ready to assert his male dominance by stripping her down and going a few rounds with her in bed.

"Dean, I need to talk to you," Sam said before Dean reached the motel.

"Can't it wait?" Dean asked as he opened the door to his room. He looked around and saw that Lady wasn't inside. He turned back to Sam, "Where's Lady?"

"She went for a walk," Sam said simply. Dean let out a disappointed breath and walked over to him. "Dean, I need to tell you something."

"What?" Dean asked. There were a lot of bad news scenarios he thought of, already he was worried. Sam definitely looked like he was about to share bad news.

"It's about…about how Lady is still alive," Sam said.

Once Sam finished telling Dean what he had told Lady he waited for it. Dean was good at yelling, and Sam was ready for that. Sam was also ready for a punch to the face.

"Why'd you wait so long?" Dean asked, sitting on the tailgate of Lady's truck next to Sam.

"I just…I wanted to make sure she'd survive first. And then I wanted to see if anything obvious showed up. And then I told myself that there was nothing wrong, then…just more and more time kept passing and I just kept making excuses for myself. I was trying to protect her, and you, and Bobby. Everyone, from knowing that there…from worrying that maybe something could be wrong."

Dean was quiet for a long while and then cleared his throat to say, "There is nothing wrong with her. So she tastes bad to vampires now, big deal. I think that's a good thing."

"Dean…"

"Sam, she's alive," Dean said. "And…well, I'm not having regrets over that. Are you?"

Sam couldn't look at his brother. He knew what Dean was doing, he was trying to make Sam's choice to save Lady parallel to Dean's choice to sell his soul for him. "She's so pissed off right now, she could barely talk."

"Lady doesn't stay angry for long," Dean said in a low voice. "I'd start wearing a cup just in case, but she'll get over it."

"You should be pissed off, too," Sam said, looking at Dean.

Dean looked away now. He wasn't happy, he knew that much. But he wasn't all that angry, either. When Lady had been in the hospital dying he hadn't been there for her. He had walked away, unable to stomach the sight of her frail body hooked up to machines. If he had been the one by her side, like he should have been, then he would have had to make the choice. "Yeah, well, I would have done the same thing. I would have told her within a week of doing it, but I would have done the same thing."

Lady returned a few hours later, Sam and Dean were still sitting on the tailgate drinking beers when she walked through the motel parking lot. "Get off my truck," she said in a hoarse voice, barely looking at them.

They did as she asked, Dean taking the time to close the tailgate. "Lady, hold on, babe," he said, but she was already climbing behind the wheel of her truck. He gave Sam a look, telling him to back off, and quickly climbed into the passenger seat.

"Get out," Lady said, her hand on the ignition.

"Two minutes," Dean said. "I get that you are pissed, but you can't just run away."

"I'm not running away, I have to get to work," she said.

"Maybe we can save that until later," Dean said. "Lady, look, I get that you are…"

"You don't have to go up to bat for your brother, Dean," Lady snapped. "If he wants to explain himself he has his own mouth. Right now I'm not in the mood to listen so…"

"I don't think he has anything to explain," Dean said firmly. "When it comes to you hating him, or you being dead, he'd rather have you hate him. And I would have done the same thing. I would have made damn sure I told you and killed Donovan by now, but I still would have done the same thing."

Lady nodded, "Yeah, I know. Believe me, I know. But thing is, I have to figure out what is wrong with me before…"

"Lady, there is nothing wrong with you," Dean said firmly. "It's been over four months and nothing is wrong with you. This Donovan…we need to take care of him, but maybe he did just do you an honest favor."

"Yeah, because warlocks are such good Samaritans," Lady said flatly. "Dean, I…I need to get some distance from Sam. So just get out of my truck and let me leave. Just stay with him, and let me go."

"Don't make me pick between my brother or you," he said.

"I'm not making you pick, I'm telling you which one to pick. I'll…I'll call you later. We'll meet up somewhere. Just not now." she said. "Get out. Please."

Dean hopped out of the truck and stepped back as Lady tore out of the parking lot.

"How'd that go?" Sam asked.

"Not nearly as bad as I feared, not nearly as good as I hoped," Dean muttered.

"Should we follow her?" Sam asked.

Dean shook his head, "No, bad idea. Give her a few more hours to cool down, then I'll try calling her."

"Dean, I'm sorry, I…I didn't want this to come and bite you…" Sam began.

"Well, it did," Dean snapped. He ran a hand through his hair trying to calm himself. He had enough ups and downs with Lady without Sam's help. "We'll find a way to make this okay," Dean said finally.

Dean went into his motel room, packing up his bags and grabbing the bag that Lady had left behind in her hurry to leave. They had woken up in such a good mood, but that mood was long gone. He'd try to get Lady to come back before they had to leave town, but he didn't think she'd be ready by then. And to be honest, he wasn't sure he would be ready by then, either. Having the two people he cared most about being at odds wasn't something he looked forward with dealing with.

**A/N** – _Ok folks! Thanks for all the reviews! It's more than double than I've ever received before and I'm thrilled. I am so proud of this story. I know there are a lot of SPN stories out there and I've tried to keep mine original, having original storylines and characters so it didn't feel like we were just reading the whole series over again. But at the same time staying true to the original storyline because that is the story we all fell in love with in the first place. That's why we are here._

_Anyway, I'm rambling like Lady does. Here is the deal. I'm not posting any new chapters for a few weeks. My biggest reason, I need to catch up on writing so I even have something to post. My ulterior motive is so I can watch the Season 6 Finale before I decide how I want Lady to continue._

_Again, huge thank you to those who are reading. A bigger thank you to those who review frequently, and the biggest thanks to those who are reviewing every chapter. The story isn't getting as many reviews as it used it, but I'm not going to stop writing. I have a goal to finish writing the season three episodes before I start posting again, and we're almost halfway through that season. It should give me a nice buffer and maybe I can even start posting daily again, instead of weekend 'episodes' like I have been doing._

_There I go rambling again. I guess Lady gets it from me. Again thank you!_


	80. Running Away, September 2007

**September 18, 2007**

Across the mystical line, demons were chattering like mad. Dozens of conversations could be heard. It was a nasty sound, like buzzing insects that had learned Latin. Listening in on the conversations was difficult. There were only certain places that demons were able to communicate through.

The ley lines were such a place.

_Slaughtered a family and bathed in their blood while..._

_ I went to Disney World. The lines were totally worth it. And Cinderella's carpet matched the curtains..._

_ That damn witch has blocked off more of my crossroads, why is he still around? I've sent dozens of you pathetic imbeciles to destroy him! Why is he still alive?_

Donovan's eyes flickered with blue fire as he found a conversation he wanted to hear. Within the realm of the ley lines he could hear several conversations between the demons, and he focused to tune the unimportant ones out so he could listen to this one.

_ My apologies, Crowley, we are doing all we..._

_ All you can? All you can is worth bupkiss!_ The demon Crowley snarled. Donovan had heard of the supposed King of the Crossroads. He'd heard a lot about a lot of different demons, but Crowley seemed like a big player. Whenever his insect-like Latin started spewing across the mystical lines Donovan listened.

_ He's hidden from us. Several of us never returned from the..._

_ He's just a bloody witch! That bitch Gardener stiffed us a big one. She said she could get rid of him. Where is the whore?_ Crowley demanded to know.

_ Dead._ Another demon answered. Donovan's interest was piqued, he hadn't heard of Gardeners' death. It was a shame, he had plans for his former coven-sister, but he could do without her.

_ Which one of you idiots killed the stupid witch?_ Crowley asked.

_ None of us. She was killed by the Winchesters and another witch. The one known as Lady._

_ Blimey. Can no one kill a simple witch? What is wrong with you? We're demons! We're more powerful. Stronger. Faster. Smarter...well, at least in my case. _Crowley hissed.

_The problem with your demons, Crowley, is that they are hunting the witches as demons_, a new demon joined the conversation. _Recruiting the witch Gardener's help was a good move, but you should have expected her to betray you. She was a witch, after all._

_If you have a point, Meg, I suggest you get to it._ Crowley was still pissed, but he seemed to give the demon he called Meg a bit more respect than the other lowly demons he had been speaking with earlier.

_ Get me out of hell, and I'll kill the witch Lady, _Meg said hungrily_. I've come across her before. I know how to get to her._

_ Last time you were above ground you were sent back within a week. You've failed us too many times._ Crowley said.

_ If I fail I'll be sent back here anyway. But if I succeed, you get to tell Lilith that you were the one who got me out of hell so I could do what dozens of others couldn't. Kill Lady, and destroy the witch that is blocking access to the crossroads. You are losing souls on a daily basis, Crowley. What do you have to lose?_ Meg's distorted voice sounded hopeful.

Donovan took a brief moment to admire the demon Meg for stroking the demon Crowley's ego to get what she wanted. However what she wanted was counterproductive to what he wanted. He wanted Lady alive. She wanted her dead. He wanted to stay alive. She wanted to kill him.

He wasn't worried about himself. The demons all thought he was a powerful witch. They had no idea he had the power of a god.

Even a god wasn't infallible. He had missed any signs that Gardener had come across Lady and the Winchesters. But Lady had survived, which was all that mattered. And all that mattered was that she continued to survive.

He stretched out his focus through the ley lines, feeling for Lady's presence. He was drawn to it almost immediately. The power he held inside remembered her well, longed to go back to her. "I hope you are prepared, Lady," he said aloud to himself, and then he caught short visions of her in his mind. He frowned a bit, "Of course you aren't."

* * *

While on their way to South Dakota the Winchesters stopped in Chicago.

"Hey, they sell these deep dishes frozen. We grab one, stick in on some ice and have a slice at Bobby's," Dean said, giving Sam a hopeful smile.

Sam had barely managed to eat once slice of the pizza they had ordered, and he wondered how the hell Dean managed to fit three slices down his throat. "Better lay off the greasy food, bro."

Dean leaned back and rubbed his stomach happily, "What do I care, man? So I gain a few pounds. I'm allowed. Hell, if I gain twenty pounds and start wearing a fur coat Lady will probably like it."

Sam let out a few chuckles, but he didn't think it was all that funny. Lady had been gone for three days. She'd talk to Dean on the phone, but not for long. Sam hadn't bothered trying to talk to her, letting Dean tell him she was still cooling off. "Uh, listen, Dean, why don't you head to Bobby's alone?"

Dean stared at him blankly for a few moments before saying, "What?"

Sam leaned forward and looked at him seriously, "It's just…listen, I screwed up. I know it. You are being nice about it…"

"I would have done the same thing," Dean said.

"I know. Any of us would have," Sam said. "I think I want to try and smooth things over with Lady."

Dean let out a low whistle, "Sam, I don't know…"

"She can't run away from this. We just don't have the time," Sam said. "Believe me, I'm not looking forward to the ass chewing she probably wants to give me, but I deserve it. Instead of letting her take it out on a bottle of rum she can take it out on me. Just give me a few days and we'll meet you at Bobby's."

Dean thought about it and finally said, "Fine. Last Bobby checked her cell phone was in West Virginia, how you going to get there?"

"I'll borrow a car," Sam said. "I'll call you when we're on our way."

Sam and Dean parted ways. Dean continued going west while Sam found a car to start taking him southeast. He was worried. Worried that Lady would keep her distance and do something dangerous. But he was more worried that she was going to fall off the grid again.

**September 21, 2007**

The past few days Lady had driven, she stopped at one motel for a few hours so she could shower but otherwise she napped in her truck, and drove some more. The previous state she had gotten a new prepaid cell phone and left her old cell phone turned on in a motel room while her calls were being forwarded to the new number. She knew that Bobby and the Winchesters had access to her cell phone account and would be watching her GPS, giving her space but spying from a distance to see where she was.

She'd gone to Nashville for no reason other than it was along the highway she was driving on. Normally if she had landed in a city like this she would have enjoyed it. Done some shopping, gotten her hair and nails done. She was a bit overdue on both. But she wasn't in the mood for fun. She wasn't even in the mood to work.

There were a lot of places to start, and none of them seemed right. The only way she'd be able to figure out what Donovan put in her would be to find him. And then she had to assume that he'd just tell her, which the warlock wouldn't. What was the point anymore? Maybe one day she'd wake up with a tail, maybe not. She was just having a hard time finding the will to give a shit anymore.

The worst part of this whole thing were that people kept calling to check in on her. She wanted, more than anything, to go back to where people just left her alone. But no chance of that anymore, especially since the last time Bobby let her go off on one of her 'Just need to get away for a while' trips she totaled his car.

Sam, being in a confessions mood, had called Bobby and told him. Which meant Bobby called her. After getting off the phone with him Dean had called her. Then they seemed to be tag teaming each other. Just calling to 'check in' and see where she was. And she knew damn well every time she told them they were checking her freaking cell phone GPS to make sure she was where she said she was. She was tempted to throw the damn cell phone against the wall and break it into pieces just to be alone. But she knew the second they found out she shut the phone off they'd go from just 'checking in' to 'we're on our way.' She would put up with the calls, she wouldn't put up with someone actually watching her. So she had decided to pull a fast one over on them and abandon one cell phone for another.

Lady's phone rang and she really wanted to let it go to voice mail. But her life had changed the past year. She knew she couldn't keep Bobby at a safe distance, he deserved better. "Yeah," she answered.

"Just seeing how things are. Where you at?" Bobby asked.

"I'm still in West Virginia," Lady lied, that was where her cell phone would tell him she was.

"We're looking into Donovan. Probably go quicker if we had you." Bobby listened to the silence on the line. He knew she hadn't hung up, she just wasn't in the mood for talking. "Damn it, kid. Stop acting like a moody chick and man up a bit, will ya?"

"I'm looking into things, Bobby. I like to work on this alone, you know that and..."

"And I also know you," Bobby said. "Lady, I don't like what Sam did. But he did what he had to. Try and put yourself in his position. Then try and put yourself in my position right now. I know you like to work alone, but I also know these are the times when you get yourself into the most dangerous trouble. I want you back here, and you better be on your way soon. Ya hear me?"

"Yeah," Lady said.

"And no damn scenic route. Straight line. If I don't see your ass here within two days I'm coming to get you."

"Got it," she said and hung up.

She didn't just miss the days where if she disappeared for weeks on end without a word Bobby just accepted it. She was longing for them. But as she fell deep into her thoughts at how drastically her life had changed in the past two years she saw how the changes had happened. It had been subtle, and she never saw it coming.

She'd lost so much. The Mason's, Freddie, her favorite car and her life. She knew the quickest way to lose everything was to throw away Bobby and the Winchester's friendship. Bobby was like a father. Sam was like a brother, and Dean was the only man she had ever loved. She was damn lucky they put up with her, especially when she was in a mood like this.

It seemed that Bobby tagged Dean, because her phone rang again shortly.

"Hey," Lady answered.

"Hey, Bobby says you are still hanging around West Virginia," Dean said. He chuckled a bit and in a very bad southern accent said, "Hanging out at the Honky Tonk? Doin' a little doe-si-doe?"

"Just trying to get some sleep," she said, knowing that would cut the conversation short

Dean's voice went back to normal, "Okay. Listen, I'm almost at Bobby's but I can turn around and meet you. But you're going to say no, aren't you?"

"I'll be on my way to Bobby's soon enough," she said, not sure if it was the truth or a lie. She hadn't decided yet.

"Let me know when you are on your way," Dean said.

"Yeah, sure. Goodnight," Lady said, hanging up.

* * *

Dean closed his phone and let out a slow breath. He sucked at this sort of thing. Lady was pissed, depressed, or something. All he knew was she was not in a good mood. Normally he would have pushed over talking Lady through a funk to Sam. But considering this was Sam's fault he wasn't sure it was the best thing for Sam to track Lady down. He was just hoping things got back to normal quickly.

Dean had a lot of experience with women. He just didn't have experience with the relationship part of women. But he and Lady had formed a solid companionship through similar work ethic, teasing each other and good sex. But a few times Sam had offered him advice on relationships. While Dean had scoffed and rolled his eyes at his younger brother offering him romantic advice he had listened intently at the same time. Still, when it came to calming an emotional woman Dean was pretty sure his brother could do it better than he could. Last time he tried to calm Lady down he ended up getting a sharp kick to the groin. It was now Sam's turn.

What killed him about the whole thing was Lady was exactly like him. When she had this kind of trouble she cut everyone else out and bottled it up. Then she threw in running away for good measure. One thing that Lady was good at was running away, and it scared the hell out of him. He had pushed her away, pushed her to disappearing in Louisiana, he knew that. But he had thought he was doing the right thing at the time. Now he hated the thought of her not being around for his last days. She had asked him what he wanted to do before he died, and then he didn't have an answer. But he decided he wanted to make sure the things that haunted her got taken care of before he kicked the bucket.

Reaching Bobby's house almost felt like being home. Although, as Bobby said, he and Sam more often used it as a bed and breakfast. But it was familiar and welcoming, the closest thing he ever had to a home.

"Hey, Bobby," Dean said as he entered the house.

"Where's the other idjit?" Bobby asked, noticing that Sam wasn't with him.

"He's trying to smooth things over with Lady," Dean said. "I told him to wear a cup and to kiss as much ass as he can, but five bucks says when he gets back he comes in limping."

"I'm not taking that bet," Bobby uttered. He didn't add that he had thoughts of making Sam limp himself.

"I talked to Lady a few hours ago, she said she'll be on her way soon," Dean said. "She'll get over it once we all get focused on finding this prick Donovan. But right now, I just want a shower and some sleep."

As Dean moved to take the couch, it was more comfortable than the cots, Bobby said, "I'm sure Lady won't mind you staying in her room."

Dean thought about it, and nodded. Might as well get used to those damn cots again, because when Sam and Lady returned he'd be stuck on them. Dean went down the hall to look in the storage room that was Lady's room. When he stepped inside he had to step back outside to make sure he hadn't stumbled into some room he had never been in before. The towering boxes and junk Bobby had stored for years was out of the room. Instead of a creaky cot there was a full-size bed. Already Lady had filled the closet with clothes and shoes. The only other furniture in the room was a waist-high dresser.

"How long did this take you to clean out, Bobby?" Dean asked when he went back to the kitchen.

"Took me and Lady most of a week," Bobby answered. "But at least I don't have those damn shoes all over the place."

"Yet. That closet is almost full," Dean chuckled as he went back into the room. He dropped his bag on the floor next to the bed and went into the bathroom.

Lady hadn't only taken over Bobby's downstairs bedroom, she had also taken over the downstairs bathroom. The shelf in the shower had girly shampoos and conditioners, three different colored body washes, and one of those puffy things. Backing out of the bathroom Dean called to Bobby, "Dude, serious? You are one pink rug away from being married to her," Dean teased the older man.

Bobby just smiled at him, "Jealous I got your girlfriend to move in with me, Dean? It's because I can grow a full beard, and you can't."

Dean was surprised that Bobby had joked back and all he could say back was, "I can too grow a full beard."

After showering, and taking the jabs from Bobby that he smelled like girly body wash (he couldn't help himself from trying it, and it wasn't like there was a supply shortage), he retreated back into Lady's bedroom and fell into the comfortable bed. It wasn't very big, but better than the cots or the couch.

* * *

Lady was sort of watching television. Her mind was busily working, but getting no where. She couldn't focus on one thought long enough to finish it before another thought interrupted her.

She looked at the clock when there was a knock on the door, it was eleven at night. Spending so much time with Dean and Sam she grabbed her pistol and walked silently to the door, but lowered the gun at her side when she saw it would just be Sam. She wasn't sure if she wanted to open the door. Actually she knew she didn't want to talk to Sam, and if he was here he would want to talk.

Angrily she opened the door, "You're supposed to be at Bobby's."

Sam opened his mouth then closed it. She was still pissed. He cleared his throat, "I thought it was more important that I come here."

"You thought wrong," she said.

Sam looked at her with sad brown eyes, and she wanted to poke his eyes out for it. Lady knew how easily a certain look could get her what she wanted, and it had taken meeting Sam to discover that some men were able to do the same thing. His eyes promised kindness and understanding, it was a freaking lie. She internally cursed as she opened the door wider so he could gain entrance, telling herself the only reason why those eyes worked on her was because they reminded her of her dog.

Sam looked relieved when she let him inside the motel, "Found your cell phone."

Lady scowled as she took it from him.

Sam returned her scowl, "Nice trick, trying to slip away. What? You don't trust anyone now?"

"Obviously I can't," Lady shot back at him.

Sam's anger fell away quickly, that was his fault. "I know I screwed up big time with you, Lady, but I'm going to do everything I can to make it right," Sam said, watching her put away her pistol.

With a tight jaw she said, "No worries. I'll figure this out."

"I want to help you," he said.

She gave him a harsh glare, "You know, it sounds good when you say that. But you trying to help me has left me so screwed that I don't even know where my god damn underwear are."

Sam glanced away at her analogy and it bothered him that she felt that way. If guilt had a taste it was the sour bile he had at the back of his throat right then. "I am…"

"You should be sorry, Sam," Lady said.

He looked up at her, "I am. More than I can even tell you. But I'm not sorry you are alive." He studied her face, but she looked away and focused on the television screen. "You don't know what it was like after you died. I watched Dean and Bobby go through the motions. You know I never got a chance to even miss you because I was constantly watching Dean to make sure he didn't get himself killed?" Lady turned her head farther away to look at the wall. "Now you pull this shit of running off again? You want to put me through a guilt trip, that's fine. I don't need your help feeling guilty. But right now Dean and Bobby are twiddling their thumbs trying to appease you, give you your space. Its bull shit. You are twenty-six, start acting like it."

Lady looked at him with a fierce gaze, "Excuse me?"

"That's right. Grow the fuck up, Lady," Sam said, clamping his jaw down a moment too late.

Lady glared at him, "Get out, Sam."

He swallowed hard, it was too late to stop now. "No," he said firmly. "No, I'm not. You are the one who decided you wanted to be in our lives, this is what happens when you are with us. You don't get to run away anymore. You don't get to do things on your own. It's called being part of a family, and you are stuck with us. You can be mad at me all you want, but I'm not leaving here without you."

"Good luck with that," Lady said, easing herself onto the bed and turning up the volume on the television.

"How you going to get away from me?" he taunted. "I'm twice your size, Lady. I can make you if I want to."

"I just want to be left alone for a while. What's so wrong with that?" she asked.

"Nothing," Sam said. "What's wrong is that you are trying to hide from the people that want to be there for you. You want space? You don't need three states worth of distance, okay? You are pissed at me, that's fine. I deserve it, but…"

"It's not you," Lady said roughly. "It is…it isn't all you, at least." She shook her head, "You wouldn't understand."

"I do," he said. "Believe me, Lady, I understand. What this coven did to you…"

"Not just that. It's everything," Lady said, shutting off the television and looking at him. "Even before I finally got a chance to see Garrett…I'm not right. I haven't been right in…probably my whole life."

"What do you mean?" he asked softly.

She shook her head, "I've always been a little weird. It was probably from growing up with a schizophrenic mother. But after I was cursed I…I was the freak with visions. The freak that was dying. The freak with Latin burned into her brain. The thing is, I don't know what I am. Sam, I can see the future because of the ley lines."

"I know, you told us about that," he reminded her.

"You ever think about what that means?" she asked him. "Every other witch in the coven has to perform rituals and sacrifices to draw power from the ley lines. I have a free pass to see the future from them. The only other witches capable of doing that were warlocks."

Sam swallowed hard, "You aren't a warlock."

"And Garrett was able to pull me through the ley lines. I figure I traveled all the way from North Dakota to Oklahoma within fifteen minutes through them. He talked to me, said there was something unique about me that let me survive it. And for crying out loud, I managed to hold onto magic that was a few thousand years old. And command it. So tell me, Sam, you understand that?"

"I understand you are scared," he said gently. "I also know that you are one of the strongest people I've ever met. You have to be to do what you do. There is nothing wrong with you, Lady."

"There is plenty wrong with me, and you know it," she said.

Sam sighed and sat in a chair, "Plenty wrong with all of us."

"And whatever Donovan did to heal me, so I could be alive again…it just adds on," Lady continued. "There are so many things that I don't know. They screwed with me so bad and I just want it to be over. But every morning I wake up freaking out because of those…"

Sam looked at her, but she just shook her head and looked away. "Because of the birds?" He guessed. He hadn't missed that Lady woke up, alert and ready, every morning at the break of dawn. With the birds, to be exact. He hadn't missed that she watched them with suspicion when they flew overhead.

"Yeah," Lady said softly. "It's getting better, but I'm still scared that they'll come for me. I'm more afraid of Tweety than Donovan, because I don't want to go back into the ley lines. That place was…"

Lady stopped talking abruptly, her mind clicking.

"What?" Sam asked.

"I think I know why we haven't heard anything about Donovan," she said numbly. "He's in the spirit realm within the ley lines."

"Are you sure?" Sam asked.

"It makes sense. Gardener said he was killing witches that tried to access the ley lines. When I was stuck in there I could feel whenever someone was using them. I even tried to do the same thing a few times but I kept getting sucked back in." Lady paced a short length of the motel room. "But he isn't trapped, because he was able to come into the hospital. And it would make sense because we haven't heard of any signs of him. He'd be able to jump in at one place and come out another place a thousand miles away. Instead of having a permanent location above ground, he could have one there."

Sam took a breath, with Lady focused on her desire to end a witch she wasn't going to focus on him. "That's great. We should get back to Bobby's and research…"

"No, I don't need to research," she said, grabbing her jeans from the floor and pulling them on. "I'm going to go see him."

"Whoa! No, wait! That is a bad idea!" Sam said urgently. Something dangerously stupid like that was exactly why he didn't want to wait for her to come back on her own.

"It's a horrible idea, but I'm still going to do it," Lady said. "Pull his ass out of the lines like he did to me, smack him around a bit."

"Are you forgetting he has the power of The Goddess?" Sam reminded her.

Lady went quiet for a few seconds then said, "For a minute I sort of did."

Sam ran a hand through his hair, "But if we can figure out a way to do this, we can go after him with the Colt. Only thing is, the Colt is at Bobby's. Dean barely lets it out of his sight."

"Hm," Lady paced a few more times. "Okay, well, see you around, Sam."

"What are you going to do?" he asked anxiously.

"I can't pull him out, but I think I know a way to get his attention," Lady said. "And I'm not waiting.

Sam let out a low hiss, "Shit," and walked out of the motel after her. "Not alone, you're not."

Lady turned on him and opened her mouth to argue, then frowned. She wanted to tell him no, that it was potentially dangerous and if something happened to him Dean would have her head. But they'd had this argument already, he wouldn't back down. "Okay, let's go," she said.

**A/N** – _Song for this chapter:_

_Running Away, by Hoobastank_

_**Another note** - Wow, I almost didn't manage to wait until today to post. That Season 6 Finale has me giddy because it aligns a bit with story lines for Lady I wanted to do. We'll see if those ever come up. I didn't make my goal of finishing season 3, sorry to say. But I have a solid outline, some original 'episodes', and some fun coming up. I do have a serious question for everyone, though. Do you prefer all seasons/story arcs together like they are now? Or do you think I should split this up into separate stories? I've been seriously considering restarting Season 2 (the chapters I've already posted until now) into a new story. Not changing anything, besides fixing any errors I find. Just splitting up the story. I'd really like any opinions. As always, I love feedback, it makes me giddy._

_Also, planning on doing 2 updates a week. I just can't write as fast as I can post. This is the first story I've ever published that I didn't have completely finished before I started posting.  
_


	81. Nashville, September 2007

**September 22, 2007**

Sam rode shotgun in Lady's truck as she drove out of town. She parked the truck and searched the ground until she found a forked stick. Holding it parallel from the ground she began to walk.

"Water witching, right?" Sam asked as he watched her.

"Yeah, well, unless you feel like breaking into a jewelry store to get me a big diamond this is the only way I have to find ley lines," Lady muttered. "That, or, we sacrifice a few goats and bathe in their blood. But that may actually take longer. The ritual requires one to marinate in the blood for a moon cycle."

"I'm okay with this way," Sam said, watching the stick dip as Lady walked with it slowly. "Can I try?" Sam asked.

Lady handed over the forked stick and instructed him a bit until he continued following the line. She found another stick and worked at a distance from him.

"How far do we follow this?" Sam asked. It was after midnight now and there wasn't much light to go by. He was holding the stick with both hands and awkwardly was holding his flashlight between his neck and shoulder so he could see the ground ahead of him. They'd been walking for a while and the truck was already a quarter of a mile behind them.

"Fifty feet, ten miles. I don't know," Lady said. "The lines had a pretty big shift after I played in them for a few months. There used to be a ritual site around here about six years ago."

For half an hour they walked slowly, Sam following the line Lady had found while Lady tried to find another line in the area that may create an intersection. About a half mile from the truck she let out a whoop of victory and worked with Sam until they found the intersection between two lines.

Sam helped Lady dig four small holes at the corners of the intersection, just big enough to place a small tea candle in. The hole protected the candles from being blown out by the light breeze.

"How safe is this?" Sam asked.

"Moderately safe," Lady said while pulling her long hair back and tying it in a knot to keep it out of her face. "If I see things go south I should be able to stop it."

Sam didn't like relying on Lady's future-sight. It made him feel like she had no plan at all, and he often liked to go into dangerous situations with some sort of plan in place. At least with his brother they had worked together for so long they could always predict how the other would react. Lady reacted on her future-sight, and that meant Sam was always a few seconds behind her.

"Sam, I can do this alone," she said. "This isn't safe. In fact me being near an intersection is probably stupid."

"Like I said, you aren't in this alone," he said.

"Serious, Sam. I could let something out, get sucked in by psychopomps that probably still want me. Or I just might fall in," she said honestly.

"I'm not leaving you," he said firmly. "So…the psychopomps? The birds, right?"

Lady nodded, a few goose bumps rising on her arms as she prepared to purposefully tap the magic in the ley lines.

"Any idea what to do if things go bad?" Sam asked.

She looked up at him, her pale eyes silver in the dim moonlight, "Run like hell."

"Got it," he muttered.

Lady kept her eyes open as she practiced the words in her head before saying them aloud. A short incantation. She jerked as she felt the power of the ley lines vibrate right under her, deep through her body. She'd sat on motorcycles that felt more powerful, but it was still a jolt to her system.

She held up a hand to keep Sam quiet. The candle flames all grew four inches and turned bright blue while they swayed in the breeze. She let go of the ley line and could still feel an echo of the power, but it wasn't reacting to her anymore. The candles quickly returned to normal, short orange flames that gave very little light.

"Okay, that went well," she said. Her first test, purposefully drawing onto the power of the ley line, was complete. And so far she wasn't bursting into flames. But Donovan hadn't appeared to try and stop her, either.

Lady set a shallow steel bowl in front of her. Already it had a mix of dusty ingredients in it, and now she cut into her forearm to let her blood drip in. She swirled the mix together and dumped it onto the ground. Without the aid of a flame smoke began to rise from the dusty pile. "Knock Knock," Lady called. She waited several moments, inhaling the sweet smoke that was slowly coming up in gray tendrils.

And then, a strange sounding voice, answered back, "Who's there?" Communicating between the lines distorted his voice, and she assumed her own.

Sam jerked at the sound, letting Lady know it wasn't just in her head.

"Guess who," Lady replied.

"Guess who, who?" He said back as if it was a joke.

"Guess who is getting ready to jump in there and cut your head off," Lady said, it was the best punch line she could come up with.

"Hello, Lady," Donovan said, his voice rising up through the ground.

"Come on out and play, witch-boy," Lady taunted.

"Afraid that is not wise," Donovan said. "I'm sort of being hunted. And you aren't the only one looking for me."

"I'm the one you should be worried about," she said.

"You are my largest concern, but not because I think you'll kill me," he replied. "Hello, Mr. Winchester. Last I checked you and your brother were in Chicago, getting some pizza. How was it?"

Lady looked up at Sam, "You guys got deep dish without me?"

Sam gave Lady a brief look of disbelief, now wasn't the time for her to complain about missing out. He licked his lips, "We want to know what was in the potion I gave Lady," he said to the air, hoping Donovan could hear him.

"Is that what this is about?" Donovan's voice, though distorted, sounded annoyed. "You've picked a bad time to contact me. And it is a very dangerous idea to draw upon the power of the ley lines, Lady. I hoped you'd have more sense than that."

"I had to get your attention somehow, didn't I?"

"You succeeded in drawing my attention," he said. "But you also succeeded in drawing the attention of several demons."

Lady's heart thumped, "You are bluffing."

"It would be wise if you circled yourself in salt," he said, even though the voice was distorted she could hear the urgency.

Salt was a staple with most things supernatural. Witchcraft included. However salt was purifying, and dropping a circle down around herself never hurt. She grabbed a canister from her bag and tossed it to Sam. He did one half of a circle while she did the other half. Just as the circle closed she felt the wind pick up and carry across a strong smell of sulfur. "Shit," she hissed as the candles blew out from the stronger wind, severing her conversation with Donovan.

Sam shined his flashlight into the darkness and handed his spare flashlight to Lady. Four demons slowly stepped into the beams of light.

"Oh, fuck me," Lady muttered.

Sam stepped in front of Lady, maneuvering carefully in the small circle they had made for themselves.

"Nice quiet locale, just may be an option," a demon possessing a woman said, stepping closer. "Sam Winchester and Lady. Is it still just Lady? Like just Prince, but with better dance moves?"

Lady's eyes widened as her mouth went dry. She had several short jokes like that because she only went by one name, and she remembered when she had used that one. She had been in pain, stiff from weak muscles and blood loss. She remembered who she told it to as well. "Meg," she breathed. The demon that the Winchesters had excised twice. Once when she was possessing Sam.

"Glad to hear I'm remembered," she said. "Miss me, Sammy?"

"Go to hell," Sam said roughly, and he consciously made sure he was wearing the amulet Bobby had given him to ward off possession. He wasn't letting one of those things jump down his throat again, and definitely not Meg again.

"Like my new meat suit? Just picked her up this morning. She's a college drop out, in town hoping to be a big country star like Reba." Meg said, running her hands down the body.

"Adorable," Lady said. "Wish I could just trade bodies on a whim. I mean, sort of wish I had bigger boobs. My boyfriend is a boob guy, he complains sometimes."

"Boyfriend? Who's the lucky guy?" Meg asked, looking at her hungrily in the dim light. "Can't be Sam, can it? He always thought you were a bit too freaky."

"No, not Sam," Lady chuckled. "I'm far too freaky for a decent guy like Sam. But you still know the guy. Remember Dean? The guy who sent your ass to hell earlier this year. Turns out he has a thing for damaged goods."

"Congratulations," Meg said. "You are a real trooper, still with him seeing as he's dying and all."

"I sort of have a thing for damaged goods, too," Lady admitted.

"Maybe if you give me some information I'll put in a good word for you in the pit. Try and get you two a locker next to each other," Meg said.

Lady was happy to buy herself more time to think so she said, "What makes you think I have a ticket to go to hell?"

"You are a witch, your kind always come to us," Meg said.

Lady smirked a bit, Meg had that wrong but Lady saw no use in correcting her. "Point taken. So what information do you want?"

"Another witch has been shutting down crossroads," Meg said. "I want to know how to find him."

Lady tilted her head in confusion, "That's impossible. A witch can't shut down a crossroad." She thought for a second and added, "A God probably could, though."

"God has no hand in this," Meg said. "A few of us have managed to get a glimpse of him. He's a witch, no doubt about it. Even has the same Triple-Moon mark like you."

Lady turned her right arm inward so Meg couldn't see that she no longer had that mark. "I can find him. I'm sort of trying to kill him myself, we can take turns stabbing the prick. It'll be a fun girl-demon bonding experience. Afterwards I'll braid your hair. I'll set up a meeting on the new moon. This spot."

Meg shook her head, "I don't think so. See, we still want you dead, Lady. And I can't resist a two for one deal."

Lady swallowed hard, the only thing protecting her from four demons was a thin circle of salt. And when Meg pulled out a knife Lady's heart thudded. A line of salt wouldn't protect her from a knife being thrown at her.

"Lady…" Sam said tensely as Lady moved to be in front of him.

"Trust me," Lady said in a high voice.

Meg looked amused at the line of salt, and did just as Lady had feared. She threw the knife end-over-end, aiming for Lady. If she wanted to avoid it she'd have to step out of the salt circle and the other demons would grab her. Otherwise she was going to have a deadly wound.

Lady watched the knife rapidly approaching. Her future-sight told her where it would strike her, and when to raise her hand. Using the flashlight Sam had given her she raised it at the last moment. The blade broke through the plastic and out the other end, but only killed the flashlight. Lady let out a shaky breath as the demon's looked at her with amazement.

Lady would have rather dodged the knife and kept the flashlight operable, but if she had it would have struck Sam. They didn't have room to move in the small salt circle that kept the demons from tearing them apart with their bare hands.

"Holy shit," Sam breathed as Lady trembled. Maybe he didn't like relying on her future-sight, but sometimes he was damn glad she had it.

Meg's look changed from shocked to pissed, "All you've done is trap yourselves. No where to run, we're faster. No where to hide. We can smell you."

Lady reached back and grabbed Sam's hand, "You are right, but, uh, well, we got to try."

Lady turned, Sam moved with her. The moment their feet landed outside the salt they were sprinting, Sam's longer legs ate up more distance and he was soon pulling Lady along.

Sam was saving his breath, but he wanted to tell Lady there was no way they'd be able to reach her truck before the demons caught up to them. But behind them the section of ley lines they had been on burst into blue flames. A wall ten feet high and fifty feet long was preventing the demons from following them. The heat radiated out, hitting his back and making his skin tighten. But he didn't look back. The flames were bright enough to illuminate their way to the truck, and he knew who was creating them.

Donovan's disembodied voice could be heard above the crackling flames, "I got a few of them, one is still after you. Move faster, Lady."

Lady didn't have the breath to ask him why he was helping them.

"Come on," Sam urged Lady, his hand holding hers tightly, trying not to lose his grip as their hands became slippery with sweat from running.

Sam slowed down as they neared the truck, and Lady stumbled a bit to stop herself before she ran right into it. Breathing heavily she opened the driver's side door, but jumped back when she saw Meg open the passenger door on the other side.

Sam grabbed Lady around the waist and pulled her back as Meg climbed into the truck. "I have to say, I liked your Beetle better than this. It had personality. But this isn't bad, nice and roomy," Meg said, her eyes flashing black. "Is the witch a friend of yours, Lady? Why is he protecting you?"

"I don't know," Lady admitted.

"You are too tired to keep running," Meg said, slowly inching her way across the bench seat of the truck. "I think I know how to get that witch to come see me. All I have to do is threaten you, isn't it? Pretty Lady, always the damsel in distress. Quick to have the big strong men come to save her. I should have thought of this first."

"I don't like to be called a damsel. I'm okay with broad or bitch, but damsel doesn't really fit," Lady said.

"I think it does, because when..." Meg had slid behind the wheel of the truck and was about to step out so she was on the same side as Lady, but she found herself unable to move.

Lady's face broke out in a wide grin as Meg looked up to see the delicately painted devil's trap on the ceiling of her truck. "Meg, Meg, Meg. You just never learn, do you?" Lady snickered.

"You fucking bitch!" Meg snarled at her and struggled hard enough to rock the truck.

"Have a nice trip, Meg," Sam said in a low growl as he began reciting an exorcism. Meg's head reared back once the exorcism was finished, a cloud of black smoke that was the demon poured out of her and sank into the ground. Back to hell where she belonged.

Lady went to the girl who was left in the truck. She was trembling and delirious. "You're going to be okay," Lady said, hoping she was right. "Sam, get us out of here."

Sam got behind the wheel and drove swiftly to the nearest hospital to drop off the girl. She appeared unharmed, but demonic possession often left emotional scars.

Sam drove them in silence away from Nashville. A few towns over they stopped to refuel the truck and while Lady was vacuuming out sulfuric residue he said, "Lady, I don't think you are freaky, or anything like that."

Lady looked up at him, "I would hope not. I know you haven't had visions since Yellow-Eyes died, but you used to."

Sam nodded, "Yeah, well, even if I didn't know what that was like, I wouldn't think you were a freak. You are weird as hell, but…I don't know, at the same time it feels normal hanging out with you." Sam looked at the gas pump, watching the numbers tick by. The truck probably got a little worse gas mileage than the Impala, but its gas tank was a lot bigger and Lady had nearly been on empty.

"For all your fuck-ups, Sam, you are a good guy," Lady said. "I get why you didn't tell me, I do. I still don't like it, but I can't change it. Just….you can't keep that sort of stuff from me."

Sam nodded, "I won't. But you can't run off and hide from us. For one, you suck at hiding and we'll just track you down. But mostly, we've lost you too many times."

Lady looked at the sky beginning to lighten in the east, the first signs of dawn approaching. "I'm knew to this whole being attached to people, but I get it. No promises that I won't fall into old habits, but I want to be there for you guys more than I want to be on my own. Most of the time, at least."

Sam let out a relieved breath. While tracking down Lady could have been painful, and had ended up being dangerous, at least his trouble with her was under the bridge. "So, you really think Donovan is blocking crossroads?" Sam asked her.

"I do," she said. "I just don't know why. He's powerful, he has to be practicing witchcraft for decades. Garrett used to think he was a threat. It bothers me more that he helped us instead of killed us. Any time he could have burned us and them to a crisp without leaving the ley lines."

"What next?" Sam asked.

Lady sighed, "Call Bobby and Dean, let them know what happened and that we're on our way home."

Sam and Lady were both running on sugar, caffeine and fumes by the time they reached Bobby's after midnight. She saw the signs that Bobby had gone up to his room for the night. She was glad, the poor old guy hadn't been getting enough sleep lately with all the work he'd been doing. Turning in by midnight was early for him.

Sam was dragging his feet as they entered the house. "If anyone wakes me up before noon I'm going to kill them," he mumbled.

"I hear that," Lady agreed, giving him a friendly pat as she went down the hall to her bedroom and he went toward the couch in the living room.

She had been looking forward to falling onto her full-sized bed and passing out for a few hours. But she found Dean fast asleep, face down and sprawled out to take nearly the whole bed. Of course he thought he was entitled to her bed, even when she wasn't around. Although, his other option would be sleeping on one of the cots in the basement.

Lady wiggled out of her jeans and silently went up to the bed. She lifted the covers and slid underneath them, and then burrowed her way under one of Dean's heavy arms.

Dean hadn't heard her come in. He didn't even wake up when she moved his arm. It took her hair tickling his nose to get him to open his eyes. He was prepared to kick one of the cats off the bed again. Once he realized he had the kind of pussy he liked to share the bed with he shifted to get comfortable and tightened the arm that was already over her waist. "Hey, I missed you," he said, nuzzling the back of her neck.

Lady let out a snort of a snore and didn't stir.

XXXX

_Forty-eight hours, Meg, that has to be a record for you_, Crowley said in disgust.

_I was tricked! Let me back out! I'll finish her!_ Meg roared in fury.

_No chance in heaven you're getting out again. This was your last chance. I'm handing you over to Alistair_, Crowley said.

_No! No, Crowley! Anything but that!_ Meg pleaded.

_Ta ta_, Crowley said lightly as Meg screamed.

Donovan listened to the conversation with a smile. Aw, demons and their little politics and anarchic hierarchy. He was glad he didn't have a coven any longer, same bullshit there.

He turned to the demons he had pulled within the ley lines, "What are your kind doing?"

"I'll tell you nothing," the demon sputtered.

"I hear your chatter, I see you invading my ley lines. Something much bigger is going on. Tell me, who is Lilith?"

"Go to hell," the demon spat.

"You'll wish to return to hell," Donovan promised the demon. "You'll never see your hell again."

The demon howled as blue fire erupted from inside of him. Unable to escape the strange spirit realm he burned and burned until there was nothing left of his meat suit, and soon nothing left of the demon.

Donovan brushed some singed hair that had floated onto his shoulder, "One of you will talk. Eventually." His eyes lit up with blue fire as he turned to the two others that were his prisoners. "Let's hope one of you is more enlightened than your crispy friend. Now let's try this again, shall we?"


	82. Bobby's House, September 2007

**September 23, 2007**

Dean was smiling slightly as Lady and Sam gave a more detailed report of what happened in Tennessee. He could tell whatever rift that had been created was now healed, and he was thankful. He didn't want to spend the rest of his time keeping his girlfriend from stabbing his brother. And Sam wasn't all that pleasant when he was moping around with guilt, either, but at least Sam didn't give into violent urges as easily as Lady did.

"So we had Gardener, who teamed up with demons. Now we got Donovan, who saved our asses from demons and is pissing them off," Sam said with a sigh. He looked at Bobby, "What do you think?"

"I'm wondering why," Bobby said.

"Why he helped us? Or why he's against demons?" Lady asked.

"Both," Bobby said. "But not a whole lot we can do with Donovan. He's hiding out in another realm, it isn't like we can go in after him."

Lady tapped her fingers on the table and was unusually quiet.

Sam looked at her but she was looking at her fingers, and as if he could read her mind he urgently said, "You can't go back in there, Lady!"

"I know," Lady said defensively. "Just...I'm thinking of things. There has to be a way to pull him out, he pulled me out. But I'm also wondering about binding him."

"Like we bound Garrett?" Dean asked.

Lady shook her head, "No. That barely worked on Garrett, it wouldn't work on Donovan. Not while he has that power. I'm thinking more like how Max bound the original Goddess years ago."

"Yeah, well Max is long gone. And Maxine isn't up for helping us out anymore," Dean reminded her.

"I know, just thoughts. But, uh, well, really, how bad is Donovan?" Lady looked at them. All the men were looking at her with wide eyes and surprised faces. "He's disrupting the demons movements. If he's blocking off crossroads that means demons have a harder time moving around. May even prevent crossroads deals from being made. And maybe…well," Lady's eyes landed on Sam.

"You think Donovan might have a way out of Dean's deal?" Sam asked.

"I'm saying he's really fucking powerful. He kept me alive for a reason, maybe we can get something out of him," Lady said quickly before Dean could interject.

"Whoa!" Dean moved forward. "No, no way in _hell_, Lady. The other day you were bent on killing Donovan, you can't go asking for his help. You sure as hell aren't asking him to help me."

"I'm not saying I'm doing anything," Lady said. "I'm just throwing out ideas that are popping into my head."

"Well hurry up and forget that one idea. You aren't dealing with that warlock," Dean said.

"What if we deal with the how he's doing it," Bobby said after a few moments of silence to get the younger generation back on track. "How could he even mess with the demon's crossroads?"

"The Goddess was the Goddess of the Crossroads," Sam said.

"While I was in the realm I could see demons passing through it," Lady added. "Sometimes I could hear them. There may even be a gate to hell from that realm. I never came across one, but who knows, right?"

"What if he wants the realm sealed off from them?" Sam asked.

Lady shrugged, "Okay, but for what? I still don't get his motivation."

It went on all morning and into the afternoon, the four of them throwing around ideas and theories. What it came down to is they just didn't know. Donovan had proven himself capable of doing serious damage without leaving the safety of the spirit realm, and there was no safe way to get to him. Lady didn't like it, but accepted that they had to wait for Donovan to make his next move before they could have a chance.

Later in the afternoon Dean went outside to check on his car.

"Thanks for doing the laundry," Sam said as he grabbed the bags of dirty laundry to wash. Was it too much to ask Dean to handle the housekeeping of their car while he was gone?

"I was getting around to it," Dean lied. He had other things on his mind while he was at Bobby's, like finding a way to get rid of Donovan. And the more recent demon attack that Sam and Lady survived. "Hey, I've been thinking about something. These demon attacks…we need to take some serious precautions. From possession, ambushes, the whole thing."

"We have those amulets Bobby gave us to ward off possession," Sam said. "We should just start wearing them all the time." Sam was wearing his all the time, he'd been possessed once. He never wanted it to happen again.

"Thing with those amulets, they can be ripped off or lost," Dean muttered. "I have an idea."

Sam looked at him with wide eyes, "What?"

"What if we get something a little more permanent?"

"Sounds good so far," Sam said. "What are you thinking?"

"Lady has that pentagram tattoo under her tongue. It's there to ward off curses, but it's kept a demon out of her. We could...well," Dean didn't finish, and just shrugged.

"You want to get a tattoo?" Sam asked, looking a bit surprised.

Dean shrugged again, "Why not? Lady can help us out. Maybe even get Al to do them."

"On our tongues?" Sam looked uncomfortable as he tried to imagine it. Then he thought about the reassurance of always having protection from demon possession. Sam had been possessed before, and it hadn't been a pleasant experience. The amulets would work, but they could get lost or forgotten. "Let's do it."

Dean nodded, glad Sam was on board. After changing the oil and giving the Impala a quick tune-up he went back inside to Bobby's house. Bobby had hooked up a central air-conditioning unit that kept the house cool compared to the heat outside, and almost immediately Goosebumps rose on Dean's arms.

Lady was stretched out on her bed, her eyes were closed but her hand was softly petting the kitten Ivory who was purring loudly with the attention.

"Hey, make some room," Dean said, climbing onto the bed. He rubbed the cat's head roughly. Ivory immediately stopped purring and opened his eyes to glare at Dean, and then stretched before hopping off the bed.

Dean's skin was still hot from being outside in the sun. Lady ran her hands over his arms, "Mm, plenty of room for you," she said.

Dean chuckled, forgetting what he had wanted to talk to her about as he wrapped his arms around her and began kissing her. Her hands moved down his back and then up his shirt. Her legs were wrapping around his while his tongue moved into her mouth. Her body arched towards his as she returned his kiss hungrily.

"I actually need to talk to you about something," Dean said, moving away from her mouth.

"I'm listening," she said.

Dean chuckled as she pushed him on his back and continued the kiss. Her tattooed tongue was reminding him and distracting him at the same time.

"Sam and I want to get something to ward off demonic possession," Dean got out as she kissed the rough stubble along his jaw toward his ear. "We were hoping you could help."

Lady stopped her kisses at his ear and leaned back to look at him seriously, "You'd rather talk about demons then let me molest you?"

"I can do both at the same time," he said.

"I can't, I'm not some sort of sexual pervert," Lady said.

"Yes you are," Dean scoffed. "That's why we're together."

Lady thought about it and then nodded in agreement. "Okay, what do you need me to do?" she asked.

"Come nibble on my ear and I'll tell you."

Lady had to grin at the lusty glint in his hazel eyes, they looked nearly green with the sun shining through the window. She leaned toward him and closed her lips around his earlobe, sucking gently while grabbing it between her teeth. His hands moved up and down her back while he moved his face against hers. "Not getting distracted, are you?" she breathed in his ear before licking the outer edge of it.

"It's just, ah, your tongue," Dean said.

Lady giggled and licked his ear again, "Yeah?"

"Oh Jesus," he moaned, grabbing the back of her head and pulling her mouth to his.

Lady relaxed her body on top of his, returning his kiss while she felt his breathing match hers.

"Hey, guys can…whoa, sorry…" Sam said, appearing at the door and disappearing back down the hall the way he came.

Lady giggled as Dean's head fell back. "What is wrong with him?" Dean asked with a breath. Almost his whole life his privacy had been getting invaded by Sam, it just never ended.

"You did forget to shut the door," Lady said. "Now talk, what did you want help on?"

Dean pressed his lips together in an effort to make them stop tingling and said, "We thought about getting tattoos, we wondered if something like the one you have under your tongue would help us."

Lady rolled off of him and tapped her fingers on her thigh as she thought, "Yeah. Actually, it would work even better."

"What do you mean?"

Lady rolled onto her side, her head propped up by one hand as she looked at him, "I got mine to protect against curses, and it's tiny. Bobby can find you guys a symbol, then I can mix up some ink. It'll be a permanent charm. Unless your skins gets sliced off, you'll always be protected from possession. And the bonus of going to Vegas."

"You think Al will be okay with it?" Dean asked. He hoped the weird chick would, at least he knew she wouldn't ask questions. Al was the only person Lady trusted with the tattoos she had gotten, and that was more than enough for him to extend his own trust.

"I'm sure she will be. I'll call her," Lady said. She shifted and hopped off the bed.

"Hey, wait a second," Dean said. "You forgetting something?"

Lady knew what his smile was suggesting. Their making out had been going in one direction, and they'd been without the physical attention they both enjoyed with each other. Lady smiled back. "No, I don't think so."

Dean let his head fall back and closed his eyes in frustration. But the next moment Lady closed and locked the bedroom door and jumped back onto the bed, tackling him down and resuming what they had started.

XXX

That evening Bobby and the Winchesters worked together, finally deciding on a pentagram with sunrays. A strong symbol of protection. To optimize the effectiveness the tattoos would need to be placed over their hearts.

"You going to do it, too, Lady?" Sam asked.

"I feel comfortable with the protection I have," Lady said.

"That's right. She's got two Winchesters and a Colt," Dean joked, giving her a wink.

"Even though I prefer Beretta," Lady shrugged.

Dean rolled his eyes while grabbing her around the waist. His fingers moved roughly against her side in a tickle that she struggled against, "Learn your lesson, and get yourself a real gun," he said as he held onto her.

"Can't you two act your age?" Bobby huffed.

Lady laughed as Dean released her. "We're just young at heart," Lady said with a smile.

"Bobby? What about you? Want to join us for this?" Sam asked, trying to keep the group focused.

Bobby shook his head, "I'd rather keep a handle on my amulet instead of having some weird chick mark me for life."

Jokingly, Lady said, "Okay, but don't you come crying to us if you get possessed."

"When you guys heading to Vegas?" Bobby asked, ignoring Lady.

"Al is D.C. right now, but she'll be back next week. Plenty of time, as long as the Tweedles don't decide they want to do something in the meantime," Lady said happily.

"Tweedles?" Dean glared at her.

"Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum," Lady said as if it was obvious.

Dean shook his head, "No."

"Yeah, too bad." She said with a smile. "You should watch Alice in Wonderland, being a Tweedle isn't all that bad."

"I've seen the movie, I know who they are," Dean said.

Lady's grin stretched, "You are such a Disney whore."

Sam and Bobby both rolled their eyes and escaped the room while Lady and Dean went back and forth. "Lady seems to be back to normal, again," Bobby said as he grabbed a pair of beers.

"Yeah, we got a lot of things squared away in Nashville," Sam said, taking the beer he was offered. "Not to mention near death experiences have a bonding affect."

"Anything else happen I should know about?" Bobby asked.

"No, we told you guys everything," Sam said. They told them all the important things, anyway. Sam didn't think it was important to tell them that Lady had some other serious self-doubts about who or what she was.

"Good. You make sure you stay on her ass about Donovan. Second you think she's going to be stupid you stop her and let me know."

"You got it," Sam said with a nod. Sam turned to watch Lady and Dean exit the house without a word, just Lady's giggles. A minute later the Impala started up and left. "Bobby, the two of them together…it doesn't bother you, does it?"

"Not my place to say anything," Bobby said.

"You were like a second father to us growing up," Sam said. "And you have been the only constant thing in Lady's life since she was sixteen, I know you are the only thing even close to a reliable parent she ever had. When you say anything, we all listen."

Bobby removed his cap so he could scratch at his head, and then quickly replaced the cap. "What am I supposed to say, Sam? I've seen Lady through some real tough times. I've seen you boys through some rough times, too. If the two of them pretending Dean ain't dying in a few months makes them happy, who am I to judge?"

"Yeah. You've been there for us through a lot," Sam said softly. Sam didn't say it, but in some ways Bobby had been a better father-figure than his real father had been. Sam relaxed a bit and chuckled, "Can you imagine if we had met Lady all those years ago?"

To Bobby that wasn't funny, because he remember what the Winchesters and Lady had been like ten years ago. And there were a few chances to introduce them. "Yeah, I can," he said roughly, finishing his beer. "I need to get some work done." Bobby excused himself to the living room.

Bobby used to joke that he never had a gray hair until he met the Winchesters, and by the time he had met Lady his hairline had receded an inch or so. After meeting Lady he barely had any real color left to his hair, and his hairline slipped back another couple of inches. Young people sure had a way to make a man feel old as hell.

**A/N** - _Hey guys, thanks for the feedback. I'm still on the fence on whether or not to split up the story. Personally I prefer to have a story all together, but I know this one is ridiculously long. Anyway, see you guys on Friday/Saturday to continue the story, this was just a set-up/intermission to let you know where they will be going next. Thanks everyone!_


	83. Vegas Part 1, October 2007

**October 2, 2007. Las Vegas**

Lady's gambling winnings from Atlantic City were mostly gone already. Sam had no problem taking her cash, and he was more likely to hold onto it in case of emergency. She had managed to convince Bobby to take five grand off her hands so he could pay off some bills and have an emergency fund of his own.

Dean watched as Lady maneuvered her large truck into the small parking space next to the Impala. She was tiny in the big truck, and it was almost amusing. Only it wasn't that funny considering she handled it very well. The whole drive to Vegas the truck had kept pace with the Impala, and Lady had even teasingly passed him a few times.

Dean would never give up his Impala, but he had to admit that the truck was nice. They had parked the night before in a field, thrown a few blankets in the bed of the truck and tested out the shocks.

"Got us a room," Dean dangled a key. "Sam's already in his. How much time do we have?"

"Enough time for a shower," Lady said, looking at the motel. "Couldn't we stay somewhere closer to the strip?"

"This is here, had a vacancy, and it's cheap," Dean said as they walked to the door.

"How about I make some money tomorrow and get us a place with less chance of giving us hepatitis?" Lady offered.

"Lay some plastic on the sheets, its fine," Dean said, his eyes scanning the room before locking the door behind him. "It looks better on the inside."

Lady trusted her nose more than she trusted her eyes. The room smelled musty, unused. Which was actually comforting, no one had been in the room for a while. She put her bag on the table and dug through until she found her smaller bag of toiletries. She went into the bathroom which was cleaner than she expected and turned on the shower.

Once Dean was satisfied that the room was how he liked it: devil's trap at the door, cooler of beer by the bed, and the TV remote hidden so Lady couldn't take over, he stepped into the bathroom and locked the door out of habit. He poked his head through the shower curtain to see Lady washing shampoo out of her hair, the floral fragrance filling his nostrils as the white foam moved down her back and across tattoos and skin.

He hung his amulet on the doorknob and quickly stripped down. He entered the shower and ran his hands over Lady's slippery skin as he got under the warm stream of water with her. With a hand he moved her wet hair from her shoulders and dragged his lips down her face until he could suck the water from her collarbone. Her hands moved up his face and through his wet hair.

Dean kept kissing her neck but paused as she played with his hair. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Giving you a fauhawk," she answered without hesitation.

He raised his head and shook his hair under the water, "You are a pain." He grabbed the small bottle of shampoo provided by the motel, preferring something that didn't make him leave the bathroom smelling like a chick.

"Yeah, but I'm fun," Lady said as she squeezed pink shampoo onto his head from behind.

With a sigh Dean gave up, quickly washing his hair as Lady rubbed his back. He'd just have to deal with smelling like Herbal Essences the rest of the day. Lady's hands went from helpful and soothing to groping. Her hands moved over his butt, around his thighs before stroking his front while running her lips against his wet shoulder blades.

Dean adjusted the water to run a bit warmer before turning to take her in his arms and press her against the wall of the shower. The tip of her tongue slid over his bottom lip as his hand moved between her thighs. Lady put her foot on the edge of the tub to keep herself steady and give him more room as he rubbed sensitive skin.

Dean had to say one thing for relationships that lasted longer than one weekend, he knew exactly what to do to get Lady ready and almost always how she'd respond. The feel of her skin under his fingers was soft and wet, and her breathing shuddered as he teased the sensitive spot. Lady's teeth dragged over his lips as she wrapped her hand around his erection, rubbing it slowly with a firm hand until he felt a tremble in his abdomen.

Dean grabbed her thigh to lift her and Lady slid the head if his erection over her wet opening. Dean shifted his hips, moving slowly until he was sure about his footing. Lady wrapped one hand around his neck and braced herself against the wall with the other one as he began thrusting into her. Lady put her head against the wall, feeling the warm spray of the shower as Dean knelt his neck to run his lips over her face.

Lady let out a cry and dug her nails into the back of Dean's neck, gasping, "Oh, yes!"

Dean let out a low moan and held onto her leg tighter while he moved faster, slowing down at the last moment to hold onto the brief euphoria while loosening his hold on Lady's leg and kissing her.

Lady's legs trembled a bit, maybe sex standing up wasn't the wisest thing to do after spending ten hours driving. But she purred, "Mmm, bath time is so fun with you around."

Dean held her close, his hand going back down between her thighs to make her tremble and hang onto him. She gave his wet butt a slap and pushed so they were right under the shower again.

Lady would have enjoyed lounging around the motel and taking a nap, however they had an appointment with Al. Their entire reason for driving all the way to Vegas was so the brothers could get tattoos. And she was quietly excited to watch.

Sam was waiting at the Impala when Dean and Lady exited the motel. Lady's dark hair was pulled up behind her head and she put on dark sunglasses against the bright desert sun. "You guys want to ride with me?" Lady asked, reaching for her truck.

"That's funny," Dean said. "Get in the back, Lady, we aren't taking two vehicles."

Lady frowned a bit, "But my truck is adorable."

Dean blinked. "Serious? What's adorable is the tiny woman who looks like a toothpick inside it. That's not even adorable, it's more amusing than anything."

"I'm the only one here who knows where Al lives," Lady said.

"No, I looked up the address online," Sam said, giving her a smile.

Lady frowned at him and angrily got into the backseat of the Impala. "I like my truck," she said as Dean started his car.

Dean turned in his seat to look at her, "I know. But it makes no freaking sense that you had to drive it all the way down here."

"What doesn't make sense is that you two wouldn't just ride with me," Lady said as Dean began to back out of the parking spot. She had wanted to drive because riding in the backseat was boring. At least if she was driving she had the road to focus on, could play what music she wanted to, and didn't have to worry about gagging if Sam decided to take his shoes off.

"Because we all agree that we don't like the ass-tightening your driving inspires," Dean said.

"I never got a vote in that. That's a very good exercise, actually," Lady said.

"Yeah, I heard that," Sam said. "It's supposed to tighten the muscles."

Dean slowly turned to look at Sam. "Are you serious?"

Sam shrugged, "I read a lot."

Dean turned to face the road, "Can't you just watch porn like normal guys?"

"We're in Nevada, give me a few hours at the casino and I can buy you a woman," Lady offered.

Sam looked out the window, "How did this conversation start with your truck?"

"ADD," Dean pointed back to Lady.

"Hmhm," Lady agreed with a smile. "Speaking of my truck. Dean, if I make enough money can you help me look for a few things for it?"

"Depends, what do you want?"

"Running boards, a topper, and make the horn play the 'Hamster Dance' song."

Sam burst out laughing.

Dean glared at his brother, "You had to show her that stupid video." Dean slammed his hand against the steering wheel, "Now I have that damn song in my head."

"How can you hate it, Dean? All those little hamsters, repetitive electronic music, so awesome," Lady teased. She leaned forward so she could wrap her arms around Dean's neck. After a few moments he relaxed and put one of his hands on hers. "So you'll come shopping with me for my truck?"

"Sure," he said. "But no Hamster Dance."

"Okay," she agreed. "Maybe I'll get a new paint job. White…with pink dots."

"You shouldn't have access to a vehicle," Dean said flatly.

Lady giggled and fell back into her seat. She was in a good mood and teasing was an easy way to keep herself up.

Lady gave directions to where Al lived. It was a nice place in a gated community. Al looked happy to see Lady again when they arrived and led them into her office. Lady's meeting with Al was similar to the last time. They chatted about old times for an hour, and then Al got to work on the brother's tattoos.

Sam went first, pulling off his t-shirt and sitting in a chair while Al got the things she needed.

"Don't look at me like that," Sam said, trying to avoid Lady's eye.

"Jesus, Sam, your boobs are almost bigger than mine," Lady said, putting her own hands on her chest and tilting her head to examine Sam's bare chest.

"Pecs," Sam said defensively and self-consciously.

"Let me touch them," Lady said, already reaching out.

"Stop it!" Sam said.

"Come on, I just want to feel a little," Lady said as Sam swatted at her outstretched hands.

"Stop it, Lady," he said firmly. He felt awkward enough being half naked with Al's hands on him, and Lady was making it worse.

"I got a pair of boobs you can feel, Lady," Al said with a wink. "Just got them, and they feel real. Check them out."

"Oh, please do," Dean said, watching eagerly. Al wasn't his type of girl, considering she only liked women and was really into his girlfriend. Not to mention the tattoos he was sure covered her entire body, and the multiple piercings. But the thought of his Lady with another lady made him want to drool.

"Al, where is Teri? Your girlfriend?" Sam asked, feeling awkward as Al leaned over him to prepare the area of his chest he was going to have tattooed.

"I kicked her out," Al said. "Golddigger was cheating on me."

"Oh...uh, sorry to hear about that," Sam said uncomfortably.

"It's okay. I'm moving on. Got this sexy little ballet dancer now, her name is Tranay. And the ways she can bend," Al let out a low whistle and even shuddered a bit.

"Any chance we get to meet her?" Dean asked, and grunted when Lady's boney elbow hit his gut.

"Afraid she is busy," Al said as she set the stencil on Sam's skin and removed it. "That where you want it?"

Sam looked down and before he could answer Lady said, "Needs to be over the heartbeat. Sam, I'm not doing this out of pleasure, I'm just making sure." She placed her palm on his chest and felt the steady heartbeat beneath. "That's good."

Sam looked at the ceiling while he felt the steady poking in his chest. The pain wasn't that bad, but the sound of the tattoo gun was far from relaxing. Every now and then he tensed as it felt like the needle was shooting through his chest, but he'd gone through much worse pain than a tattoo.

"Looks good, Sam," Lady said when it was done.

Sam looked down at his chest while Al prepared to place a bandage over it. He was stuck with that for the rest of his life. But if it meant Meg or another demon didn't wear him like a prom dress it was worth it.

"In the chair, Dean," Al said as she changed needles.

Dean felt fine without his shirt on while he waited for Al to start. He felt more naked without his gun or normal weapons, all he had were a few razors in his pocket and a knife strapped to his ankle. The heat in Vegas was extreme and they couldn't walk around with jackets on to conceal the weapons like they usually did, plus he knew he'd be losing his shirt while Al did the tattoo so he left his normal arsenal in the Impala.

Dean jerked the first time the needle jabbed into his skin. "You okay?" Al asked, pulling back.

"Yeah, just keep going," he said, scowling at the laugh Sam let out and the smirk Lady was trying to hide.

Dean knew he had a high threshold for pain. But he didn't go looking for pain in most cases. And staying still while someone repeatedly stabbed him with a needle went against his training.

Lady could tell Dean was uncomfortable. She'd had enough tattoos done to know what it felt like, and the only reason she had been able to sit through having a needle poke her was because she trusted Al. Most tattoos weren't all that painful, but it wasn't pleasant.

Casually she stood beside the chair Dean was reclined in and put her hand on his shoulder, she knew if she offered to hold his hand he would have told her to go away. Unlike Sam, who'd accept a hug or a pat on the back without scoffing or putting up a brave front. Dean required a special type of comfort that she didn't mind providing.

She knelt down and whispered in his ear, barely audible over the loud tattoo gun, "You look so hot right now."

Dean fought the smile that the whispered words brought out in him. He had at least another ten minutes of Al sticking him with a needle, and Lady's fingers moving gently against his shoulder and down his arm were making him wish they were done already.

"You got some nasty scars, Dean," Al said once she was done.

She was talking about the obvious bullet wounds that had healed. The one in his left shoulder was from when Sam was possessed, the one on his right bicep was fresher and it was from Lady.

"I have a dangerous job," Dean said, looking at the tattoo on his chest over his heart.

"Mmhm," Al said as she placed a bandage over the fresh tattoo. "Lady, sweetheart, you should come hang out with me tomorrow. My treat, we'll do the spa at the Golden Nugget."

Lady usually kept her visits with Al short and sweet. Chat about old times, have some laughs, then get down to business and get away from her. "I'm not really in town that long," Lady said.

"That sounds like your sort of thing, Lady," Dean said. "Go have fun doing your girly stuff."

"You sure?" Lady asked.

"Yeah, positive," Dean said.

"Great. I'll make the reservations. Meet me in the lobby tomorrow morning, no later than nine," Al said.

**October 3, 2007**

In the morning Lady woke up with the birds, as always. Their chirping didn't send her heart hammering like it used to, but she still couldn't stand the sound of them. If she had to be awake so did Dean, and she was already running her fingers up his bare chest. But she stopped when she noticed the area around his new tattoo was bright red and feverishly hot.

"Dean. Dean, wake up," she poked him.

"What?" he mumbled and tried to roll over. As he shifted the skin around his tattoo tightened painfully and he fully woke up. "Ow," he complained.

Lady frowned in concern, "I think you might be having an allergic reaction. I'm going to check on Sam."

While Lady left the room Dean splashed cold water on the hot skin. It stung and ached deep into his chest. He put on a nonchalant face when she returned. "Sam is fine. I hope it's an allergic reaction and not an infection," she said, her face lined with worry.

"Doesn't even hurt," he lied. He gave her a smile, "We have a few hours before you have to go."

Lady evaded his groping hand and grabbed her bag from the floor. "Dean, this could ruin the protection of the tattoo."

"So it's a little red," he said.

Lady poked her finger around the edge of the tattoo and his face tightened in pain. "Come with me so Al can look at it. Just to get her professional opinion."

"It's fine," Dean said.

"If the tattoo gets infected the design may get distorted. That's on you for life, no getting rid of it and starting over. Or fixing it. This was all your idea, take it seriously."

"I'm taking it seriously," he said. Last thing he wanted was for a demon to jump inside of him and tap dance for him his last months alive. "Okay, I'll go with to see Al. Now, we still have a few hours."

Lady gave into his advances, letting him push her down on the bed to start their day off on a good note.

Sam and Dean followed Lady's truck to the Golden Nugget. Once Lady found a parking space she unloaded her weapons and cell phone to lock them in the glove compartment. She hopped out of the truck and wrapped an arm around Dean's waist and linked her free arm with Sam's as they walked to the door.

"Where's your phone?" Dean asked as his hand comfortably moved over her pockets to find them empty.

"I'm going to be naked all day, I'm not leaving it in there with strangers," Lady said.

Dean nodded, that made sense. But then, "What do you mean you are going to be naked?"

Lady laughed, "You have no idea what a spa day is, do you?"

"Like one of your salon days, only longer," he answered.

"Ah, Dean, you are so adorable when you are clueless," she giggled. "We're talking massage, nails, hair, facial. Wraps, wax, mud. The works."

"Whatever. You do your thing, Sam and I are going to check out a possible job in Henderson," Dean said as they entered the air-conditioned lobby.

They met Al in the lobby where Dean tugged the collar of his t-shirt down so she could look at it.

"I think it's an allergic reaction," Al said, studying the fresh tattoo. "Take a benedryl, and if it's still like that this afternoon you might want to get some antibiotics. You are using the ointment, right?"

"Don't! Jesus, Al, don't say that word so loud," Dean snarled, glancing at several people that were in the lobby.

"I know my needle was clean when I stuck you. If you don't take care of that ink it's your own fault," Al said. "You two get out of here. After the day I booked Lady will be a new woman."

Dean chuckled, "I hope not, I kind of like her how she is. If you want to buy her a new rack while you are at it, though…"

"Hey!" Lady said in offense.

"I hear you, man, nothing like a nice pair of boobs to bury your face in after a long day," Al said. "Now get out of here so I can try and score with your girlfriend."

Dean laughed, he liked Al. If only for her taste in women. However Lady was his, and to show off he tugged Lady towards him and gave her a long passionate kiss. Lady returned it, curling her arms around his head and arching her body towards his.

Sam cleared his throat, "Can we go? Guys? Seriously?" Sam looked around, the long kiss was gaining several spectators on top of making him uncomfortable. "Hey!"

Dean ended the kiss but held Lady close to him for a few more moments, "Give me a call when you are done here."

Lady gave his mouth a short kiss, "Call you? I'm going to hunt you down and do unnatural things to you when I'm done here," she breathed.

Dean gave her rear a final squeeze before releasing her into Al's care for the day. As he and his brother left the lobby he let out a breath to cool off his excitement.

"Sure you don't want to join her? You are starting to get soft, you'll probably like all that pampering," Sam joked as they reached the car.

"Eat me," Dean said.

"Are you saying that because you are turning into a woman?" Sam snickered as he got into the car.

"Bitch," Dean said.

"Jerk," Sam replied, and they both laughed. "How long until Lady is done?"

"She said it was an all day thing," Dean said.

"What?" Sam looked confused. "For a massage and a manicure?"

"You ever wait for someone outside a nail salon?" Dean asked, and Sam shook his head. "Two _hours_." Dean said, cringing as he briefly relived the memory. "Whatever she's doing it's an all day event. Something with wraps, masks, steams and oil. It sounded sort of kinky at first but when she explained it…not so much."

Sam shook his head as they got onto the highway, "I don't get why Lady is into that sort of stuff."

Dean smiled a bit and said, "That's because my Lady is a classy chick."

Sam looked at his brother with wide eyes once he realized this wasn't a joke or tease. "Uh, you might want to check out the definition of classy, Dean."

Dean gave his brother a look that was a mix between offense and confusion, "C'mon, man. She dresses nice, expensive shoes, likes to get her hair and nails done. Classy stuff."

"She also had a Chef Boyardee sandwich before we left Bobby's," Sam reminded his brother.

"She speaks a few languages," Dean offered.

"Cajun French is more of a speech impediment than a language," Sam said. He laughed, "Lady is a lot of things. I wouldn't call her classy. I might call her a hillbilly with knife skills, but not classy."

Dean smirked a bit and shrugged, "Doesn't matter. She works for me. And I know tonight she's going to have a new pair of nails to drag…"

"Whoa! No! No, Dean!"

Dean grinned and turned up the stereo on the car.

XXXXX

In the security room at the Golden Nugget a man was watching several different monitors. Mostly he watched the casino floor, but his eyes glanced over to the camera watching the lobby. He frowned a bit, "Hey, hold that image," he pointed to one of the men sitting at the computer.

"Something wrong, Mr. McCoy?"

McCoy frowned a bit as he took a chair behind a computer. "I'm not sure, that face just looked familiar. Keep it on the screen for me."

After half an hour of searching McCoy pulled up the FBI's Most Wanted list, and his frown deepened as he finally connected where he had seen that man on the screen before. "Call the feds. Tell them Dean Winchester was just in our lobby. Search the cameras, I want to know where he is at all times."

It was noon when the FBI, a team of three men, arrived at the hotel and were led into the security room. A tall black man with a muscular build looked around the room and showed his badge, "I'm Special Agent Henriksen. Where is McCoy?"

"Here," a man in a suit stood.

"Show me what you found," Henriksen ordered.

"Afraid it isn't much," McCoy said. He played the security footage of Dean Winchester and another man entering the lobby with a woman. After five minutes Dean and the other man left.

Hendrickson watched every movement with scrutiny. "The woman they came in with?"

"She is a guest, she is still here," McCoy confirmed. "Agent Henriksen, the woman she is with is Alice Carpenter. She's very well respected, and very wealthy. She is a favorite guest of ours. We are monitoring the woman she is with, but we do not wish to cause any problems."

Agent Henriksen looked at McCoy severely, "You know that Dean Winchester is wanted for multiple counts of murder. That other man he was with, his accomplice. It's his brother, Sam Winchester. And you let them slip out from under your nose. Your rich client was interacting with them. My money is that she's a new target for them. But until that is verified she is a person of interest."

"How would you like to proceed?" McCoy asked tensely.

Agent Henriksen watched the security footage as it replayed and watched the passionate kiss between Dean and the mystery woman. "My men will go in and retrieve both women for questioning."

**Songs for this chapter:**

_Hamster Dance, by Unknown (serious, no idea who did that, but I have it stuck in my head)_

_Big 'Ol Truck, by Toby Keith_


	84. Vegas Part 2, October 2007

**October 3, 2007**

Lady and Al were both wrapped in towels and steaming in the sauna after a long day. Massage, pedicure, manicure, facial. Al looked out of place with her tattoo-covered body, but as a frequent customer she knew many of the people who worked at the spa. She tipped handsomely and asked for people by name.

"Did you do the landing strip or Brazilian bikini wax?" Al asked.

Lady rolled her eyes, "You'll never see it, Al."

"Come on, give me a hint," Al teased. "Let me screw with your boyfriend a bit when he comes back."

"I think Dean likes imagining some girl-girl action way too much already," Lady said.

"He the jealous type?" Al asked.

Lady was quiet for a moment and answered, "Not really."

"That means yes."

"Dean and I have something pretty good," Lady said as she thought about it. "He knows I like to flirt. It used to bother him, but he knows I'm crazy about him."

"You aren't going to tell me you have that crazy kind of love where you'd walk over hot coals for each other, are you?" Al asked in disgust.

Lady smirked a bit, "Thing is, Dean is that kind of person. He'd put his life on the line for people he barely knows."

"Yeah, you are sort of that type of person, too," Al muttered.

"Dean has seen me at my absolute worst. I mean, we get on each other's nerves sometimes. But he gets me. And he's never judged me. Him and Sam are both stand up guys."

"So what do Sam and Dean really do?" Al asked curiously.

"It's not easy to explain," Lady said.

"I worry, Lady," Al said quietly. "For years you just showed up when you needed something. You never said much, I never asked. But I worry."

Lady looked at her seriously, "Al, I'm not a, uh, what you would call legal citizen."

"I know, you sort of need a last name to be one," Al said. "But those guys?"

"They are good guys," Lady said firmly.

An employee of the spa tapped on the door and then entered. "How is the steam?" she asked in a chipper voice as she checked the settings of the room.

"Feels great, Rachel," Al answered. "Is Sven available for a salt scrub?"

"I'll have to check," Rachel answered, closing the door and snapping the lock.

"Rachel, we'd like some privacy," Al said.

Rachel turned, her eyes flashing pitch black and locking on Lady hungrily.

Lady tensed, "Fuck me, not now," she moaned.

"Rachel…your eyes…" Al said, confused and shocked.

"Rachel this. Rachel that," the demonically possessed Rachel said in a snotty tone. "Shut the fuck up, already."

"I…I want to speak to your manager," Al said, shocked.

"Al, bad idea," Lady said. Lady stood up, "This whole place is monitored, you won't get out."

"All I have to do is smoke out of this body after you are dead," Rachel said.

"Dead? What…?" Al gasped. The closest Al had ever been to something supernatural was a palm reader at a carnival. The normal human reaction to things that could not be understood or explained started to take affect on her, her mind shut down as her heart raced with the threat from Rachel.

The demon surged at Lady, and Lady wrapped her arms around Rachel's neck while she was slammed against the wall. The floor was wet and slippery, and already Rachel's skin was wet from the steam. Al was screaming and trying to get the door open, but the deadbolt had been snapped off.

Lady got Rachel in a secure headlock as she began reciting Latin. Before the exorcism was complete black smoke spewed out of the demon's mouth and slithered through the vents, the demon escaping before it could be banished back to hell where it came from.

Al stopped pounding on the door, her mouth agape at the site.

Lady checked Rachel's pulse, she was convulsing on the ground. Demonic possession wasn't always deadly, but it did a number on a person's psyche.

The door to the sauna opened, and Al tumbled out. Al was beyond words to speak. So Lady quickly said, "Call 911. She had something like a seizure."

Lady let the staff handle Rachel and went into the private changing room with Al.

"Al, I'm so sorry," Lady said softly.

"What was that?" Al muttered.

Once, years ago, Lady had tried to confess to Al the nightmares that shared the world with them, but Al believed she was high and didn't really listen. "Would you believe me if I said it was a demon?"

Al looked at her with disbelief.

"Yeah, didn't think so," Lady said as she began to pull her clothes on. "I'm sorry, this was a bad idea. I thought I was hidden from them, but they keep finding me. I…I just have to get out of here and call Dean. Al…I'm so sorry," it was all Lady could do. "I'll make sure you get home okay."

Al slowly dressed herself, her face looked deathly pale above the tattoos that covered her neck. She muttered a few things that Lady couldn't make out, but Lady had reached the extent of her abilities to help her friend through the scare. Once she got out to her truck she'd call Sam. His calm patience and soothing words might help Al.

Lady was leading Al out of the spa, guilt falling on her hard. For years she had kept her meetings with Al superficial, checking in on her and getting nostalgic, but then going their separate ways again for months or even years at a time. She shouldn't have agreed to this fun day, but it had been too hard to resist five-star treatment on someone else's dollar. And she liked spending time with Al. Her only friends these days were three men. Maybe Al was a little butch, but at least she was a woman.

"Miss Carpenter, I apologize for everything today…" a woman at the counter said.

Al just nodded and waved her hand at the woman, and she went silent with her apology. Lady was impressed what Al could get away with by having the title of millionaire. She didn't recall Al even taking out a credit card to pay for their day, but she wasn't going to bring it up.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Al said suddenly.

Lady's eyes spotted a sign for the public restroom and she quickly led Al there. Before they reached the door Al surged forward and left Lady behind. Lady had seen worse reactions to poor ignorant people after they had witnessed a horrific supernatural event. Al had at least managed to keep her bowels from releasing. Lady waited outside the restroom while Al lost her lunch.

"Excuse me, ma'am, may I have a word?" A tall man asked her. His skin was a deep brown, his dark curly hair was cut short close to his head and he had a well-maintained goatee. Lady wasn't the biggest fan of facial hair but the goatee looked good on him. He was dressed in a plain black suit and Lady believed he was part of the hotel staff. Maybe this was the guy they sent after the rich women who were in too much shock to pay their spa bill.

"I'm sorry, my friend isn't feeling to well right now. I'm trying to look after her," Lady said, jerking her thumb to the bathroom door.

"We'll want to speak to her as well," he said, reaching into his pocket.

Before he pulled out the leather wallet Lady knew what he was going to show her. He wasn't a hotel employee, he was a cop. And then he said, "I'm FBI Special Agent Victor Henriksen. I'd appreciate it if you came with me."

Lady felt the suffocating feeling of being surrounded. She'd heard that name before, Dean had cursed it a few times because it was the man assigned to bring him and his brother in. She was quiet and still as she searched her future-sight. A few other men in suits, other FBI or security from the casino, were casually staying nearby. Her mind had been too busy and worried about Al that she hadn't noticed the potential problem. Right now she didn't feel threatened, but she knew they were there incase she ran. "Sure, let me check on my friend," Lady said.

"I'd appreciate it if…" he began.

"Dude, you know who is in there?" Lady said, putting on a snotty voice. "Alice Carpenter. She's fucking famous, but you probably don't have the culture to know that."

"Excuse me?" Henriksen looked offended and annoyed. Which was what Lady wanted.

"Yeah, Alice fucking Carpenter, man," Lady said. "Fucking millionaire before she was twenty selling her artwork. Most artists have to die to make that kind of money. Not to mention huge rights activist. She just got back from a trip to DC talking to the politicians about censorship and shit. You do not want to fuck with her, she will sic her lawyers on you like she sics her Pomeranian on the steaks she buys for it. Most vicious ten pounds of fur you've ever seen, I'm not even joking."

Henriksen thought about the implications of roughly bringing in a powerful citizen. He wasn't stupid, money fueled the world. He knew Sam and Dean were long gone from the hotel, they had only stayed long enough to talk to the two women and for Dean to give the one he was talking with a long parting kiss that nearly made the security cameras steam. He didn't have enough to arrest the women, and he didn't want to get buried in the paperwork a highly-paid lawyer could dump on him. With one hand he opened the bathroom door and looked around. Satisfied there were no windows he nodded, "Go ahead."

"Thank you," Lady said shortly, skipping inside. Once the door was closed she rushed in, looking under the stalls. "Al? Al! You better be done puking," she said once she found Al's feet under a stall door.

"I'm done," Al said in a quiet voice.

Lady looked anxiously around the bathroom. She had hoped for a window, but the only thing was an air vent. She was small, maybe she could wiggle her way inside. "Good, uh…listen," Lady said, hating the way her voice echoed in the tiled bathroom. Henriksen was surly listening to them. "Okay, hun, take your time. Rinse your mouth out if you need to," Lady said as she went into a stall a few doors down from Al. She stood on the toilet tank and was barely able to reach the vent. "Al, you listening to me?"

"Yeah, I'm listening," Al said, flushing the toilet.

Lady got her fingers at the air vent and tugged a bit, but it was screwed in. She had a small pocket knife that could probably take out the screws. She pulled her hand back and looked at the yellowish powder that was now on her fingertips. She swallowed hard as she smelled it, sulfur. The demon was still hanging around the Golden Nugget. "Fuck," she hissed.

"What are you doing, Lady?" Al asked, looking up at her.

Lady carefully moved down from the toilet tank, it was hard not to slip into the bowl wearing the cute high-heeled sandals but she managed it. "We need to get out of here. I need to get you somewhere safe. But there is someone from the FBI outside the bathroom."

"Oh," Al said.

Lady swallowed hard. Al was scaring her. Normally Al was loud and rowdy, full of dirty jokes and sexual innuendos. But she was talking in a disconnected voice, and she still looked pale. "Al, I promise, I'll explain everything. You just need to work your magic and get us out of here," Lady said in a soft whisper so her voice didn't echo. Al throwing a hissy fit would be safer than Lady performing on, Al had money and a reputation to back her up. If Lady got rowdy she'd be hauled in wearing chains.

"Okay," Al said, walking stiffly to the sinks. The water ran and Lady watched as Al washed her mouth out and splashed water on her face. Al looked into the mirror, looking at Lady's reflection. And her eyes turned pitch black.

Lady couldn't move. "No," she breathed. She quickly got over the shock that her friend was possessed. "No, you bitch you get out of her!" Lady snarled as the demon turned to her, giving her a satisfied grin.

Lady never thought she was stupid enough to try and wrestle a demon, however this was her second time within the hour she was trying. She just had to get Al restrained and try to excise the demon, she had that damned exorcism memorized and most demons ran away before it was completed and sent them to hell. She didn't care if the demon went to hell or Kokomo, as long as it got out of Al.

"Help! Help!" the demon in Al screamed as Lady was thrown against the wall. That was all it took to get Henriksen along with a few members of the security team to enter the women's restroom.

They found Lady struggling to restrain Al while she fought back weakly. Henriksen finally had a reason to slap handcuffs on both women until the assault was figured out.

"No! No! You don't understand! I have to save her!" Lady struggled violently.

"She tried to steal my wallet! And then attacked me!" Al cried.

"Turn off the waterworks you sick piece of trash! Get out of her!" Lady snarled and kicked as Henriksen pulled her out of the bathroom. She once again began from the beginning the exorcism chant.

"Get me away from her!" Al pleaded.

"No! NO!" Lady stopped speaking in Latin as Al was led quickly away. "AL! NO!"

Lady was quiet in her internal torment. The guilt of Al having to withstand a demons piss poor attack was nothing compared to Al becoming possessed. Now she was handcuffed and hopeless to help her.

Lady was working out ways to escape, but any moment she got an idea she acted on it without thinking it through. She assaulted three officers, had bruises from them restraining her. And by the time they got her in a small interrogation room with a two-way mirror she was tapped for ideas and had received a bloody nose.

Henriksen stepped into the room, setting a cup of steaming coffee in front of her. "Didn't wear yourself out, did you?" he asked in an amused voice.

"I want a phone call," Lady said flatly. Her only hope to save Al were the Winchesters. Calling them from a police station wasn't a good idea, but it was the only one she had.

"You'll get one," Henriksen said. "There is the unfortunate matter of processing you, we need to take care of first. You could help that along if you gave me your name."

"I told you, I'm Lady," she replied.

"What's your last name?" he asked.

"Don't have one. Just Lady. Like just Cleopatra, but I like to keep a lower profile. She was a bit of a show off." Lady finished with a flashy smile.

"And like Cleopatra, you are the queen of De Nile," he said.

Lady's eyes widened, "Hey, not too shabby. I like it when guys play along."

Henriksen smiled as he leaned toward her, "You are in denial, Lady. I think you know why you are here."

"I assaulted a rich lesbian in a public bathroom," she said.

"You are here because of this man," he said, opening a folder and showing her a mugshot of Dean. In the photo he had a cocky grin that would have been contagious if her hands weren't cuffed behind her back.

"Never saw him before," she said.

"I thought you might say that," he said with a smile. "But, I know you have seen him. Today, in fact."

Lady looked at a few photos that appeared to be from a security camera at the Golden Nugget lobby, her and Dean walking into the lobby with her arm around his waist, their kiss before he left, and then him and his brother walking out.

"I think you are looking for my identical twin. Her name is Natasha. I think that dude is Boris."

"Dean and Sam Winchester, Lady," Henriksen said. "You've gotten yourself in a fair amount of trouble already. Let me help you. Tell me where they are."

"I don't know a Dean or Sam," she said.

"Maybe you know one of their alias's," he said. "Bert Aframian, Hector Aframian, Samuel Cole, Dr. James Hetfield, Nigel Tufnel, David Berkowitz, Father Simmons, Dr. Jerry Kaplan, Jack Mahogov, Robert Plant. Should I go on?"

Lady blinked, "It's a little unsettling that you have all that memorized."

"I've been after them a long time," Hendrickson said. He looked at her seriously, "I can keep you safe from them. I know they are dangerous. I know _how_ dangerous they are."

Lady sighed, she was too impatient to play games. "You know shit. We can do this all fucking night, but I have important business to get to. Now I want a lawyer, or a phone call, whatever I need to ask for to get the fuck out of here."

Henriksen shook his head, "Problem there, Lady. We don't know who you are. You could be an illegal immigrant. You could be a terrorist. And terrorists have no rights these days. I'm having Homeland Security check into you right now. Until I'm absolutely satisfied, you get to sit right there and enjoy the crap that passes for coffee around here."

Lady's nostrils flared, "You have to be shitting me. I'm a pretty white girl. They don't come more vanilla than me."

"The more you fight me on this, the more I think you have to hide," Henriksen said.

Lady needed to have access to something, so she gave him a name. "Betty Normal," she said. She had left that identity behind in Louisiana, but it was the closest thing she had to a legal name.

Henriksen smiled, "You expect me to believe that's your real name?"

"I have an apartment in New Orleans. Piece of shit rat trap that has a problem with mold," she said flatly.

Henrisken nodded, "Okay, Betty. Now let's talk about the Winchesters."

"Jesus Christ," she snarled impatiently.

"What are they doing in Vegas? They trying to get money from Alice Carpenter? They have to be getting their money somewhere, their stolen credit card trails have stopped. Are they going after rich targets?"

"You don't know them," Lady said, barely able to contain her anger.

"I know them very well," he said. "It's you who is the queen of De Nile, Betty."

"Don't call me that," she said angrily.

"Does Dean have you believing you are in love? Has he sucked you into some sort of weird cult?" Henriksen probed, enjoying the anger she was showing. He believed she'd tell him something useful soon.

Lady calmed down suddenly. She looked at her hands in thought. A few months ago if someone had made her think about her and Dean's relationship it would have bothered her. There were so many uncertainties back then. But there were none now. The history she had with Dean was as many peaks and valleys as the Rocky Mountains, but she knew exactly how much she meant to him. Because they were alike. Neither of them let strangers easily into their lives, and they had been forced upon each other by John's requests for her to quietly help him. From there an unsteady alliance was forged, turned into a sexy friendship and grew into something more. She'd become part of Dean's small family unit, and he had joined hers. They rode high on the good times together, and watched out for each other during the bad times, and always made sure to pick each other up.

She wasn't sure what job the brothers were working on, but eventually they'd return to Vegas. It was getting late, one of them would call her to see how much longer she'd be with Al. When she didn't answer her phone they'd begin to wonder what was going on. They would try to contact Al, and she knew a single demon wouldn't get one over on her boys. They wouldn't let her down. She just play nice for a while until she had a new opportunity to get the hell out of the cop-shop.

Lady looked up at Henriksen, "You think I'm brainwashed?"

"I think you are something," he said.

"Maybe I am," Lady said. "Alice Carpenter is in danger."

Henriksen looked at her as evenly as possible, but couldn't hide the excitement. "What are they planning?"

Lady licked her lips nervously, this could backfire in her face so many ways. "I was supposed to take Al for all the money I could. Dean and I were supposed to meet up in Albuquerque three days from now. I don't know what he'll do when he hears I've been caught, and that I don't have his money." Lady let out a shaky breath, "They'll kill me if they find out I talked."

Henriksen's fingers were itching to grab his phone, but he knew his partner was behind the two-way mirror writing all the important details down. "Where in Albuquerque?" He asked.

"Whatever motel was farthest south," she answered. She looked up at Henriksen with her best scared and innocent eyes, "What am I supposed to do if you arrest them? They'll get out, they'll know I talked."

Henriksen searched her face, she could be lying but she looked genuinely scared. "When we find them, they'll never see the light of day again. Depending on your role in their crimes, you may not even be in jail long at all."

There was a knock on the door, another officer said, "Booking is ready for her."

"Okay, let's get you processed," Henriksen said.

Lady wasn't sure if Henriksen bought anything she said, but he had the desperate look that said he'd take anything she gave him. Including heaping spoonfuls of bull shit. If he wanted to play buddy she was hoping he'd reward her for giving him information.

"Hey, can I pee?" Lady said as walked down the hall near a public restroom.

Henriksen looked at the officer, "The bathrooms have windows?"

"I've never been in the women's bathroom," the officer said. He knocked on the door twice, then opened it. "Bars on the windows. I can get a female officer to stand watch."

"The stalls have doors, I could give a damn if you guys hear me tinkle. Just let me go before I piss myself," Lady said, bouncing slightly on her knees in the classic 'I have to pee so bad I'm turning into a five year-old' movement.

Henriksen led her into the bathroom. He unlocked one handcuff and moved so she was handcuffed in the front. "Nothing funny," he warned her as she went into a stall.

"Funny? Me?" Lady said, sitting down on the toilet. She didn't have to pee so badly that she couldn't have held it, but it was always a good idea to empty the bladder before doing something ridiculously stupid, which she was hoping she'd get a chance to do soon. Because if she got caught she doubted Henriksen would be kind enough to allow her another bathroom break later.

Once she was done she went directly to the sink, slowly washing her hands and casually watching Henriksen watch her. "So is Al alright?" Lady asked as she lathered the soap.

"Miss Carpenter is fine, we had an officer escort her home. We have an officer watching her house in case your friends decide to stop by," he said.

Lady wasn't sure what the demon possessing Al was doing. If it just wanted to play house in Al's body that alone pissed her off, but at least she had an idea where Al may be.

Lady shook the water off her hands and shut the faucet off. "So what's this booking thing?"

Henriksen led her out of the bathroom, "We'll take your fingerprints and picture. We verified your identity, this is your first time being arrested?"

"Yeah, guess you are popping my cherry," she said humorlessly. "Thanks for being gentle."

The police station was a flurry of activity, pure chaos. Lady was glad for that, hopefully it meant the chaos she was about to cause it would be easier to slip away. She hadn't decided if she wanted to pull the fire alarm or just run for the nearby door. Henriksen didn't put her hands behind her back again, they were in front of her which would make running easier. She definitely didn't want to wait long enough for them to get her fingerprints.

"Agent Henriksen!" An officer called. "My officer guarding Alice Carpenter didn't check in. I sent another car out there, the officer is dead. His throat was slit, just like the victims in Baltimore."

"What?" Henriksen shoved Lady into another officer, "Watch her. Don't let her out of your sight. The Winchesters are still in town. I want every man you have available."

"Wait! Is Al okay?" Lady asked anxiously. No one listened to her, no one listened much to the people that were in handcuffs.

Her plans for escape were halted as she listened anxiously to the officers that were talking. She knew the Winchesters weren't the ones to blame, no matter how bad things got they didn't slit throats. They cut heads clean off.

Lady watched the shuffle of cops while another officer led her to a table to have her fingerprints taken. Henriksen was speaking to another officer and was on his cell phone, not paying attention to her. "Hey, Henriksen said I could use the bathroom. I really got to go, man," Lady said to the officer who didn't know she had already been given a break.

"Dana, take the perp to the toilet," the officer said to a woman in uniform.

Lady stumbled slightly as she took a step with the officer, grabbing onto her for support and swiping the handcuff keys with her nimble fingers. "Sorry, I've been sitting in interrogation for hours. My legs are a bit stiff," Lady said.

"Come on, this way," the woman said.

Lady got one bracelet unlocked as they walked down the hall toward the restroom, and that was all she needed. When the officer went to open the bathroom door Lady shoved her inside, and started running.

She reached an emergency exit before she heard shouting, and heard a few calls for her to stop as the emergency alarm went off while she opened the door. Not the best escape she ever made, but she was desperate.

Outside the parking lot was swarming with cops, cop cars and government vehicles. "Fuck," Lady hissed, running full tilt. The cops were confused for a moment, but they put the emergency alarm that was sounding and her running together and immediately joined in the chase.

If Lady had to be arrested in any city, she was glad it was Vegas. She knew it well. Unfortunately the cops knew it pretty well, too. Sirens were wailing behind her, heavy footsteps and shouts were chasing after her. She didn't waist her breath to say it, but she thought it, '_Oh, fuck me!_'


	85. Vegas Part 3, October 2007

**October 3, 2007**

Lady was trying to quiet her pained breathing. There was a burning stitch in her side. Her high heels had been abandoned and at some point she had manage to step on some glass that tore into the bottom of her foot. She tried to focus on what she needed to do. Get to her truck, hope that the cops didn't find it in the Golden Nugget parking lot. Get to Al's. That would be swarming with cops, she decided to skip that part. She had to call for help.

"What have you done, Lady," a voice snarled in the darkness.

Lady looked wildly around for the voice, and realized it was Donovan speaking to her. But his voice wasn't distorted like it had been the last time. "Listen, asshole, I don't need a guardian warlock."

"You don't? I blink, and chaos engulfs you!"

Lady looked around, "Where are you?"

"In your head," Donovan answered.

"Oh, great. Well, be careful where you step. It's a mess in there," Lady breathed as she began limping to the edge of the alley. She saw no police cars so she quickly ran across the street to the next alley.

Lady was only a few steps into the alley when blue flames erupted on the other end. She stopped and leaned against the neighboring building. Donovan's tall frame was barely visible in the darkness.

Donovan spoke, his voice softer but more urgent as he used his mouth, "You think it's funny to crack jokes? What is wrong with you? How could you put Al in danger like this?"

"What do you care?" Lady asked.

"What do I…?" Donovan snarled. "I care, because she's my friend. Our friend, Lady."

"Excuse me?" Lady's mind went blank as confusion hit her.

Donovan stepped toward her and near a flickering light bulb above a door. "Don't you recognize me, Lady?"

Lady's mind completely shut down for three seconds as she looked upon Donovan's face. His dark blonde hair was neatly trimmed, but she could imagine it being shaggy and uncared for. His blue eyes were angry, but she could imagine them being shy and uncertain. It seemed he had grown a few inches taller over the years and had gained confidence that she hadn't seen on him before. But she knew his face, she knew it very well. "Donny," she uttered.

Donovan grimaced, "That's what I used to be called. Most people didn't know that Donovan was my real name, I never liked it that much. But Garrett preferred to call me Donovan. Sounds older, more mature, more powerful. I have to admit I like being called Donovan. But damn, hearing you call me Donny makes me feel like I'm seventeen again."

"You're dead," Lady said in a whisper, having a hard time breathing to be any louder than that. "I saw…I saw pieces…"

"Not dead," Donovan said. "We don't have time to play catch up, Lady. Al is possessed by a demon. Because of you. How stupid do you have to be? Everywhere you go bloodshed and death is going to follow. I can barely keep you alive as it is! And you…"

"No! Wait a fucking second!" Lady got her voice back and shouted. "No, you can't just…Donny, you…oh god."

Lady's brain finished coming back online. Over ten years ago Donny, Al and herself had lived together. Three runaways leaning on each other for protection and companionship. Donny and Lady had been recruited into the coven by Ananda, but the recruitment turned sour when Ananda decided Lady was better suited as a sacrifice. Lady had always thought Donny had been killed, one day she just stopped hearing his screams. All these years he had been alive…and he was very much part of the coven she had nearly hunted to extinction.

Lady shook her head, "You aren't Donny."

"I'm not the same kid you knew back then," he admitted. "But you aren't the same, either. I'm trying to help you. Believe me or don't, I don't care. I could kill you for dragging demons and letting them get Al, but it's more important that we just save her."

"I'll save Al," Lady said. "You…god, Donny…why all these years?"

"Save Al. We'll talk later."

Lady was still as Donovan retreated back into the alley and disappeared the same way he entered.

Lady made it back to the Golden Nugget and wanted to sing when she saw her truck was there and untouched. She retrieved the key that was hidden within the wheel well and got inside.

XXXXX

Sam and Dean were on their way back to Vegas after checking out a few ghost towns that deserved the name. They both had blisters on their hands from digging up old bones and putting spirits to rest.

"Lady should be done by now, right?" Dean asked.

"I have no clue, it's been about twelve hours. I would hope so," Sam said. "She call?"

"Half the time I haven't had reception," Dean said as he set his phone beside him on the seat. They'd be on the highway soon and the reception would return. "I hope Lady had a good time doing all that stuff today, because I am really looking forward to a rub down of my own tonight," Dean said with a grin and glanced at his brother.

Sam rolled his eyes and leaned forward to turn on the radio. An old song he didn't recognize was playing, but Dean was drumming his thumbs on the radio and humming along. He'd take Dean's humming over hearing about his sexual desires.

Dean smiled widely as his cell phone rang, "There's my girl," he said. "Hey, babe," he answered.

"Where are you?" Lady snapped.

"Sorry, been out in the desert. No cell towers, but we're on our way…"

"STAY OUT OF VEGAS!" she shrieked, making him jerk in his seat. "Jesus Mary, Mother of Joseph I have been calling you the past _hour_ thinking you are dead, in jail, dead or worse and STAY OUT of the city, get off major roads."

Dean nudged Sam, "Grab our Nevada road map," he told Sam. "Lady, what's going on?"

"Oh, uh…well…" Lady's voice lowered. "Long story later. Short story now. I got arrested. FBI knows you guys are in the area. I'm trying to evade road blocks right now. Not even sure if it is safe to be calling you. Donovan popped in. Al's possessed by a demon. None of that is in the right order. Or maybe it is. Oh fuck me."

Dean braked hard and pulled onto the side of the road. "You are trapped in the city?"

"For the moment, but it doesn't matter. I need to find Al," Lady said anxiously.

Sam had the map of Nevada spread out on the seat between them and was shining a flashlight. "Lady, hold on one minute," Dean said. "Sam, we got one of Vegas?"

"Yeah, in the corner is a small one. I don't think we have anything bigger," Sam said, watching his brother follow roads with the tip of his finger. He could almost see Dean's brain hectically working.

"Lady, we need to get as far away as we can. We're going to find a route for you to get out," Dean said. "And…"

"I can't. I have to find Al," Lady said. "I have to save her."

"We will, but we can't help anyone if we're all in handcuffs," Dean said.

"I manage to do a lot of things while in handcuffs," Lady countered.

"First thing we need to do is regroup," Dean said.

"How about this road? Kyle Canyon? County highway, it's off the freeway," Sam suggested. "Look, there is a farm road, leads far south and west, out away from the city. We can meet here, turn off into the desert and canyons."

Dean relayed the information to Lady and began driving again.

"Dean, don't worry. This will work," Sam said, trying to calm his brother but he knew until they saw Lady the tension wouldn't go away.

"We have more problems than just keeping our asses out of jail, Sam," Dean said.

"I know. Demons, a warlock and feds," Sam said.

"Oh my," Dean added humorlessly. Sam gave him a confused look. "Wizard of Oz? Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my? God, you suck."

Sam let out a breath of laughter, "Sorry, Dorothy, didn't think you were in the mood to crack jokes."

Dean began to relax as they neared the meeting spot, just ten miles to go and he'd be able to cover Lady's back. Until they reached it he couldn't get over his anger at leaving her alone to fend for herself. Lady had no problems taking care of herself, but it was his fault demons and feds were now after her. The warlock Donovan was her own problem that he was hoping they could take care of soon.

He brought himself down further. Lady didn't have the same training that he and his brother did. John and Bobby taught her a few things, enough so she didn't get herself killed. Otherwise she taught herself, and most frequently just winged it. It wasn't fair that she couldn't even have a stupid day off without being dragged into their crap.

The Impala reached the top of a hill and Dean brought his foot off the gas and tapped the brake, only fifty yards ahead of them was a road block. Two cop cars with lights flashing. "Oh, fuck," Dean groaned.

"What do we do?" Sam asked as the Impala slowed down rapidly.

Dean's heart pounded in his chest. "Find another route."

Dean turned the wheel hard, accelerating and fishtailing slightly as he made a tight U-turn. The police, seeing the car avoiding the road block, began pursuit. Dean cursed as he pressed hard on the gas, urging his car to go faster.

"I didn't think they'd have road blocks this far out of the city."

"Well they did! Find us a way out!" Dean shouted.

"I'm looking," Sam said hotly, but they were sort of screwed. He was willing to bet all the cops had their mug shots, and the two cars behind them were keeping up easily.

XXXXX

Lady hadn't taken the big truck because she thought it was adorable. In all honesty, she knew the truck was a bit ugly. However it handled highways, gravel roads and prairie trails well. And sometimes places she needed to go just didn't have any road at all for easy access. To get to where Sam and Dean wanted to meet she had taken the safe route and gone off road, the truck bouncing hard on uneven ground.

She knew she had found her boys when she saw flashing lights ahead, and she adjusted her steering to run parallel to the road while getting the truck to match their speed. The smart thing to do would have been go the opposite direction from the flashing lights, but people rarely did the smart thing when people they cared about were in trouble. Lady strapped on her seat belt and tightened it securely as the accelerator of the truck was pressed against the floor.

The truck bounced hard as it hit the pavement, coming up alongside one of the police cars and side-swiping it hard. Lady's jaw ached as it clamped down hard with the impact. "Oh, I'm so sorry," she whispered to her truck. She never thought driving a monster of a vehicle would be used to drive other cars off the road, but here she was.

Lady gave the steering wheel a swift turn side-to-side, causing the rear to swing and clip the cop car that had fallen behind her slightly. The headlights of the cop car spun and began to fall away.

Lady let the remaining cop car follow her from a short distance. At first she took her foot off the gas so it would get closer, and then she slammed on the brakes. Again she jerked as the police car was unable to stop in time to avoid rear-ending her. She switched from the brake and hit the gas again, hurrying to catch up to the Impala now that the two cop cars were out of commission.

"Tell me she didn't just do that," Sam said as the truck's headlights began to catch up to them. He had turned around in his seat to watch the quick attack on the police cars, it had taken Lady less then three minutes to pull their asses out of trouble.

"I know. That's hot as hell, isn't it?" Dean said, he had been watching from the rear view mirror. He eased up on the accelerator so Lady could catch up.

Sam answered his phone when it rang and put it on speakerphone, "We're glad to see you, Lady."

"Babe, that was beautiful," Dean said happily.

"Bobby's going to kick my ass," Lady said in a soft whimper. "My whole driver's side is ruined."

"Lady, I think I found a quiet spot for us to relax for a while," Sam said. "Just follow us, it's about thirty miles away."

"Got it," Lady said.

Thirty miles proved to be almost too much for her truck to withstand. After driving on rough terrain and taking out two police cars it started to wobble. She followed the Impala to an isolated barn in the canyons, it was off an unmarked dirt road, and pulled her truck inside next to the Impala. By the time she killed the engine smoke was coming out from under the hood.

"Shit," Dean muttered as he shined his flashlight over the damage.

Lady looked at the truck sadly, there was no time to fix it. If they weren't on a horrible time crunch to save Al and escape the police then she knew Dean would offer to pop the hood and tinker around. But they didn't have time. "We'll just have to leave it here," she said.

"Can it be traced back to Bobby?" Dean asked.

Lady shook her head, "No, he put it under a false name, false address."

Lady bitterly grabbed her bags out of the backseat of her truck and piled them into half of the backseat of the Impala while Sam wiped down the truck for fingerprints, and Dean grabbed the license plates.

Lady and Sam looked over a map of Nevada while she told them what happened.

"Is Donovan going to help us with Al?" Sam asked.

"If he tries we have to kill him," Dean said. He caught Lady's brief glare. "Lady, we talked about this. He wants you alive for something. He's dangerous. We take him out before he uses you for whatever he has planned. He's not the same kid you knew ten years ago."

"I know," Lady said. "Believe me, I know. I'm just trying to wrap my head around it still."

"We get a chance to get rid of him, we're taking it," Dean said.

Lady nodded, "Yeah."

"Yeah?" Dean looked at her until she looked up.

"Yes," she said, looking him in the eye. "You are absolutely right."

The door of the barn shuddered loudly, making them all tense. It flew open, a warm breeze blew over them sending clouds of dust and dead leaves into the barn. Donovan's silhouette was barely visible as he stepped inside and the barn doors slammed shut behind him.

"As much as I'd love to eavesdrop on your plans to kill me, I don't have time to humor you," Donovan said.

Dean's hand twitched, the Colt was locked on the trunk of the Impala. But he doubted Donovan would give him the chance to grab it. "Get out of here," Dean said.

Donovan rolled his eyes from Dean to Lady, "I found Al. The demon has contacted others, they have a force of a dozen. They are meeting at a powerful ritual spot. I need your help to get Al out of their safely."

"You don't seem to have trouble with demons, why do you need my help?" Lady asked.

"Anything I can do against a demon, the person they possess won't survive it," Donovan said. "I'll handle the others, you just need to take care of Al."

"You are just going to kill the possessed people?" Lady asked hotly.

"Most of them are probably dead already. And if they aren't they'll wish they were later," Donovan said. "Al can be saved, she hasn't been possessed very long."

"Donovan, hop back on your broomstick and get out of here," Dean said. "We'll save Al, and if we can we'll save the others. We aren't working with you."

"I'm not asking to work with you, Dean. I'm talking to Lady," Donovan said. "And she will join me."

"No, I won't," Lady said.

Donovan looked surprised, "Lady, its Al. You can't trust her life to these two."

"And I can't trust a dozen lives to you," Lady said.

Donovan's hands balled into fists but he calmly said, "Fine. I'll stand aside. But if Al is harmed I will intervene. And you won't like me then."

"We don't like you now," Sam said.

"The demons are at your ritual spot, Lady," Donovan said.

"You mean the one Ananda used?" Lady asked.

"Yes, that one," Donovan said.

"I checked that site out, they were getting ready to build a Wal-Mart on it nearly a year ago," Lady said.

"Construction is almost complete," Donovan said. "It's a big, large empty building. And it is right on top of a very powerful intersection of ley lines. If the demons manage to corrupt the site they can cause a large amount of damage very quickly."

"You mean unlock the crossroads?" Lady asked.

"Unlock crossroads, create new ones, rip open a new doorway to hell," Donovan clarified. "I'll give you one hour. Once the clock strikes midnight I take over."

Donovan left them, and the Impala rolled out of the barn and got back on the road. Lady sat between Sam and Dean, looking at the map with Sam. "This was all empty desert ten years ago, but it's been expanding. The suburbs around Vegas have started moving in, but it's still a pretty quiet place," she said, pointing at the map.

"It'll take us half an hour just to get there," Sam said. "With us avoiding main roads it might take us a full hour. Not to mention we can't stop anywhere for supplies, because they are probably flashing our photos everywhere in Nevada right now. How are we supposed to take out a dozen demons with only two bags of rock salt?"

"I have an idea," Dean said thoughtfully. "The building has to have electricity already, right? Outside is done, they are working inside now."

"That's what Donovan said," Lady said. "What are you thinking?" Lady asked.

"Here's what I think we should do," Dean began.

**A/N** - _Congratulations to aNamelessFace who guessed that Donovan was Donny so many chapters ago! I hope I managed to surprise a few people with who Donovan really was, and why he's been such a friendly warlock. Let me know if you had suspicions, knew this twist was coming, or were completely surprised at this unveiling. Also w/ Memorial Day I'm heading out. I'm going to try and get the last chapter of this Vegas episode posted before I leave for the rest of the long weekend. I'm not happy about leaving my computer behind because next weekends 'episode' is taking a while to polish up. *sigh* I can tell when I've been in Lady's head too long b/c I start rambling. Looking forward to hearing what you thought about this chapter, I hope everyone is still enjoying the story! Thanks guys!_


	86. Vegas Part 4, October 2007

**October 3, 2007**

Lady and Sam weren't too sure about Dean's plan. There were a few variables that they didn't know about the playing field. They parked the Impala in the back of Wal-Mart, the parking lot was empty and facing a road.

Lady watched Dean pull out the Colt from the trunk and he dropped his eyes when he saw her eyes on him, "In case Donovan shows up," he said. But if he had to kill a demon or two in the mean time, well, he just may have to. He'd do whatever he could to keep from killing Al, but not at the cost of one of their lives. Sometimes it was just easier to ask for forgiveness instead of permission.

"Sulfur is at the door here," Sam said. "Okay, let's do this."

"Be careful," Dean said, kissing Lady's forehead.

"You, too," she said, watching him and Sam enter the back emergency exit. Sam had disabled the alarm already. Once the door closed Lady hauled a heavy bag of rock salt and lined the doorway. She ran along the outside of the building, every doorway and exit she put a thick line of salt down, going through both bags of rock salt. In the front of the building each customer entrance already had chalk devil's traps. Any demon trying to escape wouldn't be able to cross the salt, and would get trapped in the Key of Solomon symbols if they tried to get out that way. There were twelve demons now completely trapped within the large store, and Lady stepped inside to join them.

The store was farther along than they had thought. Shelves, though empty, were standing. Signs for separate departments were hanging. As quiet as she tried to be her tennis shoes made soft sounds on the hard linoleum floors.

The store was dark, and a soft orange glow led her to where a sign said the toy department was. Across a wide walkway was an empty arts and crafts section, and that was where Dean was. He was low, watching what he could. He barely moved when he saw Lady out of the corner of his eye. She knelt next to him and looked through small openings in the tall shelf they were hiding behind to see what was going on.

Lady put her hand on Dean's shoulder and squeezed when she saw Al. There were a few candles lit and the strong scent of hemlock spreading through the air.

"We're nearly ready," the demon within Al said.

"How certain are you that this will work?" Another demon asked.

"Oh, I'm positive," Al said. "I felt this source of power when I was near the witch Lady, it resonates with her. We're standing on a gold mine, my kin. This coven of witches have used these ley lines for far too long. It's time we take over. Once I have control that pain in the ass Donovan will be easy prey."

Lady looked at the floor, she didn't know demons had the ability to sense ley lines. But it wasn't that surprising that they could. But how had the demon sensed the ley line through her?

Lady jerked when static burst through the store's intercom, she had been so focused on what the demons were doing that she had nearly forgotten where Sam was. While she had been salting the doors and drawing traps for the demons Sam and Dean had gone inside to prepare. Dean covered Sam while he got him to the store's office, setting up a few traps to make sure Sam didn't get ambushed. Dean had then gotten into position to intervene in case the demons started working their magic before their plan got underway.

Sam's voice came through the intercom next, carefully reciting a Latin exorcism. The demons immediately went into a frenzy, running for the nearest doors only to find them blocked.

"Stay here," Dean said, coming out from his hiding place. The demons were too occupied with escaping the exorcism to attempt an attack on him. Under normal circumstances the demons would kill the person trying to excise them, however Sam was no where to be seen. If killing the person wasn't an option they ran, which was why most exorcisms didn't get started until a demon was already held within a devil's trap. But the whole store was their trap, and no matter where they ran they could not escape Sam's voice. It carried into every corner of the store.

A few demons smoked out early, some demons just were so weak that a few lines of the exorcism was all that was needed to send them back to hell. Others required the full recital.

Dean snatched Al around the waist and wrestled her down. The demon fought viciously, snarling and spitting while trying to stay within its body. The demon held on until Sam finished the exorcism, then Al's jaw unhinged and black smoke came pouring out along with a throat-ripping scream.

Once it was over Lady dropped to her knees beside Al. "She has a pulse," Dean said, backing up slightly as Lady wrapped Al in her arms. Al was breathing, but unconscious. Physically she looked fine, but they would want to drop her off at a hospital. They had several other recently freed meat suits that probably all needed a hospital. "I'm going to find some of the others," Dean said. "Stay here."

Lady looked over Al for any signs of physical injury, there was none. Could she be fortunate enough to forget the whole ordeal? Lady doubted it.

Lady looked around the dark store. She heard Dean's movements echoing in the distance, but something else was nearby. "Donovan?" She said in a low voice while she looked around warily.

Coming out of his hiding spot in the Office Supplies section Donovan began to walk toward her with his head down. "I would have rather destroyed the demons permanently, but the important thing is they were stopped and Al is alive," he said softly so his voice wouldn't echo.

"How did you get in here?" Lady asked.

"I was here before you arrived," he answered. "Just waiting in the shadows." Donovan looked around, "This ritual spot can still be turned against us, but I'll find a way to protect it."

"There is no us," Lady said quickly.

"Like it or not, Lady, we're in this together," Donovan said. "I don't expect you to trust me overnight, but in time you will. I will earn your trust again."

"I know what you have to do in order to become powerful enough to move through the ley lines," Lady said. "You are no better than Garrett."

Donovan glared down at her, "I didn't expect you to rejoice when I let you know I was still alive, I expected distrust and fear. But I did expect a little bit of gratefulness from you."

"You get none," Lady said.

Lady let out a short shriek as Donovan grabbed her by the hair, dragging her across the smooth floor toward where there were still candles burning at the ritual spot.

"Lady!" She heard Dean's voice echo across the store.

"Let me go!" Lady grabbed hold of Donovan's hand, trying to take the pressure off her scalp while trying to get him to release his hold. The air became very hot as a circle of blue fire surrounded them. The fire was so hot it melted down metal shelves, cutting some right in half.

Donovan put her in the middle of the candles, "I saved your life, Lady," he was breathing heavily. It would have been easier to throw her around with his mind than physically drag her, but he hadn't wanted to be too rough with her. "Not just once, but time and time again. Garrett wanted to kill you after the Blue Moon, but I told him everything about you. I convinced him it was better that we watched and waited. That when the time came you would willingly return. And when I got a chance, when I was strong enough, I turned on him. You think you've really survived all these years on your own? I've been the reason witches and demons couldn't find you, Lady. That Eye of Horus tattoo? It means shit to us. I've been protecting you. From Garrett and all the others. Because I saw what you were going to become." Donovan looked at her almost hungrily.

Lady shook her head, "You couldn't predict that I'd summon the Goddess, that was an accident."

Donovan smiled slightly, "You never did realize how important your role was during that Blue Moon, did you? It was only you and Ananda at this spot when the ritual was interrupted, but for a brief second the Goddess breathed fresh air for the first time in centuries. Not just here, but at every ritual spot within three hundred miles. I wasn't that far away that night, Lady. Garrett and I were at another ritual spot. The backlash hit us, nearly as hard as it hit you. Garrett managed to keep the Goddess from escaping, just barely. But not before she gave me some of her power. Just like she gave you some."

Lady was having a hard time breathing in the extreme heat, sweat was making her clothes stick to her skin and was running down her face. "So you have visions like me?" she asked.

"Only one vision," Donovan said. "And it was of you. And it hasn't happened yet. You aren't ready to control the power of the Goddess, Lady. Not yet, anyway. But I have seen you wield it. And when you are ready, I'm going to give that power back to you."

She shook her head, "I don't want it."

"You will in the future," Donovan said. "It is your destiny."

"I won't do it," Lady said firmly.

Donovan smiled at her, "Lady, I won't have to force you. One day, you'll ask for it. And I will give it to you. And after that I'll always be at your side. You'll understand this power is not evil, and you'll accept your place is to hold it. Until then, show some fucking gratitude to the person who's been protecting you all these years."

Dean was standing as close to the hot blue flames as he could, which was a good twenty feet back. The circle could only be ten feet in diameter, he wasn't sure how Lady could survive being within those flames. Over the sound of the flames he could hear Donovan but wasn't able to see him clearly enough. The Colt was out and pointed at the flames, the metal growing hot in his hands.

"How's this for gratitude? Go blow yourself," he heard Lady. "If you were paying any attention half the time I wished I was dead. You did jack shit for me. I owe you nothing."

"You owe me everything!" Donovan shouted at her, and the flames shifted slightly where Dean thought he saw Donovan's silhouette. But he wouldn't take the shot until he knew Lady was clear. "You want to pretend that you aren't glad I saved you, that's fine. When you are ready, I'll accept your apology. What I have seen will come. We'll be partners in this, Lady. You and me, no one else. I've seen it."

"I've had enough visions to know that the future always changes," Lady countered, and Dean saw her briefly through the flames, she was on the ground.

"This won't change," Donovan told her. "Because…"

Dean took the shot.

Lady didn't flinch at the sound of the gunshot, her future-sight had warned her it was coming. The bullet struck Donovan in the left shoulder and he fell to the ground. The temperature dropped several degrees and the blue circle of fire vanished.

"Lady?" Dean called, taking a few steps forward.

Donovan rolled onto his back, and Lady scooted backwards away from him. The bullet had hit him in the left collarbone. Electricity was sparking from the wound and Donovan was growling in pain. Dean cocked the gun, now that he could see properly he was aiming for a vital area. Before he could fire Donovan's eyes came to life with blue fire and he was thrown backwards thirty feet into empty shelves.

Donovan looked at Lady, "One day, Lady, you'll come to me." He said, making it sound like a promise and a threat.

Lady shielded her eyes as Donovan let blue flames engulf him, guiding him into the ley lines below and out of sight. It left a large black hole in the floor.

"Dean?" Lady shakily got to her feet, shivering as the temperature continued to steadily drop back down to normal.

Dean had hit tall metal shelf, knocking it and several others over like dominoes. He was painfully picking himself up, but was unsteady on his feet. Lady wrapped her arms around his waist, making him stumble into her as he tried to get onto the floor.

"Are you okay?" Lady asked, trying to help him but she wasn't strong enough to support his weight fully.

"Jesus! What happened?" Sam called, running toward them.

"Where'd he go?" Dean asked, his right arm curled around his side protectively. "Where's Donovan?"

"He's back in the ley lines," Lady said. She let out a relieved breath, "Good work."

"Good work? I missed," Dean said angrily.

"You hit him," she said. "We know the Colt will work on him, we just need…well, just have to wait until next time. Are you okay?"

Dean took a moment to assess his injuries, and quickly discovered he had hurt his ribs. At the very least they were bruised, but the way it felt it was more likely he had broken one or two. "I'll make it," he said. "How many casualties?"

"I found three people that are alive and breathing," Sam said.

"Three dead, five alive," Dean said. "Then we got Al, she should be okay. Let's grab her, then call an ambulance for the rest."

Lady looked back at the blackened circle Donovan had left.

"Lady, come on," Dean said, making her look forward.

Sam carried Al out and once they were a safe distance they called an ambulance for the other survivors.

It took Al about an hour to wake up, and once she was awake it took one second for tears to fall down her face. Lady sat in the backseat with her, wrapping her arms around her friend while she cried. "Al, it's okay. You are safe," she said, doubting it helped.

After several minutes Al calmed down. "Where am I?" she asked.

"We're outside of Henderson," Lady said. "Al, you remember what happened?"

Al's lips trembled and she nodded. Al remembered most of the experience of being possessed. Unable to control her own body she had watched her own hands cut the throat of a police office, gathering his blood in a silver goblet and then speaking into it. Calling on other demons. Shortly before being saved Al completely blacked out.

Lady had thought it was too much to hope for that Al be given amnesia of the whole event. She explained to Al what happened, and more importantly a few ways to protect herself. And finally Bobby's home phone number, in case she ever felt like she needed extra help.

"So, this is what you do?" Al asked, sitting on the trunk of the Impala next to Lady while the sun rose over the desert. "Go around hunting these things?"

"Yeah," Lady said. "Among other things."

"The Winchesters got you into this?" Al said.

"No," Lady said. "I sort of got myself into this. That cult I joined all those years ago? Well, it was an actual witchcraft cult. I got saved from it. After a while I decided I wanted to hunt for my own reasons. They help me out, sometimes I help them." Lady sighed, "I'm so sorry, Al. I never wanted any of this to come back to bite you. I never thought it would, but…things have been spiraling out of control the past few months. I was stupid to think it was safe to see you."

"But those pentagrams…they protect people? That's why they wanted them tattooed on, right?" Al asked, glancing at Sam and Dean that were leaning against the side of the Impala.

"Yeah. The ink I bring, it's has a mix of a few different herbs to seal in charms. You are the only person I trust to poke me with a needle."

Al nodded and wiped away tears that were still falling, "So what happens now?"

"Best thing to do, make it easy on yourself, is tell the police we kidnapped you," Dean said in a low voice. "They want us for so many crimes, kidnapping isn't that far out of our league in their minds. Tell them we had plans to hold you for ransom, then decided you were too high profile and we just let you go."

"Tell them that we were talking about escaping into Mexico," Lady added. "We'll drop you off as close to town as we can, but we need to get as far away as possible."

"Then what?" Al asked.

"Give it a few days, the shock will wear off," Lady said in a soft voice. "Eventually things will go back to normal for you. And you'll never see us again. I promise, I won't let what chases me come after you again."

Al was silent as they drove her to the edge of town, leaving her at a small gas station after they refueled.

Dean was propped up against Lady's bags in the backseat of the Impala, trying not to aggravate his injured ribs. Sam hadn't heard what Donovan was saying to Lady, but Dean had heard a good amount of it. He was wondering how to ask her about it, or if he even had to. If Donovan's real plan was to shove the power of the Goddess back into Lady, that was a dangerous threat. Lady had curled up in the passenger seat so he had room to himself, but he didn't think she was sleeping. With a painful sigh he let it go. Donovan would be dead long before that threat got carried out.

**Song for this chapter:**

_You'll accompany me, by Bob Seger_

_**A/N** - I hope you all have a good Memorial Day weekend, I am gone!  
_


	87. Bobby's House, October 2007

**October 15, 2007**

The Winchesters and Lady had been at Bobby's for a week when Sam came across a possible job in Colorado. Since Dean's ribs were still mending he asked Bobby if he wanted to come with, and Bobby was looking forward to the chance to get out of his house for a while. However it meant leaving Dean and Lady alone at his house.

Bobby put a hand on Dean's shoulder before he left, "Boy, if she burns down my house while I'm gone I'm holding you responsible."

Dean laughed, "Bobby, she's not a kid, she won't burn down the house." Dean looked at Lady who was giving Sam a hug good-bye, "I already hid the tinfoil, don't worry," he said quietly to Bobby.

Dean and Bobby walked into the lot to Bobby's car that they would be taking. "We should be back in a week," Sam said. "Take it easy, and don't forget to take deep breaths so your lungs don't collapse."

Dean rolled his eyes. He'd had broken ribs before, and to be honest he'd rather get shot. Every breath ached, and he was making sure to force himself to fill his lungs to capacity a few times an hour so they wouldn't close up on him. He didn't need, or want, the reminder. "Get out of here," he said to his brother.

Lady slipped an arm around Dean's waist, "Don't worry, Sam, I'll make sure he breathes heavily while you are gone."

Sam made an offended sound, "Lady…"

"Get out of here," Lady said, mimicking Dean's rough voice.

Sam looked at his brother and opened his arms, "Do I get a hug?"

Dean glared at his brother, "No."

Sam's face broke into a grin, "See you guys in a week."

"Keep him out of my good liquor," Bobby snapped as he got behind the wheel.

"Call me, let me know how it goes," Dean said as Sam got into the passenger seat of Bobby's car. There weren't many people he trusted to have Sam's back, and Bobby was one of them. Bobby had managed to pull their asses out of the fire a few times. Maybe they had been estranged from him for years due to his father's pigheadedness, but Bobby treated them like sons. And they looked up to him like a father.

Lady enjoyed the extra space that came with removing two bodies from Bobby's house. With everyone there it was hard to get from one room to another without bumping into someone or tripping over a cat. The past week Lady had been as helpful as she could be, trying to prove to herself that she wasn't some freak of nature destined to be a Pagan Goddess with blue fire for eyes. Helping Bobby around the house and lot, making sure Dean was comfortable, and quietly doing her research with some help from Sam. All in all, Lady felt like she was being the damned Saint of the Salvage Yard. Hopefully that earned her some good points. And now that she got some time alone with Dean she felt she earned a her right to have a bit of fun.

"How you feeling?" Lady asked as Dean flipped through channels on the television.

Dean took a full breath of air at the reminder of his broken ribs. He felt his chest tighten against the pain, but he held the breath for a few seconds and let it out. He flashed a big smile, "Feel great."

"Liar," she said, taking a few strutting steps to him before placing a knee on either side of him on the couch.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked, his hands moving up her jeans to rub her legs as she began to undo the buttons of his flannel shirt.

"I'm just making sure you are comfortable," she said, running her fingers over the tattoo on his chest before continuing to unbutton his shirt. "Are you?"

"I have a sexy woman straddling me and undressing me, doesn't get more comfortable than this," Dean said as she finished the last button and opened his shirt to run her hands over him in a soft caress.

"That is a good answer," she giggled as she began to kiss down his bare chest. She shook her hair loose so the soft strands touched his bare skin while she kept moving down.

With a rough yank she unbuttoned his jeans, looking up to give him a smirk before she moved off the couch to kneel between his legs. In a slow teasing motion she worked the zipper of his jeans down, enjoying the anticipation that was growing on his face and in his boxers. "Still comfortable?" she asked with a grin as she tugged his boxers down to expose him before taking him in her hand.

"Your hands are a little cold," he said jokingly.

"My apologies," Lady said. "Let me make it up to you," she leaned forward to slowly suck him into her mouth. She kept going as Dean let out a soft breath, feeling him grow longer and thicker in her mouth she let out a soft moan of her own. Dean's fingers slid through her hair, moving it from her eyes while holding it back as she continued to work on his pulsing erection.

"Oh, yeah, that's fantastic," Dean let out a low moan.

Lady gently sucked on the head while stroking the firm shaft with her hand, and gave it a brief kiss before saying, "Dean, if you change the channel on the television right now I will leave you like this."

Sometimes there was a benefit to having a psychic girlfriend, she'd warn you if you were about to ruin her mood in the middle of a generous sex act. Her pale-blue eyes looked up at him, telling him she was very serious, and he shut the TV off and dropped the remote. His hand went back into her hair and she smiled at her victory and covered him with her warm mouth again.

Dean moved his hand down her back, slowing gathering up her shirt in his fingers. Lady held her arms up and raised her head so he could pull it off. He grabbed her arms and tugged her up to him and she placed her knees on either side of him. His hands moved down her back to grip her rear and lift her up so he could press his face against her chest. With his teeth he pulled down the sheer fabric of her bra to reveal her nipples. Lady ran her fingers through his hair as he teased each breast with his mouth, his hands stroking her through her tight jeans. Lady's chest shuddered with a breath and she grabbed Dean's face to kiss him.

"I think we need to get into the bedroom before we ruin Bobby's couch," Dean breathed.

Lady grinned, "That's one way to get Bobby to buy new furniture."

Lady pulled Dean to his feet and he held his unbuttoned pants up while trying to tug hers down as they hurried to her bedroom. Out of habit Dean closed the door behind him and turned the lock, but quickly reopened it to kick out the kittens Ebony and Ivory before locking it again.

Ebony and Ivory stared at the door, both of their tails twitching as they waited for their favorite napping spot to open up again. Ebony tilted his head at the girlish giggle that came through the door. There was a loud knocking from the headboard hitting the wall that caused both cats to run away, their claws out to gain traction in the carpet before the skidded across the smooth kitchen floor.

XXXXX

Lady rested her head on Dean's left shoulder and purred, "Mm, I guess you aren't all that broken after all." She gently touched the edges of his bruised ribs before placing her hand over his tattoo. It had been too long since they'd had time or opportunity to have that kind of fun, and she had missed it. Maybe it wasn't fair to Dean, considering he was injured, but they didn't have much else going for them besides sex. They got along without it, but it was the main way they shared their emotions. The best way, in Lady's opinion. And the past few weeks Dean had been in too much pain for her to share and now that he was doing better she was thrilled, and not done. "Hurry up, let's go again," she said eagerly.

Dean let out a chuckle, "Mm, you should have met me when I was fifteen. We would have gone at it a few times already."

Lady didn't laugh, "I don't think you would have been interested then. I would have been thirteen, in braces with no boobs."

Dean thought about it and remembered old pictures he had seen, "Yeah, you were a funny looking kid." He silently wondered if there were any old pictures of him at that age floating around. There was a small box of pictures from before the Yellow-Eyed demon went after his mother, they were safe in the Impala. But he couldn't recall any later photos that were ever taken.

Dean wrapped his other arm around Lady, feeling her starting to fidget which was the sign she was getting ready to escape the post-coital cuddle. "You know, we should have met when I was eighteen," he said in a low voice, thinking back to the vague and boring memory of him waiting around in a cheap hotel room with his brother while John and Bobby were hunting the black witch years ago. He had been close to joining that hunt, the only reason he hadn't was because someone needed to stay with Sam in the busy city.

"Hm," Lady thought about that. "I would have been sixteen, I wasn't half-bad at sixteen."

"I mean, I should have joined my dad on the hunt that killed Ananda," he said thoughtfully. And wondered what the witch who had nearly killed Lady all those years had looked like.

"Oh," Lady let out a breath he felt run down his bare chest. "Well, that probably wouldn't have worked. I had a shaved head and severe blood loss."

"Shaved head?" Dean asked.

"Yeah. She cut off all my hair," Lady said in a small voice. "I didn't cut it again for three years."

Dean let his fingers move through the silky locks of black hair, moving it from her face and behind her ear while trying to picture her bald. All he could picture in his mind was Demi Moore in GI Jane.

"Fact is, you probably wouldn't have liked me until I was…about twenty-one or twenty-two," Lady said.

"Why is that?" Dean asked.

Lady closed her eyes, "That is around the time I got Freddie. Before that, well, things weren't that great. I was barely living with a curse, I was dealing with random remedies from Bobby and Max that didn't always work. Put it simply, I was a mess and I didn't give a damn. But things just fell into place after I rescued Freddie. I still didn't really give a damn, but I decided to stop wasting time."

Thinking about wasting time struck a chord in Dean. He heard his clock ticking away. How much time had he wasted while he had been battling with Lady? Or with Sam and Bobby? He'd never had any goals in his life other than killing the thing that killed his mother, and he had accomplished it. Now he had less than a year to even enjoy that accomplishment.

Lady shifted so she could look at him, "I think it was John Lennon that said, 'Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.' I sort of took that on as my own personal philosophy, and did whatever the hell I wanted. Still sort of do, actually."

Dean smiled a bit, "Yeah, I like that. This is definitely an enjoyable way to waste time."

Lady put her head back on his shoulder and closed her eyes. It was only the afternoon but the desire for a short nap was settling in. Dean seemed to be thinking the same thing, or under the influence of pain meds, because she was still awake enough to notice his breathing change.

Dean woke up a few hours later when Lady got out of bed. She gave him a pretty smile, "Take a deep breath and I'll get you a few pain pills."

Dean didn't argue. He filled his lungs, feeling the tightening pain that was intense after the fun they had earlier that afternoon. He held it for as long as he could stand before slowly releasing it. With a satisfied look Lady skipped out of the room and returned a minute later with some oxy's. Dean wasn't listening as she talked, part of his mind was still napping and the other part was busy thinking.

"We can go into town to eat. Or I think there is a frozen pizza we can share. Otherwise I'll just eat a hot pocket and you can fend for yourself. Bobby still doesn't trust me with the oven, which is silly because I never blew up his oven. I'm pretty sure his toaster oven was just faulty, but he wants to blame me for that one. But I can order pizza, too. Or Chinese? I haven't had Chinese in a while. Are you craving anything? I'm just plain hungry, I'll eat anything right now." Lady looked at him hopefully, and then slowly a frown crossed her face. "Dean?"

"Hm?" he asked, his name was the only thing he heard.

"What do you want to eat?" Lady asked simply.

"I don't care," he mumbled. "Not really hungry."

"Okay, you can feed yourself later," she said, leaving him alone.

Dean wished she would have closed the door because soon both the cats jumped on the bed. They purred loudly as the stalked towards his head. He glared at the two furballs, they were lucky they chose to collapse on Lady's side of the bed. If one of them touched him he might have thrown them against the wall.

It wasn't that Dean didn't like cats. He didn't particularly care about them one way or another. He had just woken up in a bad mood. Talking with Lady before taking a nap had left him in a funk he now had to battle his way out of.

He had a little over six months left of his life. Which meant he had lived about six months so far. He was trying to remember what had happened the past six months, but there hadn't been very much. Sure, he'd saved some lives. Had some good times. What was the point? Come May nothing he did mattered.

Dean felt the pain killers begin to numb the pain in his side, and that improved his mood enough for him to get out of bed and into the shower. If he was running short on time he should be planning on doing something.

By the time he got dressed he had given up on finding purpose in his last few months. Anything he'd want to do he'd probably just screw up and fail at. Maybe it was better to just be lazy instead of dying a loser.

He picked up a newspaper and opened it, only to make Lady think he was busy. She looked like she was in a talkative mood, and he just didn't give a damn about anything she'd say. Usually her pointless rambles would be good for a laugh, but laughter seemed impossible.

The page in the newspaper he opened had a large ad for an upcoming movie called 'Before The Devil Knows You're Dead' and Dean folded the newspaper up and set it back on the table.

The moment he did Lady started in at a subdued volume, apparently she could tell he was in a lousy mood. "Did you feel like doing anything? We can go into town, have a few beers. Play darts…I'll let you win." She searched his face.

"Nah, don't feel like going out," Dean said, but at the mention of a beer he stood up and went to the fridge to help himself. He took a long drink and the cold liquid chilled him from the inside out. "Can I ask you something?"

Lady looked at his bare shoulders and wished he'd turn around when he spoke to her. Dean was pretty good at keeping things to himself but she'd learn to read his face. And since he learned how to dodge her future-sight she wasn't sure what he was about to ask. "Yeah, of course," she said.

Dean wasn't sure he wanted to know, and a few times he was just going to tell her never mind. But he asked, "You remember what happened when Garrett stabbed you?"

Lady's eyes opened wide and at the mention of it she felt a phantom pain in her side. "I remember," she answered. "Is that all you want to know or you want the details?"

Dean turned to look at her and leaned against the counter. He realized his question could be taken two ways. One way was wondering if she remembered it and how she dealt with it, that was a caring thing and something he had wanted to ask her months ago but had never dared to. But the other way, his way, was so he could get information. Hear about her experience so he had a way to prepare himself.

Dean shook his head, "Never mind."

"It's okay to be curious," Lady said. "I'd be worried if you weren't, actually. You aren't going to find another person nearby who's thought about death more than me, and has the experience of going through it."

Dean nodded, "Well?"

Lady kept her eyes on him. It was the most uncomfortable thing in the world to keep eye contact with him as she spoke honestly, "At first there was pain. Where the knife went in I knew it was just a matter of time, but it wasn't all that quick." Lady's eyes dropped to the floor, unable to look at Dean. "Uh, panic set in fast. It was probably only a few minutes, but it felt longer. At the same time it felt like only seconds. It's actually how they describe it. Your life flashes before your eyes. Your brain goes hyperactive and freaks out." Lady looked back up at Dean, and he was looking off to the side.

"Bright light?" Dean asked curiously.

"Not for me," she said, and didn't tell him he wouldn't get one either. "It was like…sliding. Yeah, sort of like going down a long waterslide. One moment I was hanging, then I felt like I was moving. Then I was in the spirit realm."

Dean doubted his experience would be like that. He'd seen what hell hounds had left of people who had sold their souls. He didn't look forward to going out like that. Thinking about it had his heart beating harder.

"Can we really keep doing this?" He asked. "Just pretend that I'm not dying?"

"I'm not pretending, I know," Lady said. "We don't know what is going to happen between now and May, or now and until tomorrow. Just have to enjoy what time we get, and prepare the best we can."

"Yeah, you're right," he said, but it didn't ease his mind. The fun afternoon was killed with his morbid thoughts. He knew it'd pass, he'd thought about it often enough that he knew his mood would change again. That he'd push the fear to the back and go on living what time he had left.

Lady gave him his space the rest of the evening, working quietly at one of Bobby's desks. She was looking at an Auto Trader magazine and had hoped to get Dean's input for a new vehicle, but until he felt better she just circled cars she liked. She knew when she finally asked for his opinion he'd roll his eyes because she only circled cars that she liked the color on.

Dean went to bed early. He wasn't really tired, but he had almost developed a sixth sense for when Lady was no longer capable of staying silent, and he wanted to be out of earshot when that happened. He roughly kicked the cats out of the bedroom and let his depressed mood follow him into sleep.

Dean hadn't been haunted by many nightmares lately. Sure, their was the occasional one that slipped through, but nothing like the terrors he had started experiencing a year ago after his father died. He quickly became aware that he was in a strange dream. He was following Lady through Wal-Mart, and all the shelves were covered in shoes. The fact that she wasn't jumping for joy told him that it couldn't be real.

"Lady, wait up," he called to her in his dream. She was always a bit out of his reach, and he kept following.

Lady turned to face him at an intersection of aisles. There were two bloody wounds, one in her chest and the other on her side. And blue fire was coming out of her eyes. "You're out of time, Dean," she said, her voice was the reverberating sound of hundreds or thousands of voices.

"That's not you, Lady," he said.

The blue fire encircled the two of them, Lady's arms rising as the fire destroyed the shelves and shoes around them. And then instead of being in Wal-Mart they were on a dirt road, the one where he had made his own deal with the Crossroads demon back in May. The circle of fire went out to each of the corners. Outside the fire he thought he saw Donovan, and thought over the sound of fire that he heard Donovan laughing or even telling him, "I told you so."

Dean jerked awake as pain flared from his ribs. A cold sweat had broken out over his body from the nightmare. He forced a full breath into his lungs, clenching his fist as the pain intensified, and let it out quickly. And then he took a few shallow breaths just for the air.

Without moving he knew he was in bed alone. The full-sized bed was barely big enough for him and Lady. Sun was coming in through the curtains, Lady was usually awake but still in bed at this time. Slowly he got out of bed, his bare feet almost silent as he walked down the hall and went to the bathroom.

"Lady?" Dean called once he was done in the bathroom. She didn't answer him, but he slowly moved from room to room anyway. But she was gone.

Dean looked around the house, hoping to find her asleep on the couch or in a chair. It wouldn't have been the first time that Lady had opted to sleep alone in the living room instead of joining him in bed, but she wasn't there. The cars were still in the lot. Dean leaned against the kitchen counter as his mind told him things he didn't want to think about. She'd ran. Maybe she was sick of dealing with him, if that was the case that was okay. But maybe she'd gone to Donovan. Maybe demons had managed to get into the house.

Before he could decide which possible reason for Lady's disappearance was the most likely the door opened and Lady walked in. "Good morning," she said brightly.

"Where'd you go?" He asked, his voice sounded more urgent and angry than he wanted it to.

Lady frowned a bit, "I walked into town. I grabbed breakfast," she looked at him hopefully while holding up a few bags. "Sandwiches from the deli. More of a lunch than breakfast, but its food and it tastes good."

Lady set the bags on the table and pulled out a few wrapped sandwiches, keeping her eyes low as she saw the signs that Dean hadn't woken up in a better mood.

"Sorry, just...I didn't know," Dean muttered an apology.

"Are you hungry now? Or should I put yours in the fridge for later?" Lady asked.

"Um," Dean ran a hand through his hair. "We need to talk."

Lady sat on the kitchen counter and looked at him, "About?"

Lady's face was already changing into surprise before he said, "I heard some of what Donovan said to you when we were in Nevada."

Lady looked down at the floor so her hair fell forward and hid her face. "Huh," she grunted softly. Her shoulders slumped, "I'm glad you heard because I had no freaking idea how to tell you."

"You can tell me anything," Dean said.

Lady looked up at him, "I know, but…at the same time I've been trying to make things easier. On you, Sam and Bobby. And instead I'm turning into…"

"The Goddess?" Dean finished, his nightmare still vivid in his mind.

"I was going to say more trouble than I'm worth," she said. "I don't know what to do about Donovan. The Colt will kill him, but I don't think we'll get another chance to try."

"Before he drags you back into the coven?" Dean asked.

Lady shook her head, "He won't get that far."

"He seems pretty sure he will. That you are going to turn back into that…that thing, and join him," Dean said painfully.

"I won't," Lady said sincerely. "I don't want that. I had that power once, and it was…it was like swinging a really heavy weight. I was strong enough to lift it, but I had so much trouble getting it where I wanted it to go. He said I was going to ask for it, but I'm not. We have to figure a way to pin him down and kill him. And the Goddess. End it for good." Lady sighed and looked at the floor, "Last thing I want is to turn into something that'd have to be put down."

Dean took a painful full breath of air and slowly let it out as he stepped toward her. "We have time to brainstorm," he said, stepping between her knees as she sat on the counter and wrapping his arms around her waist. He brushed his lips against hers a few times until she reciprocated, giving a small kiss back.

They sat at the table, opening their sandwiches and eating. Dean felt foolish for thinking she had run off, but the relief in hearing her thoughts on the matter was extreme. She was scared, but not scared-stupid. He had an idea that her mind was busy clicking away, and had been since they left Nevada, on possible solutions to her problem. But she wasn't ready to share them yet.

The sandwich was possibly the best Dean had ever tasted. The hoagie was warm and toasted on the inside, but the outside was very soft and chewy. The meat was fresh and tender, and just the right amount of cheese. "This is awesome," he said while chewing before taking a long drink of soda to wash out his mouth. "But this is more of a lunch."

"Well, can have bacon and eggs for lunch," Lady suggested, her own mood improving as she saw Dean was returning to normal.

Dean nodded, that worked. "Did you get any sleep last night?"

"I passed out on the couch for a few hours," she admitted. "But, I think I may figured out how Donovan is closing off crossroads."

"I'm listening," Dean said.

Lady shrugged, "It wasn't nearly as earth-shattering as I wanted it to be. Some ley line intersections just happen to be under crossroads. But some crossroads aren't on top of ley lines. This is something I've known since I started figuring out the lines. But I remembered, my time in the spirit realm, there was a crossroad I tried to get out of but I couldn't. Something was blocking it. Around that area were demons. I think at that time the demons were guarding that crossroad."

"But that means demons are cutting off access to the coven, not the other way around," Dean said.

"Until Donovan takes up residence and starts guarding all the ritual spots that the demons may have been able to use before," Lady said. "I was going to ask you, does any crossroad someone tries to use for a demon deal actually work to summon a demon?"

Dean shook his head. Like Sam he had been doing a bit of research into the demon deals himself, just figuring out what he had gotten himself into. "No. But you can't really dig into a paved street. Typically these deals go down on dirt or gravel roads."

"Ones that have been around for a while, right? Ones that maybe used to be busy before more popular and convenient highways were paved?" Lady raised her eyebrows.

Dean nodded slowly, "I think you might be right."

Lady smiled quickly, "I think so too." Her smile faded, "But, still not sure on how Donovan is doing it. Maybe it is just a focus of will, but that doesn't feel right to me." Lady let out a huff of breath, "I just wish this shit was cut and dry. There are so many fucking variables to figure out."

"Only thing we need to figure out is how to trap Donovan, keep him still long enough to put a bullet in his brain," Dean said. "End it all, for good." And silently he added that by doing so, she'd be safe. Safe from Donovan and safe from the temptation of the power he was offering her. And the last bit of his foul mood vanished. He had a goal, something he needed to accomplish before he died. Killing Donovan had been on his bucket list for months, but keeping Lady from being dragged back into the coven was something he refused to fail at.

The next few days Dean focused a bit on research. They never successfully went up against the Goddess. When the Goddess had taken Lady's body she was immune to silver ceremonial knives, like what Garrett had used. Bullet to the heart had hurt her but didn't slow her down very much. The problem with dealing with such a powerful entity that had several names and incarnations was that he didn't know where to start. Dean wasn't half bad at research when he had to do it, and Bobby was a master of it. And they just didn't know any of the possible weaknesses.

"Check this out," Dean said, and Lady moved to look over his shoulder.

Lady frowned at the words on the screen, "Yeah? What's it say?"

"I was wondering if you could make heads or tails of it. Anything look useful?" he asked.

Lady gave him a glare and walked away to go back to her own book.

"What the hell was that for?" Dean asked, utterly confused.

"Douche bag," she snapped, an angry flush appearing on her cheekbones.

Dean let his head fall back and he rubbed his tired eyes, "Of all the things you want to get mad at me about, forgetting you are dyslexic is the one you choose?"

"Shut up," she snapped.

"Lady, it isn't a big deal. Watch Sesame Street, you'll catch on."

Lady glared at him, the only reason she didn't throw book at him was she didn't want to hurt his already broken ribs. Dean didn't understand the social embarrassment of her elementary school years. Having a hard time reading had haunted her for twenty years.

Dean let out a low whistle, understanding he had hit one of her nerves. He was starting to remember how much of a pain it was to help Lady in research. She was the damned witchcraft expert. He had read dozens of articles on Pagan and Wicca worship sites getting information on Pagan deities, but he didn't know what was useful and what was rubbish. And to get her input he'd have to give her cliff notes, or worse, read the thing to her. Otherwise they'd be at this for months.

Silently he started taking notes for later, and hoped that Lady forgot his joke before they decided to go to bed.

It was after midnight when he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. Before he could ask her if she was going to come to bed she said, "Goodnight."

"You coming?" he asked. Might be too much to ask for some playtime, but he was more interested in sleeping than sex anyway.

"In a while," she answered.

"'Kay, g'night," he muttered. She'd be over it by morning, and he'd just never bring it up again. That simple. He smiled a bit, he wasn't half bad at the relationship thing, at least he was learning.

Lady fought back a yawn as she flipped through one of Bobby's books. It had a pentagram on the spine so Dean thought it had been about witchcraft, but it was actually about demonology. Lady knew she should be researching Pagan Goddesses, but most of those books weren't written in Latin. She'd never admit it to Dean or anyone else, but Donovan wasn't a great threat in her mind. He said she would ask for the power, and Lady had no plans to do so. He said he saw it in a vision, and Lady knew how easy the future was to alter. Donovan wasn't going to kill her, she just had to be vigilant and hope that next time he showed himself they could be faster than him. The Colt was the only way they knew to kill him, and since she had held the power of the Goddess before she had a feeling the Colt was the only way to kill the Goddess.

She was more interested in demonology these days. Demons were a larger threat to her, all of them, than Donovan. And according to Gardener in Louisiana demonology was now the popular flavor of witchcraft.

Too soon Lady had trouble keeping her eyes open, it was hard to stay focused when she knew all she had to do was close her book and slump over to sleep. She put the book away, Bobby threw a fit if she didn't, and made her way to her bedroom.

In classic Dean fashion he was sprawled out so his limbs took up the whole bed. It really wasn't fair in her mind, she very much thought of the bed as _her_ bed. It wasn't that she didn't like sleeping next to Dean, but at the same time she was tempted to let the kittens have him. But she had learned a useful trick to at least get her half of the bed back, and normally Dean slept right through it. With the aid of pain killers she knew he wouldn't wake up. Lady took her pillow and pressed it against Dean's side. His breathing didn't even change, he just shifted in his sleep and wrapped his arms around the pillow. And then she slowly tugged his pillow out from under his head so she could have it, and settled into bed herself with a satisfied smile on her face.

The next morning she let Dean sleep in, which she thought was nice of her. She liked waking him up early, it meant he'd keep her busy while the birds chirped merrily in the morning. The morning calls of the birds were the noisiest and worst. Instead she sat awake next to him, grinding her teeth to the sounds.

"What the hell are you doing?" Dean muttered sleepily. He had woken up to find Lady sitting on the bed watching him, and it was weird.

"Dude, it's the weirdest thing. I think I see Tom Petty's face on your ribs," Lady said as she examined the healing bruises on his right side, her lip twitching a bit as she saw Dean had woken up in a better mood.

Dean let out a few short laughs, and then groaned as the movement sent waves of pain through his ribs.

"Take a deep breath and then I'll go grab you some pain pills," Lady said.

Dean didn't argue. His expanding chest sent pain vibrating down his side. He held the breath for several seconds, just until the pain became almost unbearable, and then slowly let it out.

As promised Lady hopped out of bed and returned a minute later with a few Oxy's from Bobby's stash. Dean propped himself up on one elbow to take the pills, and then laid back down. "You aren't half bad at this nurse thing," he said as he took another deep breath to fill his lungs. "Any chance you have a little white skirt?"

"Hm, I don't think I have a naughty-nurse uniform," Lady admitted.

"I'm okay with a nude nurse," he said with a wink.

"That's just not sanitary," she giggled as he pulled her toward him for a kiss. "Maybe I can interest you in a bicker-chick? I have some leather pants."

Dean shook his head, "We've tried that before. You look like a sexy Joan Jett, but they are hard as hell to get you out of."

"Well, Halloween is coming up. I might be able to find a nun costume," Lady said thoughtfully. Dean looked slightly intrigued. "You are sick, you want to bang a nun?"

"I'm sort of liking the idea of a dirty nun," Dean grinned.

Lady rolled off the bed and walked away.

"What? C'mon, I got a priest outfit in the car. No?" He called after her. "No morning delight, babe? Babe?"

"Pervert," Lady called from the kitchen.

"What about a school girl costume?" he tried.

Lady appeared back in the doorway, "With or without pigtails?"

Dean grinned, "With."

Lady returned his grin, "I can do that, but if you try and spank me with a ruler we'll have a problem."

"Will you spank me with a ruler?" he asked with a devilish grin.

"You are sort of asking for it," she winked before vanishing again. They did only have a few days until Sam and Bobby returned, might as well make the best of it.

There were benefits to not having Bobby and Sam around. Like being able to join Dean in the shower without having Bobby shout, "I use that shower, don't you even think about it!" What Bobby didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Or letting back a few loud moans in the bedroom, or even letting the headboard knock against the wall. All without worrying about making Bobby feel awkward.

And Lady knew as soon as Sam and Bobby returned Dean would be looking for the next hunt. While he wasn't completely healed he was getting cabin fever being at Bobby's. And she had to admit she was itching to get the hell out of South Dakota as well.


	88. Roadtrip, November 2007

**November 1, 2007**

Extreme physical activity still made Dean's side ache, but nothing he couldn't withstand. He didn't even need the pain pills anymore. Which was good, because he was sick and tired of hanging around Bobby's house.

It was also a good thing, because he received a call from an old contact. He was checking his father's old cell phones when one announced it had a voice mail.

"Hey, man, remember Yaphet?" Dean sat at the table with his brother.

"The old hippie?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, that's right," Dean chuckled. "He called one of Dad's old numbers. I talked to him a bit, he said spirit activity is on the rise in Key West."

"You sure it's worth the drive? Key West is a long ways," Sam said. "I mean, they have a ton of supposedly haunted houses."

"Whenever we went there we always found a job," Dean said.

"But…well, we sort of have more important things to deal with," Sam said. Few hundred demons that they let loose in Wyoming weren't going to send themselves back to hell.

"Yaphet's a friend. He asked for our help, I said we'd go," Dean said. "You want to stay here, that's fine."

"No, I'll go," Sam said with a sigh. "Actually might be nice to just deal with a ghost instead of demons."

"Yeah, tell me about it. I reach for my gun every time someone lights a match these days," Dean muttered.

Lady came in from outside, "Holy balls, it's getting cold outside."

"Yeah, they say we might get hit with an early blizzard by the weekend," Sam said. "We should probably leave soon."

"Yeah, we should," Dean agreed. "Lady, want to come with us to Florida?"

"Sure," she said.

"Alright. Sam, why don't you check on the supplies, I'm going to make a few calls to other contacts I have down there," Dean said. "Let's try and be ready to leave in the morning."

Dean and his family had gone to Key West a few times over the years. There was a good amount of legit spiritual activity amongst the tourist-trap ghost tours. Most of it wasn't all that dangerous, but over time spirits could get frustrated and step up their game. He searched online to get the numbers of a few people and called one he knew would answer.

"Sunset Bed and Breakfast," a woman answered.

"Cindy?" Dean asked.

"That's me," she replied.

Dean smiled a bit, "Hey, it's Dean Winchester."

"Dean-o!" She said happily. "I haven't heard from you in a long time. How you been, baby?"

"Not half bad," he said. "Listen, I got a call from someone down there saying there might be a job for me."

"There just might be," she said. "I haven't had any run-ins personally, but a few friends of mine _swear_ my place is haunted. I think its bull, but I'll believe in it if it means you come and visit me."

"That's why I'm calling," Dean said. "I know it's usually hard to find a place to stay on the island, and I figured you'd know what our luck would be.

"You are definitely going to get lucky," Cindy giggled. "The tourist season is sort of dull right now, I can hook you up with a free room. Just like last time."

Dean let out a few chuckles, "Yeah, but I won't be there alone."

"I can get a room for your dad, too," she offered.

"Yeah, well, unfortunately my dad passed a little over a year ago," he said. It wasn't like his father got a widespread funeral announcement when he died. John had made several contacts over the years, many Dean didn't even know. He suspected this wouldn't be the last time he'd have to tell one of them that John was long gone.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't know," she said with the right amount of sympathy.

"Thanks," he said shortly. "But, uh, it'll be my brother and my, uh, my girlfriend down there."

Cindy laughed, "Girlfriend? Really?"

"Yeah, really," Dean said, his jaw tightening up.

"Not a problem, Dean-o," she said brightly. "I'll keep two rooms empty. No charge."

"I appreciate that. It'll be a few days until we make it there."

"See you then, handsome," Cindy ended the call.

Dean became lost in old memories of the last time he had seen Cindy, it was over two years ago when he and his father had responded to another spirit in the area. He remembered it had been a strange case, a spirit haunting an old doll. But he more vividly remembered the parting gift Cindy had given him.

"What are you smirking about?" Lady asked.

Dean looked at her and barely kept his face even. He had been smirking about something that would probably make her slap him. At the least make her frown and leave the room. "What do you think I'm smirking about?" he countered, looking her over with a sly grin.

"Yeah, you just keep on thinking, babe," Lady said. "Sam and I are going to clean out the car."

"Alright," Dean said, leaning back and relaxing a bit. Then he tensed and jumped out of his chair to follow her outside, "Wait, what're you two doing to my car?"

"I'm riding with you guys, I need room for my stuff," Lady said. "Just organizing things a little, that's all."

"I don't like your version of organized. Don't touch anything, I know where it all is," Dean said, taking a few quick steps ahead of her to make sure they hadn't already shifted stuff around. Sam had the trunk open and was poking through the false-bottom trunk that housed the majority of their weapons.

"Holy hell, control your OCD," Lady said.

"What he has is much worse than OCD," Sam said.

Dean looked at them both seriously, "Lady, there is plenty of room, you don't have to go screwing things up with my car."

"It was Sam's idea," Lady said.

Sam glared at her, "Thanks for throwing me under the wheels," he uttered. He quickly looked at Dean so he could defend himself, "Dean, just listen. All I'm thinking is a…"

"No," Dean said flatly. "If you don't think there is enough room in the trunk, then you can leave your crap here. Neither of you touch my stuff!"

Lady pinched the bridge of her nose, "I really need to get my own car," she muttered, walking away as Sam tried to convince Dean it was time to clean out the trunk of the Impala to give them more storage space, and Dean stubbornly said no over and over again.

Lady had, at one time, been very efficient at packing light. It wasn't because she didn't want to have things, it was just because she didn't have very much. She grabbed a duffel bag from her closet and gave it a sniff, satisfied it hadn't been used to carry foul-smelling supplies she began to pack it. Key West had a pretty steady temperature of seventies and eighties throughout the year, but they still had to get there. She rolled three pairs of jeans. One pair was just in case she had to get dirty, although it so frequently happened that she got dirty while wearing her good clothes that it really didn't matter. She stuffed in a few pairs of cut-offs for when they reached the island and some light tank-tops and t-shirts. Knowing that they had several states that experienced cold fall temperatures to go through she added a few pairs of socks and a couple long-sleeved shirts.

Grabbing a smaller bag she went into the bathroom and grabbed what she wanted. Shampoo and conditioner, body wash, her toothbrush and toothpaste. Deodorant, perfume, make-up. Once she was satisfied she went back to her bedroom and put the smaller toiletries bag into the duffel.

The hardest part was deciding which shoes to take with. Lady went through tennis shoes rather quickly. She was active and when she knew there was a possibility she'd have to run for her life she wore the comfortable shoes, and that happened a lot so they got torn up quickly. She found a white pair that still looked like they had a few good miles left in them. Then she grabbed a pair of tan flip-flops that were comfortable to walk in. Then a leather sandal with a three-inch heel that would go with her bland clothing selection she had already packed. She put the three pairs of shoes into the duffel bag and zipped it up, hefting the loaded down bag outside.

Sam and Dean were trying to come to an agreement while looking through the trunk of the Impala. "When have we ever used a grenade launcher? How did you even get one of these?" Sam asked him hotly.

"Caleb got me a good deal," Dean said defensively. "And you never know, Sam."

"Some of this stuff is older than I am," Sam said. "It may not even be safe to use."

"It may save our lives one day," Dean countered.

They went quiet as Lady opened the backdoor of the Impala and put her bag on the seat. "Problem solved," she said, skipping to Dean's side. "Plenty of room."

Dean looked at Sam triumphantly while Lady pressed her lips to his cheek.

Sam let out a defeated breath, "Fine, keep your toys."

"I will," Dean said and squeezed Lady against his side, "And I just added a new one."

**November 3, 2007**

The first twenty-four hours of driving went well in Dean's mind. There was the normal bickering of being uncomfortable, the poor sleep and the ever popular argument over what to listen to. Those were things he was used to and expected on any long drive with Sam, and adding Lady into the mix didn't seem much different.

At first things were even better than normal. Dean had high spirits just from being back on the road, how he had spent the majority of his life. Lady seemed eager about going to Florida and having warm weather, she was mostly happy chatter and coy smiles. While Sam napped in the backseat she had teasingly worked him up, dragging her fingernails along the inseam of his jeans. Things were fun, light and playful.

And then they hit the twenty-four hour mark of driving straight with Sam and Dean driving in shifts. That long trapped in a car with the same people and things started to get rough.

"I just got shot in the kneecap!" Sam shouted.

"Tough break, man," Lady replied.

"Was…was that you? Where the hell are you?" he asked anxiously.

"What's wrong, Sam? Afraid you are going to get killed?" Lady snickered.

"Come on, come on," Sam urged himself as he limped along. "Damn it!" He threw his head back in frustration as he fell to the ground.

"Can't you even try and make this interesting?" Lady asked a few gunshots sounded.

Sam threw his hands up and let out a curse. He'd been on enough long drives with Lady to know she was a pain in the ass. Once her ADD went unstimulated for too long it was like being trapped in a moving box with a monkey on crack. He'd found a cheap laptop and thought he was doing the smart thing by loading it up with some movies and games, and with the built-in blue tooth they could even play a few games with each other wirelessly. Effectively killing his boredom at the same time. Maybe he was treating her like a hyperactive child by making sure she had activities, but it was either that or they'd end up putting her in the trunk after passing through a few states.

"What the…are you tea bagging me?" Sam gasped as he watched his screen. "How the hell do you even know how to do that?"

"Just go in and out of stealth mode," Lady instructed.

"Why would you do that?" Sam turned in his seat to look at her.

"I slowly stalked, maimed and killed you, Sam. Obviously I am a sick and twisted person. Why do you ask stupid questions?" Lady looked at him with wide innocent eyes and a sweet smile, "Want to play again?"

Sam shut his laptop, "Not really."

"Dean?" Lady asked hopefully.

Dean glanced at her from the rear view mirror. Sam had always been good at the computer stuff. He'd seen the screen a few times to see it was some sort of war game, and heard the crappy gunshot sound effects. Dean was alright surfing the internet, but it had taken him a while to learn. If Lady figured out how to snuff Sam on that game in less than three hours, then he knew he had no chance. And being humiliated by his girlfriend, even on a stupid game, wasn't something he wanted to do. "Nah, I'm driving," he said.

"It's actually sort of fun. It's suppressing my normal homicidal urges," Lady said, starting up the game again to play alone.

The game kept her interest for another hour, and then the battery died. She leaned against the window and watched the miles go by while listening to the music through the Impala's speakers. Lady got bored quickly on long drives. One of the reasons she wanted a vehicle of her own was so that she was driving and had something to focus on. Dean had said, and would keep saying, there was no way in hell she would ever drive his Impala again. In his lifetime or hers. He was still bitter that she had borrowed it in Louisiana, drove it until it ran out of gas and killed the battery. She would never live that down.

Lady didn't know how Sam and Dean lived in the Impala their whole lives without killing each other. She knew that punches have been thrown between the brothers more than once, and she thought she understood why. She was tempted just to pull on Sam's hair for something to do.

Sam had fallen asleep in the passenger seat, his head resting back on the seat. Without much thought Lady gently started taking pieces of his hair without waking him up.

Dean was starting to feel the wear of driving several hours, but he was holding off on switching drivers so Sam could get some extra sleep. In the dark car he didn't notice Lady's movements, and it was so quiet he thought she was asleep as well. He liked it when all he heard was the music over the loud engine.

Sam woke up when the Impala slowed down to pass through a town. He yawned and stretched as far as the confined space would allow him.

"Hey, I'm going to stop and gas up. Feel like you can drive for a while?" Dean asked before he yawned widely as well.

"Yeah, no problem," Sam said. He blinked and rubbed at his eyes, trying to get the last of the sleep out of his system as Dean pulled into a gas station.

Dean opened his door and looked at his brother, he had planned to tell him to go inside and grab some coffee and food. But he stopped. The interior light of the car lit up and Dean saw several braids in Sam's shaggy hair. His eyes flickered to Lady who was looking quiet and innocent. "Uh…" was all he got out before he started laughing.

"What?" Sam asked, wiping his mouth in case he had drooled.

"Nothing, man," Dean laughed, getting out of the car.

Sam turned back to Lady who was sitting quietly in the backseat. Her eyes looked tired but she was still awake, "Do I have something on my face?" he asked her.

"No," she answered honestly. "I have to pee," she said, getting out of the car.

Sam slowly followed her into the gas station, stretching stiff muscles as he went. His eyes were barely open as he went to the bathroom himself. Once he was done he went to the sink to wash his hands. He looked up at the mirror and had to look twice. "What the...Lady," he snarled as he saw the braids.

After unbraiding his hair Sam got the normal supplies and went up to the counter. Lady joined him, setting a few snacks of her own on the counter.

"Do you sell coloring books or something? I have a hyperactive kid that needs to keep her hands busy." Sam asked the cashier.

Lady looked down, "You are so lucky I didn't have a scissors."

Sam glared at her, "What is wrong with you?"

"So many things," she admitted with a tired sigh.

Sam led the way back to the car. "You touch me again, Lady, and I'll tie your hands behind your back," he threatened.

"Sam, let it go," Dean said as he opened the backdoor for Lady.

"She braided my hair!" Sam snapped. "You wouldn't be laughing if it was you."

"His hair isn't long enough," Lady said.

"He's right, if you tried it I'd be leaving you here," Dean said as he climbed into the backseat with her.

"What are you doing?" Lady asked as he closed the door.

"I'm going to get some sleep," he said.

"Can't you do that in the passenger seat? I wanted to lay down," Lady said.

"So do I, that's why I'm in the backseat," Dean said. "Be a pillow or a blanket, I don't care."

"Can't we stop at a motel?" Lady asked as Sam began driving.

"We talked about this, we're trying to make good time. That means driving in shifts, only stopping when we have to," Dean said as he shoved Lady's stuff to the floor so he'd have room to stretch out.

Lady frowned, and climbed over the front seat to land in the passenger seat. It didn't take long for Dean to start snoring, but she had trouble sleeping. The seats of the Impala weren't comfortable. Maybe she was small, but she couldn't lie down in the front seat without part of her landing on Sam. She tried to put her legs on his lap, but he was still angry about the braids and had pushed her off of him. Frustrated she decided to take Dean up on his offer of being a blanket, and crawled back over the seat so she could land in the backseat.

"Lady, what are you doing?" Dean mumbled as she climbed on top of him.

"I'm trying to get comfortable. Can you take your gun out of your pants?"

"That's not my gun," he said.

"Hey! Hey! Have some courtesy," Sam snapped.

"It's a knife," Dean said loudly.

Dean grunted as Lady shifted impatiently, trying to find a comfortable way to share the backseat. "Watch your damn knee," he growled.

"Will you stop moving?"

"I'm trying to make room, will you stop bitching?"

Sam turned up the radio to try and drown out their voices. He loved Dean and Lady, but they still had a few days of driving and the Impala seemed to be shrinking by the minute.

When the sun started coming up Dean resumed driving, music was loud and no one was talking. He had frequently been impressed, and even admired, Lady's ability to handle dangerous jobs. She didn't complain when things got physically demanding, she kept her cool and always shot straight. And to top it all off she liked to come off the adrenaline rush with hot sex. However being trapped in a car with her was wearing on him. He'd hadn't managed to get much sleep, although having her snuggled up in the backseat hadn't been all that bad. But once she was awake she wanted to stop to get something to eat, stop somewhere so she could go to the bathroom, stop somewhere so they could charge the laptop. And the verbal lashing when he offered her a bag of chips and to pull over near some bushes had made him want to stuff her in the trunk.

"Dean, there is a convenience store two miles ahead," Sam said, turning down the radio. "C'mon, don't make her pee outside."

"Thank you, Sam," she said. "Is it a truck stop? Do they have a restaurant?"

"Dude, I need to get out of this car," Sam said in a low voice.

So Dean let them lose an hour of time to sit in a restaurant. Then he had to lose another half an hour when Sam suggested they stop at an electronics store to get an adapter so they could charge the laptop in the car. Dean hoped Sam was right that watching movies would keep Lady off his case the rest of the trip.

Back on the road Dean relaxed. Sam took up the whole backseat to get some sleep and Lady curled up on the passenger seat next to him with her head on his thigh and the laptop on her stomach as she watched one of the movies Sam had downloaded.

Lady paused the movie, her eyes moving back and forth as she tried to pin down a strange sound, "What? What is that?"

"What's what?" Dean asked. The miles had gone by with just the sound of the movie on the laptop, which he'd been sort of watching himself. And the sound of Sam's snores. He took his foot off the gas and watched the road, wondering what Lady was talking about.

"Listen," she said. "Is that Sam?"

The next instant, from the back seat, Sam let loose a fart in his sleep.

"Oh god," Lady gagged as the smell quickly filled the Impala.

Dean grimaced and rolled down the window. Lady buried her face in Dean's leg as she giggled madly.

Sam snorted awake, "Huh? What? Where are we?"

"Damn, Sam, is that from the eggs or did a chicken crawl up your ass and die?" Lady asked.

"Shut up," Sam muttered sleepily.

Once the Impala aired out Dean rolled the window back up. Lady had closed the laptop, bored with watching the movie, and looked through Dean's cassettes. Then watched out the window. Then twiddled her thumbs. She thought about reaching forward to change the radio station but her future-sight warned her that Dean would slap her hand. She looked at him with wide angry eyes.

Dean caught her look out the corner of his eye, "What?" he asked, confused.

"Hmph," she frowned and crossed her arms over her chest.

Dean rolled his eyes and looked angrily ahead of him. Sometimes having a psychic girlfriend meant getting in trouble for things he hadn't even done yet.

Sam and Dean had a high tolerance for each others behaviors. They'd grown up in the Impala, and with each other. They had a feeling for when one or the other were about to snap, and had learned how to give each other space while still being stuck within the car. Lady wasn't used to that.

Lady was used to being in some sort of control of her life. If she wanted to pull over and stretch, she just did so. She wasn't used to asking for permission from Sam and Dean, and she had even resorted to whining and begging a few times during the trip. One thing she knew she had to do before they left Florida was find herself a vehicle, because if she had to suffer through drive back to Bobby's someone was going to get stabbed in that car. And she knew it was most likely going to be her.

Lady giggled out loud.

Dean rubbed his eyes, "What?"

"You know the board game Clue?" she asked.

"Sure," he answered.

"My guess is Sam, with the hunting knife, in the Impala," Lady giggled as she imagined her own murder.

Sam and Dean exchanged a confused look, but both just rolled their eyes and shook their head. "How much longer until we get there?" Dean asked tensely.

"Too freaking long," Sam muttered.

**A/N** - _Anonymous, so happy to read one of your reviews again! I was afraid I had lost you! Story update, the upcoming Florida 'episode' is a really long one loosely based off the tie-in novel 'Bone Key'. Also I wanted to invite you guys to take a look at my profile. Emmeline Embers made three lovely banners for this story and I've posted the links to them._

_There have been so many flattering reviews lately and just sends me flying every time I hear from you guys. I hope I can keep you all entertained for however long this story continues. Thanks for reading.  
_


	89. Key West Part 1, November 2007

**November 5, 2007**

It was near sunset when Dean pulled into Sunset Bed and Breakfast. Sam had driven most of the morning and into the afternoon while Dean napped. Dean wasn't tired but every muscle from his feet to his neck was stiff. Stepping out of the Impala he stretched, wincing as his spine and knees popped. He was looking forward to a long shower to wash the long car ride off of him.

Lady was going to trip Dean if he tried to get into the shower before her. Once they got into Florida she had been sweating, and it had taken most of the day to drive through Florida to get to Key West. She felt gross and sticky. Her hair was a mess, she had dark rings under her eyes from poor sleep and pure frustration over the long car ride. She didn't think she could feel any worse than she did right then. And then Cindy came bouncing out to greet them.

Cindy was 5'9", wearing short shorts to show off nicely tanned legs. The low-cut tank top flattered a heavy bust that was accompanied with a push-up bra. Her large brown eyes were framed with long luxurious lashes, and her long bleach blonde hair was bouncing even in the high humidity. "Dean-o!" She called out, taking a few quick steps to give Dean a hug.

"Hey, Cindy," Dean said as he returned the hug. "It's been a while."

"Too long," she agreed, grinning from ear to ear as she looked him over. Her smile turned to Sam, "This must be your brother."

"Nice to meet you," Sam said, shaking her hand.

Without looking at Lady Cindy turned, waving them to enter the office of the Bed and Breakfast that was connected to her house. Lady hefted her heavy duffel bag and followed with a frown behind the brothers.

Cindy was happily chatting while she searched for keys and made Dean sign a register. She held the keys hostage while she looked at Dean, "We should go out for drinks tonight. My treat."

"I appreciate that, but we're all pretty worn out from the long drive," Dean said.

"At least once before you leave," Cindy said firmly.

Dean nodded, "You got it."

Cindy grinned victoriously and handed the brothers keys. "Sam, you have the Captain's room, it's the one with the blue door behind the peach trees," Cindy pointed. "Dean, I put you up in the Sunset Suite. It's the bungalow behind my house. Let me know if you need anything," Cindy said, giving him a long gaze.

Dean smiled and chuckled a bit, "Thanks, Cindy." Dean turned and quickly wiped his smile off at the unhappy look Lady was wearing. She'd been grumpy since they got into Florida, he just hoped that a comfortable bed and some air-conditioning would help improve her mood.

Lady could care less that Cindy was flirting with Dean. To be honest, she wouldn't mind if Cindy took him off her hands for a night or two. What really got under Lady's skin was that Cindy had completely ignored her. No introduction, not even a hello. She treated Lady like she was invisible. And Cindy was rather gorgeous. The pretty blonde looked perfect and put together when Lady looked like she'd been beaten, wrung out and stepped on a few times after the long hell-ride in the car.

Lady had no problems with her own self-image. In fact she may be a little over confident when it came to her looks. Her legs weren't the longest, but they were athletic and toned. Her hips weren't very generous, but she thought she had a cute butt. Maybe her boobs weren't that big, but that was what push-up bras were for. Cindy had everything Lady had, along with what she did not have.

The Bed and Breakfast was split into four different buildings. Cindy's house was in the front. Behind her house was a beautiful garden with fruit trees and vegetables, along with brightly blooming flowers. Around the garden were three bungalows that served as lodging for guests. Sam went to his own without a goodbye, while Lady and Dean went to theirs.

Lady let out an impressed whistle as they entered the Sunset Suite, "She must like you, Dean," she said, dropping her bag on the bed and opening it.

Dean gave her a handsome smile, "Jealous?"

Lady laughed humorlessly as she went into the bathroom. Jealous? She was getting there. She had a very strong impression that he and Cindy had already experienced a good time together, and Cindy wasn't hiding the fact that she was willing for another go. All Lady knew was the last time Dean had been to Key West and met her was when his father was still alive, and Sam still in college. Over two years ago, less than four years ago.

Lady was impressed with the room, but more impressed with the bathroom. Apparently last time Dean had seen Cindy he had left quite an impression. There was a shower stall separate from a large bathtub. The tub was long, deep and wide. Lady wondered if it was what they bathed horses in, it was almost big enough for her to swim in. Instead of taking a shower she stuffed the plug in the bathtub and began to run the water while looking at a selection of provided bubble-baths. She poured in more than what was necessary and stripped down.

The tub was taking a long time to fill up and she stepped into the main room of the suite with a towel wrapped around her body. Dean had turned on the air conditioning to full blast, and Lady turned it down a few notches. The glare he gave her was almost satisfying. Lady didn't want to be stuck in a sticky hot room, but Dean always made it too cold.

She watched him as he unloaded his arsenal of weapons he carried on his person and set them onto the table. He started with what was in his jacket that he had refused to take off even in the Florida heat. Once the jacket pockets were empty he took it off and set it on a nearby chair. Next was his pistol that was tucked in his waistband, and then a knife that had been strapped to his forearm. And then was the knife in his boot, then those were unlaced and taken off. And finally were his jeans pockets. Lady had watched him empty his pockets several times and had never quite figured out how he managed to effectively hide so much. But he had a lot more practice than she did. And his paranoia and need to be prepared was far beyond her own.

"You trying to flood the bathroom?" Dean asked in annoyance.

"Maybe," Lady said, looking away from him and grabbing her bag so she could pick out some clean clothes. She looked out the open curtains and was able to see into the main house of the Bed and Breakfast across the garden. Cindy was in the kitchen, she looked like she was busy doing something but Lady had a feeling she was watching them. Her eyes moved to Dean as he pulled off his t-shirt and gave it a sniff to see if it was still wearable. Her eyes moved back out the window to look at Cindy. And though with the distance it was hard to tell but she had a feeling Cindy was indeed watching. It wasn't paranoia that made Lady look out the window, it was more a feeling of possession. Her and Dean had gone through a lot together and she'd be damned if a bleach blonde got a piece of him.

"Dean," Lady said. "You, me, bath. two minutes," she ordered.

Dean looked at her in confusion, and then quick understanding at the way she was looking at him. "Can we make it ten? Sort of wanted to sharpen a few knives," he joked while he stepped on the toes of his socks to get them off.

Lady quickly crossed the room and grabbed the front of his jeans to pull him into her, working out a bit of the frustration she was still feeling by giving him a hard kiss.

"Get in here," she snapped.

"Yes, ma'am," he said in a lusty growl.

XXXXX

Sam showered and shaved, then dressed in comfortable jeans and a t-shirt. Even once the sun was down it was too warm to warrant wearing a jacket so he was wearing a large t-shirt to help conceal the pistol in the back of his waistband. He didn't feel all that tired, in fact he was a little excited at finally reaching their destination after a long car ride. He was ready to get to work, but he was also looking forward to a break.

Sam went to Duval Street and into one of the open-air bars that were like a constant party. He ordered a beer and sat at the bar. For the moment he was happy to just be lost in the crowd, people-watching and eavesdropping. Normally he didn't go to bars alone, but it was either the bar or just walk the streets until he was tired enough to get some sleep. And he had a feeling that was going to take a while, he had a lot on his mind.

Jess had died just over two years ago. And what bothered him was he hadn't remembered until he was alone in his room. So now he was trying to redeem himself by remembering her. Jess hadn't been his first girlfriend, but she had been the first woman he truly loved. She had been smart and beautiful, and funny. She had always encouraged him while he was in college, pushing him to do his best. He had imagined a perfect life when he was with her. She was going to be his whole future.

And it was his fault she had died.

After her death he had seen her parents, they were devastated. But they hadn't blamed him. Why would they? They couldn't have known that he had a demon following him. That they wanted Jess out of the way so he could return to his life of hunting and 'sharpen his skills' as Azazel had put it.

His mother, father and girlfriend had all been taken from him by Azazel. And even though Dean had killed the Yellow-Eyed demonic bastard, the demon still won in the end. At the end of Dean's term he'd be dead. And Sam was going to be left holding whatever pieces were left.

"Sam?" A woman called his name.

Sam jerked in surprise and looked around suspiciously. The only woman he knew in Florida right then was Lady, and he knew it wasn't her voice. It wasn't good to be recognized.

Sam's anxiety dropped once his eyes fell on the tall Native American woman looking at him with surprise. She was very tall for a woman, right around six feet tall. Her body was long and slender, the legs that gave her most of her height were shown of in comfortable shorts. Her black hair was sleek and long, going halfway down her back. It took Sam a few minutes to recognize her, the only times he had seen her before it had been winter in North Dakota so she had been completed covered in layers for warmth. She was one of the Mason twins, Carrie or Erin. "Uh…hi," he said, standing up from the bar.

"Wow, hi!" she said, completely stunned. "Small world, huh?"

"Uh, yeah," Sam said. "Uh…Carrie?"

"Erin," she corrected.

"I'm sorry, just…"

She laughed and tucked her sleek black hair behind her ear, "Don't worry about it. Identical twin, you know?"

"Yeah," Sam said. He had no clue, but it was all he could think of to say.

"What are you doing here?" They both asked each other at the same time.

Sam let out a short laugh, "You know me and Dean, here this week. The other coast next week. What about you?"

"I'm here with Derek," she answered. "Mom and Dad are a bit pissed neither of us are in college this semester. We both went to Orlando to check it out for when winter semester starts. Maybe. Not really sure what I want to do. But we decided to hit up Key West for a week or so, just a bit of a vacation." Erin looked at the floor and laughed a bit, "Sorry, guess I'm rambling."

"No, it's fine. Uh…bigger question, what are you doing in a bar?" Sam asked. He was pretty sure she was only eighteen.

Erin looked a bit guilty, "Sshh," she hushed him. "They don't card unless I go up to the bar. Key West is pretty laid back and cool."

"Secret is safe with me," Sam smiled at her. "You here with your brother?"

"No," Erin smiled back. "I needed a break from him so I left him at the hotel."

"I understand how that is," Sam said.

"This is crazy to just bump into each other," she laughed. "Hey, I see an empty table. You want to sit and chat for a bit?"

Sam had been more interested in being lost in his thoughts, but Erin already grabbed his hand so she could pull him to an empty table with a few chairs. He sat down, looking for an excuse to leave, when she asked him, "How have you and Dean been?"

"We're good," Sam said. It wasn't a lie or really the truth, but he wouldn't burden Erin with the reality of their lives. Erin had an idea of what was out there, she and her twin sister were nearly sacrificed years ago. "How about your family? All of them?"

Erin laughed a bit, "All of them, wow. Uh, Mom and Dad are good. My brother Clark has another baby on the way. Uh, my brother Michael and his wife just had a set of twins. So they are all busy. My brother Jacob is engaged now, his fiancé is a bit of a flake but perfect for him. And Carrie really likes college. She went to NDU, so she could stay closer to home."

Sam nodded as he listened. He hadn't had a chance to formally meet all of the Mason's, but he had seen them all. They had all been there the night Lady had been pulled into the ley lines. He knew Derek a bit from the time they had stayed with him in Florida. And he knew Carrie and Erin from when he had stayed at their parents' house a year ago. "How is Derek?" Sam asked.

Erin shrugged and looked down, "He took Lady's death pretty hard. I mean, he felt so horrible. There was a lot of guilt because he had invited that witch into the territory. Even now he hates himself because of it."

Sam's face softened, "Sorry to hear that. And Maxine, she hasn't helped him?"

Erin looked up, "She tried, but Maxine was never the soothe and comfort type of big sister."

Sam looked down, so Maxine still had not told her family that Lady was alive.

"You guys…you know, working a job here?" Erin asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

Sam shook his head, "Nothing you want to hear about."

Erin smiled widely at him, "I really don't know anyone here and you are the first guy that hasn't asked me to take off my bra for them. So that sort of makes you the only guy I want to hear talk right now."

Sam laughed a bit and said, "Uh, yeah, we're thinking there is a job around. There are a lot of supposedly haunted places here on the islands, but not our normal gig."

"I thought that was totally your type of gig," Erin said.

"It's different," Sam said. "I mean, normally I'd say this is worth it. But at the same time it's pretty mellow compared to the other things we've been dealing with. Spirits have been acting up in this area, but nothing too violent."

Erin didn't look confused or shocked or even scared at the information, however she had grown up on a reservation swarming with spirits. "Derek and I have been hanging out here the past week, we haven't come across anything too weird. I mean, maybe we don't have knowledge like Maxine does when it comes to spirits, but I think we'd know the normal signs if they were really active."

Sam agreed with her there. "We aren't too sure. We just got into town a few hours ago so we haven't had much time to check things out."

"You should give me your phone number, in case a spook comes out I can give you a call," Erin said, already pulling out her cell phone. "I'll give you mine, too. I've learned a few tricks to keep ghosts out of my bedroom over the years."

Sam exchanged phone numbers with her and held up his beer to find it was empty. "Uh, hey, I'm going to grab another drink. You want something?"

Erin smiled at him, "I am only eighteen."

Sam nodded, "Yeah, but like you said, people are pretty laid back here."

"I'll just have a Coke," she said.

Sam was gone ten minutes because of the line at the bar, and when he returned to the table Erin had a drunk guy hitting on her. Sam noticed her posture, she was uncomfortable with the advances while trying to politely ask him to back off. But a side effect of a lot of alcohol was being unable to notice the obvious signs. Sam set the drinks on the table and expected his presence would be enough to get the guy to go away.

"My friend is back," Erin said, still shying away from the man.

"Erin, do you want to get out of here?" Sam asked her.

"Yeah, that'd be great," she said, standing up from her chair and letting Sam lead her through the crowd of people and into the street. "Ugh, that guy was a creeper."

"You probably shouldn't be hanging around bars, that's how most guys are," Sam said. "At least without your brother if you don't know anyone else here."

Erin laughed, "I've been able to kick Derek's ass since I was fourteen, he's not really the protective big brother type. I mean, well, he tries. But it just looks funny since he's shorter than I am. But, uh, anyway, thanks."

"Don't mention it," Sam said, stuffing his hands in his pockets as they walked down the street. He looked at the neon signs lit up to draw in tourists. "Where are you staying?"

"No boogeyman is going to come out and get me between here and my hotel," Erin said. "I don't need someone to walk me home."

"I'm just wondering if it's on my way," Sam lied, his only intention was making sure she got wherever she was going safely.

"Parrot Key Hotel," Erin said. "It's not far, about three or four blocks this way."

"I'm a little farther than that, I'll walk with you," he offered.

Erin smiled, "I mean, it's about eight blocks the other way. Let me guess, you are still going that way?"

Sam laughed as she caught him in his lie, "As a matter of fact, I am."

"Okay," Erin gave in, letting him walk with her.

Erin pointed out a few sights along the way. She'd been in Key West long enough to do the tourist thing and recommended a few restaurants. Some were expensive tourist traps, others were local favorites. When they reached her hotel she smiled at him, "It was really good to see you again, Sam. Listen, Derek and I are going to Orlando to stay at my uncles house in a few days. If you and Dean want to come see us before you leave give me a call and I'll make you guys supper."

"You don't have to do that," he said.

"I've been helping my mom in the kitchen since I was three. Not to brag, but I'm a damn good cook. Free meal with enough leftovers to last you guys a few days," she said, looking at him hopefully.

"If we can we'll give you a call. It was nice to see you again, Erin." Sam was about to turn and walk away but paused, "And Erin…tell Derek to drop the guilt. Last thing Lady ever wanted was for your family to end up the crosshairs. And I know she wouldn't want him feeling like that."

"That's what we've told him, but I'll try again," she said. "Bye, Sam."

"See you around, Erin," he gave her a short wave.

Erin went into the hotel lobby and climbed the stairs, her long legs taking two at a time, until she reached the third floor. She knocked twice on a door and Derek opened it. "Well?" Derek asked.

"You were right, the Impala you saw was the Winchesters," Erin said. She moved two heavy bags of rock salt that were on a chair so she could sit down. The table next to the chairs had several bundles of incense and dried herbs, along with some bones and dried animal remains.

"What do we do? They'll figure out what's going on," Derek muttered.

"By the time they do they will be too late," Maxine said from the far end of the room. "Besides, it isn't like we're hurting anyone."

"Some of the spirits this is kicking up have injured people," Erin warned. "What if it gets serious? I think we should call it a bust, this is getting dangerous."

"You want to protect our family from what killed Lady or not?" Maxine asked them seriously. "You two wanted to remember her memory by joining her cause. This is what must be done."

Derek and Erin exchanged a worried glance, but nodded in obedience.

"Good," Maxine said stiffly. "The Winchesters aren't a major concern. Once I complete the ritual the spiritual activity will return to normal, and we'll be on our way back home."

Erin frowned as she picked up a pistol, "You knew they were coming, didn't you? That's why you had us steal Uncle Homer's guns."

"It's important we be prepared," Maxine said in a low voice. "Lady was always prepared."

"So are the Winchesters," Erin said. "C'mon, sis, Lady raved about how good they were. They'll catch on soon enough. I'm sure as hell not shooting them so you can finish this."

"You won't have to," Maxine promised her little sister.

"But we might need a scare tactic," Derek said in a low voice.

Erin had been young when Lady had rescued her and her twin sister from being sacrificed, but she had remembered everything that happened. She remembered being taken by the men, being hungry and scared. The relief of being reunited with her mother after days of believing she was going to die was the single greatest feeling she had ever experienced. And she remembered afterward, when Lady was taken to New Town nearly dead because of her curse. Erin and Carrie had sat with her for several hours, excited and happy. And Erin remembered John Winchester, how he distrusted her family. And she remembered it had taken a few years for Lady to trust them. She didn't want her family back on the bad side of the Winchesters. When they all were against the evil in the world it wasn't right for them to be against each other as well.

But Erin was only eighteen, which Maxine reminded her of frequently. Maybe she didn't now the ways of the world, maybe she didn't have much experience. But it seemed to her the older people got the more complicated they made things.

**A/N** - _Hey guys. Check my profile and click on the banner links. Emmeline Embers and SuzSinger made a few banners to go with this story, they are all beautiful._


	90. Key West Part 2, November 2007

Lady leaned against the wall of the tub, Dean leaned against her with the back of his head on her chest. She ran her fingers through his wet hair before caressing his chest with her wrinkly fingertips while his hands slowly moved over her slippery legs. He let his eyes close as Lady gently splashed warm water on his exposed chest before rubbing her hands along his body. Just an hour ago he was tense at the mere thought of having to share a bed with her, but Lady had some of the best ways to redeem herself. Angry bathtub sex and a relaxing soak, the girl knew how to unwind.

Lady gathered up some of the bubbles and began arranging them on his chest until he asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm giving you bubble boobs," she answered seriously.

He laughed and watched as she molded the bubbles into two mounds. "That's pretty hot, watching you fondle my bubble boobs." Lady flattened the bubbles and washed them off of him. "And now I'm flatter than you."

Lady splashed the bathwater into his face, making him laugh, and went back to caressing his wet skin. And was glad Dean couldn't see her smug grin.

Dean shifted so he could put his head on her left shoulder, "I need to go out and get some supplies."

Lady wrapped her wet legs around his waist, "What makes you think I'm letting you leave here?" She said in his ear. She had every intention of keeping him trapped there. Spoiling him a little bit longer and make him forget about the busty blonde that was giving them free lodging.

Dean chuckled, "Because if you don't we're going to starve."

"Good point," she said, releasing her hold on him. "And good timing, the water is starting to get cold." Dean splashed as he stood up in the tub and stepped out. "The floor is wet, be careful," she warned.

"I told you not to splash so much," Dean said as she pulled the plug out of the tub. He wrapped a towel around his waist and once she stepped out of the tub he wrapped her towel around her shoulders and pulled her to him.

"I'll clean this up, go get me something to eat," she said, her hand slipping across his wet black. "Might want to ask our host for more towels."

"I can do that," Dean said as she pushed him away from the wet floor and into the main room. "You need anything?"

Lady's face was close to his and she shook her head, smiling slightly as she inched him closer to the bed.

Dean chuckled as the back of his legs touched the bed, "I'll be back in half an hour," he said, turning and giving her a bit of a push onto the bed. He walked over to his pile of clothes and glanced out the open curtains to see Cindy across the garden, still in her kitchen. He gave a quick wave before closing the curtains so he could get dressed, and then left the suite.

Lady dressed in a t-shirt and underwear and got to work soaking up the puddle that had been left over from bath time.

Lady had completely soaked the three towels that had been provided in the room. She squeezed out what water she could and finished mopping up the floor. It was still a bit slick but it would finish drying overnight. With the air conditioner running the suite was getting cold and she wanted to be done with the job so she could burrow under the blankets in the bed. She hung up the towels to dry on the shower curtain rod and frowned when she noticed the bathtub was still half full of water, the plug had fallen back into place to keep it from draining. Without a second thought she reached into the cooling water and pulled it out so it would finish draining.

The normal gurgle didn't sound once the plug was removed. Lady placed her palm at the drain and didn't feel any suction. Moving her hair out of her eyes she reached into the drain with her fingertips, expecting to find a clump of hair that may be clogging it. "Hmph," she frowned when she found none. She went to her knees beside the tub and wondered what to do. A few times she'd seen Bobby do some impromptu plumbing but it wasn't like she had much experience herself. She tried to get a look into the drain, wondering if something hadn't fallen in and gotten sucked down. But she quickly backed away when the water began running from the faucet.

"Oh-kay then," she said, getting to her feet. They were in Key West to look into hauntings, and ghosts seemed to like making water run. She pushed, pulled and turned the faucet but the water kept running. The water was as cold as it could be without being ice. At least this was a ghost thing and not a demon thing. If a ghost wanted to take a bath, fine by her. She just hoped it wouldn't flood the damn bathroom.

Lady turned to leave the bathroom, planning to grab the salt and her phone to let Dean know Cindy had given them a haunted suite. But at the doorway of the bathroom there was an icy presence. It wasn't visible, but it was cold enough to make Lady's breath puff out. Lady made an attempt to walk through it, but was forcefully pushed backwards. Her feet slipped on the damp floor until the back of her legs touched the bathtub, causing her to fall backwards into the rising water.

The water was ice cold. Lady's hands grabbed the edge of the tub as she went to pull herself out but the ghostly presence forced her head under the water.

Lady had barely managed to suck in a breath before her head was submerged, and then she began struggling. She felt an ice-cold hand wrapped around her throat to hold her down. She kicked and splashed, barely managing to get her head above the water for a short life-saving breath before being dunked again. '_Oh god, I'm going to drown in dirty bathwater, gross_,' Lady thought with panic as her chest ached with the need for air. She felt the hand squeezing her throat, but at the same time she couldn't grab it. Her hands grabbed the edge of the tub to pull while she pushed with her legs. The second her mouth was out of the water she sucked in another gasp of air along with some water. Before she could cough the water out she was dunked once more, struggling and choking on the water. The bath was full and water was running over the edges now. She couldn't reach the edges to pull herself high enough for another breath, and the icy water was making her legs numb.

XXXXX

Dean knocked on Sam's door, "Sammy? Going out for food, you want anything?" He shouted. He waited a few moments before dialing Sam's number on his cell phone.

"Yeah?" Sam answered, and Dean heard unfamiliar background noises.

"Hey, where did you go?"

"Uh, the bar," Sam answered. "I'm on my way back now, I should be there in fifteen minutes or so."

Dean was too relaxed to be upset. In a perfect world he would always know where Sam and Lady were, what they were doing and that they were safe. But the world was far from perfect, he just had to trust that they could take care of themselves.

"I actually ran into someone," Sam said.

"A hot someone?" Dean asked, wondering if his brother had been out looking for a date.

"I'll tell you when I get there," Sam said.

"I'm about to run out and get some food," Dean said. "You want anything?"

"Uh, the usual, I guess," Sam said. "Hey, is Lady still in a bad mood?"

Dean chuckled as he reached the Impala, "No, I took care of that."

"I'll see you in a while," Sam said, hanging up.

Dean stuffed his phone in his pocket and searched for his car keys. He let out a low groan when he realized he'd left them on the table. He remembered his phone, gun and a few knives, but had forgotten his damn keys. He only took a few steps away from his car when the light above Cindy's door came on and she came outside. "Dean, everything okay?"

"Yeah, it's great," he said. "Just about to make a run for some food."

"Oh, silly, you don't have to do that," Cindy said. "Come inside, I'll fix you guys up a little something."

"You don't have to do that," Dean said, unable to resist the welcoming smile she was giving him.

"I want to. Get that cute butt inside," Cindy said.

Dean gave no more resistance, following her inside and into the kitchen while she got busy making a late supper. It saved him money, and time. Plus, he knew from previous experience that Cindy was a good cook.

XXXXX

Sam saw the Impala still in the driveway and went around Cindy's house into the garden, crossing it quickly to knock on Dean's door. "Dean? Lady?" He called. He knew the importance of knocking, and they were always quick to tell him to go away if they weren't decent. Although their version of being decent was in the act, he wished they'd put on more than underwear when he was around. "Guys?" Sam called again, and then he noticed water slipping under the door.

Sam tested the door handle, finding it locked. He pounded harder, "Guys?" He didn't wait, he took a step back and kicked the door. The door gave away easily and he was splashing through an inch of water on the hard wood floors. The main room was empty, and he went to the bathroom. The water in the bathtub was running and overflowing. Carefully he stepped closer, and then his heart jumped into his throat when he saw Lady struggling in the bottom of the tub.

Sam slipped a bit until his knees hit the edge of the tub. He reached in, grabbing Lady and trying to pull her to the surface. He could get his hands under her, but she felt like she was tied down. He couldn't move her more than a few inches, and that wasn't nearly close enough to get her to the surface. "Hold on, Lady!" he shouted, stepping into the bathtub so he could use his knees to lift her.

Sam grimaced as he pulled Lady up. It felt like she was over three-hundred pounds, but inch by inch he was winning over whatever was holding her down. Her hands grasped at him with urgent desperation, she was trying to pull herself up as well. Lady's face broke the surface and she sucked in a much needed breath, and at the sound of her gasp Sam relaxed a bit. When he did the force fell down on her again, making her fall to the bottom.

Sam began to lift her again, his eyes closed as his muscles strained. He heard her gasp again, but kept fighting until he had her over the edge of the tub and could drop her safely on the outside. Once her weight was gone he fell to his knees in the icy water.

"Lady?" Sam looked at as she continued to gasp for air on the floor. The faucet shut off and the tub began to drain on its own, apparently the spirit had given up.

"I'm not cleaning this up," Lady said hoarsely from the floor as she wiped wet hair away from her face.

Sam got out of the tub, every inch of him soaked. He helped Lady to her feet and got her into the main room of the suite. "What happened?"

"Casper wanted a bath," she said, coughing a few times. "Sam, I'm sleeping with you tonight."

"Yeah, come on," he said, grabbing her bag off the bed along with the blanket to wrap around her as she shivered.

Sam got Lady into his room and pulled his cell phone out of his wet pocket. After a few tries to get it to turn on he gave up and took Lady's cell phone to call his brother. "Dude, where are you?" Sam asked as he pealed away his wet shirt.

"Getting food," Dean said.

"Hurry back, this place has one of the spirits. A pretty violent and strong one," Sam said.

"You okay?" Dean asked, but didn't sound concerned.

"We'll dry," Sam muttered as he hung up the phone.

Lady was running a towel through her wet hair. She had already changed into dry clothes, but she was still freezing. Sam went into the bathroom to dry off and change, and then worked on lining the room in salt.

Lady went to the couch in Sam's room and lifted the cushions. Seeing that it had a hideaway bed she discarded the cushions and pulled it out, and then curled up on it with her arms around her knees.

"You can have the bed, Lady," Sam offered.

"I'm fine here," she said, biting back a yawn.

Sam threw a pillow from his bed at her and pulled off the top blanket. "You remember anything else?"

Lady wrapped herself in the dry blanket. She went over the details with Sam. They bounced a few ideas off of each other while Sam tried to connect his laptop to a Wi-Fi service.

Sam was about to call Dean again when a half hour passed, but Dean knocked twice before entering the room. "Lady, what the hell did you do to our room? It's flooded," he said, balancing a few plates with tinfoil over them.

"I told you, the place his haunted," Sam said flatly. "A ghost tried to drown Lady."

Dean frowned, "You left that part out," he said roughly. "Babe, you okay?"

"Yeah," Lady said.

"Where did you go?" Sam asked as Dean set the plates on the table.

"I was at Cindy's, she made this," Dean said.

Lady glared at Dean's back. He had been across the garden the whole time? With the blonde?

"Still hungry?" Dean asked, not noticing the glare.

"Not really," Lady said shortly.

"Wow, Lady, tilt your head up a bit," Sam said. Lady did as she asked and revealed the beginnings of a bruise around her neck. It was the obvious shape of a hand print. He could see where the thumb had imprinted and lines of the fingers.

"Are you okay, Lady?" Dean asked again seriously.

"I'm alive, aren't I?" she asked back angrily.

Dean's jaw clenched. "Okay. Sam, stay with her. I'm going to check on Cindy and check out the room."

As soon as Dean left Sam put a heavy arm around Lady, "You okay?"

"A little freaked," Lady admitted, and coughed a few times. "And a little pissed."

He rubbed her back a few times and then crossed the room to take a look at the food Dean had brought. It smelled good and he pealed away the tinfoil. "This will probably help you warm up," Sam said as he offered her a plate.

"I'm not eating that," Lady said stubbornly.

"Why?" Sam asked.

"Because I really don't like Cindy," Lady admitted.

Sam hadn't missed how flirty Cindy was toward his brother, but he didn't see why Lady would be get upset about it. He began eating the food, she was missing out.

"I need to tell you something," Sam said as he poked his food with a plastic fork.

Lady looked up at him with tired eyes, "Can't it wait?"

"It could, but you probably want to know now," Sam said.

Sam didn't want to tell Lady that two of her close friends, once close enough to be considered family, were in town. But at the same time he didn't want her accidentally bumping into them. Derek and Erin believed she was dead, they'd freak out.

Lady was quiet after Sam told her about bumping into Erin and then softly asked, "How is she?"

"Seems good," Sam said, smiling slightly, "I'm tempted to call Mason and tell him she was hanging out in a bar. But she seems fine."

"Good," Lady said stiffly.

"You know, Lady, you could just show up and tell them what happened," Sam said softly.

Lady shook her head, she didn't expect Sam to understand. It sounded easy when he said it like that, but all Lady had been to the Mason's was a close friend. Maxine was their blood, and now their medicine woman. It didn't matter if she tap danced and declared Maxine the devil. Maxine's word was law in their territory, just like Max's had been. It was just easier if her family didn't have to know, about any of it.

Dean returned, "Alright, Cindy helped me clean up the suite. I asked her, as far as she knows no one has ever died on this property in the past ten years that she's been here. And this is the first time anyone has ever complained about the suite."

Lady let out a breath before falling onto the pillow. "The suite was fine. The ghost was a bit of a pain in the ass. More accurately a pain in the neck."

"Cindy said we can move into the bungalow next to Sam's," Dean said.

"Go right ahead, Dean. I'm tired, I'm not moving," Lady said, turning her back to the brothers and closing her eyes.

Dean exchanged a confused look with Sam. 'What'd I do?' Dean mouthed to his brother.

Sam nodded toward the door and stepped outside with Dean. Out of Lady's hearing range he caught Dean up on Erin and Derek being in Key West. "It's not you, man, she's just moody," Sam said simply.

Dean rubbed his eyes, "Okay, let's just get some sleep and get to work first thing in the morning."

"I hear that," Sam said, turning to go back inside.

"Take the other room," Dean said, grabbing Sam's arm to stop him and holding out a key.

Sam didn't argue. He went inside to grab his things and moved into the extra room Cindy had given them.

Lady was stubbornly sticking to her word of not moving, even after Sam had given up his room so they were alone. She refused to leave the sofa-bed she had pulled out and curled up on. There was plenty of room for Dean, but he had been looking forward to a real bed. Not a lumpy sofa-bed. He went to the bed alone, if Lady couldn't get up and move five feet it was her problem. "You okay?" he asked once again as he shut off the lamp beside the bed.

"I'm fine," she muttered.

Dean accepted her answer and sprawled out on the bed, quickly falling asleep.

Lady didn't find sleep that easily. She was exhausted, but too many things kept her from falling asleep. She was hungry, but so far Cindy's hospitality had nearly gotten her killed and she'd rather go hungry than eat the food. She was trying to understand why she was angry towards Dean, but believed it was still leftover frustration from the long drive. And she was thinking about the Mason's. The last time she'd seen Maxine she'd been shot at, but she still missed them. On top of it all her feet were freezing and she wished Dean had lain down next to her so she could put them on his shins. Lady was wondering why the hell she had looked forward to Florida, since she had left Bobby's things had started taking a turn for the worse.


	91. Key West Part 3, November 2007

**November 6, 2007**

Lady woke up too soon. The sun rose earlier than it did in South Dakota, and the thick trees around the bed and breakfast housed more birds within a hundred feet than all of Bobby's lot. "Fucking birds," she mumbled as she got out of bed. Her muscles were stiff from the ghost attack and she slowly tried to loosen them as she walked to the bathroom. She paused at the doorway, looking at the bathtub suspiciously. It was much smaller than the one in the suite, but she nearly expected icy water to start flowing from the faucet. '_Great, I'm going to be afraid of bathrooms now?_' she wondered grimly. Sucking it up she went inside so she could go to the bathroom and check herself in the mirror. The red marks on her neck had turned into a dark hand-shaped bruise. She still had dark circles under her eyes from poor sleep, but with a few dabs of make-up they were covered and she at least looked a bit healthier.

She went back and sat on the edge of the bed Dean was in. Dean woke up at the movement and slowly stretched. "What time are we going out?" She asked him.

"After breakfast," he answered sleepily.

"Great, let's go eat," she said. She never did get to eat the night before and was starving.

"What time is it?"

"A little before six," she answered.

"Cindy doesn't make breakfast until nine. Go back to sleep," Dean muttered and rolled onto his side so his back was to her.

Lady frowned at him as the birds seemed to chirp more loudly. She knew it wasn't fair to Dean, considering he had gotten less sleep than her the past few days. But she wanted to get somewhere a bit more urban and less bird friendly before her brain exploded. "What if," she said, whispering in his ear, "We go out for breakfast, and…"

"Not working," Dean interrupted her. "I just need two more hours of sleep, babe, give me a break."

"Not even a little?" she asked, her lips brushing his ear as she spoke.

"No," Dean said.

"Are you suddenly gay or something?" she asked in offense.

"Not everything I do is motivated by sex," he muttered.

"Since when?" Lady asked. If she lost that she really had nothing to bribe Dean with any longer.

"Lady, normally you do this and I enjoy playing along, but not this morning," he said.

Lady bounced on the bed next to him, "You sure you can sleep?"

Lady stopped abruptly but it was too late. Dean snapped. "Damn it, Lady. Just go to Starbucks and let me sleep."

"Fine," she said, understanding she had used up his patience. She got dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, tied her hair up, and left.

Lady wasn't sure if it was in bad taste to bring your own breakfast to a bed and breakfast, but she really didn't give a damn. She wasn't waiting three hours to eat. Starbucks had muffins that were so heavy they counted toward half a persons daily calories, and she ate two before she made it back to the bed and breakfast half an hour later. She was slightly miffed that she hadn't gotten her way with Dean, but the guy deserved a break. Hopefully a giant cup of Starbucks coffee and a massive muffin would help him along and earn her forgiveness.

She was barely able to hold onto the tray of three large coffees and the bag of sugary breakfast treats as she opened the door to her room. The sofa-bed was still out, and the bed Dean had slept in was empty. With a sigh she maneuvered her way out of the room and went down the path to knock on Sam's door. "Coffee call, guys," she said loudly before letting herself in. She expected Sam and Dean to be awake and starting their work for the day, but Sam's room was empty as well.

Lady looked around, fear starting to settle in. They had believed the spirits in the area to be annoying, but not dangerous. That had been proven wrong already because she had been nearly drowned by one. Walking quickly she decided to check on Cindy to see if the bleach-blonde had also vanished.

Lady found Cindy quickly. Off to the side of the office was a large dining room and she was there. Her hair was a bit messy as if she had just rolled out of bed or had taken a long drive with the windows rolled down. She was wearing a large t-shirt that went down her thighs and Lady wasn't sure Cindy wore shorts or just panties under it. And sitting at the table were Sam and Dean, being served breakfast.

"Hey, Lady," Sam said. He laughed at the coffees and bag she was carrying, "You brought your own breakfast to a bed and breakfast?"

Almost always Lady was the first one awake, she'd taken it upon herself to make sure there was something good to eat in the morning, along with decent coffee. If only because she didn't like chewing stale potato chips in the morning. But she also liked being useful and enjoyed providing the brothers with their first dose of caffeine. "I thought breakfast wasn't served until nine," she said stiffly, looking at Dean.

"Cindy came and woke us up, offered to start it early," Dean said. "Sit down, you have to try some of this coffee."

"Oh, that was the last of it," Cindy said apologetically as she refilled Dean's cup. "I can brew a new pot, just be a few minutes."

"I have coffee," Lady said. It was obvious that she had coffee, she was holding three heavy cups of it.

"You have to try this," Dean said, smiling as he took a sip of the steaming liquid.

"Sorry you went all that way for nothing," Cindy said, not sounding sorry at all.

Lady had, a few times, come across some catty women. Cindy was a god damned tiger of a catty woman. But damn, she was good. Sam and Dean were enjoying waffles and coffee, not even paying attention to the exchange between the two women. In the past Lady just stepped aside, letting the other woman get her way. Women fought dirty, Lady was no exception but preferred to save her energy for important things. And generally hooking up with a guy wasn't so important that she was going to get into a competition for it. However, Dean wasn't just a hook-up.

Lady looked at Sam, hoping he'd notice something. Sam was still a guy but he was more perceptive to some things than Dean. However Sam barely seemed to care that Cindy was hanging around in her underwear, he was acting as if it was normal. Sam still looked away if she was walking around in a t-shirt and underwear.

"Guys, I saw a vacancy at a motel across from Starbucks. Maybe we should rent a room there," Lady said.

"Why?" Dean asked.

The real reason was because Lady did not like Cindy. Cindy had gotten Dean out of bed before seven when she could not. And even had Sam on her side. But jealousy was a stupid emotion and hard to express, so she pointed to her neck. "This is why."

"You are safe in the room you are in now," Sam said. "Besides, we need to take care of the spirit that is here. If it attacks someone else they may not be as lucky."

"Now that we know something is around we'll be prepared if it comes at us again," Dean said. "Sit down, have some waffles."

"Oh, sorry, out of waffles," Cindy said. "You boys ate them all."

"They were awesome," Dean said, smiling at Cindy.

"I can make you some toast or something," Cindy casually offered Lady.

Lady's eye twitched as she held back her fury. "Well, I'm going back to the room."

"I'll be there in a few," Dean promised.

Lady finished her coffee and angrily dumped the other two out. She tried to watch television, but couldn't pay attention to it for long. Then she ate another muffin just out of boredom and frustration when Dean still hadn't returned an hour later.

Dean returned to the room after eight. The birds had quieted down and Lady was on the sofa-bed coming down from her caffeine and sugar rush.

"Where were you?" She asked.

"Just catching up with Cindy," Dean said. "She's real funny. You should have stuck around for breakfast, it was great. Man, she can cook."

Lady made a face as Dean turned his back to her to begin his morning ritual of checking his weapons and getting ready for the day.

"Listen, Sam and I talked a bit. If you don't want to stay here, I understand. We can drop you off at that motel if you feel safer," Dean offered.

"The ghost won't get one over on me again," Lady said bitterly. "If you are staying here, I'm staying here." Because Lady sure as hell wasn't letting Cindy have a straight path to Dean. She'd have to go through her first.

"I'm glad you said that," Dean said, setting down a knife he had been checking and sitting on the edge of the sofa-bed next to her. Lady might have smiled at that, it almost sounded like he wanted her to stay with him. But he followed up with, "While Sam and I are checking on things with Yaphet you can watch out for Cindy."

"I'd rather be out there helping you guys," Lady said. Not because she liked researching or digging up graves, but because she really hated that blonde and didn't want to hang out with her.

"Yeah, but you can lay down some protection until we figure out how to get rid of this ghost. Besides, Erin and Derek's hotel isn't that far from where we're staying. Or where we'll be going to talk to people. Are you okay with bumping into either of them?" Dean asked.

"No," Lady muttered bitterly.

Dean gently touched the bruises on her neck. "You need anything before I head out?"

"Yeah," she said, her hand moving up his arm and pulling him toward her. He smiled a bit before her lips touched his.

"Mm, I don't have time for that," he said, but he didn't leave her side.

"There is always time for this," she said.

Dean enjoyed her soft kiss for several moments before pulling back, "Not this morning. Do me a favor today, okay?"

Lady let out a breath and asked, "What's the favor?"

"Don't shower," he said. "Just in case. Wait until I'm back."

"Sure," Lady agreed.

"Thanks," he said, standing up. "I'm putting a canister of salt in the bathroom. I'll leave another one on the nightstand."

Lady relaxed on the bed and yawned. She knew Dean wasn't so dense to ignore that Cindy was flirting with him, but she really didn't have to be jealous. Although she was pretty sure she was allowed to be a bit miffed that he had spent the morning with Cindy instead of her. All she had to do was make it through a few days, and she could figure out ways to avoid Cindy.

Lady walked with Dean out to the Impala. Cindy was outside, she had finally put on a pair of shorts. "I made you guys some snacks," she said, offering them a paper bag.

"Thanks, Cindy," Sam said, and gave her a brief hug.

Lady glared at Sam as he got into the passenger seat of the Impala without saying goodbye to her.

"Lady is going to stay here and watch out for you," Dean said. "Chances are nothing will happen during the day, but just in case."

"Oh, that's not necessary," Cindy said. "I've never had any problems with spirits here before, maybe they just don't like her."

"Maybe," Dean agreed, making Lady look at him angrily but he didn't even notice. "But she's going to go around to the rooms and bungalows, just cleansing them to disperse any spirits that might be around. She should probably do your house, too."

"Lady and I will have a great time," Cindy said with a little too much fake glee.

"Yeah, we will," Lady said in the same extra-sweet voice. She ran her hand up Dean's chest and around his neck, "I'll see you later," she said, pulling him down for a long kiss that he didn't let last as long as she wanted it to.

"Call me if anything happens," Dean said, touching his lips briefly to hers before getting out of her grasp.

Lady waved as the Impala pulled out onto the street. "God, he makes me want to kill him," she muttered to herself.

The Bed and Breakfast had four bungalows around a large garden. Lady didn't really know what the hell the difference between a bungalow and a cottage was. There was a total of five rooms for guests, and of course Cindy's house which was just an oversized bungalow.

"What exactly are you doing?" Cindy asked. Now that the brothers were gone she had given up on pretending to be nice and her tone was sharp and impatient.

Lady held up a bundle of incense, "This is a smudge stick. It's a mix of herbs. I should go to each of the rooms and burn one. It's a simple cleansing ritual. A monkey could do it. Want to try?"

Cindy took the stick Lady offered her and sniffed it. She made a face, "That stinks, I don't want you burning these." Cindy pushed it back to Lady.

Lady smelled the smudge stick herself. She had gotten them out of the Impala's trunk next to Sam's dirty laundry, but they smelled normal. She actually liked the smell, it was the smell of not getting drowned by a pissed off spirit. "The smell doesn't hang around very long, but the protection can last a week or more," Lady said as calmly as she could.

"I already have a broken door and the water damage to my suite," Cindy said. "I don't want to have to pay to have all my rooms treated to get that odor out. So no, you can't do that."

"The smell goes away," Lady said in frustration. "Are you deaf?"

"Are you? I said no," Cindy said.

Lady tried to calm herself. She lifted her chin slightly and pointed at her bruised neck, "See that? That could be one of your other guests, or you. If Sam hadn't broken down that door, I'd be dead."

"And my homeowners insurance would have then covered the damages," Cindy said.

It took every ounce of Lady's self-control, which had never been her strong suit, to keep from screaming. "Fine," Lady said. "At the very least I'd like to check out the other rooms."

"Why?" Cindy asked.

"To see if there is blood, ooze or slime. Something to help the guys figure out how to get rid of the spirit," Lady said.

"Yeah, well, I think I'd rather just wait for Dean to get back. He can look."

"When Dean gets back he will be busy," Lady said. She was going to take all her frustration out on him, he was going to be very busy.

Cindy smiled sweetly, "We'll see. I'm getting ready to bake some pies, I want them to be ready when he gets back. So if you'd excuse me, I have work to do."

Lady hated her.

Lady stiffly walked out of Cindy's house, as pissed as she was she had to admit the woman had guts. If Cindy was a witch Lady would spill those guts, but unfortunately she was not that lucky.

Maybe Cindy wouldn't give Lady access to all the rooms, but Lady decided to do the cleansing in the room she was sharing with Dean and Sam's room. The incense burned slowly and it took until the afternoon to finish both rooms because Lady did a thorough job. So far she was the only one who had been anywhere near seriously injured, and she'd rather keep it that way. Even though it might be satisfying to watch Cindy pee her pants after getting smacked around by a ghost.

The bungalow Lady was in was just two bedrooms that were separated by a wall and shared a bathroom, thankfully they were the only people saying at the Bed and Breakfast. Lady didn't like sharing bathrooms.

Lady's eyes were stinging from the incense smoke but with a satisfied smile she fell backwards onto the bed and bounced a bit. She'd get a nap in, and when Dean returned she'd butter him up with a naughty smile and a wink before Cindy tried to keep him away.

Lady was almost asleep when she jerked at an incoming sound. Before she could look around a voice said, "What in blazes are you doing in my house?"

Lady sat up and saw a nearly-solid spirit standing in the corner near the door to the bathroom. The temperature dropped a few degrees, but not nearly as much as the night before. "Uh…" Lady wondered what to do. She'd burned a whole smudge stick, a spirit shouldn't have been able to do much of anything in the room. Much less be strong enough to make itself visible during the day. The salt Sam had lined the room in had been broken a few times from her opening and closing the doors but she had fixed them. Nervously she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket.

"I asked you a question, miss. This is my abode, and I wish to know what you are doing here," the spirit said.

Lady scratched her head and stared at the spirit in surprise. She'd seen quite a few spirits over the years, but rarely they chatted people up. "Uh…who are you?" Lady asked.

"Captain Terrance Naylor, of course," he answered.

"Right," Lady said, tilting her head slightly. She was still unsure what the hell to do.

"Are you going to answer my question?" he demanded.

"Um…dude, you're dead," Lady said flatly.

"I am aware of that," Captain Naylor replied.

"So…you know you are dead?" Lady asked.

"I just said that."

"Then, uh…you know you don't live here anymore?" Lady raised her eyebrows. "Because…technically can't live anywhere…when you are dead…wow this is weird."

"I understand what you are saying, but this is still my house," he said firmly.

"Um, actually this is a place called Sunset Bed and Breakfast. Some dumb bleach blonde owns it now and rents out rooms. I'm a guest here," Lady said.

"That's absurd. Why would anyone want to lodge in my house?" he asked.

"You got me. I'd prefer the Super 8, but no, my boyfriend couldn't pass up a free room," Lady said bitterly. "So, uh…you going to try and drown me again?"

"Why would I harm you?" he asked.

Lady studied the spirit, "Show me your hands, please."

The spirit looked a bit confused, but held his hands out to her. Captain Naylor had been a good-sized man, with large meaty hands and short fingers. It hadn't been his hand around her throat last night. Those hands had long fingers, strong and nimble. "So, Cap'n, you been here a while?"

"Since 1865," he answered.

Lady let out a low whistle, "Wow. You know its 2007 now?"

It was his turn to look surprised. "It's been that long? I've…I've been dead over a century. I've been here, but it didn't seem like that long."

"Time moves differently when you are a spirit," Lady said gently, setting her cell phone down as she became comfortable with the idea of chatting with the ghost.

"I've seen people, coming and going, but they rarely noticed me. The few that did fled, screaming."

Lady nodded, "That is the normal human reaction to a ghost."

"But not your reaction," he said, locking his ghostly eyes on her.

"I said normal human reaction. I'm pretty far from normal," Lady said.

He studied her, "What is your name, miss?"

"I'm Lady. Just Lady, like just Popeye, but I'm better at talking like a sailor," Lady said with a flashy smile.

XXXXX

Sam and Dean returned late in the afternoon. "Hey, boys. Just in time for warm apple pie," Cindy said, meeting them outside.

"We just stopped in to grab Lady so we can get some supper," Sam said.

"But we can definitely grab some pie," Dean said.

"Do you like it with ice cream or whipped cream?" Cindy asked, grinning at Dean.

"Whipped cream," Dean answered, returning her grin.

"Well get your cute butt in here and I'll serve you right up," Cindy said.

"Dean, forgetting something?" Sam asked as Dean took a few steps toward Cindy.

"Huh? What?" Dean asked, turning around to look at his brother while his mind hectically searched for what he may have forgotten. "My zipper down?"

"Your girlfriend," Sam said flatly. "Maybe she'd like to join us?"

"Oh, no Lady still doesn't eat apples," Dean said.

Cindy looked back at them, "I didn't want to say anything, but it sounds like Lady has company. She's been in her room the past hour or so. I went to go check in but I heard a man in there, I didn't want to interrupt."

Dean looked back at Cindy with a stunned face, "What?"

Cindy looked apologetic, "Yeah…sorry…"

Dean went around the house and entered the garden that the rooms surrounded, Sam on his heels. "Dean…?" Sam called after his brother.

Dean had thought jealousy was long gone from his relationship with Lady. But there was a difference to watching her flirt a bit with other men to having her invite one into their room. Before he reached the door he heard Lady's loud giggle, and a manly laugh. He didn't even knock, not sure what he'd find or even do when he saw it.

When Dean saw what was in the room with Lady he wasn't sure what he had even expected. He saw a man, but he could also see the wall behind the man. Lady was sitting on a chair, the man was standing. He froze in the doorway, his mind racing to catch up. Sam ran right into him, making him stumble a few steps into the room.

"Whoa…" Sam jerked when he saw the spirit.

"Guys, chill, he's cool," Lady said, standing up. "Cap'n, these are the guys I told you about. Guys, this is Captain Naylor, and this used to be his house."

"Nice to meet you, gentlemen," the spirit said pleasantly.

Dean's jaw moved up and down as his mind struggled to figure out what was the most important question to ask first, finally deciding on, "What the hell are you doing, Lady?"

"Research," she answered happily. "Oh, and watching television. This dude is a sucker for TV Land."

"I still don't understand how they managed to invent such a box," the spirit said, looking back at the television.

"Lady, get over here," Dean said.

"Does he always speak so roughly to you?" Captain Naylor asked quietly.

"You, shut up," Dean ordered.

"He likes to think he's the boss," Lady said to the spirit. "It's easier to just let him think he is."

"Lady!" Dean snapped.

"Dean!" Lady snapped back.

"This spirit nearly killed you last night!" Dean barked.

"No, he didn't," Lady said calmly. "Cap'n and I have had a long talk. He's not the same spirit from last night."

"Oh yeah? Then where was he?" Dean asked.

"I was here, in this room," Captain Naylor answered. He looked at Sam, "That young man was here briefly before leaving, then I was alone. But I heard the other one when it came. It hasn't been here long, but I'm unsure how long. It feels like only a few days, however…"

"I got this," Lady said to the spirit. "He's a bit iffy on time, but he remembers hurricane Katrina and this other spirit showed up after then. It doesn't talk to him or anyone else. As far as he knows it hasn't hurt anyone else."

"And you are just going to believe him?" Dean asked.

Lady looked at him seriously, "Well, I can't get rid of him. I lit a smudge stick and put it _through_ him, and can't get him to disperse. I tested a few things, he can't pass a thick line of a salt. He didn't like me throwing it at him, but he came back after five minutes. And he's told me a few things that might help."

"Like?" Sam asked, still looking at the spirit with suspicion. Not all spirits were the same. He wouldn't necessarily consider any of them friendly, though. Spirits all had their reason for sticking around, and usually vengeance was the only emotion strong enough to allow spirits to manifest and cause problems.

"Drums," Lady said with a shrug. "He said he noticed a change about two weeks ago when he first heard the drums. He felt stronger, more alert and aware. Like he's been supercharged, which would explain why I can't make him dissipate with incense and salt only makes him go away for a few minutes."

"And just why is he still here?" Sam asked.

"Must you speak about me like I am not in the same room?" Captain Naylor asked offensively.

"Uh...sorry," Sam said. "Do you know why you are still...here?"

"I got this," Lady said, giving the spirit a smile. "His bones are buried in the garden. I figure he's tied to this place because his remains are here, and because he lived here. Either/or, I guess." She smiled happily at both of the brothers, feeling rather proud of her achievement.

"And you just hung out with a spirit all day?" Dean asked.

"Yes," Lady said with a single nod. "The dude likes the Munsters, he's cool."

"I can't fucking believe this," Dean uttered.

"How dare you use such language in the presence of a lady!" Captain Naylor gasped.

Lady smiled, "He's such a gentleman, isn't he adorable?"

"No," Dean said flatly.

Lady turned to Captain Naylor, "You'll let me know when that other spirit goes active again?"

"Of course, my lady," he said. "I suppose now is the time I should take my leave?"

"Yeah, it is," Dean said.

"See you later," Lady waved, and the next instant the spirit vanished. "Ah, I like him."

"Like him?" Dean finally shut the door to the room and fixed the salt line that had broken. But he soon saw that was useless, the salt line near the bathroom door had been disrupted as well. "It's a ghost, Lady! It isn't a freaking cat that you can adopt and make Bobby take care of!" Angrily he walked over to the broken part of the circle to fix it.

Lady let her good mood be squashed, "He's a source of valuable information."

"It's a damn ghost!" Dean barked.

"Guys! GUYS!" Sam shouted. "Dean, calm down a minute. Let her tell us what she found out."

"I can't even leave you alone for a day without you getting into trouble up to your eyes!" Dean continued.

"That wasn't trouble," Lady said in offense.

"You didn't even call to let us know what was going on," Dean barked. Less than a day ago she had nearly been killed by a spirit, then she had let another one in? And left the salt line broken so others could, too? If he didn't know better he'd think she wanted to get strangled again, but knowing Lady she had probably just spaced it out. Saw something shiny and forgot. "Jesus fucking Christ! It's like you need a babysitter sometimes, Lady!"

"If you don't want me around, Dean, say the word and I'll pack up and go," Lady said.

"That isn't what I said," Dean said, lowering his voice a few decibels. "I asked you to stay here, do what you could while watching out for Cindy. But instead she's been alone all day while you've been playing Ghost Whisperer."

Lady let out a growl at the mention of Cindy. "I can't freaking stand that bitch."

"What? She's letting us stay here for free," Dean said. "She's been great."

"Sure, to you. She can't stand me, and I sort of want to maim her," Lady said honestly.

Dean snorted a laugh, "Wow, you are so jealous. Cindy is just a friendly person, sure she's a little flirty but it's no big deal."

"I can't believe you are completely blind to how catty she's been toward me since we got here last night," Lady said.

Dean rubbed his forehead impatiently, "Stop imagining things, Lady. Can we just focus on what is going on?"

"This is what is going on!" Lady snapped. "I tried to do what you asked and..."

Dean threw his hands up, "And you didn't! It's that simple. Now lets get back on track."

Lady steadied herself and gave him a hard look, "All I ever asked of you is to be straight with me. You want me here to help you out? You want me here to keep the bed warm for when you get back? You want me to twiddle my thumbs while you nail the blonde bitch? Just freaking tell me what you want me to do and it's done."

"Jesus fucking Christ!" Dean let out a groan. "Why are you…"

"I'm not putting fucking words in your mouth, Dean! I'm just asking you what you want me to do and I just gave you a few suggestions as to what I think you may want. If you had something else in mind, just say it." Lady took a few steps back to try and calm down. Dean's eyes were wide and confused for a moment, before narrowing on her and turning angry.

"You are freaking unbelievable," he snapped at her. "You want to turn into a neurotic bitch because some chick is a little flirty?"

"I'm always a neurotic bitch, Dean. This is me being fed-up!" She shouted. "I could give a damn if you like to flirt but she's been the god damned devil to me since I got here! I think I've been a good fucking sport considering she's trying to get you in bed, I even thought it was funny. But now I don't care, she can fucking have you! If you can't give me a damn ounce of credit for getting some valuable information on the job then I don't care."

Dean was trying to reign in his own temper, trying to figure out a way to calm things down before Lady ditched them. But before he could think of anything to say there was a knock on the door that made Lady's face reddened with anger. Cindy's flirty voice called, "Dean, you have to trice a slice of my pie. I got it all warmed up for you and covered in whipped cream, just how you like it."

Lady glared furiously at Dean and it took every ounce of strength to keep her jaw clamped shut as she retreated into the bathroom, slamming the door hard enough to make the whole bungalow shake.

Dean opened the door, "Sorry, Cindy, this is a real bad time."

Cindy smiled at him, "There is never a bad time for a little pie. You'll love this, I whipped the cream myself." Cindy dipped her finger in the thick white cream and put it in her mouth. "Mm, it's good. Now both of you, come with me."

"Fine," Dean said.

"Dude," Sam looked at his brother in surprise as Dean took a step out the door.

Dean put his arms out, "You heard Lady. I'm tired of dealing with her psychosis, I'm going to eat a slice of pie and if she's not better by then that's her problem."

"You are my problem!" Lady shouted from the bathroom.

"Ditto, babe!" Dean shouted back, stepping out of the bungalow and slamming the door behind him.

Sam rubbed his face and took slow steps toward the bathroom, "Lady, he's gone. C'mon, Dean is a dick."

Lady threw open the bathroom door, "Yes he is!" she violently agreed.

Sam watched as Lady grabbed Dean's bag and went to the front door. She wrenched the door open and dropped the bag on the floor before kicking it outside. Then she slammed the door again. "You get to sleep with him tonight!" she shouted at Sam. Lady's fingers curled into tight fists and slowly she apologized, "I'm sorry."

Sam nodded as he watched Lady visibly fight to calm herself down. "What's wrong, Lady?"

Lady pointed at the door, "Cindy is horrible. I can't stand her. I tried, I really tried, Sam. The only person who's actually been nice to me today was a freaking ghost."

"That's not true," Sam said even as he searched his memory. Cindy had been rather pleasant during breakfast to all of them, it was too bad that Lady had missed out.

"I'm not saying either of you have been pricks, but...you know what, it doesn't matter," Lady said. "I'm just going to sit back and let the pieces fall wherever the hell they want to. Every time I try to do anything it just blows up in my face."

"Lady, ease up on her. She's trying to be friendly. She let us stay here for free, she's been feeding us..."

Lady let out a frustrated growl, "Of course she's being nice to you! She's a manipulative bitch driving me insane and its working! You and Dean hate me and..."

"We don't hate you, Lady!" Sam said with exasperation.

"You don't believe me that she's the devil!"

"That's an exaggeration," Sam said dully.

"She's vindictive! And evil!" Lady hissed.

"Okay, you know what? Fine," Sam said. "You need anything you let me know. But for now you need to mellow out."

Lady tried to unwind tense muscles as Sam left her alone, but couldn't even unclench her jaw. It was frustrating that two people she trusted with everything she had didn't believe her that Cindy was a vicious blonde, and that they didn't appreciate what she had been trying to do. But everything was being thwarted by their clever evil hostess and her evil apple pie. Lady managed to let out a frustrated growl before falling face-first on the bed in an attempt to suffocate herself with a pillow.


	92. Key West Part 4, November 2007

**November 6, 2007**

"Miss Lady," Captain Naylor appeared. He looked at her with sympathy, "In my time it was customary to offer a young woman a handkerchief, but I'm afraid I don't have one."

Lady held up the roll of toilet paper she had been using to dry her eyes and blow her nose, "I'm covered, but thanks, Cap."

He let out a soft breath, "I have half a mind to find the buffoon who made your eyes so red and show him the proper way to treat a woman."

Lady choked out a laugh, "Well, I'm that buffoon. Most of the time Dean and I are pretty good together. But damn, when we butt heads…neither of us know when to stop."

"I heard some of what was spoken," the spirit admitted. "You believe your husband is being unfaithful?"

Lady laughed again, "Dean and I aren't married." She sniffed loudly, "I told him…I mean, he doesn't have a lot of time so if, uh...well, he should do whatever the hell he wants. I said that at the time knowing he wanted me. But who the hell am I kidding? I'm such a fucking mess, more trouble than I'm worth."

"Is he really worth all these tears?" the spirit asked.

Lady shrugged, "I don't know, but they just won't stop because he said I need a babysitter and he yelled at me and he's eating some blonde's pie right now." Lady tore off several sheets of toilet paper to loudly blow her noise. "I know I have a lot of problems. I mean, my insecurities alone are enough to drive people away. And I thought that I had some sort of security with Dean, you know? But nope."

"Lady, you are a young and pretty girl. You must have many men who wish to court you."

Lady sniffed and shook her head, "No, I don't. Most people can't stand me for too long. I'm more the type of girl you nail in a bar bathroom, not the type you take home to meet the parents."

Captain Naylor looked confused, "Why would someone nail you to a bathroom?"

Lady sighed as modern slang went over the old spirit's head, "Never mind."

"Your gentlemen friends left in the iron carriage not long after they left you alone," Captain Naylor said. "Are you safe to be here alone?"

Lady curled up on the bed to bury her puffy eyes in the cool pillow, "Probably not without a babysitter," she said bitterly.

"I'll keep a vigilant watch," Captain Naylor promised. "Rest well, Lady."

XXXXX

"I thought you wanted to hang out with Cindy and have some pie," Sam said as they pulled up to a bar.

"Don't get bitchy with me, I already have to deal with Lady," Dean said roughly as he got out of the car.

"I'm not being bitchy. I'm wondering why we suddenly had to go to a bar, instead of having something to eat," Sam said.

"_We_ didn't have to go anywhere together," Dean snapped. "I wanted to come here, you got in the passenger seat to come with. We can order something here," Dean said as they walked into a bar. Most of the patrons were outside enjoying their drinks in the warm sun instead of being in the sheltered building. Which Dean was glad of, he didn't want to be in a crowd.

Sam let Dean suck down a beer and get halfway through his second one before asking, "So what's up?"

"I'm half tempted to throw Lady a few hundred bucks and have her find her own way off the island," Dean admitted. "Only we need that money to get out of here ourselves."

"She can make her own money," Sam said. "What's stopping you?"

Dean looked at Sam with shock, "You want to ditch Lady?"

"If you are really that mad at her why are you making excuses so you don't have to?" Sam countered.

"Shut up," Dean snarled as he realized Sam was messing with his head.

Sam sighed, "I get that you are mad at her. And to be honest I'm not looking forward to hanging out with her myself. But come on, we know how this always ends. The two of you get pissed, you make up and the world keeps spinning."

"You sure?" Dean looked at him seriously. "Sam, I don't know if I can take it any more. I mean, some things she's great at. Other things she's just freaking clueless. Last month at Bobby's...sometimes I don't know if I'm her freaking caretaker or her boyfriend."

Sam studied his brother's face and saw the sincerity. "Lady isn't always the most mature, but you are hardly the one to judge someone on that."

"I know," Dean agreed quickly. "This stupid fight, and talking trash about Cindy? What the hell got into her?"

"I don't know, man," Sam shrugged. "Just don't do anything stupid. Let's get something to eat, we'll check in with her and see if we can't work through this."

"I don't even freaking give a damn right now," Dean muttered.

"Really? You should," Sam said flatly.

"Why?" Dean asked.

"Your temper tantrum over your _car_ before we left? It'd make a two year-old proud, Dean," Sam said.

"Exactly, _my_ car," Dean said.

Sam let out a breath, "We both know how Lady normally travels. A dozen shoes, a tackle-box full of things I don't want to know how she got. To appease you she managed to get every thing she needed into one bag."

"So I should let this go because she was sensible once in her life?" Dean asked angrily.

"I'm saying other than myself, she's the only person who puts up with your shit," Sam said honestly.

"I never asked her to," Dean said. "I don't ask you to, either."

"Forget it," Sam said, seeing that Dean's anger wasn't tapering off like he had hoped it would. "Just eat and then we'll figure this out."

Dean wasn't sure that he'd be prepared to talk calmly to Lady in the time it would take for them to finish eating. He was finishing off his burger and still felt too tightly wound to return to the room. He ordered a fourth beer for himself and worked on finding a reason to even want to go back to the bed and breakfast when someone called his brother's name.

"Sam!" Erin said happily, walking up to their table.

Sam returned her smile, "Hey, Erin. Another bar?"

"I know, sort of like I'm stalking you, isn't it?" Erin laughed. She turned to Dean, "Hey, Dean. It's great to see you again."

"I wish I could say the same," Dean said bitterly.

Erin's smile faltered and she looked at him with disappointment, "I hope everything you guys are working on is going well."

"We're making some headway," Sam said.

"Wanting to bash in heads," Dean added under his breath.

"What was that?" Erin asked.

"Nothing," Dean said, giving her a big fake smile before taking a long drink of his beer. "Why don't you get out of here before we tell them you aren't twenty-one? Or even better, call your mother and father. I'm sure they'd love to hear what you are up to."

"Dean..." Sam said.

"No, its okay, Sam," Erin said. "Well, like I said it was nice to see you guys. And I'll just leave before your brother decides to tattle on me."

Dean frowned as he watched Erin walk out, and didn't notice Sam glaring at him. "It's not her fault, none of it is. You don't have to treat her like that."

"Sam, you happen to notice that young little Erin is packing heat?" Dean asked without moving his eyes.

Sam turned in time to see Erin exit the door, and barely visible was a slight bulge under her t-shirt that was obviously a pistol. "Huh," Sam frowned a bit.

Dean pealed off a few bills and threw them on the table, "She's up to something. Let's go."

Sam didn't argue and followed Dean out.

XXXXX

"I found the Winchesters, they are near Duval Street so we're clear," Erin said as she met Derek and Maxine at a construction site. The surrounding area was mostly abandoned, it had been badly damaged by the hurricane and was just now receiving the attention it needed to be rebuilt. The specific area they were in had several construction workers who were busy clearing out an area about half the size of a football field. "I thought they'd be gone by now."

"Apparently they are working overtime," Maxine said bitterly.

Erin looked west, seeing the sun beginning to touch the horizon. "And I suppose they are going to work until the sun sets."

"Wow, you are so smart," Derek said sarcastically.

Erin gave her brother a glare, and then looked at Maxine. "Maybe it just wasn't meant to be."

"We can do it tomorrow instead," Derek said.

"It has to be tonight. We just need to change our location," Maxine said. "If we wait the Winchesters will catch onto us."

"What we are doing isn't hurting anyone," Derek said, confident that was enough to keep the Winchesters to leave them alone if they did show up.

"Yet," Erin added.

"It won't hurt anyone," Maxine said firmly. "The Winchesters disapprove of our ways. It is easier to do this without them breathing down my neck."

Erin let out a breath as she began to pull her hair back and tie it in a knot, "They are across town, we have plenty of time. What do we need to do?"

"Just stay here," Maxine said. "I'll go behind the building over there. I want you to watch and see what happens."

"What about the drum?" Derek asked.

"I can do it without the drum," Maxine said. "The spirits know me by now, they will come to the sound of my heartbeat alone."

"You are positive?" Erin asked.

"Of course she is," Derek said hotly.

Erin glared at Derek, "Maybe I didn't take Magic 101 but changing the location, dropping the drum, and rushing this sounds like a bad idea."

"Just watch, and see our position and our future strengthen," Maxine told her little sister.

Erin shifted impatiently on her feet as the sun sank lower. Maxine vanished from view, and all there was left to do was watch and wait. "Derek, I have a bad feeling," Erin said.

"Maxine knows what she is doing," Derek said in a low voice.

Erin looked down, "Yeah, I know."

"It'd be great if you could tell us what she's doing," Dean said from behind.

Erin and Derek both turned. Their matching brown eyes went wide as they came face-to-face with Sam and Dean.

"I thought you said they were busy," Derek growled at his sister.

"They were," Erin said. "You followed me?" She looked at Sam with a surprised expression.

"The gun you're packing is a bit noticeable," Sam said. "We thought you were in trouble at first, maybe up to something. But we're sort of putting things together."

Dean pointed to where Maxine had walked off to, "Big Sis is here. I'm guessing she likes necromancy just like good old Great-pain-in-the-ass-grandmother Max. And I'm willing to bet my left arm that she's doing something to rile up the spirits here, isn't she?"

Erin and Derek gave each other uncomfortable looks. Derek stepped forward, "Guys, it isn't what it sounds like. After tonight we promise things are going to go back to normal."

"Sounds great," Dean said. "Now how about we go fetch the bitch and stop this now. Stupid idiots," Dean growled as he and Sam began to walk the way Maxine had went to gather up the Mason's and sort through everything.

Dean and Sam both stopped when they heard a click of a gun. Slowly they turned to see both Derek and Erin pointing pistols at them. "Weapons on the ground," Erin ordered.

"Dude," Dean snapped as Sam slowly began to do as he was told.

"Are you going to shoot Mason's kids?" Sam said.

"One of them," Dean bitterly said as he began to comply with Erin's demands. He looked at Derek, "Careful, spunky, that gun is bigger than you are."

"We're unarmed," Sam said as he kicked his pistol to Erin. Like a pro she didn't even look down, just kept him in her sights. "Lower the gun, no one has to get hurt."

"As long as you stay right where you are, no one will," Derek promised.

"What's going on, Derek?" Dean asked. "C'mon, man, you owe us that much."

Derek looked away momentarily, not long enough for Dean to risk trying to take away the weapon. He was sure that all the Mason's knew guns and could probably even shoot straight, but he doubted Derek had the nerves to handle holding a gun to a person for long. Dean was afraid if he moved forward the gun would go off, probably killing him.

"Maxine needs the spirits here for protection," Derek gave away. "We're sorry if anyone got hurt while she was preparing, some got riled up early. But after this everything will calm down."

"She wants to bind the spirits here for her own protection?" Dean guessed.

"Our protection," Derek corrected. "Our family, and everyone else. Something dangerous is coming."

"And Maxine drug you two into it?" Sam asked.

"We'd do anything to protect our family," Erin said. "We don't like this, anymore than you guys. Believe me."

"Then why are you letting her do this?" Dean asked.

"We have to," Derek said. "After Lady died we lost everything that has kept our family safe. And the evil she hunted isn't gone, it's still around."

"Yeah, we know," Dean said. "Punk of a warlock named Donovan. And guess what, we're going to find a way to kill him. You don't have to do this."

Erin handed her pistol to Derek and took a few steps towards the brothers, "We don't have to be at odds here."

"You are the ones who pulled guns on us," Sam said hotly.

"To be honest, I wanted to ask you guys for help," Erin said. "But we know you don't approve of us. That's okay. Just, let's all calm down a few notches and we'll sit and talk. Like rational adults."

"Adult? You are a freaking teenager," Dean snapped.

"And now I think I understand why Maxine thought it was a bad idea to call you," Erin said gently.

Dean stayed still as Erin continued to take trusting steps toward them, and once she was close enough he grabbed her wrist. He twisted it and turned her around until her back was pressed against his front. One hand tight on her arm, the other went to her neck.

"Dean!" Sam shouted in shock.

"Let her go," Derek demanded.

"Gonna shoot me, Derek?" Dean asked, Erin standing in front of him. "You don't have the balls to shoot a person. Now you and…"

Dean didn't see the elbow until it hit him in the eye. Momentarily stunned he loosened his hold on Erin, and that was all she needed to twist from his grip. She popped him in the mouth and finished with a knee to the groin before shoving him back. Erin took several steps back to be beside her brother who still had a pistol aimed on the brothers.

"I tried to warn you, man," Derek said. "She hits hard."

"Ugh," Dean groaned as Sam helped him up.

"You okay, Erin?" Derek asked as Erin took her place by his side.

"Yeah," she said. "Sorry, Dean. I'm used to fighting guys a bit bigger than you."

"Guys, please listen," Sam said. "Lady wouldn't allow this, she was against necromancy. Binding spirits was too dangerous."

"It's the strongest magic we have," Derek said.

"Now you just sound like Maxine," Sam said. "That's what she told you, right? She's lying to you, your whole family."

"Sam…" Dean said in a warning tone.

"We have to convince them to trust us," Sam said. "Maxine has been lying to them, she never told them about Lady."

"What about Lady?" Derek asked, looking between the brothers quickly.

"Dude, I beat this dead horse with her too many times. If Maxine wants to fuck these kids up, let her. Let's just grab our shit and go," Dean said.

"I want to hear what you know about Lady," Derek demanded.

"She's alive," Sam said before Dean could tell him not to.

Erin shook her head, "We saw her die. Maxine tried to speak to her spirit, but it was gone. Destroyed by what she had become."

"Yeah, she died. But she came back," Sam said. "Maxine wanted to keep that from you. And Lady let her. She wanted to let you guys forget about her. She never would have wanted either of you to pick up guns and aim them at us."

"You are lying," Erin said.

"We'll call her," Sam said. "She's going to be pissed that we spilled the beans, but it's too late now. If you really want we can go see her right now, she's in town."

Derek looked at the sun as the last spot fell below the horizon. Slowly he put his gun away, and Erin followed his lead. The construction workers were packing up and getting ready to leave now that it was too dark to continue working. "You are just screwing with us. Lady isn't alive," Derek said sadly.

Sam let out a frustrated breath, "I'm actually looking forward to proving it to you."

Derek shook his head, "It was just a tactic to get us to waste time or delay us. But it doesn't matter now."

"Why wouldn't it matter?" Sam asked.

"It's sunset, Maxine has finished the ritual," Derek said. "Do whatever you want, we're done here. We did what we wanted to do, and kept you from stopping her."

Dean and Sam exchanged a concerned look. "What did you do?" Dean asked.

The streetlights had just started to turn on, but now buzzed with electricity before flickering out. There were low murmurs from the group of a few dozen construction workers that were loading up trucks. Steam began to rise from the moist ground as the temperature dropped suddenly. One by one spirits began appearing at the construction sight, near and around it. Some just appearing, others walking up to it. First dozens, then hundreds, and then they lost count.

"This is going to make the news," Derek muttered as the ghost convention was being witnessed by several construction workers.

"Why are they at this site? I thought they were supposed to go directly to Maxine?" Erin asked.

"Guys, this isn't safe," Sam said.

There was a loud boom that shook the ground and rattled nearby windows.

Dean's jaw clenched. They'd left the Impala by the bar, it had been less conspicuous to follow Erin on foot. He hadn't seen this many spirits converging since the night Lady had been pulled into the ley lines, and it was getting very uncomfortable without the protection of his shotgun loaded with rock salt. Not that he had anywhere near enough salt rounds to take out a few hundred ghosts, but he'd still feel better if he had it.

Not far from them people from the construction crew began screaming.

"None of the spirits are dangerous," Derek said as Sam and Dean surged forward to aid the civilians.

"Say that to the people who are screaming for their lives," Erin snapped at her brother while she followed the Winchesters.

They neared the construction sight and they saw that people weren't screaming in fear of the ghosts, but they were screaming in fear of a single ghost. In the center of the construction site that Maxine was focusing her influence over there was a large spirit. It was nearly eight feet tall, and thick. His skin was a rich rusty red-brown, and he showed off a lot of skin by only wearing a loin cloth. His face was covered with a painted wooden mask.

And he was holding down a few of the workers that were nearby. Without a warning he squeezed their necks, his hands so large his fingers wrapped all the way around, and crushed them.

"Holy shit," Erin gasped.

As if they were prizes the large spirit held up the two limp bodies and wailed in an unearthly voice, "We are the Last Calusa, and we will have our vengeance!"

There was a strong gust of wind and the hundreds of spirits that had gathered vanished with the wind, leaving only the one who called himself the Last Calusa there.

"What the hell is that?" Sam asked.

"That's the spirit Maxine was trying to get on our side," Erin said.

"He look friendly to you?" Dean snapped.

"No," Erin said angrily, looking around. "Derek, go get her."

"On it," Derek said, turning and running.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Sam asked, grabbing Erin's arm as she moved forward.

"I have to stop him before he kills anyone else!" Erin said hotly, tugging her arm free and moving quickly forward.

Sam moved quickly to follow her, and Dean wasn't far behind with a snarled curse, "Shit."

Erin was pulling out a stick from the pocket of her shorts as she neared the center of the site. With another hand she pulled out a lighter, and as she lit the tip of the stick on fire Sam recognized it as a smudge stick. He didn't have time to tell her that spirits in the area were too riled up to be affected by something such as that before she through it right at the Last Calusa.

The stick hit the spirit as if it was a solid man, and fell to the ground. The Last Calusa dropped his trophy corpses and locked eyes on Erin, who froze in her tracks. "You are of our blood," he said in a lower voice. "Our kin."

Erin licked her lips nervously. The smudge stick kept some powerful spirits from invading her bedroom through the years, but it didn't seem to have an effect on this spirit. However this spirit was supposed to be bound to protect her family, and accept commands. "Be gone. Go back to where you came," she said in a strong voice.

"Our fight is not with our kin," the Last Calusa said to her, then looked upon the workers frozen in fear and shock, and the Winchesters. "It is upon them."

"Whoa, pal, we're friendly," Dean said, holding his hands up. Captain Naylor had been a chatty spirit with a chivalrous streak, maybe they could talk some sense into this spirit.

"Once these islands were our home. We were mighty warriors who lived off the land and sea. Those who tried to fight us died in the trying. Those who enlisted our aid were better for our help. We were the Calusa, and none could destroy us. But then came the outsiders, the pale men, with their sickness. And they brought low the Calusa. Now is the time of our vengeance. You have all been chosen for the sacrifice. We are dead, and we are forgotten, but we are not lost. After the sacrifice, there will be vengeance, for none may trifle with the Calusa and live."

"That doesn't sound friendly," Sam said.

Dean grabbed Erin to pull her along, and then he noticed Sam wasn't moving to follow his retreat. "Sam, come on!"

"I. Can't. Move," Sam said in a strained voice.

"Help!"

"Can't move!"

"I'm paralyzed!"

Screams rose up from the construction workers, all of them appeared to be frozen in place.

"Sam, come on!" Erin said, grabbing one of his arms and trying to pull. His muscles were rigid and didn't give an inch.

Then without warning Erin and Dean were both grabbed up in an invisible force and thrown out into the street. Dean landed hard on his right side and tried to roll with the landing but skidded on the pavement. Before he got up Erin was trying to pull him to his feet. "Are you okay?" she asked breathlessly.

Dean looked at the construction site, he'd been thrown a good fifty feet. He could see his brother and the few dozen workers all taking slow steps, arranging themselves in a circle around the Last Calusa. And he quickly understood what the Last Calusa had said about a sacrifice. "Sam!" Dean shouted, and started running back in. He knew he was defenseless against a spirit, but he wasn't letting Sam be sacrificed.

And Dean ran face-first into an invisible wall and bounced back. He put a hand to his nose and his other hand went out to feel the air. Nothing was visible, but there was something as solid as brick right in front of him.

Erin stood next to him and touched the invisible barrier, "I think this is a ward," Erin said.

"How do we get through?" Dean asked hotly.

Erin looked at him with wide eyes and said, "We can't. That's the point of them. No one in, and no one out unless he wants them to."

Erin turned her head sharply to see Derek and Maxine running toward them. Erin took a few steps forward, "What the hell did you do, Maxine?" Erin shouted.

Maxine's brown eyes were large and horrified as she reached the invisible barrier, looking through to see the preparation of a sacrifice. "This is wrong, this wasn't supposed to happen. Something went wrong."

"You think?" Dean shouted.

"Stop! Okay? Just, stop!" Erin shouted over him. "We have to find a way to stop him. Maxine?"

Maxine just stood there with her mouth agape, and shook her head.

"Maxine, think!" Erin said. When Maxine continued to be unresponsive Erin slapped her right across the face.

Maxine blinked her eyes, "Uh…uh…um, there had to be some other magic at work to disrupt my ritual. I did everything right, I know I did."

"Obviously you didn't!" Dean barked at her. "My brother is in there!"

Derek ran a hand through his hair, "What do we do?"

Maxine pulled at her bottom lip with her teeth, "I need a minute to think."

Dean touched the invisible ward and looked hopelessly at the crowd that was trapped inside. They were unmoving, not fighting or trying to get free. And Sam was in there. He pulled out his cell phone and called the first person he desperately wanted to talk to.

"What's wrong?" Lady asked as she answered.

"Lady, something's happened," Dean said, glaring at Maxine. "Maxine's resurrected one major spirit, and it's got Sam."

"Where are you?" She asked, and before he could tell her she said, "I'm on my way."

**A/N** - _Fun Fact: The Calusa actually were a Native American tribe in Florida that are now extinct (I feel weird calling a race of people extinct but most of my research is from wikipedia and that's the word they used). I didn't do much research into the tribe, I mentioned before the Key West chapters are based off of the tie-in novel 'Bone Key' so I'm mostly taking from that book while making my own creative changes to suit my own needs._


	93. Key West Part 5, November 2007

**November 6, 2007**

The way Lady reached the site she was on the opposite side of the ward from Dean. She nearly ran face-first into it if her future-sight hadn't warned her, but even the short warning meant she stumbled into it. In amazement she ran her hands over the invisible wall, it was clearer than glass. The only thing it could possibly be was hardened air, but she'd never come across a ward so sturdy. Not to mention so big, it encircled a construction site the size of half a football field.

"Lady!" Dean hollered, bringing her focus back. Sam was in there, in trouble.

"I'm here, what the hell happened?" she asked, running to meet him.

"I don't know, but I'm two seconds from…" Dean began, but was interrupted.

"Lady?" Derek gasped.

Lady swallowed hard. She had heard Dean say that Maxine had done something, but the only thing that had been on her mind was Sam. Now she was coming face-to-face with Derek, Erin and Maxine Mason, and she was far from prepared. "Hey, Derek," she said softly. "Erin," she nodded to his sister who was standing behind him, looking at her with surprise.

Derek shook his head, "It can't be you."

"You can poke me with a stick later," Lady said, looking at the spirit that was holding several sacrifices. A few people appeared to be dead already. She turned her eyes to Maxine, "What the hell did you do?"

Maxine's face was twisted in emotional pain, "I don't know…this wasn't supposed to happen."

Lady didn't forget what Maxine had done to her, but right then it didn't matter. They were on the opposite side of the country, as far from North Dakota as they could be while still being in the same country. "Start with what happened, everything," Lady said quickly.

Maxine looked at the ground, unable to look at her siblings or Lady because of the horrible feelings of shame and guilt. "Our tribe were nomads, we integrated with many different tribes over the years. The Calusa were one of them, but they died out about two hundred years ago. They lived on this island then, and died here, too. Spirits have a hard time moving to the beyond on the island, and I felt a large force of my ancestors here. So I came here to call upon them for help."

Lady snapped her fingers impatiently, "The ritual, what was it. Talk faster."

Maxine nodded obediently and continued faster, "At first I communicated. It was hard to find them through all the other spirits, but I managed. I offered them gifts, asked for their help. I was getting through to them. Tonight I was summoning them and was going to ask them to allow me to bind them to my service, to send them home with me."

"That's it?" Lady asked, sounding confused.

"Yes," Maxine said.

"No," Erin corrected. "Normally we've been doing the ritual right on the site where the naked bastard is. It's on top of an old burial ground. Tonight there were people down there, so Maxine did it somewhere else. And before we had been using a drum, to help the spirits hear her. Tonight she didn't use one."

Lady looked back to Maxine, who nodded to tell her that was true. Lady brought her thumb to her mouth and nibbled on the nail for a few moments, "Well that actually sounds fine."

"Fine?" Dean snapped.

"I know the ritual, it wouldn't cause this," Lady said, knocking on the hard barrier that kept them from reaching Sam and the others. "No spirit should be this powerful."

"It isn't just one spirit," Maxine said, sounding a bit more confident. "That one spirit is the embodiment of the entire tribe that was killed off."

Lady's eyebrows raised, "A whole tribe? So…few hundred?"

"Thousands," Maxine said.

"That would explain the power," Lady said. "But that's weird, why would it manifest as one spirit?"

Maxine's eyes got wide, "Oh no."

"What?" Erin asked, looking between Lady and Maxine. Both their faces were changing.

"Lady?" Dean asked urgently. "What the hell did she do?"

Lady looked at him, "Maxine didn't cause this, not entirely." Lady looked back through the ward to look upon the massive spirit. She looked around the construction site the best she could until her eyes found a jumbled mess of weeds. "Anyone find holly flowers, hemlock buds or pale tiger lilies?"

"No, I looked," Maxine said.

"But this whole area has been getting plowed and worked on," Derek added.

Lady rubbed her hands on her shorts and turned to face everyone, "Okay, pretty sure we're dealing with a cursed Native American tribe, that is royally pissed off at being given smallpox."

"Fine, how do we get through this ward?" Dean asked.

"I'm working on that," Lady said. "Maxine, what do you know about this tribe?"

"They fished, mostly," Maxine began. "Strong warriors, they fought off the white invasion for a long time before they died off from disease. For them that had to be a blow to the ego, warriors dying from sickness instead of battle."

"Religion?" Lady asked.

"They never converted to Christianity," Maxine said. "But they had shamans and medicine men. They were very spiritual, just like we are."

"And liked their curses," Lady added in a mutter. She bounced on the balls of her feet as she thought. "Okay, cursed tribe gets waken up by you knocking on their door, fucking idiot move by the way," she snapped at Maxine. "Okay, what happened when he manifested?"

"It killed two people," Dean said. "Erin tried to get rid of it with a smudge stick, but it didn't even flinch. Then everyone inside the area froze, but Erin and I were thrown out." Dean looked confused, "Why were we thrown out?"

"It wants a sacrifice, but it wants vengeance," Erin said. "Maybe since he saw me as kin he didn't want me."

"What about me?" Dean asked.

Lady licked her lips, "Dean, you can't be a sacrifice. You are worthless to him."

Dean actually looked offended, "What?"

"You're sort of bound in demon magic," Lady said. "The spirit could kill you, but it wouldn't get anything out of you."

Dean looked away. He never thought selling his soul had any benefit other than bringing his brother back from the dead, but he wasn't sure he wanted this benefit. He'd rather be next to his brother right then instead of outside scrambling for ways to try and save him.

Lady grabbed his hand and held it tight until he looked her in the eye, "We're not letting Sam get sacrificed. We're getting him out of there."

"You have a way to stop this thing?" Dean asked hotly.

Lady let go of his hand, "You got the best team to try and defeat this thing. These guys know more about spirits than you do, Maxine and I know more about magic than anyone alive, and we got you. We will figure this out."

Erin got on the phone with her father, asking him to dig into information about the Calusa. Derek went around the ward twice looking for weak points, but found none. Dean called Bobby to see if he had any information. While Maxine and Lady brainstormed.

"Anything?" Dean asked, nearly two hours had passed since Sam had become trapped. So far nothing had happened inside the barrier, all the sacrifices still seemed alive but were all immobilized.

"We're pretty sure we have until sunrise," Lady said. "That was when normal sacrifices were made. From what it looks like he's keeping them alive until then."

That meant they had several hours, but that still wasn't a lot of time.

"Isn't it strange that no one has come near here?" Erin asked.

"Not really," Lady said with a sigh. "Something this powerful will give off a huge influence. Normal people will get the creeps and steer clear."

"Yeah, I sort of have the willies being near it," Derek said.

"I never knew you were normal," Erin said dryly.

Lady couldn't help but smile at the rude exchange between the siblings. But the smile didn't last long. Her stomach was wrenched in worry.

"Guys, I hate to even suggest it, but if we don't stop this thing from doing its ritual, what happens?" Derek asked.

Maxine and Lady exchanged a look, then both looked away not wanting to answer.

"Isn't it obvious?" Erin asked. "Mass deaths. Maybe just Caucasians, but it could spread to Hispanics and Africans and Asians. Widespread destruction as far as it can reach."

"Is that true?" Dean asked, looking at Lady who was the only person he trusted.

"Yeah," Lady said. "We don't think it'll stop at a few dozen people. It needs sacrifices to gain strength, then it can move more freely. This is stronger than we can deal with right now, we can't let it get stronger."

Dean felt physically sick as he stood watch. Watching for signs within the wards, though it was difficult to see with the darkness if the sacrifices had moved or not. Midnight reached and nothing had yet happened.

**November 7, 2007**

One in the freaking morning. They only had five hours until sunrise. "Anything?" Dean asked anxiously.

"As a matter of fact, I have an idea," Maxine said in a tired voice.

"You don't get to contribute," Dean said bitterly.

Maxine ignored him and looked at Lady, "While I was communicating with the Calusa all the other spirits answered the call. They were able to feed off some of the magic and become stronger, that's why they've been acting up. I don't have what I would need to permanently bind so many spirits that aren't related to me, but I think we can use them."

"Yeah, because necromancy worked so well for you already," Lady said, nodding toward the invisible ward.

"We'd need all of them at once, working as one," Maxine continued.

Lady looked ready to snap at her, but her face changed to look thoughtful. Then she looked slightly sick, "Like a gestalt?"

"What's that?" Dean asked.

"It's a term in psychology," Derek said. "It means to treat behavior and perception as an integrated whole and not as individuals."

Lady rolled her eyes at Derek's use of his several years of college, "Well, how I know the term is shoving a whole bunch of things into one thing, to make it more powerful."

"I think it would work," Maxine said. "We cram all the spirits I can summon, put them into one person to control. And we might have enough power to take out the Last Calusa."

"More likely whoever we shove that into will have their brain explode," Lady said. She chewed on one of her fingernails for a moment. "Besides, to make it work we'd need another witch. One to summon the spirits, another to bind them down, and another person wielding the power."

"Not necessarily," Maxine said. "The vessel would only need to have a strong will and focus to withstand the rush."

Dean straightened as Lady looked at him and her face changed. Slightly excited and thoughtful, the kind of look she got when things started to click together. But she looked away from him quickly, "I'm not so sure about this."

"We fight fire with fire," Maxine said. "What else can we do?"

Lady thought it over in her head, "It's a long shot, but it's the only one we have. So far it's a hell of a lot better than anything I've thought of."

"What are your ideas?" Dean asked, not willing to so easily take Maxine's suggestion.

"You don't want to know," Lady said tensely. "Maxine, help me figure this out."

Lady had to appreciate how efficiently she worked with Maxine, even under the dire circumstances. Maxine had always been willing to bend tradition, unlike Max. Blending Native American magic with European folk magic and even a bit of the gray magic Lady worked with. Within twenty minutes they began handing out jobs to the others.

Lady had Dean go out to get his car, she needed things from their trunk. Maxine had Erin find several items. And Derek was rushing back to the hotel to get things that Maxine had left behind.

It was three in the morning when everyone regrouped. "Okay, we have a rough plan on how to work this," Lady said, leaning against the trunk of the Impala. "We're doing the gestalt, and we've figured a way to almost do it safely."

"Almost?" Dean asked through clenched teeth. But he wasn't complaining, with three hours to go he was going to try anything.

Lady met his eyes, "This is the type of magic that is only safe to do after weeks of planning with a full coven and a few human sacrifices. We worked it out in less than two hours, we aren't sacrificing anyone, and we're doing it with only two witches…and a few helpers. I'm being generous when I'm saying it's almost safe. Most of this is going to depend on you, Dean."

Dean looked toward the barrier, unable to see through the darkness. "What do I have to do?" He looked back at Lady.

"Maxine is going to summon the spirits of the island here, that is the easy part. She can call them and they'll come, and she needs to be able to hold them here," Lady said. "Then I need to bind them. The only way we can think of to do that is by binding them directly through me. This is where it gets dicey. The spirits around here are pretty strong, they aren't going to like this."

"You said your brain could explode," Dean said flatly.

"Not mine," Lady said tensely. "I'm more worried about yours. Because once Maxine calls them here and I bind them, we need you to carry them. If you can hold onto enough spirits you might be as strong, or even stronger, than the Last Calusa. The spiritual energy will be strong enough to break the ward, and we're hoping strong enough to beat down the spirit itself. If you can weaken that thing Maxine can get close enough to break the curse and get rid of it for good. But it all depends on if you can manage it or not."

"If I can't?" Dean asked. "What? My brain explodes?"

"A lot of things could happen," Lady said honestly, not hiding her uncertainty or fear. "They could overrun you, you'd get lost in your own head, pushed out of your own body, or yeah, you could even drop dead with brain leaking out of your nose."

"Well, we don't have a lot of time. Let's do it," Dean said.

Lady and Maxine began to prepare. Maxine was mixing herbs and ingredients in a large silver bowl while Erin rolled out a large drum to aid in calling the spirits. Lady found a clear area on the pavement and began drawing on it with white chalk. Derek and Dean moved their vehicles to block either way of the road in case a car decided it wanted to come along. It was nearly five in the morning when they had done everything they could to prepare.

"Dean, I need a moment," Maxine said.

Dean glared at Maxine. He couldn't stand her, but he couldn't kill her, either. He knew at that moment he had to tolerate her presence and needed her help, but he wasn't going to pretend to like it. "What?"

"It's important that when we start you center yourself," Maxine said. "I know how worried you are about Sam, and I can't imagine if it was Erin or Derek instead. But if you let your focus slip, even for a second, we can lose this. You can die, that spirit will kill everyone inside the ward and kill many more people."

"Except you Natives, I don't think you have much to lose here, Maxine," Dean said nastily.

"Hate me all you want, I deserve it," Maxine said. "If your hate for me gets everyone through this alive then I'm glad. I don't want anyone else to die or get hurt because of this. The only way to fix this rests in you, because no one else can do it. Derek isn't strong enough, and Erin is too young to handle something like this. I'm begging you, don't fail."

Dean walked away from her. He didn't need anyone to tell him the risks, he understood them perfectly the first time Lady spelled them out. Either he'd win, or he'd die trying. He knew if he died a lot of other people would, too.

"We're almost ready," Lady said to him. "Dean, when it starts don't stop fighting. Chances are you are going to hear spirits talking inside your head, they'll try to control you. Just don't stop, you are the master of your own body. Never forget that."

Dean nodded. "Yeah, I got it. Listen, Lady, if this backfires…you do everything you can to stop this thing."

She nodded once, understanding what he was saying. If he died he'd forgive her if she had to call on Donovan for help, or if she even had to take the power of the Goddess like she had promised him she wouldn't. Anything she could do to stop the Last Calusa from killing Sam or from waging war against the country.

Lady pulled him into her arms in a tight hug, and he returned it. "Find one thing to focus on, and don't let it go. Because when this starts it's going to be painful. You lose yourself, and that's it." She curled her fingers at the nape of his neck, touching the soft short hairs there. She closed her eyes tightly and took a slow breath in, it might be the last time she got to inhale his scent. The last time she got to hug him, and she was tightly holding onto all of that. As painful as her fight had been with him she didn't care. She wasn't risking never having a chance make things right in case something happened. "I love you, Dean," she said.

He closed his eyes at her words and held her tighter. They didn't tell each other that often, talking about raw emotions like that was uncomfortable for both of them and they preferred to show each other how they felt with physical action instead. For the first time since he had called her asking for help he thought about how angry they had been at each other. He remembered serious thoughts of wanting to just be rid of her, but they were all gone right then. "I love you," he said in her ear, and pressed his mouth against hers in a final kiss.

Maxine had a small campfire burning as close to the ward as she could get and was prepared to start. Dean was standing near Lady, only because no one had told him to move. Lady was sitting on the ground within the chalk lines she had made. Derek and Erin were both standing beside the large drum to aid Maxine in calling the spirits. "Dean, are you ready?" Maxine asked.

Dean was far from ready to have his head invaded by tons of spirits, but it wasn't like they had much more time. The sky was already beginning to turn from black to blue. He worked on calming his thumping heart and controlling his breathing, trying to be physically ready. He emptied his head while at the same time trying to think of one thing that he could focus on.

Dean was trying to be prepared for what was about to happen to him, he was going to let Maxine and Lady perform a ritual and cast a spell on him. But he really wasn't sure what to expect. But he knew the reason he was going along with it. His brother was down there. Since the day his parents told him he was going to be a big brother he had been told what a great responsibility it was to look out for a younger sibling. Of course his parents didn't know that when Sam was six months old that his mother would be murdered and his father would send them all out on a quest for vengeance. Dean didn't have many memories before Sam was born, it was like he had just shown up in the world after his little brother arrived. His one purpose in life to be a big brother to the ungrateful runt that ended up turning into Sasquatch. Dean wasn't looking forward to dying, if it was now or in May, but he still believed the best thing he ever did was trade his life for Sam's. He focused hard on his little brother as he heard the steady beat of a drum begin, it matched his heartbeat perfectly. The only thing that mattered was he got Sam out of there alive.

Dean didn't hear Maxine begin chanting to call the spirits, the drums were too loud and he was too focused as he got prepared. He noticed Lady tense nearby, but he quickly tried to forget that and keep his focus. At first he felt something cold that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, and then he heard whispers right inside his skull. He didn't move or open his eyes as he ignored the whispers that were growing, he thought of his baby brother in his arms as he ran out of a burning house. The night his life started to go to hell.

Lady's eyes were open, she couldn't even blink if she wanted to. Every muscle was rigid as she worked with Maxine. The sigils she sat within drew in the spirits that Maxine was calling, and pulled them straight through her as they became bound to their purpose. It wasn't a very strong binding ritual, it would only last an hour at most, but that was all the time they had. However it was effective. Lady felt spirits, one by one, slipping through her and flowing into Dean. Each spirit that was drawn in was bound to her will and obeyed her request to join him.

Lady began to tremble as the flow of spirits increased and she tried to slow things down. If she couldn't regulate the spirits, keep them obedient, then they'd quickly overcome Dean. Lady did not like magic that required a force of will instead of a simple mix of ingredients. Maybe she had a strong will, that's what people said about stubborn people, however she had lousy focus. All she could think about was not bombarding Dean with too much at once and having to witness his head explode.

Dean opened his eyes for the first time as he felt almost saturated with heavy power. He felt as if he had been given twenty hits of speed. The rush had his heart racing faster than a hummingbirds'. The air around him felt cool, but it was only because he was overheating. And his vision was beginning to change. He knew he was still in the same area, it looked the same. But at the same time it was different. Colors were brighter, and there were colors he didn't even recognize. Slowly he looked around. The Mason's weren't looking at him. Erin and Derek were focusing on keeping the beat of the drum steady. Maxine was calling forth spirits. Around them was a shivering light, like they all decided to wear matching auras to show they were part of a family. He turned more to see Lady. Her eyes were open but staring blankly ahead. She barely looked like herself. The light around her was more pinkish, but it had brilliant rainbow like strands of color arcing out of her. Some of them were reaching into the ground, but a lot of them were coming toward him.

_Sam_, he thought, turning again. The little shimmering lights beyond the ward were the people he had to save. His brother was one of them. He could see the ward, too. It was still clear, but he saw it. That funny new color that had no name. He reached out with a hand, but before he touched it the ward shattered and popped. Unable to help himself he let out a giggle of exhilaration. He rolled his neck as he began to strut toward the powerful spirit, "Alright, let's brawl, pal."


	94. Key West Part 6, November 2007

**November 7, 2007**

Sam was very aware of his surroundings, even though he was paralyzed. He couldn't move except to speak and blink. The other people trapped with him were hysterical, and he had tried to calm them down but had given up.

A few times he had experienced powerful holds like the one the Last Calusa was applying on him and the other prepared sacrifices, it was similar to what Donovan had done to him before. Desperately Sam tried to assert his own will to overpower it. He didn't know where Dean or Erin were, he hoped they weren't dead. Their bodies could be ten feet behind him and he'd never know, he couldn't turn his neck to see.

Sam hoped for the best, that Dean and Erin were outside of the Last Calusa's influence. And tried in vain just to wiggle a finger.

While being trapped Sam tried to keep track of the time, but barely managed to see the sliver of a moon move across the sky. The sky began to lighten and he noticed the Last Calusa started to look eager, and Sam thoughts turned grim. He knew that everyone with him were set up to be sacrifices, and he began to think about their deaths. He had hoped to be able to help them, save them, but he just hadn't managed to break the hold.

And then he heard the not-so-distant sound of a steady drum beat, so deep and rhythmic it sounded like a heartbeat. The Last Calusa straightened and appeared to be watching something from behind Sam.

Sam heard and felt something shift. The air around them, which had been still, changed and a cool ocean breeze drifted over them. The next instant he felt the paralytic hold on him weaken and he not only managed to wiggle a finger but his whole hand.

"Alright, let's brawl, pal," he heard his brother's voice call out. But something sounded weird, the voice was almost amplified or even vibrating.

The Last Calusa left the center of the circle of sacrifices for the first time all night, and as he moved farther away Sam gained more control over his body. And finally Sam broke free completely. Sam stumbled on shaky legs for a few moments, but once he gained the support he needed he turned to watch what was happening.

He saw the Last Calusa, a giant of a spirit whose physical appearance terrifyingly matched his power, going after his brother. However Sam saw Dean, and Dean was _glowing_. In the dim pre-dawn light Dean shimmered with a pale luminescence that stood out. In the distance he saw Lady and the Masons, they were still and standing away from the fight. He wasn't sure what was going on, but it seemed they had figured out a way to handle the Last Calusa. Instead of getting in their way he worked on freeing the other captives, who were having difficulty breaking the last of the hold on them, so they were all out of the dangerous area.

Dean had to admit, he was feeling pretty damn good. There was an onslaught of voices and emotions ripping through his head, but none of them could overpower his desire to throw down with the spirit. Energy, as electrifying as lightening, flowed right through him to strike the Last Calusa, knocking it back several feet. Dean grinned as he saw Sam was in good shape, moving around and helping the other civilians get out of the way.

With the small amount of energy it took to break the ward Dean had thought a few blows to the Last Calusa would have done it, however the spirit only seemed to get upset. Dean felt a sudden shock of heat hit him and send him toppling backward as the Last Calusa struck back. But it didn't even hurt.

"I think I need a bigger boost, Lady," Dean said as he saw the spirit getting ready to strike again.

Lady felt a trickle of blood coming from her nose. She had been counting, an attempt to focus, but she lost count after the three-hundredth spirit became bound. And that had been at least a few hundred spirits earlier. It was becoming difficult to channel the spirits, and the strain was settling in. Lady's eyes slipped close, but the moment they did a rush of spirits assaulted her. Her eyes shot open once again and she did the only thing she could do, she sent them all to Dean at once. _'Oh God, Dean, I'm so sorry!'_ she thought wildly as she regained control.

Dean was brought to his knees from the sudden assault of dozens of weakly bound spirits invading him. He let out a pained scream and put his hands to his head. And while he was already on the ground the Last Calusa slammed him down so his face was in the dirt. The pain in his head was ignored as pain went through his whole body.

"We are not impressed," the Last Calusa said.

Dean clenched his muscles as he felt several more spirits gently come to boost the power. Once he felt centered again he threw the Last Calusa back and got to his feet. He couldn't count how many different personalities were swimming inside of him, and he didn't care. He began to lash out at the Last Calusa with all he had. Throwing raw energy and even throwing a few supercharged punches. And little by little, the Last Calusa was having a hard time keeping up. "Impressed now?" Dean snarled as he took the upper hand in the fight.

Dean went to give the Last Calusa a right hook that was sure to knock him on his ass, but his fist went right through the spirit. Up until then the spirit had been as solid as he was, and he noticed that the spirit was losing its stamina. Since Dean wasn't able to physically touch the spirit he let the energy that was surging through him loose, that still knocked the Last Calusa down.

Lady trembled as she tried to provide Dean with enough spiritual energy to weaken the Last Calusa, and she barely heard Maxine announce, "No more spirits are here."

Lady couldn't unhinge her clamped jaw to talk, she felt an icy attachment to the spirits that were still bound to her. She didn't have to worry about pushing too much at Dean at once, so she closed her eyes and began to work on holding onto the bound spirits so they couldn't escape them prematurely.

"He's doing it. Keep drumming, I'm going in so I can get close enough to counter the curse," Maxine ordered her siblings.

Dean was enjoying himself, a _lot_. The Last Calusa had been a worthy opponent, at first. But now Dean had the upper hand, and he was so far ahead the Last Calusa had nothing left to threaten him with. But Dean was still enjoying pummeling the thing into the ground, inflicting pain. But he had forgotten why he had started the fight to begin with. Or if he was even the one who started it.

"Dean, give me some room so I can bind him," Maxine said as she got near the brawl. They were unable to completely get rid of the Last Calusa, no one knew where all of the bones of the tribe would even be. But Maxine could counter the curse that had made it so dangerously powerful, and then bind the spirit so it could not return on its own.

Dean looked at the Native American woman, and didn't even recognize her. He watched as she got as close as she dared to the Last Calusa, dusting the spirit with a mix of musty smelling herms and causing it to vanish. Dean felt it, deep in his core, that the Last Calusa was not completely gone. But it was weak and broken so badly that it wasn't going to come back.

"Dean, it's done," the woman said, looking at him.

"What's done?" Dean asked.

She looked a bit scared, and he figured she should be scared of him. Even though he didn't really care enough to do her any harm. "Dean, do you know who I am?"

"Nah, can't say I do," he admitted.

"Come with me, please," she said.

"Alright," he said. "Is there a party somewhere?"

Maxine watched Dean cautiously as they walked toward Lady. Before they got there Sam ran over. "Is that it? Is it gone?" he asked, a bit breathless from helping the other sacrifices take shelter.

"Yes," Maxine said shortly.

"Dean, that was incredible!" Sam breathed.

Dean looked at the tall man and frowned, he didn't like that he was taller than him. And that he wasn't looking fearful. He liked how the woman had looked at him with fear, and this man wasn't doing that. "Go away," he said.

Sam looked confused, "Go away? Go where?"

"I don't care," Dean said.

"Dean, are you okay?" Sam asked.

Annoyed, Dean gave Sam the smallest push to get him away. Still supercharged on several spirits Dean's 'small push' sent Sam sprawling several feet. Sam slowly got to his feet, looking at his brother with a mix of concern and fear.

Maxine took several anxious steps backwards as Dean turned his eyes to her, "Dean, please, take a minute to try and remember. Remember your brother? Remember me? You don't like me, if you want to push someone around it should be me," Maxine said.

Dean searched his memory, he had tons of memories, but couldn't find one with her or the tall guy in it.

Maxine gave a worried look to Erin and Derek who were still methodically pounding the drum to help keep the spirits from lashing out too violently from being bound. She'd gotten them into this mess, maybe they wanted to help but she shouldn't have brought them along. And Lady was trembling so hard she was nearly vibrating. This whole plan had relied on Dean being strong enough to handle it, and if he didn't they had a whole new problem to deal with. Dean could kill them all with a stray thought if he felt like it.

"Dean, it's time to let those spirits go, we can't hold them much longer," Maxine said urgently.

Dean shook his head, "We don't want to leave."

Maxine's eyes grew wide, "Dean, I don't know what will happen if we stop the ritual now while they are still inside you."

Dean looked at her blankly, "What ritual?"

"Dean, we can't do this forever! Remember, damn it!" Maxine shouted at him. "Lady can't hold on any longer!"

_Lady_…Dean thought. Yeah, there was a lady. A blonde chick? No…he really didn't like blondes. Maybe they had more fun but in his experience it was the brunettes that really got down in the bedroom. Red heads weren't that bad, either, but some of them were a little freakier than he wanted. Although he could really go for a red head right then.

And then he saw her. She was sitting cross-legged on the ground, her heart fluttering rapidly just like his. He knew that because he could feel her pulse thrumming in time with his through all those rainbow colored threads that connected him to her. The threads appeared to be like delicate strands of spider silk, reflecting the breaking dawn in brilliant prisms of color. Out of curiosity he gently plucked one like a guitar string. He felt it vibrate through him and saw the effect it had on her. She jerked and let out a soft cry of pain. It made a nice sound and he was about to pluck another one of those threads to watch the pale and withering woman jerk in pain again…

_Oh god, Lady!_ Dean remembered. He remembered everything. And with those memories came the pain that brought him to his knees, crashing to the pavement hard. Spirits attacked his own conscience, not liking being put to the background. _Get these things out of me!_ He couldn't talk, he couldn't get his jaw to unhinge even to let out the scream of pain that was building up.

"Dean? Dean?" Sam was at his side. "Stop the spell!"

"She's trying," Maxine shouted back as Dean seized on the ground. The chords of his neck were sticking out as hundreds, maybe thousands, of spirits battled inside of him. "He needs to slow down or he'll kill them both."

Dean could feel each of those threads becoming severed, he could almost hear the pling of each one being cut away from him. And it hurt, like he was the one being cut. They were all part of him, an extension of himself. Of that wonderful feeling of power that he had enjoyed but now was rejecting.

And then everything went black.

The second Dean lost consciousness Lady's muscles unwound and she fell over, breathing heavily and letting herself shake. She'd been lost inside her own world, trying to hold onto several spirits that she was barely aware of what had happened.

"Lady? Are you okay?" Erin asked, wrapping her arms around her.

"Yeah," Lady said as Erin helped her sit up. Lady wished she was still face-flat on the ground, because now she saw Maxine and Sam standing over Dean's still body. "Oh god, I killed him!"

Sam looked up at her with wide eyes, "No, Lady, he's…well, he has a pulse," Sam said, not sure if he could say his brother was fine. But he was technically alive.

Lady put a hand to her forehead, and then to her nose to wipe away blood that was still dripping down. Erin helped her get onto shaky legs. "We should get out of here, sirens aren't far," Lady warned.

"Dean?" Sam pulled his brother's eyelids back and swallowed hard when the eyes behind them were unresponsive.

Maxine took Sam's hand firmly and he looked at her, "He's going to be okay. Just give him some time. Help me move him."

Maxine grabbed Dean's legs while Sam supported his head and torso, working together they got him into the back of the Impala.

Back at the Bed and Breakfast Lady paced the garden impatiently while chewing on one fingernail after another. Fortunately her fake nails had broken off before the trip to Florida and she hadn't had a chance to get new ones, because if she had to chew through the acrylic she would have. And she would have been chipping teeth along the way.

"He'll wake up, Maxine said he would," Erin said, trying to calm Lady while offering her a box of donuts.

"Well excuse me for not wholly trusting the bitch," Lady snarled. Lady spit a sliver of her fingernail out of her mouth, "I'm sorry, Erin. But this wouldn't have happened if Maxine hadn't been messing with this."

Erin nodded in agreement, "Yeah. And to be honest, I had a bad feeling from the start."

Lady let out a slow breath, "Then you have good instincts."

Erin smiled at that, "You know, Lady, its incredible just to see you again. I can barely believe it."

"It's pretty crazy seeing you again," Lady muttered, finally taking a donut. "Both of you."

"I called Mom, broke it to her gently," Derek said. "She and Dad wanted to fly down and see you, but I told them not to."

Lady had nothing to say to that, and luckily she had a donut to stuff in her mouth so she didn't have to talk. And even better Sam and Maxine were exiting the room so the subject could be changed.

"He'll wake up within the hour," Maxine said confidently.

"Would you like a donut, Sam?" Erin offered.

Sam hesitated for a moment, but said, "Yeah, that'd be great. I'm starving," he said, helping himself.

"We got them for you guys," Erin said, handing the box over to him. "I'm sure Dean will be hungry as hell, too. And it's sort of our way for saying 'Sorry Maxine is such a stupid bitch.'"

Maxine looked at the ground, but didn't try to defend herself.

"She was doing what she thought was right," Lady muttered, surprised she was now defending Maxine.

"Doesn't make it right," Maxine said stiffly. "If it wasn't for me those people wouldn't have gone through this. Two wouldn't have died."

"Yeah, but thinking up the gestalt wasn't a bad idea," Lady offered. "Just, uh, do us all a favor and stay away from necromancy."

Maxine looked up at her with wide eyes, "Lady, I'm trying my best to protect my family. And not just them."

"Yeah, because you are afraid Donovan is going to try and take your spots of power just like Garrett tried to do," Lady said in a tired voice.

Maxine shook her head, "No, it isn't just about that anymore. Things aren't very clear. Something dangerous is coming."

"And you think it's me?" Lady guessed.

Maxine looked thoughtful, then shook her head. "No. I apologize, Lady, because I thought at first it was you. But there is _dark_ magic at work, so much darker than you could ever commit yourself to. And it is so dark I cannot see through it to understand it."

Lady ground her teeth a few moments. Max had come across something similar when Lady had asked her to look into the Yellow-Eyed Demon for the Winchesters. "Demonic, maybe?" Lady asked.

"I don't know," Maxine admitted. "But perhaps it is that Donovan guy you mentioned. The one that has the power of the Goddess."

"Let us worry about Donovan," Lady said.

Maxine nodded, "Yeah, I think I'll do that."

Lady pointed at Derek and Erin, "And stop treating your siblings as your muscle."

Erin and Derek both looked at the ground, "It was sort of our idea," Derek admitted. "We wanted to help."

"And we didn't take 'no' for an answer," Erin added.

"Well I'm telling you guys no," Lady said flatly. "Go home, go back to school."

"We'll think about it," Derek offered.

Erin looked at Lady hopefully, "Does this mean you'll come home?"

"Mom and Dad really want to see you," Derek added.

Lady shook her head. "Face it guys, I never really belonged there. But, uh," Lady looked at Maxine, "If you need my help, let me know."

Maxine nodded, "I will."

Lady was saying goodbye to the Masons, receiving a tight hug from Derek and Erin. Before she could decide what to give Maxine, hugging someone who shot at her didn't weigh well with her, Cindy came skipping out of her house and into the garden.

"Good morning, Sam," Cindy said in a song-like voice. "Lady," she added as an afterthought. She frowned at Sam who was holding the box of donuts, "Now, Sam, I know you didn't ruin your appetite with those. You and your brother need a big breakfast and I'm getting ready to make one." Cindy looked at Derek and smiled prettily at him, "You're invited, too, hun."

"We're just leaving," Erin said. "But thanks for the offer."

"Okay then," Cindy said, not giving Erin a second glance. "I'll just skip over and fetch Dean."

"He's sleeping," Lady said.

Cindy gave Lady a smug smile, "He won't mind if I wake him up."

Sam didn't want Cindy to walk in on Dean while he was unconscious and quickly said, "He's not feeling well."

Cindy looked deeply saddened by that, "That's horrible! I better go check on him."

"You don't want to do that," Sam said, putting a hand on Cindy's shoulder. "He's a real grouch, sometimes."

"I know just how to fix that in any man," Cindy smiled, but could tell Sam wasn't going to let her through. "Well, you let him know that as soon as he wakes up I'll have a fresh stack of pancakes for him."

"I'll do that," Sam promised.

Erin looked at Lady who was glaring angrily at Cindy as she walked back to her house, then at Derek who was watching Cindy's rear swing back and forth with his jaw down, then at Sam who was taking a bite out of another donut. "God, what a bitch," Erin said finally.

"I know, right!" Lady threw her hands up, thankful that someone else finally saw what she saw.

"Who? Cindy? No, she's real sweet," Sam said.

"And hot as hell," Derek added.

"Men are idiots," Maxine said with a sigh. "We should get going. Lady, I know it won't make up for anything but when you guys are heading back north stop by and see us in Orlando."

"We'll think about it," Lady said.

Maxine offered her hand for Lady, and Lady took it in a firm shake.

Sam and Lady went into the room, watching over Dean. Lady trusted when Maxine said he'd wake up within in an hour, but she still stood over his body on the bed and looked him over. She felt the pulse in his neck, put her hand against his face to feel his temperature, looked at his fingernails to make sure they were the right color. He looked like he was just sleeping.

"I'll go grab his bag," Lady offered, she wanted to keep moving and stay busy to help the time pass by farther.

"It's in here already," Sam said. "Remember? You sort of kicked him out last night."

Lady had actually forgotten, so she sat down without a word and worked on eating another donut. She was out of fingernails to chew on.

Sam didn't like the silence and talked with Lady about what was left for them to do in Florida. Maxine said it might take a few days for spirit activity to go back to normal, but he thought it would be a good idea to at least take care of the spirit that had attacked Lady. It was obviously violent and homicidal, and even if it went quiet it may come back after a while. Lady agreed, even though she didn't want to stay in Key West much longer.

As Maxine promised Dean woke up soon. At first Dean was warm and comfortable, he didn't want to get up. And then bits and pieces of the morning came back to him and he sat up with a jerk. He looked around with alert eyes, and it took a few moments to realize he was back at the bed and breakfast.

"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," Sam said.

Dean let out a breath and swung his legs over the side of the bed, "What time is it?"

"About nine in the morning. You weren't out that long," Lady said.

"Everyone okay?" Dean asked, looking at Sam and Lady.

"Yeah, other than the two people who died everyone else made it okay. Well, okay as in needing therapy and shock treatment, but alive," Lady said in a small voice.

He looked at her, trying to remember. Most of the night was a blur, and the morning was a jumbled mess with big chunks missing. But it felt like something had happened. He noticed the blood on the front of Lady's shirt, and remembered a brief image of her nose bleeding. "You okay?" he asked her.

"Yeah. Better than you. I didn't get knocked out. That actually wasn't unexpected, I mean we did sort of light you up like a Christmas tree and let you be gangbanged by a thousand or more spirits so all things considered it went very well."

Dean winced, "Lady, never say that again."

"That you got gangbanged?" She asked brightly.

"Yeah," he said, closing his eyes and focusing on the brief memory of her nose bleeding. He felt like it had been his fault. He looked at her with confusion, "Did I hit you?"

Lady looked equally confused, "No." A look of concern crossed her face, "Any ill effects? Headache? Weak limbs? Hearing voices?"

"I don't remember much of what happened," he admitted. "I know you and Maxine did a spell, and after that just huge chunks are missing."

"Amnesia is probably for the best," Lady said in a low voice. "Things got a bit iffy at the end. But you pulled through."

Sam held out the box of donuts to Dean, "Hungry?"

"Starving," Dean said, helping himself to two.

"There aren't many left but Cindy said she's looking forward to making breakfast," Sam said. "I'm looking forward to getting some sleep, though."

"I suppose you want your room back," Lady said, standing up. She walked over to Sam and grabbed his face in her hands. Now that Dean was okay she appreciated the chance to look over Sam and make sure he was okay after being trapped all night. "You ever scare me like that again and I'll destroy you."

Sam smiled at her, "Thanks for being there."

Lady felt her mood improve as things returned to normal. Sam was in good shape, Dean was fine, and they had all survived. On top of it they had saved a lot of lives, it had been a good day.

Dean followed her out, "Lady, one second."

"Yeah?"

"We're not still fighting, are we?" he asked, not sure himself.

"No," Lady said.

"Good," he said. "Listen, I was a jerk to you yesterday."

"And I was a neurotic bitch, no apology needed," she said stiffly.

He let out a groan, "I'm so sorry I said that."

"It's fine," she said shortly.

"Then am I allowed to move back into our room?" he asked.

"Yes," she said.

"Not going to make me sleep alone, are you?" he asked as they walked to the room. He was already planning on turning the air conditioning on full blast to force her to huddle under the blankets with him for warmth. Sometimes the only way to get Lady to snuggle for a bit was to threaten her with hypothermia.

Lady's only answer was a quick kiss on his cheek. Before he could even think about returning the brief affection she was out of his reach, going into the room and leaving him a few steps behind.

Lady went into the bathroom, taking a few moments to look over herself. Dean gave her a nudge to share the sink, barely looking in the mirror before starting to brush his teeth while she started washing her face. After a few minutes Dean left and she could hear him kicking off his boots and getting ready to crash in the bed while she continued to clean up.

Dean put away the sofa-bed while he heard Lady start to run the sink. He pulled off his t-shirt and quickly reapplied some deodorant so he could be ready when Lady finished in the bathroom. The air conditioner thrummed loudly to life as he set it to the highest possible setting and to drown out that noise he turned on the clock-radio next to the bed and found a local radio station. The morning news was being wrapped up declaring the weather was going to be a stunning eighty-five, bright and sunny all day.

Dean was getting out of his socks and jeans when he noticed a roll of toilet paper on the nightstand. The first thought in his head was that it was a strange place to put the TP, and not very useful. But next to the nightstand was a small wastebasket that was half-full of wadded up tissues. It didn't take practice investigating to figure out why someone would use a ton of toilet paper other than for its intended purpose. Either Lady had come down with a sudden cold that she had already gotten over, or she'd been crying. He thought back to the night before, wondering if her eyes had been puffy. He thought they may have been.

He and Lady fought, it was like their own language sometimes. Normally it was just pushing each other's buttons and the fights ended in a laugh. He couldn't have actually made her _cry_, though, could he? "God, now I feel like a real shit," he muttered to himself.

Lady left the bathroom and frowned at the cold air coming from the air conditioner. She grabbed her bag and started looking for a clean t-shirt to wear to bed, and sort of wished she had thought to bring sweatpants. Before she could find anything Dean wrapped his arms around her from behind and pressed his face into her shoulder.

"You positive you aren't have any ill effects from the spell?" Lady asked as she leaned back against his warm torso.

"Mmhm," he murmured, and then he chuckled as music began playing on the radio. It took until the first verse started that Lady recognized it was 'Waiting for a Girl Like You' by Foreigner, the band was in Dean's rotation of aged tapes in the Impala.

Lady had no choice but to go with it as he began swaying back and forth but it didn't stop her from asking, "What are you doing?"

He turned her around and kept his hands on her waist, "I can't dance with my girlfriend?"

"You never have before," Lady said. "In fact I don't think you know how to."

"Sure I do," he scoffed, moving her arms so they were around his neck before holding her waist again. "You just never required much romance to get you naked."

Lady couldn't argue with that. She suddenly realized that maybe playing a little hard to get would have had a few benefits to it. "Are you sure…"

"I'm fine," Dean said, smiling smugly that he had been able to interrupt her for a change. She gave him a suspicious look but finally gave in and began slow dancing with him.

Lady didn't want to give Dean the satisfaction of telling him he wasn't half-bad at dancing. He wasn't half-good, either. She preferred something fast, but after the long and tiring night it was nice to take it slow. She didn't expect him to keep it going for the next song that came on, but he actually held onto her a bit tighter as 'Lady' by Styx came on the radio.

Lady had never been a shy person, or embarrassed easily, but the way Dean looked at her when the words began made a bit of a flush rise to her cheeks. His hazel eyes were more relaxed than she had seen them in weeks and she could see her own face reflected in them, and to escape the gaze and hide her red cheeks she tucked her head between his neck and shoulder. His hand moved over the small of her back while he softly hummed along to the song.

Dean had never danced with a woman without the intention of getting her into bed. Sometimes a few slow songs helped seal the deal. A lot of women liked to dance, he knew that Lady wasn't an exception there. He didn't hate doing it, in fact he didn't mind it all that much. Getting to hold onto a woman, move around a bit, and if the song was decent it could make for a good time. Two good songs in a row on the radio was fortunate, and the Styx song was perfect.

Unable to take it any longer Lady raised her head and tightened her hold around Dean's neck to kiss him. The song was ending and a commercial came on the radio. Dean continued the kiss while moving them slowly toward the bed. Pausing only long enough to get under the blankets.

**Songs for this chapter**:

_Waiting for a girl like you, by Foreigner_

_Lady, by Styx (Please tell me someone else thought of this song at one point in the past 93 chapters)_

**A/N** – _Phew, one more Key West chapter to go to wrap everything up._


	95. Key West Part 7, November 2007

**November 7, 2007**

Lady was comfortable, warm and content. If she kept her eyes closed she could pretend she was in a nice private motel room instead of a hellish bed and breakfast in Key West. Her legs were tangled with Dean's and she felt his steady breaths moving her hair. Dean had been an obnoxious jerk the day before, but he knew the right way to apologize.

The spell had nearly killed him, and she didn't know what she would have done if that had happened. It had been so close, and it was one of the most terrifying things she had felt. It was going to be the worst torture in the world when he finally died in May.

Dean wasn't completely awake as he shifted in bed, his face moving against Lady's and finding her mouth easily. "Mmm, good morning," he said happily.

"Afternoon," she corrected.

"Well this morning was a _good_ morning," he chuckled.

"Yeah, it was okay," Lady said with a smile.

"When you start speaking in Latin I know I'm on a roll. I wasn't sure if you were talking dirty or trying to curse me," he laughed while moving his hand down to caress her bare butt. It'd been a while, probably a few weeks, since both of them were in a genuinely good mood. But things didn't feel completely cured between them, yet. "How about we get cleaned up, go get something to eat, and then get rid of the bastard spirit that's hanging around here so we can leave?" he suggested.

"I'd really like that," Lady admitted.

They got ready and walked through the garden. Dean put his arm around her shoulders and smiled as she wrapped her arm around his waist. "What about Sam?" Lady asked as he led her past Sam's room.

"What about him?" Dean asked.

"You don't want to grab him? Tell him where we are going? Have him come with?" Lady asked.

"I'll let him sleep and fend for himself. I'll call and see if he wants us to bring something back. We haven't got to hang out, just the two of us, in a while," he said. Their first night in the Bed and Breakfast had been the first time they'd been without Sam, Bobby or the freaking cats in weeks. The small bedroom he shared with her at Bobby's house gave the illusion of privacy. But there was always Sam in the living room, or Bobby in the kitchen, or the cats running up and down the stairs.

They made it out of the garden and were about to reach the car when the door to Cindy's house opened. "Dean-o! Just where do you think you are going off to?"

Dean turned to give Cindy a smile, "Just going out to get something to eat."

"That's silly. Come on inside, I'll fry up some chicken," Cindy offered.

"Fried chicken sounds good," Dean looked at Lady.

Lady pinched the bridge of her nose. She hated that Cindy got under her skin, and that she had no idea how to get rid of the blonde that didn't include deadly violence. Just Cindy's cheery voice made Lady's muscles tense and her head begin to throb. "Lady, you need to get in here and eat something," Cindy said happily.

"Can you just give us two minutes, Cindy?" Lady asked as politely as she could.

"Not a second more," Cindy said, her voice high and song-like.

The second the door closed Lady turned on Dean, "Dean, you know I'm few cards short of a full deck. I know I'm a few cards short. So when I say I think that woman will poison me I know it sounds crazy, but it doesn't mean I don't believe it. You want to sucker her out of another free meal, go right ahead. I'll walk to McDonalds."

Dean looked at her with wide eyes, "You are serious," he realized.

"She is a hateful, vindictive, manipulative, spiteful, vengeful, despicable thing hidden inside a pretty woman," Lady said flatly. "If she hadn't been a disgusting hag to me since the minute we got here I wouldn't care if she was tap dancing around you naked. I hate her. I hate her stupid Bed and Breakfast. Her stupid haunted suite that I nearly died in. And I really hate that I don't know how to handle her with anything except a gallon of gas and a match."

Dean studied Lady's pleading face. Lady was a lot of things. A bit loony, but he liked that because she was always interesting. And he held firm on the belief that crazy women were the best in bed, and Lady didn't disappoint there. All of them had several paranoid habits, but Lady was the least paranoid of them. Dean admittedly didn't know Cindy all that well, but it was hard to dislike the woman for putting them up in nice rooms and feeding them at no charge. Not to mention Cindy's flirting was one hell of an ego-boost. But Lady didn't get worked up over nothing, and his eyes were opening to how things had been since he arrived.

"Okay. I'll tell Cindy we are going out," Dean said, opening the passenger door for her. "I'll be back in a minute."

Lady never felt such sweet relief before. She didn't have to see Cindy or have to hear her bubbly voice. She sat in the passenger seat and watched as Dean walked into Cindy's house.

Cindy was already hard at work in the kitchen. "I make my fried chicken an old fashioned way, just how my mother taught me," Cindy said as Dean walked in.

"Yeah, I'm sure it's great but we're going to pass," Dean said.

Cindy looked heartbroken at the news, but the large brown eyes didn't work on Dean. He had a lot of practice withstanding Sam. "But you have to!" Cindy said with a cute pout.

The pout didn't work either, he had practice withstanding that from Lady. If he thought about it long enough, Cindy was desirable. To be honest, he didn't have to think about it at all. Cindy was a hell of a lot of fun and it had been hard not to remember the last time he had been with her, even though it was over two years ago. But renewing a fling with Cindy wasn't worth anything. It would piss Lady off to the point where she'd most likely physically assault his genitals. But to protect his jewels wasn't why he wouldn't give into Cindy's advances.

In a few days he'd never see Cindy again. He doubted once they left Florida he'd make his way back to Key West before his number was up in May. Lady was going to stick with him to the end. He had wanted a real relationship with Lady because she drove him crazy, in the good way and occasionally bad way. He'd fallen in love with her and when she told him she felt the same it just made sense for them to be together and stop torturing themselves. He wanted monogamy from her because he didn't want to share her, and he'd rather have one woman he was crazy about than random strange women he often forgot the names for.

"Sorry, Cindy, it just isn't going to happen," Dean said. "I think you've been trying to mess things up with me and my girlfriend, and even though I appreciate all the hospitality I don't appreciate that."

Cindy looked him over and dropped a bit of the cute act, "It's not really my fault if she doesn't treat you well enough to make you want to stay with her."

"Thing about Lady is, she has a ton of issues. She has problems up the wah-zoo, I mean she is a psychiatrists worst nightmare. But I like most of her problems. And I actually feel sorry for her right now, because Lady can handle just about anything that my life usually throws at her. But I don't think she has a single clue how to deal with something like you. Anyway, like I said, thanks for the offer but we're going out. Once we take care of the spirits here we'll be out of your hair."

Dean turned his back on Cindy before she could talk any further. He took long steps to reach his car and started it up. "What are you in the mood for?" he asked Lady as he backed out onto the street. "Burgers? Pizza?"

Lady didn't want to admit that fried chicken actually sounded pretty good so she said, "I'm up for anything." The sound of her stomach hungrily growling filled the car. "Something without a long wait," she added.

Dean reached across the seat and pulled her close to him. "You know, I bet if we had taken you with us yesterday you would have figured out it was witchcraft bringing these spirits out. And we probably could have stopped Maxine before those people died."

"I would have said witchcraft, and you would have said I was seeing what I wanted to see," Lady countered.

Dean thought about it and nodded, "Yeah, that's probably true. But at least you could've rubbed my face in it afterward."

Lady smiled a bit and leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder. Key West wasn't half bad while she was getting a little attention.

After eating at a local diner they went back to the bed and breakfast. Lady had a Styrofoam container with something for Sam to eat. Lady half expected the door to Cindy's house to open and have her bouncing out to happily great Dean, but did not complain when that didn't happen.

"Sammy! It's getting late, time to wake up, pal," Dean shouted as he knocked on the door.

Sam opened the door, his eyes half-closed with sleep. He had slept in the clothes he had been wearing since yesterday. "What?" he asked.

Dean gave him a large smile as he pushed past him.

"Good morning, Sam," Lady said happily as she followed Dean in. "Good afternoon, actually. It's almost technically evening. We'll just do an all around good freaking day, how about that?" Lady smiled wide at Sam, and he couldn't help but smile back.

Sam took the food Lady offered and without a second thought sat down and opened it. A grilled chicken sandwich with mayo on the side, lettuce and tomato. Along with a side of fries and several ranch packets. As he picked up the sandwich Lady helped herself to the fries and ranch.

"I was hoping we can take care of the spirits here and get on the road," Dean said. "I think we're sort of overstaying our welcome here."

"Yeah, I agree," Sam said. "One of us should talk to Cindy again, see if we can find out more about the history of this place."

"Don't we have that ghost still hanging around? Captain Naylor?" Dean asked. "He's been here over a hundred years, he should know something."

"Now you are okay with communicating with a spirit?" Sam asked.

"They had a party inside my body this morning, yeah I think I'm okay with it," Dean said. "Besides, Lady said he was cool."

"I'll go hang out in the room and see if I can get him to chat," Lady said. Lady moved to leave and smiled as Dean reached to grab her wrist. She let him catch her and pull him towards her, giggling as he planted several quick kisses on her lips.

Sam waited until Lady closed the door behind her, "Ow, I have a toothache. That was so sweet."

Dean let his smile fade into a glare, "Shut up."

Sam laughed, "It's nice that things are back to normal. I'm glad. I'm relieved. Everything is good, right?"

Dean frowned a bit, "You know, I have this really weird feeling that I'm still missing something. Something that happened this morning."

"Well, yeah but you went through quite a bit. Like Lady said, the amnesia is probably for the best," Sam said.

"Something to do with Lady, though," Dean muttered, again remembering seeing her with a bloody nose and trembling.

Sam leaned back and tapped the table with his long fingers, "Things looked pretty bad. For a while there you didn't even recognize me, you were just…I don't know, overcome with everything."

"Really?" Dean looked confused.

"Yeah. And Maxine said that Lady was having a hard time holding onto the spirits. Then you started screaming in pain. I mean, like someone was tearing your insides out from your belly button," Sam said uncomfortably. "Then you went out cold, and that was it."

Dean shrugged, "I don't remember _any_ of that."

"Don't worry about it, Dean. Come on, let's just see what we can find," Sam said, opening his laptop.

"Yeah," Dean muttered. "Hey, let me do the search. You go talk to Cindy."

Sam smiled a bit, "I think she'd tell you more than she'd tell me."

"Remember Lady's freak out yesterday? I'm not so sure she was imagining it," Dean said as he pulled Sam's laptop toward him. "Lady doesn't make stuff up like that."

"Okay, I'll see what Cindy knows. Be careful with my computer."

Dean tapped a few keys, frowning at the slow wireless connection. Something continued to itch at the back of his head, distracting him from his searches. It took a minute for the local newspaper to load on the computer screen, and Dean began the usual searches. Murder, suicide, homicide, drowning. Everything in the past several years Key West was a rather laid back place, they didn't have all that many violent crimes but there were more than he wanted to read through.

The itch in the back of his head continued. Something about Lady…what was it? He couldn't place it. He closed his eyes, remembering the image of Lady trembling with a bloody nose, pale and looking nearly ready to collapse. The bruises on her neck standing out against her pale skin…

Dean's eyes opened and he typed in 'strangled' and searched it. Four deaths in the past twenty years came up. One was an accident, some kid experimenting with autoerotic asphyxiation. One was a suicide, a person had hung themselves. And two were murders within the past two years. Both young blonde women. Carmella Hudson and Cynthia Parkman.

"Cynthia?" Dean muttered to himself, and his mouth went dry. "Cindy," he put it together as he clicked on the article. He rubbed his mouth as he skimmed through the news article. About a year prior Cindy had been found dead, strangled and drowned on her own property. The article didn't mention if it was in her own home or one of the rooms she rented, but he was willing to bet it had been in the same tub Lady had nearly been drowned in.

The itching in the back of his head stopped and he connected a few pieces. There had been a beehive of activity and emotions and memories going through his head at the time, but one of the spirits violently remembered Lady. And it wasn't a good memory. Full of hate and despite, desire to harm. It may have influenced him to do harm to her, if just the memory of Lady becoming a dominant thought made him snap out of it. He remembered, vaguely, his moment of clarity and the terror that he was doing something to her. Maybe Dean joked about wanting to smack her, and even Lady would admit she sometimes deserved it, but he'd never hurt her. Just seeing the pile of tissues in the wastebasket, seeing evidence that she had been emotional enough to actually _cry_ after their fight, had bothered him.

Cindy had only been dead a year, it wasn't common for spirits to be strong enough to manifest themselves so quickly. It often took years for them to even be somewhat visible like Captain Naylor was. However Cindy's death had been very violent, her murder left unsolved, and with the aid of a very spiritual place like Key West along with Maxine's recent tinkering with the spirits she was completely solid. Even in daylight. And Dean had sent his brother to have a chat with their homicidal spirit hostess. Dean stood up quickly, grabbing his shotgun loaded with rock salt, and started running.

XXXXX

Lady smiled happily when Captain Naylor appeared to her. "Nice to see you, Cap'n."

"And it is good to see your eyes dry and a smile on your face, miss Lady," he said. "I was there, this morning. It was the first time I've been able to leave this place in all these years."

"Oh, sorry I don't remember you being there," Lady said.

"It was a very confusing experience," the spirit muttered. "But all is well?"

"Mostly," Lady said brightly. "Chances are after a few days, or a week, you won't be strong enough to visibly appear anymore. Along with all the other spirits."

"So I am to go back to as I was before? Just…confused and unsure as time passes?" he asked.

"Yeah, I guess so," Lady said. "Unless, I suppose we dig you up and burn your bones."

"What does that do?" Captain Naylor asked.

"It gets rid of ghosts," Lady answered. "But I have no idea where you go after that."

"I already don't truly exist, nothing could be much worse than this," he said. "Would you do that for me?"

Lady nodded, "Yeah. But, uh, mind if I ask you about the other spirit?"

"Of course," Captain Naylor said. "She was there this morning as well."

"She?" Lady asked. The spirit that had nearly killed her had been very strong, Lady had believed it to be a spirit of a man. Women typically lacked the strength to strangle people.

"Yes," Captain Naylor said. "Very vicious, that one. Didn't like you at all, I could feel it."

"Okay. Has she been around here lately?" Lady asked.

Captain Naylor looked thoughtful, "Yes. Yes, she has. Most of the time she's rather calm, subdued. But now that night has fallen I feel some of her strength returning. She's in the same place where you were harmed."

"The suite, got it," Lady said, looking forward to telling Sam and Dean where the spirit was. If they were lucky it was bound to the suite, then all they had to do was keep everyone out of it until they found out who she was.

"Yes, she's with the tall young man," Captain Naylor continued. "She's very unhappy."

"Oh," Lady said, that quickly changed her plans. "Cap'n, I got to go. Chat you up later." Lady grabbed the canister of salt Dean had left for her beside the bed, and ran into the bathroom to grab the extra one before running out the door.

XXXXX

Cindy was used to getting what she wanted, it came with being an attractive woman. What she couldn't get on her own, she could seduce people who had access to get it for her. Because of that, life was always easy. The only man to ever tell her no was her father, and he hadn't hung around very long. Cindy had made sure of that.

Married men were her favorite. Show her a man proudly wearing a wedding band and she had a perfect challenge. And she never lost that challenge. Slowly wearing down their morals and building up their lust. Promising them that their wife and kids would never know. Then they finally gave into the excitement of an affair and were hers. After having a good time the men left Key West, never to be seen again.

Dean's girlfriend, Lady, was rather sharp to Cindy's intentions. But Cindy didn't hide her intentions. Lady seemed a bit controlling, and showing her how little control she really had over Dean proved to be satisfying. Lady also appeared to enjoy the attention both the Winchesters gave her, and Cindy enjoyed taking that away as well. And she could tell that Lady had no clue how to handle the vicious attack. Poor girl never knew what hit her. But Cindy had wanted to give Lady an important lesson. You could never trust a man, only trust that they'd betray you. It was a public service, in a way.

Cindy never let anyone stick around long enough to betray her. But she had found out that some men didn't need to commit to her in order to betray her. She had taken a man home, couldn't even remember his name or what he looked like anymore. She had a wonderful night with him in the suite, and he had hurt her. Not just hurt her, she died. She remembered her air being choked off, water covering her face. No escape, only peaceful dark.

But that peace didn't last long. She was able to watch people clean up the water on the bathroom floor. Her mother sobbing as she placed a 'For Sale' sign in the front lawn. And then the drums had started to pound just a few weeks ago. Cindy felt strength again, found that she had the strength to tear down that 'For Sale' sign. To dust and clean the bed and breakfast that she loved. And then that call from Dean that allowed her to book guests for the first time in a year.

Dean Winchester had been a rare find in Key West. He wasn't rich, far from it, but he was attractive and charming. He hadn't said no to her the first time, in fact he had chased her right back. And then he had left, and that was it. When she had heard he was on his way into town again she had only wanted another quick fling. And that he was now a taken man made it all the more interesting. She had a goal, a desire, and even more strength. Her goal wasn't just to get Dean into bed, to wear him down. It was to teach the woman he was with all the pain and suffering that she had been through.

There was one place that she felt stronger than anywhere else. The place where she died. She hated it, but enjoyed the strength. And she'd need that strength to finally take care of Lady.

"Cindy, there you are," Sam said, stepping through the broken door Cindy had left open and stepping into the bathroom she was examining. "I was hoping I could talk to you."

"Of course, Sam," Cindy put on her best smile. "I was just making sure everything dried up. With this humidity sometimes the smallest spills take days, and I don't want mold!"

"I know we asked you already about deaths here, but I was just curious about the general history," Sam said.

Cindy smiled as she walked around the large bathtub. "It's a beautiful place, isn't it? You know, I was married once. I took the rich bastard for half of everything he had and moved to Key West to enjoy sun and sand and parties. I found this place ten years ago, I was only twenty. I fell in love with it. I loved meeting new people, talking to them over breakfast. Taking care of the garden is one of my favorite hobbies, and I can do it year round here. I didn't ask a single question about its history when I bought it. I just knew it had to be mine, and I fought tooth and nail against this sweet elderly couple who wanted to buy it. I won, the old guy had a heart attack."

"It's really a beautiful place," he said. "That's why we want to make sure you are safe here. That everyone is."

"Have Dean and Lady returned?" Cindy asked.

"Yeah, they're back," Sam said, a bit confused at the change of subject. "But they're busy."

Cindy gave him a small smile, "I'm afraid Lady doesn't like me much."

Sam looked uncomfortable, "Lady just takes a while to warm up to people…some times," Sam searched for an excuse for Lady.

Cindy laughed, "She's just a jealous little girl. Upset that I'm taking away some of her time with her boys."

"Maybe, but Lady knows we'll always be there for her," Sam said. "She's one of the few good things to happen in Dean's life, and to top it all off she's a real good friend. She saved our lives this morning."

"Yeah, I know, I was there," Cindy muttered.

Sam frowned, "You…were? Why would you have been there?"

"Just watching," Cindy said in a low voice.

Sam got a sudden creepy vibe, that was quickly followed with a cold breath on his neck. He took a few steps toward the bathroom door, and before he reached the doorway the faucet in the bathtub began to run.

"You know, I can hear everything that goes on here," Cindy said. "Lady's coming, Sam. I'd like some time alone with her, if you don't mind."

"May not be the best idea," Sam said, trying to walk past an icy presence at the doorway, but unable to get through. "Cindy…it's you, isn't it?"

Cindy looked at him sadly, "Yeah, it is me."

"But how?" Sam asked, completely stunned as he realized Cindy was the vengeful spirit that had attacked Lady.

"I just am," she answered.

Lady ran through the front door, "Hey, you guys we need to get out of here."

"Lady, get out," Sam said urgently, unable to pass through the icy barrier in the doorway.

"Whoa!" Lady said as she was pulled toward the bathroom. "Catch!" Lady tossed Sam the canister of salt before it could slip from her arms as she tried to keep her balance.

Sam got the canister of regular kitchen salt open and the salt arced through the air to hit Cindy. There was a hiss as Cindy dissipated and weakened. Sam dropped the canister of salt so he could grab Lady pull her out of the suite. "Cindy is a spirit?" Lady gasped.

"Yeah," Sam said.

"Hey! Sam!" Dean shouted, running through the garden to find his brother and Lady. "Cindy's the spirit," he breathed.

"Yeah, we know," Lady and Sam said together.

Dean frowned at them, then snarled, "Come on, we need to take care of this."

The dim garden lights flickered out, leaving them in darkness as they made their way to the front of the bed and breakfast. Lady grabbed Sam's hand to keep him from walking into low hanging branches of a peach tree.

"I think we used most of the salt," Sam said as they neared the Impala.

"We picked up a few canisters earlier," Dean said as he got in the car. "Couldn't find any rock salt."

"I doubt Florida has much demand for rock salt," Sam muttered.

"Hey!" Lady shrieked as she was unable to get the backdoor of the car open. "Dean!" She shrieked again as her feet were pulled under her and she was dragged across the parking lot toward Cindy's house.

"Dean, where are you going?" Cindy called from the front of the house, having recovered from being hit with salt. "You still haven't tried a piece of my pie."

"Let her go," Dean called as Lady was dragged to lie at Cindy's feet.

"I think Lady and I need some girl time, Dean," Cindy said. "Maybe work out some of those problems she has."

Lady was pulled inside the house and the door slammed shut.

"Sam, she's buried at Green Acres. Go up Duval, turn onto South Avenue," Dean said.

"Got it," Sam said.

As Sam pulled out of the parking lot Dean kicked in the door to Cindy's house. All the lights were out and when he tried to turn them on there was no electricity.

"Lady?" He called. "Cindy?"

"You want to hurt me, Dean?" Cindy said in a sad voice.

Dean aimed the shotgun as she appeared at the doorway to the kitchen, "Where is Lady?"

"She's fine," Cindy said.

"I don't believe you," Dean said. "Cindy, I'm sorry. I never heard that you died. I'm sorry how it happened, but you can't do the same thing to Lady."

"She has to learn an important lesson," Cindy said seriously.

"You're not mad at Lady, you are mad at me," Dean said.

Cindy smiled, "That's a laugh, Dean-o! I could never be mad at you. You are just a dumb man who is trying to be a good boyfriend. But those good intentions aren't what Lady needs."

"And just what is it that she needs?"

"She needs to see the truth, Dean. Sure, maybe you hold her hand, keep her warm at night…but in the end you are just going to hurt her. You are going to leave her so sad and broken up that she'll never trust someone again. I wanted to do her a favor, show her that early. Now, instead of farther down the line." Cindy smiled slightly, "I know you, Dean. I know your type. Maybe it wasn't me, but one day you'll find a woman just too tantalizing to brush off. You'll rock her world, and maybe you'll even feel jealous afterward. And Lady, she's a smart woman. She had me figured out before she stepped foot into this house, she'll see right through your lies."

"Let me help you, Cindy," Dean said. "Tell me who killed you, we'll get you justice."

"I don't want justice, Dean," Cindy said flatly. "I want to feel someone else to experience my pain. Of being betrayed, and hurt. I don't want to be the only one trapped here. I want _her_."

"Yeah, well, she's taken," Dean said, firing the rock salt at Cindy. Once the spirit was dispersed, temporarily, he ran out the backdoor and to the only place that made sense for Lady to be. The Suite.

He could hear water running in the bathroom and felt the icy chill. "Dean, in here!" Lady called.

Dean ran into the bathroom and saw Lady had encircled herself in a ring of salt. Her face was red and there were a few scrapes on her legs that had stopped bleeding already. "You okay?" He asked.

"Well, I am until the bathroom floods and the salt gets washed away," she said lightly. "I told you the bitch was evil!"

"Can you wait for the 'I told you so' for after we survive?" Dean asked shortly.

"I'm saving the blonde jokes for after we survive. Right now I'm taking the chance to say I told you so," Lady said quickly. "And it feels _so_ good to realize I wasn't the crazy one for once."

Dean let Lady have her moment while he looked around the small bathroom. No windows, and Cindy seemed to have pretty good control over the whole property. He wasn't sure if any of the power lasted outside the property, but even if it didn't they had to escape it first. They didn't have much time before the bathtub was full and water began overflowing, and once that happened Lady had little chance of escaping. "Okay, we run for it," he said, handing her the shotgun.

"That's all you have? Run for it?" Lady asked with wide eyes.

"Babe, if you have a better idea I'm all ears," he said. "We have about three minutes for you to think of something."

"I'm not saying I have a better idea, I just expected more from you, that's all," Lady said lightly as she checked the shotgun. With her future-sight she was a better aim than Dean.

Dean was only armed with a canister of salt, he'd had worse odds before. The moment they stepped outside of the salt circle Lady hit Cindy with a blast of rock salt, temporarily weakening the powerful spirit as they hightailed it out of the suite and into the garden. Cindy reappeared three more times before they made it out to the street, and they got a block away before the were certain they had left the spirit behind, bound to the place where she died.

They slowed to a walk as they went to join Sam at the cemetery. "So, wanna hear a blonde joke?" Lady asked once she had caught her breath.

XXXXX

It took the three of them working together until past midnight to dig up Cindy's remains. Lady was rather satisfied that she did get to handle Cindy with some lighter fluid and a match. Once they were done they returned to the Bed and Breakfast, and the only spirit that remained was Captain Naylor.

"My Lady, you look like you've had a rough evening," the gentle spirit said with concern. "I wish I could have been of assistance, but I cannot leave my home."

"Don't worry, I got my boys," Lady said, giving Sam and Dean a smile.

"The other spirit vanished in a howl of pain and suffering not long ago," Captain Naylor told them. "I can't sense her at all any longer. What happened?"

Lady stepped up to the ghost, "Remember when I talked about burning the bones? Doing that severs a spirits ties to this world."

Captain Naylor looked down, "And that is what you are going to do to me?"

"It's up to you, Cap'n," Lady said. "Cindy was messed up from the beginning. She wanted vengeance and destruction. And it took her less than a year to gain the strength to dish it out. You've been around more than a hundred years and all you've done is float around watching people."

Captain Naylor considered his fate for several long moments before deciding. "Please, set me free, like I asked you to before."

Lady nodded, "We can do that."

Under normal circumstances if Lady had to dig something up she'd bat her eyelashes and get one of the strong men she was with to do it for her. However she sort of liked digging up Cindy's garden to get to Captain Naylor's bones underneath. Once she got a good start Dean took over to give her a break, and then Sam contributed the last bit. The coffin hadn't been buried nearly as deep as Cindy's had, only a few feet of dirt rested on top of it.

Captain Naylor watched from the doorway of what used to be his home, the farthest he could go, so he could watch. He couldn't see his own remains, but watched as Sam tossed salt into the hole that had been dug. Dean squeezed lighter fluid over the remains and then they brothers took a step back while Lady went to say goodbye to her spirit-pal.

"I wish we could stick around for the Munster marathon," she said. "But probably for the best, the later seasons were a bit lame."

"Lame? What made them lame?" Captain Naylor asked in confusion.

"Never mind," Lady said quickly. "In any case, it was real cool to meet you, Cap'n."

Captain Naylor smiled, "Wherever I go next, be sure I won't forget you, or the kindness you are doing for me now."

Lady went back to the hole and lit a book of matches to drop in. She watched the doorway. For several moments Captain Naylor just watched the flames from the distance, and then he just vanished. No scream of pain or howl of frustration, just there one moment and gone the next.

"You're going to let the whole place burn to the ground?" Sam asked as Lady was already taking steps away from the flames.

"I'm completely okay with that," Lady said. She let out a huff, "Fine, if you are going to go all Smokey the Bear on me I'll make sure it doesn't get out of control."

Sam smiled and put an arm around Lady's shoulder, hugging her to him briefly. They watched the old bones blacken and crack, eventually crumbling into ash and tiny fragments. And then they extinguished the flames by covering the hole with dirt.

"Now can we get the hell out of here?" Lady asked impatiently.

"Hell yeah," Dean said. "Where to?"

"Orlando? Check on the Masons?" Sam asked.

"I'd rather not," Lady said. Maybe things had been mended so Lady didn't have to worry about a bullet to the brain if she accidentally bumped into Maxine in the future, but things were far from fixed.

"Let's just get somewhere the mosquitoes aren't the size of birds, then we'll figure it out," Dean said, putting an arm around Lady's waist and stealing a quick kiss.

"I'll make a last sweep to make sure we got everything," Sam said, giving Dean and Lady just a few minutes alone as they went to the Impala.

"Everything is good again, right?" Dean asked, leaning against the car while they waited for Sam.

"All in all, I think the trip here was a good one," Lady agreed.

"I meant between us," Dean said.

Lady looked away, "Dean, we fight. Not a big deal."

"Not like that," he said. He remembered Cindy taunting him, and it bothered him. "Listen, I'm an ass sometimes. I know it. Sam reminds me all the time. I can't promise it won't happen again." Lady looked at him with tired eyes, waiting for him to get to the point. "Here's the deal. From now until the end. I'm sure I'll say something to piss you off before we get out of the state, and you'll probably return the favor. That's just us. But at the end of the day I just want you to know, even if I end up bunking with Sam to get the hell away from you, I love you. I'm not going to do anything to betray you, and I'll do my best to try not to hurt you."

Lady looked at him seriously, "You are _positive_ you aren't having any side affects from the spell?"

Dean thought about it for a few moments and nodded, "Positive."

"Add in there that when I say someone is evil that you'll just turn away and let me shoot them."

Dean grimaced a bit, "Let me check them first to see if they are human, and we have a deal."

Lady thought about it and nodded in acceptance. "I love you, too, Dean."

**A/N** -_ The Key West chapters were based off of the Supernatural tie-in novel 'Bone Key' which is, I think, the 3rd book. I took huge liberties to it so if you haven't read the book yet I really haven't spoiled anything. Captain Naylor, the Last Calusa and the location were from the book. I was originally going to do two different episodes, one about Cindy and another about the Last Calusa, but I liked how this all fit together. Even though it was long as hell. Not sure if I'll update this weekend yet, I think it is more likely that new chapters will come up next week. I would like to share with you guys the huge achievement (in my mind) of the story. _

_As of 6/7/11 the story has 245 reviews. Over 25K hits. Over half a million words. It is on 60 peoples favorite lists. I sort of stalk my traffic stats, and this story has surpassed all of my previous published stories (except my Twilight one still has more hits, but it has been on the site for a few years). I can't say thank you to everyone enough. I write even when no one reads, and even if there was only one person viewing the story I'd still be posting. But it's just a thrill to see people sticking with the story that is the size of several novels. So again, thank you! I look forward to when I can post a new chapter._


	96. North Dakota Part 1, November 2007

**November 23, 2007**

"We could've gone to South Dakota, had Thanksgiving with Bobby. But no, vampires," Dean uttered.

Sam glared at Dean as they looked around the nest. It was midday, which meant the vampire nest they had tracked down was supposed to be sleeping. But vampires were known to wake up, and he didn't want that to happen. So far they had managed to behead three vampires without causing any others to wake up, and they knew there were at least two left. _'Shut up,'_ Sam mouthed as he adjusted his grip on his machete.

'_Sorry,'_ Dean mouthed back.

The building was an abandoned house. The roof had caved in making the upstairs difficult to access, the first floor had a few rotting holes that led straight into the basement. Sam was easing his way to look into what smelled like a bathroom, but it had been completely gutted he wasn't sure if that was the case. He let out a surprised grunt as a large vampire lunged at him, tackling him and causing him to lose his machete.

His shoulders touched the floor for only a second before a gunshot rang out and the vampire fell heavily on him, limp and dead. Before Sam could get the vampire off of him two more shots rang out.

"You okay, Sam?" Lady asked as he got to his feet.

"Yeah, nice shot," Sam breathed as Lady reloaded three bullets from the Colt.

"We look clear," Dean said, smiling proudly at Lady. "Nice work, babe."

Once outside Sam took a breath of fresh air, feeling the fatigue settle in after the adrenaline wore off. Lady and Dean paused outside of the car. "You're bleeding," Dean said.

"Just from broken glass," Lady said. "It's barely a scratch."

Dean took her arm and pulled back the sleeve to examine it. Even from where Sam stood he could see it wasn't a serious wound. But Dean looked at it closely and looked for evidence of other wounds. When he was satisfied he smiled again, "It's so hot how you handle the Colt."

Lady returned his grin and met him for a series of quick short kisses until Dean had his arms around her waist. Holding them together and having their post-near-death make-out.

Sam got in the car, tempted to leave them there. For the most part Sam was happy for Lady and Dean. Since Florida, where he had seen them get so pissed off at each other it threatened to break them up, they'd been doing well. They still fought, but it was the normal type of bickering that ended with a roll of the eyes or some time off from one another.

They got back to the motel and Sam wasn't even out of the car before Dean and Lady escaped into their room. He tiredly went to his separate room and took care of the gouge he had gotten on his leg while going through the vampire nest. Before he finished bandaging the wound he could hear, through the too-thin walls of the motel, Dean and Lady using up the last of the adrenaline from the hunt.

Sam turned on the television and turned up the volume until he couldn't hear anything but the news channel. Sometimes he felt like the third wheel, the odd man out. It was a lonely feeling. A few times he had humored the possibility of finding someone for himself. But that just made his thoughts go to Jessica or Madison. Over the past few years there had been a few women he had met and he was interested in, but with how they traveled it just didn't work. And he wasn't like Dean, or how Dean used to be, he couldn't go from town to town leaving a string of broken hearts behind him. And Sam wasn't lucky like Dean was, Dean had found Lady. The strange little psychic was his kindred spirit, his match, and Sam was certain Dean would be with Lady until he died. Which was in May.

As Sam turned up the volume a few more notches he reminded himself he was happy that his brother had Lady. He just wished Dean would stop showing off how freaking lucky he was to have found a steady partner.

**November 24, 2007**

Lady was, for the most part, happy with how things were going. Since Florida they had kept busy. Some redneck demons in Alabama and then the vampire nest in Wyoming. Because of a low cash supply Lady was still without her own vehicle, but she was learning to live like the Winchesters. She loved the brothers, and would rather be out with them than on her own. That was what she had decided and she wasn't backing down from that decision. But at the same time she missed what she used to have. Her own car, a dog in the backseat, a trunk full of everything she needed in the world, and control. Instead she was the bitch in the backseat, though she was trying to behave as much as possible. The trunk was full of Dean and Sam's things, and she had to ask permission to go to the bathroom.

In the morning she gently nudged Dean awake, "Babe, going for a run do you want to come with?"

Dean mumbled something that sounded like, "That's a stupid question."

Lady had tried, a few times, to encourage Dean in a little exercise. Hunting was a dangerous occupation and required physical fitness. They were dealing with monsters stronger and faster than themselves. Dean was rather fit, but he didn't deny that he had given up maintaining that since it didn't matter if he had a few extra pounds by the time he got to hell.

"I didn't want to say anything, but you are getting chubby," Lady teased.

Dean chuckled and said, "I'll show you chubby," and wrapped her in his arms. His hands moved over her body, patting her down, "You're already dressed?"

"Yes. I'll be back in an hour, unless you want to come with."

"Screw that, I'll sleep," Dean said, releasing her and hugging the pillow to his head. He got enough exercise running for his life, working on his car and having sex. He didn't need to push it.

If Lady had to choose an activity to stay in shape it wouldn't be running, she wasn't sure what it would be. In the past playing with Freddie had kept her agile and fast, but she had noticed the past few months that short sprints were winding her. Sam often ran to stay in shape, or hide his sexual frustration, and so she was joining him.

"Dean's lazy," Lady said as Sam stretched his muscles. Lady frowned, the cold temperature outside already had her muscles tense and she wanted to crawl back into bed with Dean.

"We can take a slow jog about a mile, then there is a park with a two mile path," Sam said, tightening the laces of his shoes. "You sure you are up for this?"

Lady nodded. "It's been a while since I've had a date with you, Sam. Let's do this. Before I freeze and lose my willpower."

Sam found a comfortable stride that Lady could keep up with. But before one mile she was huffing and puffing, unable to talk. Which was probably for the best. They ran the path in the park, afterwards Lady gave up and walked.

"This is torture," she huffed.

"It wouldn't be if you laid off the greasy food," Sam laughed.

"I know, but it's so yummy," she moaned. "Why aren't you gasping for breath?"

"Because I'm not out of shape," Sam said simply.

"Yeah, but I keep tabs on you. You run like once a week," Lady said.

"Not many places we stay at are running-friendly," Sam said. "I still work out every day. Sit-ups, push-ups, whatever I can do in the motel."

Lady looked at him with disbelief, "What is wrong with you?" She shook her head and before he answered she pulled out her phone. She frowned as it rang, "It's Maxine."

Sam looked at her with surprise, "What's she want?"

Lady shrugged, and answered the phone. A few times since Florida she'd received a few calls from Erin and Derek, they just relayed information that their family was happy she was alive and well. And they of course asked when she'd come see them. "Hey, Maxine, what's up?"

XXXXX

Dean had been unable to go back to sleep, but he tried his damndest to do so. Finally he decided to get out of bed and went to the bathroom. He was about to turn on the shower when Lady returned. "Hey, you need to get in here," he said happily.

"I'm leaving," Lady said.

Dean stepped out of the bathroom and thought about what had happened recently. Once he assured himself that it hadn't been him to piss her off he asked, "Why?"

"It…uh…Maxine called," she said stiffly. "She needs help, I'm leaving."

It had been a few weeks since Florida. Lady had heard from the Mason's a few times, talking on the phone, but she hadn't seen them since then. And it was the first time that Maxine had called to speak with her.

"We'll come with," Dean said, not hiding that fact he wasn't happy about it. But he wasn't letting Lady go back to North Dakota alone, last time she was there she had been shot at. "What are we dealing with?"

Lady stumbled a bit as she was stuffing things into her bag. "Dean, you don't have to come."

Dean narrowed his eyes on her, "What are we dealing with?" he repeated.

"I don't know," Lady admitted. "But it's something with glowing yellow eyes."

Dean's jaw involuntarily clamped down. He knew Azazel, the Yellow-Eyed Demon, was dead. But it had taken them over twenty years to do it, nearly his whole lifetime. And the demon had taken his whole family down with it. It started with his mother being murdered, his father sold his soul to it to save him, his brother had died in its game, and Dean had sold his soul to save his brother. It was an understatement to say he had something against yellow eyes.

Sam knocked on the door twice and entered, "Lady, I'm packed. Let's go."

Lady looked between the two brothers. Sam was in sweats from their run and Dean was pulling jeans on over his boxers. "I think I should go alone."

"Like hell you should," Dean said forcefully.

"You are a little antagonistic towards them," Lady said.

"Maxine shot at you. She nearly caused a massive genocide of Caucasians in Florida. I'm wondering if we shouldn't…"

"Dean, I don't want to fight," Lady said sharply. "You can lay down a hundred reasons why Maxine is no better than any other witch but…" She just shook her head and went back to packing her bag.

"But what?" Dean asked.

"You don't understand. I don't know how to explain. And I'm sorry," Lady said.

Dean thought about his words a few moments before saying calmly, "I get that they took care of you, and most of the time did right by you. I get why you want to help. But it doesn't change what she did, and that I don't trust that you are safe there. Or anywhere, for that matter. We're in this together, and we're coming with." Dean pulled his t-shirt on and grabbed his jacket. He looked at Sam, "Help her pack up, I'm going to gas up the car."

Lady shivered at the cold gust of wind that came through the door as Dean left. She wasn't looking forward to the long drive to North Dakota, or what she knew would be an awkward reunion with the Mason Family. Or to finding out what was lurking in Maxine's territory.

"We'll take care of it, whatever it is," Sam said, pulling her into a brief hug.

"I know, I just…I can't handle Dean fighting with the Masons," Lady said.

"I'll help you keep him reigned in," Sam promised.

"Thanks," she said gratefully, giving him a brief squeeze before going back to packing her things.

They were on the road to North Dakota shortly after Dean returned from fueling up the Impala. The first few hours of the drive almost felt productive. Sam and Dean talked about the possibilities like it was just any other job. But after a while it came down to the location and the people the mysterious thing was affecting.

"What if this is just some con to get Lady out there?" Dean muttered.

"Maxine helped us in Florida," Sam reminded him.

"Yeah, because she was the one who screwed up," Dean snapped. "Let's not forget this is the woman who shot at Lady the last time we needed her help."

"Maxine is trying to make up for what she did," Sam said carefully.

"I could care less," Dean uttered.

Sam looked at Lady, it was her opinion that mattered. But if she had an opinion she didn't voice it. Sam was all for making amends. Dean not so much. He took betrayal harder than Sam.

Dean had never liked the old medicine woman Max, but he had liked Mason and his family. They were accepting, relaxed and fun. It was the closest he had been able to experience something normal. And if he was honest, he was a bit jealous of Mason's large and loving family. Maxine had successfully ruined the picture perfect image he had of the family when she had banished Lady and even shot at her a few times.

"A lot of what Max had set up to protect the reservation vanished when her spirit was destroyed," Lady said numbly. "If things start moving in Maxine doesn't have everything she needs to protect herself. Thing is, Max left her unprepared for a lot of things."

"What if Max intentionally did that?" Dean asked.

Lady frowned at the back of his head, "She intentionally did a lot of crap, but she's not around to ask."

Sam gave Dean a quick look that said, 'Just shut up and let it go,' and Dean scowled a bit as he followed the silent advice. Having to go back to North Dakota had Lady in a sour mood, but over it all she was concerned about the safety of the Mason's. If Maxine was asking for help then something was going on, and they had to put whatever grudges there were behind them.

**November 26, 2007**

The Mason's gathered at Charlie's house. It was in town, which made Maxine think it was safe. However it wasn't quite large enough for the gathering. All of her uncles and most of her cousins, all of her brothers were there, and Erin. She had tried to get her sister Carrie to stay, but she went back to college with a snippy 'You're not my boss.' A total of thirty people all crammed into Charlie's large mechanic shop behind his house, and she was responsible for all of their safety.

"Please, everyone, can you just…" Maxine pleaded.

"We want to go home, Maxine. No one has been hurt, you don't even know if this is something we need to worry about," her cousin Albert said.

"Maxine is in charge and we need to listen to her advice," Mason said in defense of his daughter.

Maxine appreciated her father's support, however it wasn't enough. Her great-grandmother Max had commanded respect because of her ancient age and unlimited knowledge. Maxine had neither of those. She was standing among people who had known her since she was in diapers, and they didn't see her as an advisor or medicine woman or anything other than Maxine. She hung her head, she wasn't ready for this.

And the large room that had been buzzing with loud chatter for several hours went absolutely silent when three white faces came in from the back door. Lady was barely visible below the tall group. Her face was tight and uncomfortable as all eyes fell on her and her two partners.

One voice spoke up, "Out of my way. Move your ass, Thomas. I said _move_," Greta snapped, leading her husband through the crowd. Once she pushed her way past them she wasted no time in pulling Lady into a tight embrace. "Welcome back, Lady," Greta said.

Lady grunted from the force of the hug, she was barely able to breathe. Greta held onto the hug a long time before pulling back, giving Lady a tearful smile, before turning to Dean. "Dean, it's so good to see you again," Greta said, making his eyes go wide as she pulled him into an equally tight hug.

"Uh…thanks, Greta," he said, patting her back and grimacing as she squeezed his ribs.

"And Sam, you look good," Greta said, hugging Sam and surprising him as well.

Lady looked up at Mason. She gave him a small shrug, "The town looks like it's going to hell."

Mason smiled and pulled her into a gentle hug, she nearly disappeared into his arms because of his massive size, "We've missed you, little one."

Erin stood beside her mother, patting her shoulder gently and trying to keep her reigned in. "Lady, it looks like Maxine could use some help."

"What's going on?" Lady asked quietly, glancing at Maxine near the front of the room.

"She's evacuated the area around the lake until we know what we're dealing with," Erin explained. "No one is very happy about it, a lot of us live out there."

"They have to listen to her, she's the leader," Lady said flatly. She was only there to help identify the threat and deal with it, not play family politics.

Erin made a face, "She's trying to be."

Lady had Mason lead her through the group and he kept her from being stopped by old faces that wanted to see her more clearly, or give her a hug or ask her how the hell she was alive. At the front of the group Lady stood beside Maxine and crossed her arms uncomfortably as she felt like she was being put on display.

Maxine gave her a grateful look and began speaking, "Everyone, I know this is inconvenient but it is for all of our safety. I know I don't have the experience Max did, that is why I have called for help. And they have arrived."

"After you led us to believe she was dead," someone snapped.

Angry comments and judgment on Maxine's leadership were being thrown out loudly. Maxine grimaced as hateful comments were thrown at her and they couldn't be quieted by her father's gentle words.

Lady grabbed Maxine's arm, "You need to take back control."

Maxine shook her head, "How? None of them trust me, not anymore. I screwed up, Lady. They don't even respect me."

"That is your fault," Lady agreed. "Assert dominance. Remind them who is in charge."

Maxine looked at her family and tried to be heard over them. Lady watched for several painful moments before she put two fingers in her mouth and let out a shrill whistle that quickly quieted the room. Maxine hung her head in defeat.

"Okay, listen up," Lady said loudly. "If any of you want to go out into the country I sure as hell can't stop you. But I don't know why you want to be out there when you could have something dangerous and hungry lurking around. Until we know it is safe I think you should all suck it up, stop bitching, and pay attention to what Maxine is saying."

"Why should we trust her? She lied to us. About you. About what she has been doing. About everything," someone said.

"Trust her because she knows more than you, Fletcher," Lady snapped back. "While all of you got to sit back and enjoy the safe haven you have here Maxine was being trained to be your new medicine woman, your leader. Who here actually spent more than ten minutes with the old bitch who used to be the medicine woman?" Lady looked around, knowing only herself, Mason and Maxine could be counted. "So shut the fuck up."

There were low murmurs as Lady stepped back and looked at Maxine. Maxine swallowed hard and spoke again, "I made an oath to my family, to all of you, to do what I can to keep you all safe. This is me doing that. I know I have done some questionable things, and I don't deserve forgiveness. I can't even forgive myself. But it is still my job to protect our territory, and that is what I am doing. As soon as it is safe I promise I will have you all returned to your homes, but not a moment sooner."

Lady watched as people began to leave. "This is why Max only spoke through Mason. She stayed out of the spotlight, and people treated her like a god. You show them your face and they know you are only human."

"I can't hide behind my father forever," Maxine said softly.

"Then you need to pick a delegate," Lady said. Her eyes widened as Maxine stared at her, and Lady let out a nervous laugh, "No, no way in hell. I'm here to help, but I'm not sticking around to keep your ass out of the fire."

Maxine looked down quickly, "I'm so sorry, just…you were always good at this. They all respect you, they always have."

Erin walked up to them, Sam and Dean following her. She looked between Lady and Maxine, "So how should we handle this? Spread out and search?"

"We," Dean motioned towards Maxine and Erin, "Don't do anything together. You all just hang out in town and we'll take care of it."

Erin shook her head, "This is our home, we can help you."

"You are a kid," Dean said flatly.

Erin bit back the glare she wanted to give him. "Dean, we appreciate that you came all this way to help us. I know you hate us…but you'll need our help. Do you even have an idea of how big our territory is?"

"You got a few houses and a big freaking lake, I think we can handle it," Dean said, turning away from her to look at Sam.

"One million acres, Dean," Erin said.

Dean slowly turned back to her, he didn't voice it but he quickly thought, '_Holy shit_.'

Satisfied she had his attention she motioned for them to follow her out of the mechanic shop that had been used as a gathering spot and into Charlie's house. Derek was sitting at a large computer screen, but he stood up when the group walked in. "Ladybug! I'm glad to see you came to our rescue," he said, grabbing her in a hug.

"Before you guys got here Derek and I were setting up grids to search the country with," Erin said. "No one near town has seen anything, it's all been in the country near the lake. But there is a lot of open country that this thing might be taking advantage of."

"What precautions you have people setting up?" Sam asked.

"We all have old charms to ward off evil," Maxine said. "I've blessed homes, prayed for their protection…"

Dean snorted a laugh, and Lady gave him a tired look.

"Sam, you might appreciate this," Erin said, nodding toward the computer. Sam stood beside her and looked at the computer screen. "This is a satellite map of the area. All the sightings were between after twilight, people said they saw two glowing yellow orbs and a massive black body. Some said a bear, another said a wolf. But it was distant, it hasn't gotten very close to anyone. These are where it was seen."

Sam did appreciate the visual aid. Especially when they were dealing with a few hundred square miles. A large chunk of the map was taken up by the lake, but that still meant they had a lot of ground to cover looking for clues. His visits to North Dakota had been brief, and he had only seen the way to Mason's house or Lady's trailer. "If I remember correctly there are a lot of hills and cliffs all around this," he said, pointing.

"Yeah, that's right," Erin said.

Sam let out a breath, no way the Impala was going to make the search faster. It wasn't an off road type of vehicle. "This is going to be some painful hiking."

Derek laughed, "Don't worry about that, Sam. We got that part covered."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"Don't be a shit, Derek," Erin said, smacking the back of his head. "We have off road vehicles. Dirt bikes and ATVs, we'll show you guys how to ride them. My dad has a few at his place, but we'll have to call my brothers to get the rest. Can probably get them loaded up and be ready to go in the morning."

Sam looked back at the map and nodded in approval, "That's actually a good plan. We can cover ground pretty fast, see if we can find signs of this thing." Sam frowned a bit, with him and Dean that was still a lot of ground to cover. "But you two are planning to tag along, aren't you?"

"Face it, you don't know the area that well," Erin said. "We figure we can partner off, be your tour guides."

"More like Indian Trackers," Derek chuckled.

Sam knew Dean wasn't going to like it, but it was good idea. Erin and Derek knew how to use guns, they weren't completely defenseless. They'd gotten help from less reliable people.

"Until then I suppose you guys would like a place to get some sleep," Erin said and looked over Sam's shoulder, which not many people were able to do, and caught Lady's attention. "The Casino has a concert, there aren't any available rooms. I can set you guys up at my house."

"Your house?" Lady questioned. "Since when did you get a house?"

"Since I moved out of my parents place so I didn't have to drive an hour every day to get to work," Erin said. "I'll help get you guys settled in and I'll stay at Charlie's here."

"There has to be another motel here," Dean said. He'd been to New Town a few times but he hadn't explored it that much before.

Erin shook her head, "The other one is only open during the summer months."

"God this town sucks," Dean hissed.

"Thanks, Erin," Lady said, accepting the invitation.

Erin's house was a rather empty two-bedroom one-story house. It was clean and warm, but she obviously hadn't been in there long enough to make it a home. She grabbed an air mattress out of a closet and set it up to inflate on the floor of the empty spare bedroom for Lady and Dean while she changed the sheets on her bed.

Sam was prepared to crash on the couch, he was sort of getting used to it. But Erin said, "You can take my room."

"Uh, no, that's okay," Sam said.

Erin cracked a smile, "If you were smaller than me, I'd say take the couch. But you might actually break it, so take my bed."

Sam looked at the delicate and uncomfortable looking couch, he was actually afraid to sit on it. "No, that's not right…"

Erin grabbed his bag and pulled it along with him into her bedroom. "It's clean. No dirty underwear on the floor."

Sam nodded, "Okay, thanks, Erin."

Erin went into the spare bedroom to shut off the air pump that was inflating the air mattress. She put a sheet on it and set out a few pillows and blankets. She could hear Lady and Dean going back and forth in the kitchen, but their voices were too quiet to understand the words.

"You'd rather sleep in your car?" Lady asked Dean. "Are you still mad she got a few hits on you?"

Dean frowned, yes he was a bit bitter that Erin had managed to knock him to his knees in five seconds flat. But he shook his head, "I don't like being here. Period. Doesn't feel safe."

"It isn't safe, and these people aren't safe," Lady agreed. "You don't have to stay."

"You want me to leave?" Dean asked. He was a bit tired of beating the dead horse on the whole topic of everything to do with North Dakota, and he knew Lady was tired of hearing it. But he wasn't sure that he was getting the fact that he was worried about returning here was going to do. To her, the Mason's, everything.

Lady wrapped her arms around his neck and stared into his eyes, "I want you here. I don't want you to leave because I like seeing you every day. But if you want to leave, I get it. But I can't walk away from these people."

Dean nodded. That was his Lady. Quick to help, even when it was for the family that abandoned her. "I'm not leaving," he said. "Doesn't mean I'm going to pretend I like it here."

"Hey, the air mattress is ready," Erin said. "Help yourselves to the fridge, bathroom, washer. Whatever you need while you are here. Just give me a call when you are ready to go out in the morning. And I'm just down the street if you guys need anything."

"Thanks, Erin," Lady said, unwrapping her arms from Dean's neck and leading him into the spare bedroom.

Dean frowned at the mattress on the floor, but he'd slept in worse places. "This is too soft," Dean complained, pressing a button on the air pump to firm the air mattress again.

"That's too hard," Lady complained and let some of the air out.

"I'm sinking to the floor, just stop playing with it," Dean said, turning on the air pump again.

"You are the one playing with it," Lady countered.

"Because you keep screwing it up," Dean snapped.

"Guys, the walls are pretty thin. You mind?" Sam called from the other room.

"Sorry, Sam," Lady called back, giving up and hugging herself to Dean. "Goodnight, Dean."

"G'night, babe," Dean replied.

**November 27, 2007**

In the morning they drove out to Mason's house in the country. Dean had a permanent scowl as he looked over the army of vehicles Mason and his family had loaded up and delivered to them. Four ATVs and a pair dirt bikes, along with a jacked-up Jeep.

"Boys, I found some nice warm clothes. The wind is very cold," Greta said.

"We're fine," Sam said.

"No, she's right. You'll want to layer up," Erin said. "The wind is from the north today, its freezing. Unless you want to lose your toes and fingers to frostbite, you'll want something more than jeans and a flannel jacket."

Greta smiled broadly, "Jacob is about your size, Sam. These should fit you well. I washed them all this morning."

"Thanks, Greta," Sam said, taking a pile of clothes. There were wool socks, thermal underwear, a heavy flannel shirt and a parka.

Greta went to Dean, "I'm afraid you are too short and skinny to wear most of my boys' clothes but I found a few things that look like they'll fit."

Dean wasn't in a good mood but it was hard to openly scowl at Greta. "I'll be fine," he said flatly, not worried that her oversized brood didn't have anything that would fit him.

"Don't worry. It's a good thing Maxine has wide hips, I'm sure these will fit you well. She stretched them out," Greta said, unfolding a pair of long underwear.

"I'm not wearing Maxine's long underwear," Dean said shortly.

"Don't be silly, Dean. They may even be a bit too big for you, you may need to roll up the legs a bit," Greta said as she held the pair of long underwear against Dean's waist to measure.

"Mom, you're making him uncomfortable," Erin said, though she seemed more embarrassed by how her mother was acting than Dean.

Greta didn't seem to hear her, "I can probably make some extra room in the crotch if you think you need it…"

"Whoa, okay," Dean jerked back as Greta got a bit too close to try and measure that area.

"Dean, you don't have to be shy," Greta huffed. "Poor little guy."

Dean shot a glare at Sam who began laughing. Dean often got to be the person to make fun of Sam's unusually large size, however Sam's size matched with most of the Mason's rather well while Dean was the small guy. The only people he was taller than were Lady, Derek and Greta. Erin and Maxine were his height. It wasn't like he was a small guy to begin with. He was over 6'1" and a solid 190 pounds. No matter how much Lady teased that he'd gained a little weight he was still in good shape.

"Greta, I'm not wearing that," Dean said flatly.

"Dean, I guarantee that if you don't you'll be so cold you'll turn into a woman," Greta said honestly.

"Why doesn't Dean just ride in the jeep with me?" Derek offered.

Dean shoved his hands in his coat pockets as the wind picked up, he preferred the jeep to one of the unshielded death-machines. But he didn't want to have Lady separated from him or Sam. Lady figured out his thought process rather quickly.

"Thing is, I'm going to move faster on my own," Lady said. "I know the area pretty well. I think Maxine and I can go out and split up, taking the rougher terrain here on the dirt bikes." Lady pointed at the map. "If you and Derek take the jeep you can move around the flood plain around the lake, which is where most of the houses are. The area is bumpy, but fairly flat. Then if Erin and Sam take the ATVs around the outer edge of the plain into the hills. In the meantime Mason and Greta will drive to house to house. Just to make sure they are empty and pick up things people need."

Dean only really heard one part of that, "You on a dirt bike?"

"Unlike you, I have no problem wearing someone else's long underwear," Lady said with a smile.

Derek gave Dean a cheeky smile, "I'll let her borrow some of mine."

"Dean, tactically speaking, this is a good plan," Lady said, daring him to argue.

"This is going to take all damn day," Dean muttered. "Yeah, it's the best we can do. Let's get moving."

The rest of the morning was spent getting prepared. Greta made sure everyone was fed. Derek made sure all the vehicles were running smoothly. Erin checked helmets and equipment. Lady and the Winchesters went over the plan, made a back-up plan and an oh-shit plan in case something happened.

It was around one in the afternoon when they got ready to depart. Lady wrapped her arms around Dean's neck and pulled him close until their faces were almost touching, "You don't have to worry about me," she said softly, planting a short kiss on his mouth. "I love you," she gave him another short kiss. "Be careful," she gave him another kiss. "Watch out for Derek." Another short kiss that Dean tried to make linger. "And have fun." Lady let Dean hold her lips against his for a few moments, and when his lips parted she did the same to meet his tongue with hers to give him a long parting kiss.

"Watch yourself," Dean said, giving her rear a parting pat before he got into the jeep.

"They always like that?" Erin asked Sam, looking away at the affection between Lady and Dean.

"Uh, more or less," Sam admitted.

"They seem very sweet," Erin said. "It's actually nice to see Lady sort of settled down."

Sam remembered suddenly that Erin had known Lady several years, much longer than he had. "She couldn't have been any worse than Dean," Sam mused. He remembered how he had been more than a little put off on how Dean went through one woman after another.

"Well, I don't know Dean that well, but I know Lady," Erin said softly. "I'm glad she's happy, is what I'm trying to say. I suppose with her coming back from the dead it's almost like some crazy fairy tale thing."

Sam went silent at that. Maybe it could have been, but Lady's resurrection hadn't included a happily ever after. "We should get going."

"Yeah. I'll go slow until you get the hang of riding," Erin said, shoving her helmet on her head. Sam followed suit and started up the four-wheeler. The first few attempts to go were jerky, but Erin made sure he never fell too far behind her.

Lady watched Sam and Erin disappear over a hill going one direction, and the Jeep with Dean and Derek vanished another way. She put a leg over the dirt bike and took a moment to get reacquainted with it. Derek had taught her to ride the dirt bikes years ago, and back then it had been fun. "Ride together until we reach the bluffs?" Lady asked Maxine.

"Sounds good," Maxine agreed, strapping on a helmet and starting up her bike.

By the time they reached the area Lady had the hang of riding the bike. She separated from Maxine as they slowly looked over the steeper hills and cliffs. The sun set early so close to the solstice, and soon they were moving at a crawl trying to find any sign of something. Giving up they regrouped near lake. In the darkness she saw headlights of the ATVs in the distance, Sam and Erin were probably heading in as well.

"Anything?" Lady asked Maxine.

"Nope. Guess I didn't expect anything over here, but if it had a hideout this would be the best place."

"No caverns or underground mines?" Lady asked.

"Lady, this is North Dakota. Nothing to mine. These hills are too steep to farm or build a house on. No wells. No caves. Maybe a coyote den, but this thing wouldn't fit," Maxine said with a sigh. "Guess we'll call it a night and see if the others found anything."

"I'll lead the way back," Lady said.

Maxine gave her a wide grin, "Like hell you will, pale-face. Try and keep up."

Lady laughed as Maxine started up her engine. "It's on, girl."

XXXXX

Dean had allowed Derek to drive for two reasons. Mostly because if Dean had the passenger seat he could look around and be more aware of the area around him, instead of focusing on what was just in front of them. The other reason was because Derek knew how to handle the Jeep on the terrain and knew the area better than Dean did.

Dean regretted being the passenger immediately. Derek sped over the uneven ground without a care, several times sending Dean's head into the ceiling. All the while Derek chatted happily about how great the suspension and shocks of the Jeep were, all the extensive work he had done to it.

But he had to admit, they covered a lot of ground. A few times they had stopped, checking out things that Dean thought were important to take a closer look at. When the sun set Derek turned on the high beams and slowed down, letting Dean shine a high-powered flashlight out his window as they continued to search. And when they came up to a spot on the northern banks of the lake Dean ordered Derek to slow down. "This was where one of the sightings were, right?"

"Uh, near here," Derek said, looking around. "It was about half a mile to the north, my cousin Willy has a house that way, he said he was the one who saw it first, but he thought the lights were coming from Albert's house. Albert's house is just down the shore here, he has his own dock."

Dean glanced at Derek, "Thank you," he said sarcastically. "Your dad was out this way earlier today, then?"

"Probably," Derek said.

Dean got out of the jeep and shined his flashlight on the ground. "Any reason there is no grass here?"

"The lake is down a few feet this year. Usually the water is up this high," Derek explained as he followed Dean. "Why?"

"Check out these prints," Dean knelt down to look at the muddy ground. Maybe the lake didn't have it covered but the water occasionally made it that far with wind-blown waves.

"Prints? Just look like holes, man," Derek said.

Dean shifted his flashlight around the edges and shook his head. They were mostly circular, about a foot in diameter. He shined the flashlight around the muddy ground and found several other prints identical to it until they became unnoticeable in the grass. "No, these are prints of something. Not sure what, though. At least not yet." Dean sighed and pulled out his cell phone. There was only one bar of reception which was no good to make a call, but he could snap a picture to show Sam and Lady when they regrouped. With their combined knowledge they hadn't come across something they didn't know how to handle yet.

Before Dean could prepare his phone to take a picture there was a loud crash. He shoved the phone back in his pocket and pulled out his pistol as he saw the Jeep rocking back and forth from some sort of attack. "Derek?" Dean said.

"Oh god," Derek gasped.

Dean grabbed the smaller man by the arm and pulled him behind him as he shined the flashlight at the Jeep. It wasn't safe to go near the vehicle, not when something huge was attacking it. Their only option for escape was shooting or jumping into the lake.

Dean saw the outline, barely more than a shadow. He briefly feared it was a daeva, a type of demon that moved in the darkness of shadows. Then he saw two glowing orbs of yellow eyes, and those eyes fixed on him and Derek.

"Holy crap, it's a horse," Dean uttered as the massive beast abandoned attacking the Jeep and menacingly stepped toward them.

The horse was not natural, and it wasn't just because of the yellow eyes. Each of its hooves were massive, they had created the strange foot-wide circular prints in the mud. Sleek black fur covered its body, and from foot to shoulder it was nearly nine feet tall. Add in the head and it was probably thirteen feet tall.

"Derek, no!" Dean shouted, but before he finished Derek had fired three rounds from his rifle.

The horse made an unnatural whinnying sound and charged forward. Its head moved back and forth, knocking Dean down into the mud in one direction and Derek in the other. Dean heard Derek let out a strangled scream and got the flashlight in place in time to see the horse kick him in the torso. Dean got to his feet and froze when the horse turned on him.

A steam of angry breath exhaled from the beast's nostrils as it stared down Dean with its yellow eyes, and he half expected to be crushed to death. But the beast reared back and fled right into the lake. For several feet it walked right upon the water, until it splashed and went below the surface.

Dean didn't follow, not like he could, and went to Derek's side. "Derek? You with me?" Dean asked, putting a hand on Derek's chest. He was taking short breaths, blood leaking out of his nose and the corners of his lips. "Hold on, pal."

Dean knew the worst thing to do to someone with possible internal bleeding was to move them. But what else could he do? He couldn't call for help, there was no cell phone reception. He couldn't leave the kid alone, he wasn't going to last long as it was. And the closest house was at least half a mile away, and still abandoned because of Maxine's mandatory evacuation.

Dean moved Derek as gently as he could and got him into the backseat of the Jeep. The ride was bumpy, the beast had really screwed up the rear wheels and the alignment was off. Once he got onto a paved road the Jeep began to shake from excessive speeds, but so far Derek was still conscious and even talking a bit so Dean risked it. The sooner he got help the better.

**A/N** - _Thanks for being patient everyone, and I'm sorry this chapter got pretty long. I just couldn't find a good cut-off point and figured 'What the hell' and decided to post as is instead of breaking it up. I wanted to let you guys know I created a youtube playlist, the link is in my profile. It covers the songs through the first two seasons that I used. Most of them, at least. Let me know if you want me to create one for the season three chapters._

**Song for this chapter:**

_Love Love Kiss Kiss, by Alkaline Trio_


	97. North Dakota Part 2, November 2007

**November 28, 2007**

Dean had made calls on his way to the hospital. It was one in the morning when he pulled into the emergency room, Greta Mason was already there.

Greta's face was ashen as they watched over Derek be wheeled in on a gurney. "Dean, is he...?" She asked as she was prevented from following her son.

"I don't know how bad it is," Dean said.

And Greta burst into tears and clung to the front of his shirt. He did the only thing he could do, because he couldn't break her unnaturally strong hold. He rested his hand on her back until someone better suited to comfort her arrived.

Roy Mason was only a few minutes behind Dean and quickly let his wife latch onto him for physical comfort while giving Dean a steely gaze. "What happened?"

"We got attacked," Dean said.

"Dean! Are you okay?" Sam asked, bursting through the door, and behind him was a parade of family members.

Dean looked at them and felt extremely outnumbered and, as Greta had called him, small. The Mason's were a close-knit family and he wasn't entirely sure how stable any of them were, if they wanted to blame him for Derek's injuries and death if it happened, well they could tear him limb from limb. Oversized freaks.

"It's a Puca," Dean said, looking at Sam. "We were outside the jeep. It head-butted it a few times. Derek shot it, but didn't do much but piss it off. He got hit, I don't know how hard or how bad." He turned to Mason and Greta, "I'm so sorry."

Greta burst into fresh sobs, it sounded like Dean was already offering his condolences.

Dean got into a corner so he wasn't surrounded by Derek's worried family, wanting to get away from possible persecution and out of their way. Sam was right next to him. "You hear from Lady?"

"She and Maxine are on their way," Dean answered.

Sam let out a breath of relief. "I'm not familiar with a Puca, I'm not sure I've even heard of it."

Dean looked surprised at his brother, but then remembered Sam had been just a kid the last time one had been seen. "I suppose you wouldn't. I was only twelve, maybe thirteen, when Dad faced one. He told me about it, a giant horse with yellow eyes. And I saw this thing, Sam. It was massive."

"A supernatural horse?" Sam said flatly. "So...what do we do to kill it?"

Dean shook his head, "I don't know. But I know where we can get some information on it. Dad's journal."

When Lady and Maxine reached the hospital the whole waiting room was packed full of the family.

"We need to go back there," Lady said impatiently once Dean filled her and Maxine in.

"Not until the sun is up," Dean countered. "These things are vicious when they are pissed off, but they don't typically show themselves during the day." Dean let out a low groan, he wished he hadn't left his car at Mason's house.

Lady's eyes moved around suspiciously in the hospital as her heart thudded. "What do you think Derek's chances are?"

Dean looked grim, "I hope he makes it." Dean watched her fidget, she looked anxious enough to throw a knife the next time a person wearing scrubs walked too close to her. "We don't have to stay here," Dean told her.

She locked eyes with him, "Isn't that what I'm supposed to do? Wait here, see if Derek is going to be okay or not?"

Dean leaned towards her and said carefully, "You look like you are about to freak the fuck out, and if you do that they will hit you with a tranquilizer."

Lady swallowed hard and dug her fingernails into her knees at the mere mention of having to receive a shot. Dean barely had to tug on her arm to get her to stand up and she pulled him out of the hospital.

Lady sat with Dean in Maxine's truck until sunrise when Sam walked out of the emergency room. "They managed to stabilize Derek," Sam announced.

"That's good, right?" Lady asked.

"It is, but that's all they can do here," Sam said. "A helicopter is coming in to airlift him to another hospital in Fargo that has better facilities."

"I think we should head back out there," Dean said, starting up Maxine's truck. "Get to Dad's journal, and get rid of that thing."

"You are just going to steal the truck?" Sam asked in surprise.

"I'm sure Maxine won't mind, considering we're doing her work for her," Dean said. "Get in."

The drive back to Mason's house was long, all of them were tired from the all-nighter. Once there Lady led them into the house, it wasn't even locked, and Dean sat at the table while looking through his father's journal searching for the entry he hoped would be there.

"Hey, someone is coming down the gravel road," Sam warned. "Looks like Erin's car."

"What the hell is she doing out here?" Dean asked.

"Well, Dean, it is her parent's house. I think she is allowed," Sam countered. "We aren't."

"Greta and Mason won't mind," Lady muttered. "If anything they'll be pleased that they got to help a bit. But most likely they won't even notice, not with Derek being sent to Fargo."

Maxine and Erin entered the house. "You guys onto something?" Maxine asked.

"We'll handle it from here, Maxine," Dean said, not looking up from the journal.

"Then I'll just sit back and silently watch," Maxine said, sitting across from Dean and staring at him.

"Dean, please skip the pissing match," Lady said in a tired voice.

Dean briefly glared at his girlfriend, then to his brother who offered no support, and finally at Maxine. "I'm looking. When I find something, I'll fill you in," he said bitterly. He knew he wouldn't get rid of Maxine. Not while he was in her territory, and especially not while they were hunting the thing that tried to kill her brother.

"Any word on Derek?" Sam asked Erin.

"Uh…well he's on the helicopter right now," Erin said. "Mom and Dad went with him. My brothers are packing and they are going to drive there. I came here to pack bags for Mom and Dad, get some sleep, and then I'm going, too." Erin rubbed her eyes, "I'll get you guys some breakfast."

"You don't have to do that," Sam said as she opened the fridge.

Erin looked at him, "Dean probably saved Derek's life, you guys have been up all night trying to help us…just let me scramble a few eggs for you guys."

Erin was setting plates of food down when Dean let out a breath. "Here it is, a Puca." Dean was too tired to let out a more victorious sound, but it was relief to find the beast among his father's cramped handwriting. "Uh, freaking great. I was hoping I was wrong, but it is a Pagan. Not a demi-god, more like a, uh, pet almost. From Norse mythology."

Lady looked down at the plate Erin set in front of her, "Pagan? Crap. How do we get rid of it?"

Dean shook his head, "Dad didn't find a way to do it. For the most part these things don't make their presence known unless they are offended. Once they are offended they cause mischief, until eventually going to find the person who offended them and making them get on their back to take them for a hell ride. But normally they are considered benevolent protectors." Dean looked at Lady, "Any chance this is a Donovan thing?"

Lady shrugged, "Donovan could make rainbows shoot out of his ass if he wanted to."

"So who offended it? And how?" Maxine asked.

"Says here the Puca is kept passive by offering it whatever is left of the harvest after Halloween. Basically any crops leftover on November 1st or later belong to the Puca, and if someone decides to bring in a late harvest they take a serious offense," Dean said, finishing reading his father's meager entry. "That's all I got."

Maxine's frowned, "It doesn't make sense. The land out here isn't that good for farming. The wind carries away the top soil in the prairie, and the hills are too steep to farm. A few of our relatives have hobby farms out here, but no more than a few acres. Maybe some alfalfa for a few horses and a vegetable garden, nothing I'd consider a great harvest. Besides, by October the frost has settled in. Winter comes early up here."

"Oh god," Erin uttered, and all eyes fell on her. "This year...the frost came later than normal."

"Erin? Do you know who offended this thing?" Sam asked with wide eyes. If they knew who it was after it was important they were there to protect them.

Erin nodded, "I think I did." Erin looked horrified as she spoke. "I was staying at Aunt Helen's house, we had just got back from Florida. She asked me to get whatever looked good out of the garden. I was out there all afternoon just digging up anything that was still alive in the garden before the plants died. I didn't know."

"Its okay, Erin," Maxine said after the silence stretched on. She stood up and put an arm around her sister, leading her out of the kitchen. "It's okay, sweetie, we're going to take care of this."

Sam looked at Dean, "We should get her out of here, away from this thing."

"It will follow her," Dean said in a low voice. "Best thing is to keep her close and keep her safe."

"How do we get rid of this thing? The Colt?" Sam asked.

"I don't think the Colt will work," Dean said. "Derek got off a few shots with a rifle I didn't even see entry wounds on it."

"Lady, it's Pagan…sort of your area," Sam said, turning to her.

Lady nodded and swallowed a mouthful of scrambled eggs, "Yup. I'm thinking."

"You're thinking?" Sam looked at her blankly. "Care to share?"

Lady took a bite of her toast, "This honey butter is awesome. I love carbs. I was so hungry I was ready to chew on Dean's jacket…"

"Thinking about the case?" Sam clarified.

Lady brushed some crumbs off of her shirt, "Maxine and I will figure something out."

"Before sunset?" Sam asked.

"Hopefully," Lady said. "I think we'll need to go to Maxine's house, she's better stocked for…OH!" Lady jumped up and shrieked suddenly. "Holy crap, I have a freaking assload of Pagan stuff at my trailer like a mile away. That is if they didn't move it. Burn it. Empty it."

Dean stood up and pulled his jacket on, "Sam, stay here."

Lady took a few steps toward the door then backtracked, grabbing the toast off her plate and a sausage, before leaving.

Dean stopped the Impala in front of the trailer and Lady jumped out. Once she had finished her breakfast she had talked non-stop about things she had inside that may help them and she didn't stop as she went to the door.

"If this thing is Norse then we'll…oh god!" Lady finally shut up and slapped her hand over her nose and mouth as the stench of mold hung thickly inside the trailer.

"Ugh," Dean grimaced and looked at Lady. "Please don't throw up."

Lady covered her face with her arm as she stepped inside. "Aw, I never fixed the roof," she realized as she stepped inside. Over the months rain and moisture had leaked in. Not that she had ever been a great housekeeper but without someone keeping the place dry mold and even mushrooms had grown rapidly. Some of the floor was rotted away.

Lady made her way to the bathroom, which was nearly toxic because at some point the sewage had backed up. Then into the bedroom which was where the worst of it had been. A few mice scurried into hiding with her presence. The bed had been torn apart by the rodents. Something had been gnawing on the leg of the dresser so it was uneven. Bugs and rodents had chewed through clothing and, sadly, the closet that had been full of shoes.

"Aw man!" Lady complained. "This…this is horrible. I think I might be sick."

Dean ignored her and opened the door to the second bedroom. "Looks like this room survived most of it." And this was the room that was important, it had most of Lady's notes.

Dean helped Lady gather what she felt was important, which was just about everything. She didn't want to leave anything behind, not to the vermin that had taken over the trailer.

"That was easily ten thousand dollars in shoes," Lady muttered as Dean drove them back to Mason's house. "I know I didn't buy all of them, but that was still a lot of freaking shoes."

"We'll give them a proper burial after we take care of the Puca," Dean said. "Can you focus?"

"I'm focused," Lady muttered. "Dean, I'm scared. I'm so scared for Derek and Erin."

"Yeah, well…yeah, I know," Dean said. "We won't let anything happen to them."

Lady saw Mason's house and knew that soon she'd be hard at work trying to find a way to protect Erin and avenge Derek. She slid across the seat and wrapped her arms around Dean in an attempt to steal some of his strength and get rid of some of her fear. Dean put his arm around her shoulders, but his touch didn't offer much comfort. She wouldn't feel comfort until things were put right, but at least he was trying. "Thanks for being here," she said softly. "I know you don't want to be, and I know I'm a little nuts for wanting to help them."

Dean slowed down until he could park in front of Mason's house. "You are a little nuts in general, Lady, I'm used to it. And as for not wanting to be here, well, I like being wherever you are. Because you get into trouble without me."

"Yeah, I know. But I get into trouble with you, too," Lady said, smiling and giving him a brief squeeze.

Dean helped Lady carry in what she had retrieved from her trailer and they found Sam and the sisters in the kitchen all with long faces.

"What's wrong?" Lady asked.

Maxine looked up at her with wide eyes, "Dad called. The helicopter had to land in Minot, Derek's heart stopped while he was in the air. They, uh…they got him going again. They say he's stable, but they can't wait to transport him to a better hospital. He's going into surgery right now."

"Minot is what, an hour away? Two max? You guys should go," Dean said.

Maxine looked at what Lady had brought, "You need my help."

"And if I leave I might lead the Puca to them," Erin said grimly.

"You're brother might not make it, you really want to be here when you could have been at his side?" Dean asked her.

Erin looked up at him angrily, "Of course I'd rather be there. I have to look at the bigger picture, I have to deal with the consequences of what I did. So either we find a way to get rid of the Puca, or tonight I take whatever punishment it wants to dish out so it will stop harassing my family."

Maxine grimaced as Erin stormed up the stairs to be alone. "Derek was always close to the twins," Maxine said sadly. "I can't see if he makes it or not. Or if something will happen to Erin. Or us. I get visions all the time, but damn they never happen at the right time."

Lady turned to Sam and Dean, "You guys look beat, why don't you try and get some sleep."

"We work faster as a team," Sam said.

"I'm saying take a few hours to nap, recharge the batteries," Lady said. "Maxine and I will get a head start, and when we figure something out we won't have much time to get it set up."

"But…" Sam began.

"Sammy, most of this stuff is written in Latin," Dean said. "Lady is right. We need to be on our game, chances are we'll end up being hired muscle for the witches."

"Most likely," Lady said brightly. "But handsome hired muscle with firm bootys." Lady smiled broadly at them.

Sam rubbed his eyes tiredly, "Okay, get to work, Lady."

"If you go upstairs just pick any of the bedrooms," Maxine said. "Uh, except my parents, that one is at the end of the hall. And Derek's is the second door on the left. Any of the others is fine."

"Thanks," Sam said and started to take the stairs.

"I'll sleep down here on the couch," Dean said. "Wake me up when you find something, I don't care if it's junk."

XXXXX

Sam looked into the first open door upstairs and saw Erin sitting on a bed. She looked up at him with tear-stained cheeks and quickly wiped at her eyes. Sam winced as he realized he walked in on her crying. "Erin, I hope Derek is going to be okay," he offered.

Erin nodded, "Yeah, me too. This is all my fault," she said in a forced voice, trying to wipe the tears from her face but they kept falling.

"We'll take care of this, make sure this thing can't hurt anyone else," Sam promised, stepping into the room so he could sit next to her. He put a hand on her back as she held back tears. "You don't have to be here. I'm sure we can safely get you there."

Erin sniffed and looked at him with wet eyes, "I'm the one it wants. If it doesn't get taken care of it'll come back, and then who is next?"

"I understand what you are feeling but..."

"Because of me, my brother might die," Erin interrupted. "I doubt you know how that feels."

Sam went silent as she looked away to wipe away more tears and gain control over her emotions. He had to clear his throat to be able to speak, "Actually I know exactly what that feels like. Every day, I feel like that."

"No offense, but Dean seems like he's in pretty good shape," Erin said roughly.

Sam hadn't told anyone about Dean's demon deal. Bobby and Lady knew, and of course the demons all seemed to know. But otherwise it had always been considered family business and they didn't have close friends to share that with. "Dean decided to die for me," Sam said quietly, earning a confused look from Erin. "Uh, back in May I got stabbed. I actually died. It was my fault, I turned my back on the enemy, I should have done something different. But I died, I was dead for about a day. Dean made a deal with a demon to bring me back to life. In return he's going to die because of it. He got one last year, and it's up in May. So I know how you feel, I've been feeling it every day since then. I know when it will happen, I don't know how to stop it or handle it. But I know if it hadn't been for me Dean could be living a long life."

"I'm so sorry," Erin breathed, and he felt her hand move across his back.

"Thanks," Sam muttered.

Erin let out a shuddering breath and leaned against his shoulder.

XXXXX

Lady and Maxine used to work together on things like this all the time. Mostly it was just speaking of theories, not to actually do anything. It had been a way for them to learn magic, learn about each other's magic and in general sharpen their skills. Lady had considered it a game or even a competition, to see who knew more. But having a partner who knew magic as thoroughly as she did had made her better, and probably even saved her life a few times.

They started out by each of them throwing out a few ideas, and the other shooting them down. A few insults were common, but it was the first phase of how they figured things out. The second phase was more cooperative, building on the ideas of the first phase. Going from there they went back to shooting each other's ideas down until they reached the final phase, which may be phase four or sixteen, which was a solid plan.

"We're fucking geniuses," Lady said, standing up and stretching.

"I need to go to my house and get what we need," Maxine said. "Better wake up your hired muscle, we'll need them."

Lady looked at the clock to see it was already three in the afternoon, "Yeah, and we don't have much time to prepare."

Lady skipped into the living room where Dean had passed out on the couch. He grunted awake when she sat on his legs. "I think Maxine and I figured something out," Lady said as he wiped the sleep from his eyes. "We think Max probably knew this thing was around, and probably knew it expected a certain amount of crops as a tribute every fall. The time after the harvest, up until the winter solstice, is when it is active. Since no one wants to wait until it goes into its winter hibernation, we are going to get something put together tonight to take care of it."

"What's the plan?" Dean said roughly.

"We have two," Lady said. "One is bad, the other is horrible."

"What's the bad one?" Dean asked.

"I think Maxine and I can banish it with a ritual," Lady said. "If we can do that it won't be able to come back."

"That's a horrible idea," Dean said.

"No, the horrible idea is having Erin stand outside with a basket of potatoes asking for forgiveness."

Dean looked thoughtful for several moments. "It's a horse. You aren't going to throw in some carrots?" Dean asked.

It took a few moments for a smile to spread across Lady's face. She was scared. She was terrified that Derek's injuries were crippling. That Erin was marked for death. And that they would fail. That Dean took a moment to crack a joke, a lame one that she could appreciate, gave her a short reprieve from the fear. She hopped off his legs and clapped her hands, "Maxine is getting what we need. I need you to go into Mason's garage and find me a boat. You'll probably need Sam to help you load it into Maxine's truck."

Dean had been given stranger requests from Lady, and sometimes it just wasn't worth questioning. Mason didn't live far from the lake, that he had a boat in his garage probably wasn't that weird.

Dean took the stairs to find Sam and wake him up. The first door in the hallway was open and he glanced inside, and for a moment he wondered if he was actually awake or not. Sam and Erin had fallen asleep together. It was actually sort of adorable, both of them were on top of the blankets fully clothed. Erin was curled a little, her head on Sam's shoulder and her arm wrapped around his stomach. Sam had his hand on hers and his other arm against her back.

Dean took a few steps backward in the hallway, giving his mind a few more moments to finish waking up before taking another glance into the bedroom. "Sam!" Dean barked.

Sam jerked awake immediately, as did Erin. Sam wiped at his mouth immediately, hoping he hadn't been drooling. He remembered lying on the bed and just talking with Erin, nothing important just conversation until he had fallen asleep on her. Or maybe she had fallen asleep on him. Literally on him.

"Aw, look at you two kids. It's really adorable, so adorable," Dean said with a grin while leaning against the doorway. "Sorry, sweetheart, I need to borrow my brother."

"Yeah, uh…yeah," Erin said, getting off the bed so Sam had room to move.

Sam's shoulders were tense as he walked down the stairs with Dean. He knew what was coming, some sort of jab or taunt. He followed Dean outside and to the garage in silence and just when he thought he might escape Dean started.

"So, bro, you hit that?" Dean asked with a grin and a wag of the eyebrows.

"We fell asleep while talking," Sam said simply.

"Ah, c'mon, Erin is cute as hell," Dean said. "And hey, she can actually kiss you without standing on a chair."

"And her father could step on me," Sam added.

Dean studied his brother for a few moments, "You into her?"

"What?"

"Honest question, are you into her?" Dean asked. It was probably a bad choice on Sam's part, considering Erin had a thirteen-foot tall beastly Puca pissed off at her.

Sam looked away. Erin was beautiful, smart and funny. "She's eighteen."

"Which means she's legal," Dean said, giving Sam another wag of the eyebrows.

"Do me a favor, tell me why we are out here," Sam said.

Dean let out a breath, "We need to find a boat."

"A boat?" Sam looked around the garage and pointed. "There it is."

"That is not what I expected," Dean said as his eyes fell on a small wooden boat. It was barely big enough to hold two people.

"It's a boat. What did you expect?" Sam looked at his brother.

Dean looked at Sam, "This is Mason's garage. The guy is seven feet tall, he's a freaking giant. That is not a boat for a giant. That is a boat for a midget."

Sam grinned, "I guess we finally found something your size here, Dean."

Dean gave Sam a steely glare, "Bitch."

"Jerk," Sam said with the same grin and chuckled as he got into position to move the boat.

By the time the boat was loaded in the back of a pick-up Maxine returned from her house and they regrouped to go over the plan together.

Dean handed Sam the Colt as the sun began to set. "If that thing comes around…"

"We'll hope this can penetrate the hide, got it," Sam said, checking the revolver before taking the bag of ammunition Dean offered. Sam looked at the pile of vegetables and food that was being left outside of the house as an offering to the Puca. Maxine had raided her pantry along with her parents to try and supply the beast with a gift. If it wasn't taken Sam had to hope the Colt, which hadn't failed them yet, would work on it.

Dean went out to the dock with Maxine and Lady and got the small boat in the lake. There was a small motor attached to the back, and it had to get them to the island a half mile into the lake. The island itself wasn't very large, and in years where the lake was high it was only twenty feet in diameter. This year the lake was low and a whole fifty feet of ground was available.

Maxine got into the boat first and got it steady. Dean got in next, and then helped Lady who sat on his lap. Dean let out a breath, "I'm riding in a little dingy with a little dingy," he joked, while patting Lady's thigh.

"Hey, me too!" Lady joked back, bouncing slightly on his lap.

"Hey!" Dean said in offense.

Lady leaned against him and kissed his ear, "Don't worry, I know you are more of a cruise liner and when..."

"Guys, as adorable as I find this sick show of affection, can we focus?" Maxine interrupted.

"This is more like foreplay," Lady corrected.

Maxine glanced away and started up the motor. It coughed several times before loudly running. It moved slowly, but they didn't have time to move a larger boat. She steered it over the choppy water to the small island. It was the only accessible point of power any longer. The one on the hill behind her father's house had been nearly obliterated when Lady forced Garrett into it months ago. There was another point at the bottom of the lake, but it was far from accessible.

Back at Mason's house Sam watched out the window as the tiny dot of a boat moved until it was too dark to keep track of.

"This will work, right? I mean, I don't know much about magic but those two know a lot…it'll work, right?" Erin asked, hoping for assurance.

Sam didn't disappoint. "Yeah, Lady is scary smart when it comes to this sort of stuff. I mean, you saw what she did in Florida better than I did."

Erin looked a bit uncomfortable, "I more remember Dean glowing."

"Yeah, that was freaky," Sam let out a laugh.

"So…what do we do until they are done?" Erin asked.

"Whatever helps you take your mind off of waiting," Sam suggested.

"I'm not so sure I'm in the mood to watch TV or read a book," Erin said, moving to look out the window that faced the lake.

Sam stood beside her. He doubted the little boat had even reached the island yet, not at the pace they had been going and with the wind against them. They were in for another long night.


	98. North Dakota Part 3, November 2007

**November 28, 2007**

Dean's preferred method of travel was his Impala. He knew the car inside and out. If he couldn't drive his Impala another car would do temporarily. Dean had several methods of travel that he did not like at all. Planes, no way in hell. Any vehicle that he was forced to be a passenger in where Lady was the driver was shortly after that. And new on his list were tiny boats on a big lake on a windy day.

The trip to the island had taken over an hour. His legs were stiff from limited space, his face numb from the cold wind. Lady had stuffed her face in his neck to keep warm, but the wind had whipped her hair into his face like hundreds of painful canes.

"This sucked," Dean complained when the boat touched the shore. Lady hopped out first and tied the boat to a nearby tree to keep it from drifting too far.

"Flashlight," Lady called.

"Got it," Dean said, pulling it out and turning it on.

Worst part about this, now that they were there they still had a few hours of preparation to do. At least Maxine built up a campfire for light and heat. Beside the campfire was a medicine wheel, which was a circle with a plus-sign in the middle of it, that was where Maxine and Lady were going to do the ritual once they got what they needed set up. In the meantime Dean hacked down some overgrown tree branches to use as firewood and to give them more room.

"Babe, what's the time?" Lady asked. Before Dean even looked at his watch she said, "Thanks, we're making good time."

Dean still looked at his watch, it was shortly after midnight. Good time? He worked on keeping his fingers warm at the campfire.

Before he asked if there was anything he needed to do Lady said, "No, we're good. Actually will you grab me an energy drink? Starting to lose my pep."

Dean nodded, "Yeah, sure, let me just hop over to the Seven-Eleven on the other side of the island. Oh, look…they're closed."

Lady smiled at him, the firelight reflecting in her eyes and making them look pink. "My bag is in the boat, I brought some food and drinks."

"So I'm hired muscle and a waiter now?" Dean asked.

She grinned, "With a great ass."

"Yeah, just remember I'm charging overtime now," Dean said as he stepped away from the warm campfire. He took the flashlight to keep from tripping over fallen branches and rocks as he went to the muddy shore. He saw the boat had drifted away from the shore and searched for the rope so he could pull it back in. "Uh…babe, we got a problem," he called over his shoulder as he realized the rope had come loose and the boat was steadily drifting farther away.

Lady looked up from what Maxine had been doing, preparing the ritual site was unfortunately a long process. Maxine didn't use it very often and it wasn't well-maintained. "What is it?" Lady called back to Dean.

"The boat came…" Dean began to shout back.

Before he finished the words Lady looked back at the ritual site. Dean was still talking but she couldn't hear him over the future-sounds coming in. "Maxine, get back," Lady said urgently.

"But…" Maxine began, but decided against it and trusted Lady's warning. Maxine looked at the campfire with wide eyes as the flame turned from orange to blue. "We haven't even started yet, what is going on?"

Lady held up a hand to silence her. Dean's footsteps thudded as he quickly ran back. "Shut up, Dean," she said before he could speak.

Dean glared at the blue campfire, a sure sign that Donovan was nearby. He looked at the medicine wheel, understanding that if Donovan wanted to pop out and talk that was his point of access.

"Ah, don't stop on _my_ account," Donovan's voice sounded unnatural as he communicated through the ley lines. "I felt Lady get close to the intersection and just _had_ to see what magic she was playing with."

"That's the warlock?" Maxine asked, looking around for the source of the voice.

"Greetings, Miss Mason," Donovan said politely. "And I am much more than a warlock, I think you know that."

"What do you want, Donovan?" Lady asked.

"I haven't explored this section of the lines before, they are rather distorted. You're work, I assume. Don't worry, I'll teach you to travel within the lines without burning them out," Donovan said.

Maxine looked at Lady with confusion.

"You think you have anything to teach me?" Lady asked, moving around slowly as she grabbed various items they had been preparing to use. Maxine motioned for Dean to stay silent as she tugged his arm, leading him near the medicine wheel.

"You have a lot you need to learn," Donovan said. "You are good, Lady, but I was always better than you."

Lady gave Maxine the slightest nod as she took a few steps toward the medicine wheel, "You sure? I never took the easy road, Donovan."

"You think what I do is easy?" Donovan sounded offended. "Bringing you back to life wasn't easy, Lady. It was the hardest magic I ever accomplished, even with the power of the Goddess running through my veins. Making the psychopomps to stop chasing you, to keep your spirit intact, was nearly impossible. But I did it. Removing demons from the ley lines is no easy task, either."

Lady patted Dean's arm and then held out her hand, without thinking twice he handed over his six-inch silver dagger he had strapped to his forearm. Lady twirled it a few times, "What do you want? Should I clap? Fawn over you?"

"A little appreciation is always welcome," Donovan said.

Lady nodded with her head, a silent signal for Maxine and Dean to move back. "Okay, Donovan, you are right. I should show you my appreciate. Here it is." Lady threw a mixture of things onto the center of the medicine wheel, and then threw the knife. The knife stuck in the ground, and the instant it did a blast of hot air that turned into a giant ball of blue fire erupted from the ground. Donovan's unearthly scream ripped through the ground for several minutes.

Lady had jumped back to get out of the blast radius, but quickly checked her clothes to make sure she hadn't been singed. "You guys okay?" She called.

"What the hell was that?" Dean asked.

"Donovan was connected to that ley line to communicate with us," Lady said. "I disconnected him. From the sounds of it rather painfully."

"He's going to be pissed," Dean warned.

"That trick right there will keep him from trying to come back," Maxine said. "But, now we need to go back across the lake and get more Marigolds."

"Oh, yeah, well, I hope you are a good swimmer. The boat came untied," Dean said. "Lady talks like a sailor but apparently she can't tie a knot like one."

"My knot was fine!" Lady said in a high defensive voice.

"Lady, we're stranded on an island _freezing_," Dean said angrily.

"I'm sorry, okay?" Lady said, throwing her hands up. "Let's see how far out it is."

Lady walked to the muddy shore and shined the flashlight across the water. It was hard to judge distance but the boat was a good way out, and the water temperature was too cold for them to safely swim.

"Look at this," Maxine said, finding a length of rope still tied to the tree. She found the frayed end, "The rope broke."

Lady looked smugly at Dean, "Oh you so need to get on your knees and apologize." In a mocking tone she said, "_Lady can't tie a knot worth a damn and it's her fault we're stranded on an island_. Jerk."

Dean let her have her moment, "Sorry, okay? But we're still stranded here."

Lady led them back to the campfire for warmth, "Sam and Erin will figure out we need a rescue boat if we aren't back by morning."

Dean sat next to Lady by the campfire, that wasn't very comforting. It was several hours until dawn, and then they would have to wait for Sam to find a boat and get the boat to them. They could be stuck there until noon. "God, I'm freezing. How are you not freezing right now?" Dean asked. He was fighting off shivers, but Lady seemed almost comfortable.

"I'm wearing Derek's thermal undies," Lady said, shifting to be closer to Dean and share some of her warmth.

"Lady?" Maxine interrupted the brief skirmish between the couple. "I saw something when Donovan was talking."

"I'm so sick of hearing about peoples visions," Dean uttered.

"What'd you see?" Lady asked.

Maxine looked down, "My visions aren't like yours. I see them once, and then they are a memory. When you first came back to this world I saw you taking your place as the Goddess, vicious and cruel. In Florida, when I saw you again, I had a vision of this. The three of us sitting around a campfire. I didn't understand it at the time, but it was there. Tonight I saw your future again."

Lady stared at Maxine over the flickering flames, "Am I a blue-fire wielding God?"

"No," Maxine said. "You were here, helping me. In the vision we're close friends again. Just goes to show Max was right when you said your destiny is anarchic and crazy, just like you."

"At least the wrinkly old bitch had something right," Dean said through chattering teeth. Maybe Maxine's visions weren't perfect, but he had to admit he liked hearing someone seeing a safer version of Lady's future.

Lady threw a few more dry branches on the fire to increase the heat. She wanted to make sure Dean didn't lose his toes while they waited. "I'm glad you are convinced, Maxine. Now if we can make Donovan see that maybe he'd lose interest and leave me the hell alone."

They were all silent for a long time until Maxine moved to sit on Dean's other side. "What the hell are you doing?" Dean asked.

"You were too proud to borrow some extra layers to stay warm, I'm just trying to offer you some help," Maxine said as she pressed herself against Dean's other side.

"I think I'm a little too prideful to let you snuggle up next to me," Dean said.

"He talks tough, but he's always wanted to be squished by two women at the same time," Lady joked.

XXXXX

"Whoa, something bad happened," Sam said, jerking into action at the sight blue fire at the island. "We need to get out there."

For hours they had watched out the window, occasionally one of them looked out the other windows for a different view and to see if their offering to the Puca had been taken. But now Erin and Sam were both going to the door.

"We need a boat," Sam said.

"My cousin Albert has one, but he's on the other side of the lake," Erin said. Most fishing boats had been put into garages for the upcoming winter, but Erin knew Albert still spent any time he could on his boat just to get away from his wife and kids.

Sam had a brief moment where he considered just jumping in the lake and swimming, but even if the water wasn't freezing it looked faster to drive around the lake to get a boat. "Come on," Sam urged Erin to follow him outside to the car. "What's the fastest way there? Can we take the Impala or do we need something bigger?"

"The ATVs can handle the terrain better," Erin said as she kept stride with him.

"Okay, we need to..." Sam turned to go toward where the four-wheelers were, and stopped. The offering of a few bags of potatoes and carrots was littered on the ground, stomped on and crushed. The Puca had been there.

The large exhale of breath fogged the air in what Sam believed to be a shadow, and then eyelids opened to reveal glowing yellow eyes. The Puca was there. Immediately Sam pulled Erin behind him and slowly began to back into the house while putting his hand on the Colt.

"You attempt to gain my favor by this meager offering? I am horribly offended," the Puca said in a low rumble.

"It talks?" Erin uttered.

"I speak," the Puca said. "You have stolen from me once, had your kin threaten me, and now you mock me with this?"

Erin swallowed hard, "I am so sorry. If I had known, I wouldn't have done this. I beg your forgiveness."

The Puca stared at her with intelligent eyes, "You may earn forgiveness...shall you climb upon my back and stay there until sunrise. Prove to me that you are worthy of forgiveness."

"No," Sam answered for her. "Just leave this place."

"Why should I? I was here first," the Puca countered. "I give you the same choice as the one who came before you. Prove you are worthy to share my land, or leave."

Sam pulled out the Colt and only took a second to aim at the large beast's forehead. He squeezed the trigger. The Puca reared back on its hind legs and let out a beastly scream. When it went back to all fours Sam looked in fear. The bullet, though only fired from ten feet away, had barely pierced the tough skin. "Run!" he ordered Erin a moment before the Puca charged angrily.

Sam was hit in the chest by the massive head that was just as large as his torso. He flew backwards and landed on the hard ground, the wind was knocked out of him.

Erin was only a few steps from what felt like the safety of her parent's house, but she saw the Puca nudge Sam and cause him to roll like a child's toy on the ground. From what the beast had said it wasn't going to leave them alone, unless she played its game and earned its respect by taking a ride. She briefly thought of her family being displaced because of a stupid garden harvest and the pride of a giant creature.

Erin's long legs ran forward. She jumped with her left foot while grabbing hold of the flowing main of the Puca. She pulled and swung her right leg over the back and held on tight as it reared back and whinnied. When its front legs touched the ground it surged forward in a gallop, all Erin could do was hold on for her life.

"Erin, no!" Sam barely got the wind back to try and stop her, but she was already on the back of the horse and riding off. Holding his sore ribs and trying to catch his breath he got to his feet. He saw no sight of Erin or the Puca. No sound. Nothing. He looked back at the barely visible island. No flame was visible, but the blue fire had been a clear signal that Donovan had decided to join in the fun. So far Donovan hadn't hurt Lady, but Dean was probably fair game. Maxine, too. Whoever was left on that island, he needed their help and they probably needed his, too.

Sam didn't know the area that well, and in the dark it was difficult to keep from steering the ATV off a steep hill and into the lake. But he found Albert's house and the fifteen-foot fishing boat tied up to a dock.

"Keys, keys...ha!" Sam enjoyed a brief moment of victory as he found the keys under the seat and started the boat. "So, uh...crap," he uttered as he tried to figure out how to drive the damn thing.

Through trial and error he got the boat moving at a decent speed toward the island. Freezing spray from water stung at his already wind-raw face, but so much time had gone by he didn't dare slow down. The sun nearing the horizon told him too much time had been lost already.

He saw the trio standing at the shore of the island and could have laughed in relief. He killed the engine of the boat and let the remaining momentum carry the boat until the rocks scraped against the bottom.

"Good hustle, Sammy," Dean said.

"The Puca came for Erin," Sam said. "Did the ritual fail? What happened?"

Lady grimaced and got into the boat, "We got interrupted, we couldn't do the ritual."

"Where is she? What happened to her?" Maxine asked, nudging Sam out of the way to take control of the boat.

"She got on its back, and that's it," Sam said. "No sign of her since."

Dean was barely in the boat when Maxine started it up and maneuvered it away from the island and toward the dock near her father's house. The trip that had taken the little dingy over an hour to travel took the large fishing boat just twenty minutes. Maxine jumped out of the boat once it reached the dock, running in search for her sister.

XXXXX

Erin was panting for breath as the sun broke the horizon, and became aware she was shivering as the Puca slowed its gallop to a stop. She couldn't move, her fingers entwined in the long main and her legs clamped around its massive body. Gently the Puca knelt down to the ground and Erin realized it was over. She fell off to the side onto the cold ground.

The Puca slowly circled her, "I am impressed. No one has ridden with me in a long time, longer than I can recall. Erin Daisy Mason, it is my honor to count you and your family as allies. Should you accept?"

"Accept what?" Erin asked.

"Accept an alliance. Our territory will be the same, our enemies the same, and our allies the same. We will share the land that nurtures us all. I only ask that your fields be left untouched after the first harvest, and whatever remains is mine."

"That decision goes to my tribe's medicine woman," Erin breathed heavily.

"She is not whom I respect, it is you I will deal with," the Puca said.

"I am an extension of the medicine woman. As her sister, her blood, her delegate," Erin said, briefly hoping that Maxine wouldn't mind her taking that role. "This decision must go through her. But I declare a truce until terms can be met."

The Puca looked out at the lake and the boat nearing the shore. It took a firm stance as Maxine ran across the ground, two men that it had seen before behind her, and a much smaller woman trying to keep up with all of them.

"Erin?" Maxine called frantically as she saw the massive horse. She didn't slow her run, she'd try to tackle the beast with her bare hands if she had to.

"Maxine Rose Mason, we have business to discuss," the Puca said calmly.

That made Maxine slow down, "You talk?"

The rising sun made the Puca's eyes dim to a dull yellow, "I speak," it answered. "Erin Daisy Mason, your delegate, has earned my forgiveness and allegiance. Now it is your decision to decide if we can continue this alliance."

"Stay back," Maxine ordered as the others caught up to her. She looked at the Puca, "Allegiance?"

"I have protected these lands for many years," the Puca answered. "One autumn I entered an allegiance to Maxidiwaic Bird-Song which I kept my end of until she died. I now offer you the same alliance. I will keep dark things that mean us harm out of our territory. And you will do the same. Every spring when the earth is reborn I shall make your lands fertile and rich. Every fall when the land dies you will leave what you do not consume to me. I will not bother you, you will not bother me. Those are my terms."

"You tried to kill my brother. You hurt my sister," Maxine said threateningly.

Erin raised her arm, "I'm okay," she said, but didn't try to move to stand up.

Maxine glanced back at Lady, then to the Puca. "My terms. Shall you ever do harm to my people again, no matter what you may find offensive, I will find a way to kill you."

The Puca let out a snort, "You cannot kill me."

"I can do things that make you wish you could die," Maxine threatened.

The Puca tilted its massive head, "I will not harm you or your people. My word is my bond. Do we have an agreement?"

"Yes, now leave," Maxine said firmly.

The Puca trotted gently around the group, and then galloped to the lake, disappearing beneath the surface.

**November 29, 2007**

Once everyone had regrouped, taken stock of various injuries and cleaned up they were on their way to Minot. Derek was out of surgery and in recovery. Maxine and Erin drove with the Impala behind them. Lady took the drive as a chance to catch a nap.

The hospitality room in the hospital, that the Mason's had all but taken over with their large family, was large and furnished with several couches and comfortable chairs for people who were there for long stays. Dean looked around, there were two doorways and a few windows. He was happy to see that the windows had wire mesh over them and weren't able to be opened, Lady looked ready to jump out a window to get out of the hospital.

Greta and Mason took turns talking about Derek's hard fight. The internal injuries had nearly cost him his life a few times, but the surgery had gone well. The doctors had been worried about some swelling around his spinal chord, but they believed the nerve damage wasn't going to be permanent. He'd probably have to stay in the hospital a week or longer, but he was going to make it.

But one thing that Mason and Greta wouldn't stop talking about was how grateful they were that Dean had been there, because he most likely saved Derek's life by getting him to the hospital so quickly. Dean wished they would shut up as he accepted Greta's tearful thanks along with one of her bone-crushing hugs.

Erin's legs were sore, from her groin to her knees, because of riding the Puca. But it was hard to complain when everything was going to be okay. The Puca wasn't going to be a threat any longer, Derek was going to be okay, and everyone had survived.

Slowly she migrated towards Sam who was making himself scarce in the corner. "Pretty crazy night, huh?" she asked.

"One I'll remember for a while," Sam agreed. "So, how was the ride?"

Erin laughed, "I had my eyes closed for most of it. I don't know if I'll ever be able to walk right again."

"That was...crazy stupid brave," Sam said.

Erin nodded, "Yeah, I know. Guess, uh...well, it was either give it what it wanted or it was going to kill you. I couldn't have that on my conscience too, you know?"

"Thanks," Sam said. "I'm glad you are okay."

Erin let out a nervous laugh and glanced around, "You guys sticking around for a while?"

Sam shrugged, "I don't know."

"Hey, you want to get something to eat? I haven't felt hungry since Derek got hurt and now that we know he's going to be fine I'm starving."

"Yeah, that sounds great," Sam said. He glanced to see Dean trying to keep Lady in her seat and figured his absence wouldn't be noticed.

The hospital cafeteria wasn't open but there was a fast food place within walking distance. "I didn't really get to thank you…for, uh, well, just talking to me," Erin said as they walked.

"It's cool. I know your family means a lot to you," Sam said.

"That thing you told me about Dean, you didn't say it but that was something spoken in confidence? You don't want other people to know, do you?" Erin asked.

Sam hadn't really thought it over then. "I guess it's no big secret, but…well, no one really likes to talk about it. Especially Dean."

"Does Lady know?" Erin asked with concern.

"Yeah, she does," Sam said. "I mean, of course she does. I wouldn't let Dean keep that from her, it's just not fair."

"She doesn't seem to mind," Erin muttered.

"Lady has it in her head that she wants to make Dean's last year his best, and if I'm honest the past few months Dean's been happier than ever. Just wish it'd last."

"I am really sorry, Sam," Erin said softly. "If there is anything we can do…just let us know."

Sam shook his head, "There just isn't. But thanks, I know you mean it."

"I do. We owe you guys a lot," she said. Erin stopped at the crosswalk and stuffed her hands in her pocket as they waited for the light to change. "And…sorry for falling asleep on you yesterday."

Sam let out a laugh, "That's okay, I, uh, didn't really mind it."

Erin joined his laugh and looked at him. She glanced at the light that was about to change and back at him, taking the short time they had she leaned to him and touched her lips to his.

Sam's face was cold and almost numb from the bitter wind, which was really unfair as he had difficulty feeling the kiss. It only lasted a few seconds, and when Erin leaned back she gave him a smile before leading him across the street.

XXXXX

Back at the hospital Dean was still waiting for Lady to get her chance to see Derek. Mason and one of his sons escorted her down the halls to the room, both of them were big enough to keep her in line in case she had one of her panic attacks at the hospital. Dean just hoped she wouldn't pull out a knife, he didn't have the money to bail her ass out of jail if she did.

"Do you need anything, Dean?" Maxine asked. "I can grab some blankets if you want to sleep on one of the couches."

Dean shook his head, "Nah, we're going to be leaving soon."

Maxine looked around briefly then at him, "I know you don't like me. And I bet there is nothing I can do to change your mind."

Dean nodded, "That about sums it up."

"You know, Dean, we're a lot alike," Maxine said stiffly. "We do everything we can to protect our families, even if it costs us our own life."

Dean didn't like how Maxine said it, as if she had some secret insight into his life. Which she very well might, Maxine wasn't as strong of a psychic as her predecessor but she probably knew plenty. "Maybe, but I don't betray my family. Blood or otherwise."

Maxine nodded once, "I know. You are stronger than me, you have faith in them. Even when you know things aren't quite right."

Dean frowned, "Want to cut through the bull?"

"Lady's struggle with Donovan isn't over. My vision changed to show she won't join him, but it might change again. What I do know is that it won't happen until after you die." Maxine looked at him sadly, "Yes, I've seen your death. And I've also seen the vision of Lady asking me to help you. I'll do what I can, but I don't know these dark forces you deal with very well."

Dean worked on unclenching his jaw as he glanced around to see if anyone was listening, but the rest of Maxine's family were ignoring them. "You want to help me? Just make sure that when I'm gone, Lady has a home. Somewhere safe, and a reason not to join up with that asshole Donovan."

"I will, I give you my oath as a medicine woman," Maxine promised and extended her hand. Dean shook on the agreement.

**December 3, 2007**

Lady and Dean got a room at the Casino and after catching up on sleep exhausted themselves to a stupor. The past few days were spent taking care of a few odds and ends, and looking for a new job so they could leave.

"I feel bad, Sam must be bored out of his mind here," Lady said as Dean packed his bag. Lady knew that the past few months with her hanging around had disrupted Sam and Dean's normal routines. She was aware that frequently Sam was left alone, when before he had Dean to hang out with.

"You kidding? He's been spending most of his time with Erin, I bet he's having a _blast_."

"What?" Lady said flatly.

Dean laughed, "You seriously didn't notice? Erin's got doe-eyes for Sammy."

"That's not funny," Lady said.

Dean frowned, "Why?"

"She's a kid!"

Dean laughed again, "So is Sam."

"I've known her since she was my height," Lady said. "She's a kid."

"I've known Sam since he was your height," Dean countered and quickly saw Lady wasn't letting it go. "What's the big deal?"

Lady didn't know how to explain it. She'd known Erin since she was just eleven years old. She had saved Erin and Carrie in Canada from being sacrifices, and had adored the little girls. Even when the little girls turned into six-foot tall teenagers.

Lady knew Sam was twenty-four, and while he was a few years younger than she was he always seemed like he was more mature and older than his age. But she thought about Sam, since she had known him he had a lot of admirable qualities. Qualities that she didn't find attractive by any means, he was just too sweet and gentle for someone like her. She knew Sam was very capable of being rough when it was necessary, but in general he was a compassionate gentleman.

If he hurt Erin she would be forced to kill him. Dean wouldn't be happy about that.

XXXXX

On most occasions Sam didn't mind when Dean and Lady disappeared for a day or two, holed up in a rented room. He usually spent his time researching, on new jobs or Dean's demon deal. Sometimes they did hang out together, maybe go to a movie or one time they had attended a concert. But usually Sam accepted that he was frequently a third-wheel in there strange group, and he had missed having a friend.

Erin was filling that role while he was in New Town.

Sam knew how long it had been since he'd taken a real interest in a woman. It had been Madison, the unfortunate werewolf, back in February. Not that other women hadn't sparked his interest, but he just hadn't had time to get to know any of them. He knew Dean rarely took time to get to know most of his flings, but Sam wasn't like that. He didn't see the appeal of sleeping with whoever he could get in bed.

As much as he liked Erin, he was quick to remind himself of several problems. All of which were his. He was already planning on leaving to Minnesota for a job, he didn't know how long it would take. And he didn't know if they'd come back this way. And he didn't want Erin to be waiting around and hoping for him to come back.

"Too bad you guys can't stay until Christmas," Erin said. "Mom bakes so much food she can feed half the state."

"I've already had so many sugar cookies in the shape of Santa Claus that I might need to have my stomach pumped," Sam joked. "It sounds great, but we have a job. We have to take care of it."

"If you guys let me I'll make sure to pack you up enough sugar cookies, fudge bars…basically enough goodies to make you and your brother sick and sugar high for a week," Erin smiled broadly.

"Erin, listen…I, uh, I've been having a good time hanging out with you but…" Sam began.

"But you're leaving, you don't know if you'll be back, and you want to make sure you don't lead me on?" Erin finished for him bluntly.

Sam grimaced, "You are better at that then Lady."

Erin laughed, "Sam, I understand what you guys do. I mean, not fully understand, of course. But I know how you and Dean are. You are nomads, and hunters. I don't expect anything from you. But I like hanging out with you. Not many white guys around here are my height." Erin let out a sigh, "You're very sweet, Sam. Not to sound weird, but you remind me of my father. Smart and kind, not afraid to fight and get dirty for your family. I admire that in you, and I don't see a lot of those qualities in people."

"Mason is great, being compared to him is a compliment," Sam said.

"If you were just seven inches taller, you'd be perfect," Erin said with a regretful sigh that quickly turned into a laugh.

Sam saw the Impala pull up into the driveway and he grabbed his bag. "I guess I'll see you around, Erin. Take care of yourself."

"You, too," she said, grabbing his hand before he could turn away and pulling him in for a final kiss.

Sam couldn't help but take enjoyment in it. Letting it linger and holding her there to make it last. He missed having someone to do this with.

"Okay, seriously, break it up," Lady said as she walked in.

Sam pulled back and quickly tasted his lips before turning to Lady. She gave him a strangely stern glare.

"Sam, before you go," Erin said, grabbing some Tupperware containers of Christmas cookies and other treats. "Merry Christmas."

"Thanks," he said. "I'm ready to go," He said to Lady.

"I'm going to say goodbye, I'll be out in a few minutes," Lady said. Lady watched him walk out the door and waited until she saw him get into the Impala before giving Erin a serious look. "Bad idea, kid."

Erin rolled her eyes, "Sam's not a kid, neither am I."

"No, but from my own personal experience, which I won't go into details because it is extensive and you don't need to learn how to slut around like I do…or used to, these things don't end well." Lady calmed down a bit. "You were safe, right?"

Erin's eyes went wide, "Lady, we didn't have sex."

"Why not?" Lady asked.

Erin rolled her eyes again and turned her back on Lady.

"Seriously? Sam isn't broken, is he? You aren't, are you?"

"Wow, this would only be more uncomfortable if my father was here," Erin let out a laugh.

"I can call Mason," Lady offered.

"No!" Erin said quickly. "Lady, nothing is wrong with Sam. Or me, for that matter. We talked, watched a few movies, cuddled, made out. That's it."

Lady frowned, "That's actually really lame. Hmph."

Satisfied that problems wouldn't arise because of Sam's close friendship with Erin, and a bit dissatisfied at the lack of interesting details, Lady pulled Erin into a final hug, "I'll be back when I can. Take care of Derek, call me if that Puca causes problems again."

"I will. Be careful out there, Lady," Erin said.


	99. New Years, Dec 2007 to Jan 2008

**A/N** – _This chapter mentions season 3 Episode 'Supernatural Christmas'. I decided to leave Lady out of it because it was a very brotherly episode that I didn't want her getting in the way of. And I didn't want to try and figure out a way to stuff her into it. Sorry for the big time gap, I had an idea for another monster encounter before this but I decided to skip it so I can get back to the Winchester's storyline. I hope now that I can focus on some of the season's episodes I can write faster. But I want to let you guys know that the next chapter might be delayed because I'm going out of town later this week, I won't be home for the weekend. I'm doing my best, though! Enjoy this bit of fluff._

**December 31, 2007**

After their trip to Minnesota turned out to be nothing the trio searched around for new jobs until deciding to take a break and hang out at Bobby's house. It had been Dean's idea. Go somewhere that was comfortable for all of them, the closest thing they had to a home. It had seemed like a good thing to do, considering Christmas was sneaking up on them. But before he even got comfortable Sam found a case for them in Michigan. Lady stayed behind at Bobby's to help him out with a few things.

In Michigan the brothers came across two Pagan gods that were taking sacrifices. Dean managed to talk Sam into having a mediocre Christmas, both of them knowing it would be Dean's last. After finishing in Michigan they made the drive to North Dakota where they met Lady.

Lady had spent Christmas day with Bobby, preferring his subdued attitude toward the holiday to the Mason's. And to Dean's. But afterward she had driven to North Dakota to see Derek, who was now out of the hospital, and to work on a few things with Maxine. She was hoping to find a permanent solution to keeping Donovan away from the ley lines in Maxine's territory. However work was frequently interrupted by family business. The Mason's loved any excuse they got to gather together. Derek being out of the hospital and the holidays were two excellent excuses.

Dean and Sam arrived early in the afternoon New Years Eve, going straight to Mason's house where Lady was. They hadn't expected to see cars filling up the driveway out onto the gravel road, but weren't surprised to see a large gathering either.

Lady came out of the house and ran up to them, "Hey guys!" She called happily.

Sam planted his feet as Lady jumped into his arms and he narrowly avoided slipping on the slick ground as he returned her hug. "Wow, you do anything but eat while you were here?" Sam grunted in a joke.

"Shut up!" Lady pinched him.

Lady gave Dean a sweet smile as she slowly walked to him, and grinned when he moved to meet her and lift her in his arms. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she met his mouth full on. She missed having easy access to him every day, phone calls weren't enough. "I missed you," she mumbled around his mouth as he continued to kiss her.

Lady let out a shuddering breath as he squeezed her a bit tighter, and happily kissed him back until she was oblivious to everything else.

Sam had to clear his throat several times, and when a few of the Mason's stepped out onto the porch, a couple of them small children that really shouldn't have to see that, he said loudly, "Guys!"

Dean gave Lady a smug grin as he pulled back from the kiss. "Good to see you again," he said teasingly. "You get anything done?"

Lady nodded, "Sort of. Maxine and I found some _really_ old things of Max's, and she's trying to figure out how Max originally bound the Goddess within the ley lines."

Dean looked intrigued, "And do the same thing with Donovan? You think you can pull it off?"

"No idea, but it's a work in progress," Lady said as they walked to the house.

Mason's house was full of activity. All of their children and grandchildren seemed to be there. The moment Lady entered several small children ran forward, a few hugging her legs and all of them calling her name.

"Give me ten minutes," Lady said as she tried to walk with a toddler attached to her calf.

"We want more!" one little kid whined loudly.

"I need to recharge!" Lady said, pulling a watch out of her pocket. "Ten minutes, time me."

Satisfied to have a trinket to hold onto, whether or not they were old enough to tell time, they ran off again. Lady led the brothers into the only empty room on the first floor, Mason's office. Derek and Maxine were in there. Derek was still in a wheelchair.

"Hey, man, how you feeling?" Sam asked.

"Be a while until I'm dancing, but I'm doing good," Derek said. "I almost wish I was still in the hospital, though. I had nurses fighting over who got to give me a sponge bath."

Dean chuckled at that, "Right on."

"I hope you guys don't mind taking a look at something," Maxine said. "Lady and I were talking…well, she was talking and I heard some of it…"

Dean snorted a laugh, he knew how that went. He wiped the smirk off his face with the sharp glare Lady gave him.

"Anyway," Maxine continued, "She told me about the giant Devil's Trap in Wyoming, made with railway lines?"

"Uh, yeah, the one that guarded the hell gate," Sam nodded. After a section of the iron rails that had kept demons out had been destroyed they had managed to weakly repair them to keep others from reopening the gate.

"I want to see if I can make one here," Maxine said. "Derek, can you pull up the map?"

Derek tapped on the keyboard until a satellite map of the countryside came up. Sam and Dean looked over the map and shrugged. "With the lake I don't see how you can make a five-pointed star. But you can still place iron and it will keep the demons from getting in, doesn't really matter what shape you use. Why are you worried about demons?" Sam looked up at her.

"I just want to make sure I do everything I can to keep myself and others safe here," Maxine said, giving Dean a brief glance.

Dean understood immediately, and he even liked the idea. Lady was unpopular with demons, if it wasn't for her own knowledge of witchcraft and even Donovan's assistance she would have died a few times. "You should get in touch with Bobby. He's handy as hell, can probably get you guys some scrap iron to use," Dean suggested.

"You'd need heavy equipment, welders," Sam continued and shook his head. "It'd take forever to do. And be expensive as hell."

"I don't think we'd have to worry about a source of iron," Derek said. "The bridge in town is being dismantled since the new bridge just opened up. It was built almost entirely of iron, and they are looking for buyers. Hell, if we dig far enough we can probably find a relative who invested in the original bridge and get some of it for free."

"As for equipment, one of our brothers owns a construction company," Maxine said. "So, you guys think we can pull it off?"

Dean nodded, "Yeah, sounds like you probably can."

At the door several rapid knocks sounded, "Lady! Lady! It's been ten minutes!"

"Ah, hell," Lady uttered. "Okay, I got to go. You guys can stay in here to avoid the crowd."

Lady left the office and was assaulted by a swarm of ankle-biters and dragged into the full living room.

Sam took an interest in the rough draft of the protection and leaned over Derek to go over a few details. Dean, however, had lost his interest in that already. It was a good idea, especially when the Mason's had the money to fund it and the manpower to pull it off. But it wasn't something he had the knowledge to contribute to. He followed Lady out. He was stopped halfway down the hall by Charlie who put a beer into his hand and struck up a short conversation about cars. By the time he reached the living room he saw why the children had been so eager to get Lady to themselves.

Lady was doing card tricks.

Dean had seen a few tricks before, and had always figured them out quickly. He knew how the tricks worked. Some slight of hand, a little distraction. He didn't find them amusing, but he was impressed with how quick Lady's hands were.

The children were in complete awe of it. Dean wasn't sure if it was how Lady made them believe she made a card appear from thin air into her hand, or her showmanship. If there was anything Lady was better at doing than lying it was flaunting. Her face was animated with extreme expressions. She seemed to be having as much fun performing as the kids who were watching. And she kept it up tirelessly. Repeating previous tricks when requested, making up new ones on the spot, until Greta ordered everyone to sit down for supper.

Lady let a little fatigue show as she got a break, but quickly went to help Greta serve supper. Since Derek returned from the hospital it had been like this, the whole family together to see Derek and be together for the holidays. She nearly forgot Dean and Sam were there until she saw Sam and Erin sitting together at the table.

Lady found Dean and got him a chair next to her and tried to keep up with the chatter. She had missed the Mason's. Mostly because when she was with them there was often a crowd of friendly people, and it often turned to chaos. Safe chaos, like Clark Junior throwing his potatoes at his sister.

After supper most of the people left to go home and put the youngest children to bed. Lady, along with Carrie and Maxine, helped Greta clean up. Dean went out to the porch to have a beer with Mason and Charlie. Sam and Erin were in the living room talking.

Sam had given her a brief story to what they had come across in Michigan, and Erin was impressed and even in awe. "I mean, I know those things exist but…wow, actual _gods_. Pagan or otherwise, that's incredible."

"Not the first time we've come across them," Sam said.

"I know, wasn't Lady technically one once?" Erin asked.

"I suppose," Sam said. He let out a short laugh, "Did Lady ever tell you about the Trickster?"

"No, she didn't tell a lot of stories," Erin said.

"Loki, Norse God of Mischief. She got turned into a Chihuahua."

"You're kidding," Erin said flatly.

Sam let out a laugh, "I'm not. I took pictures, but she deleted them."

Erin laughed loudly, "That's, wow. I can't even imagine."

Sam shrugged, "There are a lot of things out there. So, you still trying to do the hunting thing?"

Erin made a face, "With everything, I don't know…I want to help. But I actually enrolled in college."

"That's great," Sam said. "With Carrie?"

"No, actually Florida," Erin said. "Derek and I are going together. He's going to finish getting his degree, and I suppose I'll play around and see what I like. It just…well, I want to be able to help him out. He's going to be in the wheelchair for a while, at least six months. He can't drive yet, and he needs someone to help him with physical therapy. I figure it's the least I can do."

"I understand the guilt, but college is a big step. Make sure you are making the choice for yourself," Sam said.

Erin nodded, "I know. And I am. I mean, I wanted to go to college here in North Dakota. I like being close to my parents, and believe it or not I actually like the snow. But at the same time who knows when I'll get another chance to explore a bit? Classes start on the seventh, but Derek and I are driving there so we're leaving in a couple of days. I already started packing."

"That's good, I'm happy for you," Sam said sincerely.

Erin glanced at her watch and stood up, "It's almost time. Come on."

Sam smiled as she took his hands and pulled him off the couch, leading him outside. The house emptied and the group spread out on the porch and the lawn. Down at the dock a few people lit fireworks and there was a loud countdown as the time neared midnight.

It was timed perfectly, the same time the fireworks exploded in the air the group shouted, "Happy New Year!"

Sam wasn't entirely confident when he looked at Erin. It was hard to ignore the feelings he had for her, knowing she reciprocated, and he gently took her face in his hands to give her a traditional New Years kiss that she quickly returned. When the kiss ended Erin look at him, "You know, if you need place to stay tonight my house is empty. And you wouldn't have to stay there alone."

Sam rested his forehead against hers. Since she was moving to Florida he probably wouldn't get another chance to see her. He didn't want to have that sort of fling, but at the same time he was still a man and it was hard as hell to resist. "Okay," he agreed, smiling as she pressed her lips against his quickly. She took his hand and led him down the long line of cars until they found hers, and they left together.

Dean had a difficult time appreciating the fireworks or Lady's mouth moving against his as reality hit him. 2008 was finally here, and the countdown to the end of his life was closing in. It wasn't scaring him, but it wasn't peaceful, either. "Let's get out of here," Dean breathed, holding Lady close.

"Okay," she said. "I still have the room at the hotel, unless you are too tired to go back into town."

"I'm not tired," Dean said. "See you, guys," Dean waved to Charlie and Mason.

Lady let out a yawn as Dean began driving out of the country. "Oh, no you don't," Dean said as he fought back a yawn of his own.

"I'm sorry, I've been up since dawn," Lady said, trying to stifle another yawn. Dean's hand went between her back and the seat, automatically she slid across the seat to lean next to him. "Did you have a nice time tonight?" she asked.

"Yeah," Dean admitted. "Sort of got a kick out of your magic tricks. Only trick you do for me is making my money disappear."

Lady laughed, "I've been helping Greta with the babysitting the past few days."

"You seemed to enjoy it," Dean said. "At any rate, not half bad at keeping rugrats entertained."

"Kids are easy," Lady said.

"You ever going to have any?"

"Any what?" Lady asked, and then laughed. "Kids? Me? Ha!"

"What?" Dean had asked the question seriously. "Not that I know much, but you seemed to like the kids." Seeing Lady interacting with the munchkins it had looked pretty natural. And having kids was the normal process for people. Obviously she wouldn't be having any with him, but after he died Lady had plenty of time to start over and have a new life. Hell, she didn't even have to wait until he died, but he knew she had no intention of leaving him early. At least at this moment, but she could always change her mind.

"Not in the cards for me," Lady said.

Dean let it go. They were both dragging their feet a bit as they went up the stairs to Lady's hotel room. Once they were inside Lady pulled Dean in for a kiss and helped him out of his jacket. She felt her fatigue be replaced by excitement.

"Mm, wait," Dean pulled back.

"I've been waiting over a week," Lady said, dragging her lips down his neck.

Dean grabbed her face in his hands and brought her mouth back to his, and she could feel longing passion building up in his kiss. She knew she wasn't the only one who'd been waiting. Letting them go to Michigan without her had seemed like a good idea at the time. But she missed having easy access to Dean.

"I have something for you," Dean said in a low voice.

"I bet you do," Lady said, pressing her hips to his.

"That isn't what I meant, but that too," he chuckled.

Lady was confused as to what else Dean could possibly mean, and was surprised when he reached into his pocket. He pulled out a butterfly knife and with nimble fingers fanned it open, and then closed before offering it to her.

"You bitched forever that Gordon swiped your old one. I saw it in the pawn shop while we were getting rid of some of the things those Pagan's had in their house," Dean said, smiling at the look in her eyes. It didn't quite match the look she got when she found a pair of shoes she'd like to have but it was close.

Lady was momentarily speechless as she took the knife and tested it out herself. It opened fluidly and silently, the edge nicely sharpened. It was a brighter steel than her old one, but she liked it. Loved it, really. But she quickly became confused. Dean and her didn't give gifts. She hadn't been ignorant to Christmas, the Mason's celebrated it loudly and shared gifts. But she hadn't thought she actually had to participate with anyone. "I didn't get you anything."

"That's fine, I'll take whatever is in your pants," Dean said with a grin, pulling her to him and moving his hand down her back to cup her butt. "Stop playing with the knife."

Lady dropped the knife on her bag and got back to the fun of playing with Dean.

XXXXX

Sam's heart thudded in his chest as they reached Erin's house. "I'm sorry it's a mess, Carrie has been staying with me. She's a total slob," Erin said, looking a bit nervous.

"Erin, we can just watch TV, or go to sleep…" Sam said.

Erin quieted him with another kiss. Her hand moved across his chest, feeling his pounding heart. She led him to the bedroom and shrugged out of her jacket. "You mind if I light some candles?" Erin asked, wanting to have some light to see by but didn't want the actual bedroom light on.

"Yeah, sure," Sam said, watching her a few moments before taking off his jacket and kicking off his shoes.

After Erin set a few lit candles on the nightstand she went to him and took his face in her hands. Sam's hands circled her trim waist, his fingers slipping under the hem of her shirt to feel smooth skin. The palms of his hands moved over her skin as he lifted her shirt over her head. Erin laughed as her long hair briefly covered her face. "Sorry," Sam said, helping her smooth the long hair back.

"It's okay," Erin giggled.

Sam pulled his shirt off and his muscles quivered as Erin ran her fingertips over his abdomen and up his chest, lightly moving over his tattoo. Sam moved them to the bed, losing Erin's bra on the way there and getting his own pants unbuttoned.

Erin shoved over the blankets on the bed and laid down, pulling Sam with her. Her breath quickened as his hands moved over her bare torso and his mouth moved down her neck. She raised her hips so he could remove her jeans, his hands moving down her long legs that gave her most of her height.

"You're so beautiful," Sam breathed in her ear before kissing it.

Erin's face warmed at the compliment and the way his touch made her feel. She waited between the sheets as Sam discarded his jeans and unwrapped a condom that had been in his wallet so long it probably collected dust. When he was ready Erin pulled him close, wrapping her long limbs around him and kissing him. Sam moved slowly, pressing his hips into hers.

Erin's breath hitched as Sam began to move rhythmically inside her. She ran her hands through his shaggy dark hair and over his arms, squeezing slightly as she let out a quiet moan. She lifted her chin as Sam kissed her collarbone, making her suck in a quick gasp as he gently nibbled at the skin there. Erin began to raise her hips to meet him as the sensations grew, running her hands down his back and holding him close as pleasure spiked through her body. Both of them let out soft moans while their muscles contracted around one another.

Erin smiled as she rested against Sam, her fingertips lazily moving across his sculpted torso. "That was incredible," she said, pressing her lips against his shoulder in a kiss.

"That was fantastic," Sam agreed, moving his hand up and down her arm. He turned his head and blew out the candle on the nightstand, bathing them in darkness as they fell asleep in each other's arms.

Sam woke up with the sun shining through the blinds and gently tightened his hold on Erin. Erin stretched and opened her eyes, "Mm, good morning," she said.

"Good morning," he repeated, his eyes moving from hers to her lips.

Erin pressed her lips together and giggled a bit, "I'd kiss you, but I have morning breath."

"I do too, so I think in that case we cancel each other's out and that's okay," Sam said, moving her closer to take that kiss. He had forgotten how it felt to wake up next to a beautiful woman and he wasn't ready to give that up.

They both froze mid-kiss when they heard a noise within the house. Sam tensed at first, almost ready to grab his gun when he heard his brother, "Sammy? Rise and shine, pal."

Only seconds after announcing his presence Dean opened the bedroom door. "Dean, get out!" Sam ordered as Erin tightly wrapped the sheet around herself.

"Whoa!" Dean took a step back at the couple in bed, "Heh, sorry about this…this is awkward, _real_ awkward…"

"Dean, get out!" Erin snapped.

"Sorry," Dean said with a nod, grabbing the door and closing it.

"Oh my God," Erin breathed, and then pulled her head under the sheets.

"I am so sorry," Sam apologized.

Erin started laughing and unveiled her head from the sheet, "At least it was your brother instead of one of mine."

Sam grimaced at the thought of that happening, "I better get going."

"You want to stay for breakfast?" Erin asked.

Sam didn't want to leave at all, and any excuse he got to stay a bit longer he took, "Yeah, I'd like that."

After a shower and breakfast Sam called Dean to be picked up. Sam exited the house the moment the Impala pulled into the driveway, wanting to spare Erin his brother's comments.

"One word, Dean, I'll kill you," Sam warned as he got into the car.

Lady leaned forward, "One word about what?"

"Nothing, Sam's just pissed I woke him up from his beauty sleep," Dean said.

Sam glanced back at Lady who looked satisfied with that answer and then to Dean with surprise.

Before Sam could think about it too much Dean said, "Remember that cop that let us escape custody in Baltimore? She called Bobby looking for us, got a strange case that no one can explain. She asked if we could come down and take a look, I told her we're on our way."

"Okay," Sam said.

Dean pulled into Charlie Mason's driveway and turned to look at Lady, "Take your time, babe."

"I'll just be a few minutes," Lady promised, getting out of the car and quickly walking up to the door.

Dean pointed, "She's just saying goodbye to Derek and Carrie, then we're heading out. Unless you'd rather stay."

"I knew this was coming," Sam muttered.

"Knew what was coming?" Dean asked.

"You being you," Sam answered.

"Sam, you seem to like the girl. If you want to hang out here, take a short vacation, Lady and I can go to Maryland without you. It's fine."

Sam looked at Dean with surprise, understanding he was serious about the offer. "Thanks, but uh, her and Derek are leaving in a couple of days. They are both moving to Florida."

Dean frowned a bit, "Sorry, man."

Sam just shrugged. "You really didn't tell Lady?"

"Lady is nuttier than one of Greta's fruitcakes. I have to put up with it, she's my girlfriend. I figure you deserve to be spared of some of it. None of her business. None of mine, either and I could have died without seeing that."

Sam got to experience a rare sort of pride in his older brother. He had expected jabs, requests for details, wagging eyebrows and a snarky grin. Not to mention he expected Dean to have eagerly shared the information with Lady so she could join him, she shared his sense of humor. But Dean was letting him off the hook. "That's real cool, man, thanks."

"Besides, if Lady finds out Erin has been slumming it with you she might lose her respect for the girl," Dean added with a smirk.

Sam let out a laugh as Dean returned to normal.

"I came up with, like, ten twin jokes," Dean grinned. "And a few Pocahontas ones."

Lady came out of Charlie's house and jogged back to the car. "Okay, I'm ready to go."

"You sure you got everything?" Dean asked as he backed out of the driveway.

"Yup!" She said, leaning forward. "Did you have a good time last night, Sam? The fireworks were pretty rad, right?"

"Yeah, it was great," Sam said, ignoring Dean's smirk.

"Good. I missed you, big guy," Lady said, reaching over and giving his shoulder a squeeze.

"Thanks, Lady," Sam said. He leaned back in his seat and got comfortable for the long drive.

**A/N** – _Song for this chapter:_

_My December, by Linkin Park_


	100. Malleus Maleficarum, January 2008

**January 7, 2008**

Lady dressed in a plain gray pencil skirt, flat shoes with nylons, a plain white blouse with a plain gray blazer. "I look like a school teacher," she said in a small voice.

"Yeah, you do," Dean agreed as she clipped her dark hair back.

Lady had known, for a long time, that she worked differently than Sam and Dean. And that was fine. What they did worked for them. What she did worked for her. She never saw a problem with it, and didn't think they had a problem with it. Until Dean made some forged badges and gave her cash to get something to wear that looked professional.

Lady suddenly wondered why she had gone along with it. "Dean, I don't think this is going to work."

"Sure it will," he said, giving her a wide smile. "C'mon, you play people for fools all the time. This is no different."

Lady's eyes moved to the door and a moment later Sam knocked loudly. "Come in," she called.

Sam walked in, dressed in his suit and tie. He even looked comfortable in it. "Just got back from the morgue with Detective Ballard, the body is a mess. No identifiable cause of death, but all of her teeth were gone."

"Did someone take them?" Lady asked.

"No, most of them were retrieved," Sam said.

Dean stopped lagging and slipped his tie around his neck, "Is where she died clear so we can check it out?"

"Her husband is there," Sam answered. "He was there when she died, too, but she was locked in the bathroom. He didn't see much."

Dean looked through his box of fake IDs and pulled out a couple, "Think we should go in as FBI?"

"I was thinking CDC," Sam said.

"Can do," Dean said, dropping one badge and stuffing the other in the inside pocket of his suit jacket.

"I'll be a few minutes, I'll meet you guys in the car," Sam said.

Lady turned her back to the door and doubled-checked herself. The only nice thing about the whole outfit was the blazer hid the shoulder-holster she liked to use to keep her pistol. She paused in checking her gun when she felt Dean's breath on the back of her neck, the next moment his lips brushed across it. "What are you doing?" She asked.

"Just feeling a little hot for teacher," he said, moving his hands down her hips.

Lady leaned away, "I don't think I'll pull this off very well with a hickey."

Dean let out a breath, "Okay, I get that you aren't into this. If you want to stay here while Sam and I talk to the guy, it's fine. We'll fill you in once we're done."

"No, I want to give this a shot," Lady said, turning to face him. "I'll just hang back and be observant."

"You sure?" Dean asked, searching her face.

"Positive," she said, flashing him a smile.

"Alright then, let's go, schoolteacher," Dean said.

Lady followed him out. She didn't want to play a stupid role of a CDC investigator or whatever they were called. But she wanted to see where the woman had died and check it out. Like her mind did in every single case she thought of witchcraft, but had learned better to not voice her opinion until more facts were gathered because most of the time she was wrong.

The victim was a woman named Janet, her husband Paul had been home and unable to help her. Not that there was much to do when someone's teeth just started popping out of their mouth like jumping beans. When they reached the house Paul was obviously still upset but like a good citizen was cooperative when Sam said they were trying to help him.

Dean got them access to the couple's bedroom and master bathroom, where the woman died. He kept Paul busy with questions while Lady's eyes wandered looking for evidence of witchcraft.

Lady stepped into the bathroom under the pretense of looking for evidence that may have been overlooked. It was clean of blood, which was too bad. A lot of things can be said about blood that was spilt before death, depending on the type of magic. She looked at the medicine cabinet, nothing out of the ordinary. In fact it was very tame, the strongest medication was an expired bottle of Vicodin. She knelt down and looked under the sink. Some cleaning products, a few red smudges that were more likely rust than blood…and a little sack.

She pocketed the small bag and stepped out of the bathroom, waiting impatiently as Dean and Sam continued interrogating the witness. She didn't want to interrupt, but she also wanted to open the bag and see what was inside. Already she had a good idea of what she'd find, but it was like unwrapping a present. She didn't want to wait.

Dean saw the look in her eye and knew she had found something. He wrapped up the conversation with Paul and led them outside to the car. "What'd you find?"

Lady pulled the bag out of her pocket. It fit in the palm of her hand easily, "Hex bag."

"Uck," Dean grimaced as Lady untied it and poked through the contents. "Witches."

"Bird bones and rabbit's teeth. The cloth was probably something Janet owned," Lady said. "This is serious black magic. Not from the coven, either."

"I hate witches," Dean muttered as he got into the car. He started up the Impala and pulled out onto the street. "They're always spewing their bodily fluids everywhere. It's creepy, you know, and it's down right unsanitary."

Lady straightened in the backseat, "Excuse me?"

"Now we got to hunt down some blair bitch in the woods," Dean continued.

"Uh…Dean?" Sam looked at his brother.

"What?" Dean asked. Lady hit him over the back of the head. "Ow! What the hell…I'm driving! Stop that!"

"You weren't complaining about my bodily fluids earlier, you prick!" Lady smacked him again.

"Ow! Stop! Lady, you aren't a witch!" Dean said, trying to get out of Lady's reach which was surprisingly long.

"Technically, she is," Sam said.

"We've known each other two years, Dean, are you still so much of an idiot about witchcraft?" Lady snapped.

"Are you done assaulting me?" Dean shouted. "Jesus Christ!" Dean rubbed his head, she had gotten a few good smacks in. Though she probably hurt her hand more than she hurt his head. "Okay, how do we find the witch?"

"Look in the rear view mirror," Sam said.

"Lady isn't a witch," Dean said darkly.

"Hex bags are nasty," Lady said, glaring between the two brothers from her spot in the backseat. "But they have a lot of limits."

"So we're thinking within a mile? Two miles? What?" Dean asked.

"Oh, not that kind of limit. They could be in Tibet to invoke the magic in the hex bag," Lady said. "But I seriously doubt it. They'd want to know the person, when the person would be within range of being affected by the hex bag, close enough to have pieces of the person to focus over any sort of distance. In my opinion it is not a good way to kill someone. Bullet in the head, much faster and cheaper."

"Yeah, we know how you prefer to work," Sam said. "Did you notice how Paul flinched when he asked if he had any enemies? Someone who'd like to see Janet hurt?"

"He may know something," Dean muttered.

"What was Janet's time of death?" Lady asked.

"Between nine and ten at night," Sam answered and studied Lady's frown. "What?"

"Just trying to make sense of it, why they weren't using the witching hour," Lady muttered. "It's going to be a pain in the ass trying to find the witch, though."

"I don't think we'll need to go looking for the needle in the haystack," Dean said. "I say we keep an eye on Paul. He knows something more, he might lead us to the witch without even knowing it."

They stopped at the motel to change since they were nearly there anyway, and went back to staking out Paul's house.

While they were parked Dean turned a bit in his seat and hung his left arm over the back of his seat so his fingertips touched Lady's knee to test the water and see if she was still violently upset over what he had said about witches. Lady had half a mind to twist his arm, but she was a sucker for Dean's gentle touch when he felt like sharing it. She took his hand in hers and ignored the pleased-near-smugness smile she could see on the side of his face.

For most of the afternoon Paul stayed at home, but left in the evening. He stopped at a funeral home, most likely making arrangements for his wife. Then a stop at a local church, perhaps more arrangements or counseling for himself. He then went to go to a fast food place and picked up a late supper through the window before driving to an empty parking lot.

"I'm kinda hungry," Lady muttered.

"Shoulda said something ten minutes ago when we were near Wendy's," Dean said. "I think there are some breakfast bars or something beneath the seat."

"Those are mine," Sam said.

Dean rubbed his eyes tiredly, "God, it's like traveling with children."

"You hand Lady a bag of chips and it's gone in ten minutes. She's like a dog, she doesn't stop," Sam said in defense of his food.

"I'm getting a little sick of you talking about my eating habits," Lady said flatly. "I have a healthy appetite. If you want to talk about diets we should take a look at you. I don't know what the hell you are eating but..."

"Hey, shut up!" Dean snapped, putting the car into gear and sending the Impala surging forward.

Lady looked forward and saw where Dean's urgency came from. Paul had gotten out of his car and was on his hands and knees. Dean pulled up beside his car, braking roughly. Lady got out of the car and saw that Paul appeared to be choking. She faintly smelled dandelions and blood. "It's a curse," Lady warned the brothers while going to Paul's side. She went through his pockets as he clung to her, trying to get help as his air was choked off.

"Check the car!" Dean ordered as he pulled Paul's hands from Lady, trying to keep him still as she checked him.

Sam looked under the dash of Paul's car and found another hex bag immediately, "Got it!" he said, getting out of the car and putting a lighter to the bag. At first the flames ignited in a dark blue hue, but the flames brightened and flickered to green as the magic in the hex bag was burned.

Paul sucked in a grateful breath when the curse was broken and Dean helped him to his feet. He leaned against the car, still gasping for breath.

"You okay?" Dean asked him.

"What the hell is happening to me?" Paul asked, rubbing his chest.

"Someone murdered your wife and now they are trying to kill you, that's what's happening," Dean said.

Lady poked around the ashes of the hex bag with her knife, seeing fragments of bone that survived. "Paul, who wants you dead?" she asked, standing up straight.

"I...uh...no, no one," Paul shook his head.

"Think," Lady said firmly. "They are probably shady or a little nuts. They may have strange tattoos or strange books. We're trying to help you, but we need help finding the witch."

"Witch?" Paul looked at her with wide eyes. He swallowed hard, "There was a woman. An affair, a mistake. She was unbalanaced, she was blackmailing me and I put an end to it a few weeks ago."

"Name and address," Dean demanded to know.

"Amanda Burns. She lives on Mayfair Circle...uh, house number 309," Paul said.

"We'll take care of it," Sam promised the man.

Lady got back into the Impala and checked her pistol. "I think you guys should let me go in first," she said as Dean began driving.

"I get this is your thing but..." Dean began.

"She'll know the curse was broken," Lady said. "She might be expecting someone to be coming. A witch with a warning is dangerous, it means they have time to prepare."

Dean parked a block away from the house and they walked through the alley to avoid suspicious as they neared the house. Dean picked the lock and pulled out his gun. Lady went in first, her footsteps nearly silent as she crept forward. When she reached the living room she frowned, a woman was face-down on the coffee table in a pool of blood. "It's clear," Lady called over her shoulder.

Sam and Dean entered and cautiously put away their weapons. Dean knelt over the body, seeing slashes on the forearms. "Three per wrist, vertical. She wasn't foolin' around," Dean muttered.

Lady only looked at the body long enough to be sure she was dead before she looked at what Amanda had been working with. She tugged a binder out from beneath the body and flipped through pages of recipes of black magic. "This is...well, sort of Betty Crocker meets Charles Manson. I've never seen a witch so clean and organized," Lady muttered. "The pages are covered in plastic, which is a freaking brilliant idea."

"Glad you are impressed," Dean muttered, turning to examine more of the area but jumped back as he almost walked face-first into a dead rabbit that was hanging from the ceiling. "Oh God! Freaking witches!" He shouted in surprise.

"Lady, I don't get why she would kill herself," Sam muttered.

"This sort of magic isn't easy on the psyche," Lady said. "When the curse blew up in her face she might have panicked and decided to do the job before we could." Lady frowned a bit and knelt below the coffee table that Amanda's body collapsed on. "Or, we could be dealing with a coven," Lady said as she recovered another hex bag.

"Serious?" Dean grimaced as Lady opened the bag and dumped the contents into the palm of her hand. "Why are witches ganking each other?"

"Why not?" Lady countered. "Most people who get into black magic are suckers for power. And people like that always want to be the most powerful. Quickest way to do that is get rid of competition." Lady snickered a bit, "Stupid witches. I don't see any protection from curses anywhere in here."

"I'm glad you are having fun. So, guess we need to burn all of this, right?" Dean asked.

Lady shook her head, "This is all Satanic black magic," Lady said. "It's like a sucker punch, fast and hard. But none of this leaves any residual magic. Nice suburban neighborhood, let the police find her like this. Slit wrists and occult items all around, it'll take years for people to stop talking about it."

"And get the other members of the coven something to think about," Sam said.

"Exactly," Lady gave him a smile. She tucked the book of spells under her arm, which could be dangerous if someone decided to use it, and left with the brothers.

They went back to the motel, planning to get some sleep before they went out again to see if they could pin down other members of the coven. Dean sat in a chair, rubbing his tired eyes, "Fucking witches," he mumbled, trying to get the sight of Amanda's blood pool out of his mind.

"Pretty much," Lady said as she found a comfortable t-shirt to wear to bed. "Hey, at least it isn't Donovan."

"You sure it isn't? That hex bag went up in blue fire," Dean said.

Lady put her pistol on the nightstand along with her knife, "Satanic magic is useless to Donovan."

"Yeah, I suppose it is," Dean muttered as Lady pulled her jeans off and stuffed them in her bag.

Lady fished in her bag and pulled out several baby-food jars that held different herbs and pieces. She had gotten the idea to use them one day she had helped Greta babysit the grandchildren. There were tons of tiny glass jars that were just being thrown away, and Lady rescued them and put them to good use so she could easily carry some dried herbs without having them prematurely crushed into dust. She looked at a silver bowl she had dug out of the Impala's trunk and satisfied it wasn't dirty began adding a few things. Once she was done she put the bowl under the bed. "Okay, let's go."

"Go where?" Dean looked up at her in confusion.

"You are so cute when you are dense," Lady said, wiggling her hips as she walked to him. She rubbed her hands over his shoulder in a firm massage before tugging him a bit toward the bed. Her hands moved to his neck to pull his face to his.

Dean kept the kiss short, "Why do you have a bowl of Houdoo under the bed?"

"It is not Houdoo. And I'm making a counter curse," Lady said.

"I figured that much out by myself," Dean said. Lady's knowledge of witchcraft far surpassed his own, but he recognized enough of what she was doing. But he didn't understand why it was now under the bed he planned on sleeping in.

"Well if it stays on the bed we'll likely knock it over," Lady said in an obvious tone.

Dean pulled back from her. Maybe he didn't know everything needed about witchcraft but he knew enough to be wary of it. He trusted whatever Lady was doing was for a benefit to them, but he wasn't comfortable with something brewing underneath his bed where it could potentially burst into flames, draw in something wicked or anything possibly unpleasant. "Why is it under the bed?" He asked.

"It's just part of the ritual, perfectly safe," Lady said with a smile.

"Okay, the mixing stuff up in the hotel room, that's fine," Dean said. "Rituals in here, you need to let me know. These things backfire on occasion."

Lady gave him a cute smile, "I think you'll like this ritual, Dean." Her hands went to his jeans and pulled his hips toward her while she stretched her neck to reach his mouth.

Dean briefly took the distraction of her kiss but only for a moment. "Wait. What ritual?" Dean asked.

"If you are tired I'll do all the work," Lady offered.

Dean's brain ticked for a few moments before he abruptly pulled away, "Whoa, no! No! I draw the line at ritualistic sex."

"Nothing to it. Don't even have to light candles," Lady said cheerily.

"Not the point," Dean said, reaching down to retrieve the bowl.

"Hey, don't mess with that," Lady complained.

"This is not normal," Dean said.

"Not normal? Dean, we live out of hotel rooms and abandoned buildings," Lady said. "What part of us is normal?"

"Absolutely nothing," Dean agreed. "But this is not even close to okay with me."

Lady frowned as she took the bowl from his hand before he could dump the contents. "Okay, Dean, it isn't a big deal. No different than any other time. Hell, it doesn't even have to be good. Just a little sexual energy can charge up a protection spell, it can block a satanic spell. Easy peasy!" Lady gave him a happy smile that showed her teeth for effect.

"Easy. Peasy?" Dean glared at her. "Lady..." He shook his head. "No."

Lady studied his face for several moments, trying to find the best way to get what she wanted. Not finding anything easy she carefully explained, "Dean, it isn't a big deal. This is..." Lady paused as she realized telling him the ritual was based off of Satanic orgies was a bad idea. "I'm the witchcraft expert, trust me," she said instead with a flashy smile.

Dean shook his head. Mixing magic and sex wasn't unheard of, in fact it was pretty damn popular. And he wasn't jumping into that. "No way in hell."

"You having sex with me is a lot quicker and cleaner than me going out to find a goat," Lady advised.

Dean's eyes widened, "Please say you mean to sacrifice a goat, and not have sex with it."

Lady looked thoughtful, "I meant killing one, but you know what either way might work. Hm."

"Lady, no to both," Dean said. "I just want to go to sleep so we can get back on the case in the morning."

Lady let out a huff of breath in defeat, "Okay," she agreed and climbed into bed. "I think we should at least make out for a while."

"Sure you want to make out with me? Or do I need to find you a goat?" Dean joked as he shut off the lights. Lady let out a happy giggle as Dean found her under the blankets and pulled her close in the darkness.

**January 8, 2008**

In the morning Lady went out to get coffee and breakfast. The brothers went to talk with the neighbors, leaving her behind to look through Amanda's satanic cookbook. They came back in the afternoon.

"I think we found the coven," Dean said as he tugged the knot loose from his tie. "Three of them. Sam and I are on our way to the library to look into them. Freaking Desperate Housewives meet Anton LeVay, this is sick."

"You met them but didn't kill them?" Lady questioned.

"Sort of hard to gank three women on the driveway of a nice residential area," Dean said flatly. "Besides, we aren't positive yet."

"Well I haven't found anything too interesting," Lady said, holding up the book. "I need to go to a grocery store and a greenhouse if there is one in town to grab some stuff."

"Okay, we're leaving as soon as I get out of this stupid suit," Dean said as he worked the buttons of his shirt while walking to the bathroom.

Dean dropped Sam off at the library to research the women they believed to be part of the satanic coven. Then he and Lady made a few stops to get other things. By the time they regrouped night had fallen.

"So, I think we were right. Those three seem to be our coven," Sam said, looking through some photo-copied papers he had got from the library.

"I'm already sold on that Elizabeth chick? Did you see that victory garden of hers? Belladonna, wolfs bane, mandrake, not to mention that little flinch she threw when we mentioned the occult," Dean said.

Lady leaned forward, "You didn't tell me that."

Dean glanced back at her then at the road, "Sorry, guess I didn't think about it."

"Oh, that's fine. I'm happy here in the backseat, literally and figuratively. Jerk," Lady muttered.

"Come on, Lady, we've all been busy I forgot to tell you. Okay?" Dean said, his version of an apology.

"What I don't get is you saw that and you guys didn't just kill them then?" Lady asked.

"Now this I did go over with you. You can't execute people in their own driveway," Dean said.

"O-Kay," Sam said slowly to interject himself back into the conversation. "Elizabeth, the skittish one, has had a good run lately, gone up a few tax brackets, won almost too many raffles. Kind of thing a little black magic always helps with." Sam flipped through a few papers, "I don't think she's alone either, looks like Renee Van Allen has won almost every craft contest she has entered in the past three months."

"What about Tammi?" Dean asked.

Sam shook his head, "I didn't find anything newsworthy on her."

"So, what? These women are regular Martha Stewart types, huh? Except for the devil worship," Dean said

"Yeah, and Amanda was clearly going off the reservation, what do you think they killed her to keep up appearances?" Sam asked.

"Seems like an appearance kind of crowd don't you think?" Dean muttered. "So if they killed the nut-job should we uh, thank them or what?"

"They're working black magic too Dean, they need to be stopped," Sam said.

Dean glanced at Sam with a look of surprise, "They're human, Sam."

"They're murderers," Sam clarified.

"They're witches," Lady added.

Dean knew the plan all along was to kill the witches, but it surprised him that Sam was so quick to jump on the bandwagon. They drove in silence on an empty stretch of road for a few miles, and the next sound was the Impala chugging and dying. "What the hell?" Dean said in urgent panic as his car cut off and rolled to a stop.

The headlights flickered on and off, and in front of the car was a tall blonde that they immediately recognized as Ruby, the demon that had helped restore the Colt.

"Stay in the car, babe," Dean said as he and Sam got out.

Lady leaned forward, watching anxiously. The voices were muffled outside the car and she couldn't make out everything, so she decided to step out of the car and stand beside Dean. He already had the Colt out and pointed at Ruby.

Ruby barely glanced at Lady, looking back at Sam. "Please, go, get in the car and don't look back. Get out of town."

"Why? I don't understand," Sam said.

"Because it isn't safe here," Ruby said.

"I think we can handle a few kitchen witches," Dean said bitterly.

Ruby glared at him, "I'm not talking about witches, you jackass. Witches are whores. I'm talking about who they serve."

"They're getting their power from demons?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. And there's one here, now," Ruby warned. "Sam, it knows you're in town and it's gonna come after you and its way more than you can handle."

Dean looked at his brother and snapped at him, "Please tell me you're not listening to this crap! She's messing with your head, man!"

"I'm telling you the truth," Ruby said. "At least let me try and save him, since you won't be here to do it anymore."

Any bit of patience Dean had extended to the demon left as he aimed the Colt to fire. "Dean, no!" Sam shouted, grabbing his arm.

"Sam, stop!" Lady got between them, but ended up being sandwiched between the large men and having the Colt go off just inches from her ear.

Dean shoved Sam away, and Lady stumbled back. Ruby vanished, the bullet had gone wild.

The rest of the drive back to the motel was filled with tense silence. Or at least Lady believed so, her ears were ringing so loud the brothers could have been talking and she wouldn't have heard. She'd spent enough time in the backseat of the Impala that she knew when a fight was brewing, and the one between Dean and Sam was the type of inevitable fight. When they reached the motel Dean followed Sam into his room, and Lady went into her own.

As soon as Dean slammed the motel door he shouted at his brother, "What the hell were you thinking?"

"What? What the hell was I thinking?" Sam barked back.

"She's a demon Sam, period alright. They want us dead, we want them dead," Dean said. "She's stringing you along like a fish on a hook, Sam!"

"No one's stringing me along. Look, I know it's dangerous, that she is dangerous, but like it or not, she is useful," Sam tried to reason with his brother.

"No, we kill her before she kills us," Dean said.

"Kill her with what? The gun she fixed for us?" Sam asked. "Dean, if she wants us dead, all she has to do is stop saving our lives."

Dean glared at him briefly, then turned his back on him and went to the bathroom. He ran the water cold for a few moments and then splashed it on his face in an attempt to cool the angry fever he still had.

"Look, we have to start looking at the big picture Dean, start thinking in strategies and moves ahead," Sam continued. "It's not so simple, we're not just hunting anymore, we're at war."

Dean dried his face off and turned to look at his brother. With a calmer voice he asked, "Are you feeling okay?"

Sam looked confused, "Why are you asking me that?"

"Because you're taking advice from a demon for starters, and by the way, you seem less and less worried about offing people, it used to eat you up inside," Dean told him.

Sam's eyes widened, "Lady's been talking about putting a bullet in the brain of these witches since we found the hex bag."

"That's Lady," Dean said, pointing to the wall that Lady was on the other side of. "She gets off on this sort of thing. You don't. I mean, things aren't like they are supposed to be. We're supposed to drive in the friggin' car and friggin' argue about this stuff. You know, you go on about the sanctity of life and all that crap."

"Wait, so you're mad because I'm starting to agree with you?" Sam asked in shock.

"No, I'm not mad, I'm worried, Sam," Dean admitted, and sat on the edge of Sam's bed. "I'm worried because you're not acting like yourself."

"Yeah, you're right, I'm not. I don't have a choice," Sam said, sitting in an available chair.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Dean asked.

"Look, Dean, you're leaving right? And I gotta stay here in this crap-hole of a world, alone." Sam told him.

Dean frowned a bit as he felt an uncomfortable stomach cramp set in. "You aren't going to be alone. Lady is going to stay with you. And Bobby..."

Sam looked at Dean with wide eyes, "I love Lady like a sister, and Bobby like a father...but they aren't you. The way I see it, if I'm gonna make it, if I'm gonna fight this war after you're gone, then I gotta change into you. I got to be more like you."

Dean looked down and rubbed his stomach, grimacing slightly. "Sam, things don't...ah!" Dean tensed as he felt sharp pain in his abdomen.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked as Dean clutched his stomach.

"I don't know. Oh! Sam something's wrong. It's like a bunch of knives inside of me...oh God," Dean began to lean forward as the pain became unbearable. He had a salty copper taste in the back of his throat only a moment before blood came up and spilled out of his mouth.

"Dean!" Sam moved forward urgently.

"Son of a bitch," Dean choked out. "The coven, man, it's gotta be the coven."

Sam's eyes grew wide. He moved quickly. First he pounded loudly on the thin wall that separated their two rooms, "Lady! Get in here!" He shouted before going into the bathroom.

Lady felt the vibration when Sam knocked loudly, and the ringing had just started to subside when he shouted at her. She moved quickly, it sounded urgent. She hoped they hadn't hurt each other. Dean wasn't much fun with a fat lip or broken knuckles.

Moving quickly she opened the door to Sam's room and ignored the twisting in her stomach at the sight of Dean writhing in pain on Sam's bed. "What'dya do?" Lady snapped accusingly at Sam as he tore apart the bathroom. "Oh, shit," Lady uttered as she realized what was happening to Dean. He'd been cursed, just like Paul and his wife had been.

Sam moved past her, ripping off the sheets off the bed and looking under the bed. "I can't find the hex bag," he said anxiously. "Lady?"

Lady licked her lips, "We don't have a lot of time. I'll do what I can, but we need to break the ritual."

"Got it," Sam said, grabbing the Colt.

"Sam? Where are you going?" Dean groaned.

"Dean, I'll be right back," Lady promised, following Sam out. "You have to get the witches to stop the ritual. Just killing them outright might not stop it. I'll call you when it's over."

Sam only nodded before getting into the Impala.

Lady went into her room, grabbing what she could and running back to Dean. Dean had slid off the bed and was on his hands and knees, blood running freely out of his mouth as he made painful noises.

"Hey, babe, you're gonna be fine," Lady said as she looked through her jars, surprised to see her own hands shaking. Giving up she dropped to her knees beside him, pulling his shirt up his back to look for possible marks. "Did the witch touch you? Shake your hand? Take anything of yours?"

Dean couldn't speak, but he shook his head.

Lady put her hand at his mouth and drew it back, smeared with his blood. It smelled like blood and very faintly like ash. Her mouth went dry and her heart stammered in her chest. "Bet you wish you let me do that ritual last night, huh?"

Dean let out painful groan.

"Okay, I'll joke later," Lady said, pulling out her butterfly knife fluidly and cutting away a piece of his shirt and using it to take some of his blood that was leaking from his lips. "Good news is, if we can break the curse there won't be any long lasting damage," she said as she left his side to go back to her bag.

"Bad news?" Dean forced out.

Lady spread a dusting of protective herbs on the bloody strip of cloth, "No bad news, everything will be fine."

"Just go, Lady," Dean groaned.

Watching him in intense pain was uncomfortable. But she couldn't just go, to leave him there alone. With her knife she cut a line across her palm and when the blood began to flow she put the bloody cloth on top of it, closing her fingers around it. She went to Dean's side, kneeling beside him. "You need to relax a bit," Lady said, rubbing his back.

Dean rasped a few breaths, "Relax?"

The fist that was bleeding pressed against his chest, and without warning she pulled him up so his back was momentarily straight. He let out a scream of pain as what felt like knives dug deeper inside of him. All he could think of was the pain, and all he could do was react. His arms and hands fighting Lady so he could protect himself.

Lady clenched her jaw, the only thing she could do to brace herself before Dean's elbow nailed her in the eye. One of his hands had her wrist but his grip wasn't very tight. Dean wasn't very strong right then, but still stronger than her. Lady was using all her own strength to try and keep him in place, to keep him from curling up, as she prayed she could ease some of the curse. Just a few more minutes so Sam can reach the witches.

Suddenly Lady was overpowered and pulled backwards, and it wasn't until she saw a flash of blonde hair that she realized her and Dean weren't alone in the motel. It took her another moment to realize that it was the demon Ruby.

"Bitch," Lady snarled as she tried to get back to her feet.

Ruby grabbed Dean with one hand and easily lifted him up and onto the bed. She held him down and from her side grabbed an old-fashioned water-bottle and began squeezing black liquid into his mouth. Lady stopped, breathing heavily, and watched. Dean gurgled and sputtered as some of the liquid slid down his throat, and then visible relaxed.

Ruby backed away from Dean and looked at Lady cautiously. "He's okay, I didn't hurt him," she said.

"Ectoplasm," Lady said, glancing at the bottle at Ruby's side.

Ruby looked a bit impressed and threw the bottle at Lady, "Keep it."

Lady caught it easily, and then went to Dean's side. He was a bit shaky but was slowly sitting up. He spit and tried to keep from gagging for a few moments. And then he looked up at Ruby with surprise.

"Next time you point that gun at me, I'm not gonna just disappear, understand?" Ruby warned.

"You saved my life," Dean said in shock.

"Don't mention it," Ruby said, turning on her heel and leaving.

"Did she poison me?" Dean asked.

Lady shook her head, "Powerful potion to break curses, made from ectoplasm," Lady said.

"Tasted like ass," Dean complained. "I need to get to Sam."

"I agree, these witches are packing a heavier punch than I expected," Lady said, gathering her bag and shouldering it as she followed him out.

Dean found a car half a block down from the motel. Using the butt of his shotgun he smashed in the backdoor window and then reached in to pull the lock up. Lady got in the passenger seat as he worked on hot wiring the car. In a small voice, a bit embarrassed, she said, "I forgot my gun."

Dean pulled his pistol out of his waistband and handed it to her. She made sure it was loaded. His pistol was larger and heavier than she liked, but it would get the job done. "I'll call Sam, let him know we're good to kill the witches."

Sam had reached the neighborhood quickly. He checked Elizabeth's house first, finding it empty. And he crossed the street to Renee's house where a dim light glowed. He kicked in the door and found three women around a small altar that had been set up on a coffee table with a few lit candles. Threatening them with the gun he ordered them away from the altar and demanded they stop the curse that was affecting his brother. All the women were looking at him with pure terror and playing dumb. Elizabeth claimed they had been doing something simple to get Renee a better mortgage rate, which temporarily threw Sam for a loop. But he remembered what he had found out about the three women. Renee got noteworthy news coverage for winning competitions, Elizabeth had a run of good luck in raffle winnings...but he hadn't found much on Tammi. He aimed the Colt at her.

Tammi realized she had been found out and let her eyes flash black before him.

Sam swallowed hard as he realized he was face-to-face with the demon Ruby had warned him about. "Let my brother go," he ordered.

The demon gave Sam a smile, "What's wrong, couldn't find my hex bag? Sorry, sweetheart, but your brothers' lungs should be on the floor by now."

Sam felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket and knew it would be Lady. Either she had found a way to help Dean, or he was dead like Tammi had said. Either way he didn't need the witches or demon any longer. He fired the Colt at Tammi. The demon didn't flinch, she only raised her hand. Sam felt a shift of pressure in the air, and the next moment the silver bullet he had fired was a few inches in front of Tammi's face. It fell to the floor harmlessly, ever even touching the demon.

Elizabeth gasped at the show of power, while Renee looked on with disbelief. "Tammi, what are you doing?" Renee demanded to know.

"Renee, shut your painted hole," Tammi said back.

"What? You can't...not in my house Tammi!" Renee said in offense.

With a roll of her eyes Tammi forced Renee's head to turn almost all the way around, snapping her neck and killing her. Elizabeth let out a shriek. Before Sam could react Tammi narrowed her eyes on him and he flew back, hitting the wall and being pinned there by a telekinetic force.

"Mm, Sammy Winchester, wow! Right here in our little town. You know, my friends and I, we've been looking for you," Tammi said.

"Why? Oh, right, cause I'm supposed to lead some piss poor demon army," Sam scoffed as he tried to fight the hold.

"No, not at all. You're not our Messiah, we don't believe in you. But, there's a new leader rising in the west, a real leader. That's the horse to bet on Sam, the one who's gonna tear this world apart. Thing is, this demon, it doesn't like you very much, doesn't want the competition," Tammi told him. "Nothing personal."

Sam grunted in pain as the pressure increased enough to crack the wall behind him. He felt himself being crushed. Tammi's eyes grew black as she tapped into her demonic power. Sam looked at Elizabeth, terrified and clueless as to what was going on, even though she had been performing satanic magic it was obvious she wasn't prepared for the consequences or understood the true power of the forces she had been summoning. He could even briefly feel sorry for her as he felt his time growing short.

Sam didn't hear Dean run in through the door, but felt Tammi's hold loosen as she waved a hand to throw Dean and pin him against the same wall a few feet away from him. "Two for one, lovely," Tammi said with a grin, holding up both of her hands to focus the power to hold the men against the wall. "Hello, Dean." Dean grunted and struggled against the invisible weight that held him against the wall. "And where there is Dean..." Tammi looked around with her black eyes, "Where's your witch? She didn't fall off her broomstick, did she?"

Tammi tilted her head and smiled slightly, "Ah, there you are, Lady…" Lady let out a short shriek before an invisible force pulled her into the room and slammed her into an adjacent wall from Sam and Dean. "After everything I've heard about you all, I'm rather under whelmed," Tammi said. Tammi narrowed her eyes on Lady, "Here I thought you were some powerful Pagan bitch…instead you try to sneak a binding spell on me? Pathetic."

Lady shrugged, "I've done worse things."

"Just let her go," Dean said.

Tammi grinned and chuckled at him, "That's right, Dean, you are the big protector, aren't you? Strange, considering everyone who knows you dies. Your father, your brother, I hear this won't even be Lady's first trip to the other side."

"Let them go, do whatever you want to me," Dean bargained.

"You know what I want to do to you, Dean?" Tammi smiled at him. "I just want to make you watch."

Lady let out a grunt as she slid upward against the wall. Her head touched the ceiling and then her neck bent uncomfortably as she was pulled further up until her back was against the ceiling.

Dean's mouth went dry as one of his reoccurring nightmares was being played out, Lady pinned to the ceiling.

"This must bring up some very uncomfortable memories," Tammi said gleefully. "Now…what am I forgetting? Oh! I know…how about a little fire?"

"No!" Dean protested.

"Wait!" Another voice called out, and Ruby quickly walked through the door. She put her hands up, "Please, I just came to talk."

Tammi looked her over, "What do you want, Ruby?"

"I've been lost without you, take me back. That's why I led the Winchesters here," Ruby said. "They're for you, as a gift. Let me serve you again, I've wanted it, I've wanted you for so long.

Tammi appeared to be considering the offer, "You were one of my best."

Lady watched from her advantage point on the ceiling and could see Ruby gripping the handle of the demon-killing knife that Sam and Dean had told her about. The instant Tammi got close enough for melee range Ruby pulled it out to attempt a death blow, but Tammi was too quick. "But then again, you always were a lying whore," Tammi said, twisting Ruby's arm until the knife dropped.

After a brief fight Ruby was knocked down. "We've been here before haven't we?" Tammi said, looking down at Ruby. "Did you tell your human friends? I suppose not, must be pretty embarrassing." Tammi looked at Sam and Dean. "Ruby was one of mine. I turned her out a long, long time ago. Ruby here was a witch. Of course that was when she was human."

Tammi looked at Ruby with cruel satisfaction, and without looking away she said, "Elizabeth, dear, what are you doing?"

Elizabeth, the terrified satanic witch, was inching her way away from them, doing the smart thing to run for it. She stopped when she had been caught, and then decided to make a quick and hasty getaway that ended when Tammi batted an eyelash and sent her crashing to the floor choking on her own blood.

"Must be hard to find decent recruits," Lady said from the ceiling. Tammi turned her black eyes on her. "I mean, you got Amanda who was an unstable nut job. And that one there didn't seem to have the mindset to really handle all that power you were handing out."

"Doesn't really matter, I still get their souls in the end," Tammi said.

"How does that work? You have a quota to fill or you trying to reach an all new personal record?" Lady asked conversationally.

Tammi smiled at her, "That's right, I heard you like to chat, Lady."

"I'm actually a little flattered that demons talk about me in their circles," Lady said, returning the smile.

"I wonder why. Is it your way to combat fear?" Tammi questioned her.

"More of a distraction tactic," Lady admitted.

Tammi suddenly winced and clutched at her stomach, and then looked accusingly at Ruby. Her nostrils flared angrily as she focused her power solely on Ruby and Lady.

Lady tensed from head to toe as intense pain erupted in her head. It was so vicious she couldn't see or hear, couldn't even unclench her jaw to make any noise but a pained growl.

With Tammi's power occupied, Lady and Ruby both writhing in pain, the hold on Sam and Dean loosened. Dean lunged forward, grabbing the knife on the floor and wasted no time in burying it deep in Tammi's side, jabbing her repeatedly. As the demon died Lady fell from the ceiling to the floor.

"Lady? Are you okay?" Sam asked, rolling her onto her back. Blood leaked from her eyes and nose.

Lady blinked as the pain faded away and was still as she felt various aches and pains throughout her body. "Yeah, I'm okay."

Ruby slowly got to her feet and looked around at the trashed house and three dead bodies. "Go, I'll clean up this mess," she offered in a small voice, taking back her knife from Dean. When he hesitated to head for the door her eyes filled with black and she barked, "Go!"

XXXXX

Lady was resting in the motel room alone while Dean went out to get some supplies before they left town. Sam was packing up his own motel room to be ready to leave.

Dean returned and without a word began packing up her things. "You sure you are okay to leave?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah," Lady said, slowly sitting up. "The only thing that's sticking with me is the black eye and a twisted ankle." Lady studied him for several moments, "Want to talk?"

Dean looked at her with wide eyes, "About?"

Lady let out a breath, "You are tensed and puffed up like a pissed off cat, Dean."

He looked away and continued packing, then stopped. "I talked to Ruby while I was out. Just a lot of stuff on my mind, don't worry about it."

Dean had a lot of things on his mind from the whole ordeal. Ruby had saved their lives, several times. He didn't fully trust the demon, but it was hard not to have a bit of gratitude for that. At first she had gained Sam's trust by telling him she would help save Dean. But that evening she had told Dean there was no way to save him, to get him out of his demon deal. And she had confirmed that demons were once humans whose souls had been taken into hell. And even confirmed that after his soul was sent to hell he too would eventually become one of them. All of his humanity burned away until he was nothing but a monster.

Lady limped a few steps toward him as he finished packing. He had their bags over one shoulder and her arm over his other so he could help her walk. Lady smiled, "You are very sweet tonight, I should get injured more often." She pressed her face against his cheek in a kiss.

"Yeah, don't get used to it. You know I'm not going to be around to watch out for you much longer," Dean said almost painfully.

"Anything wrong with enjoying it while it lasts?" Lady asked.

Dean shook his head. That was all he could do. Enjoy what he had while it lasted.

**A/N** - _First, sorry for the wait in updating. My town is currently going through a natural disaster and I've been rather distracted. Secondly, sorry for the long chapter, I just decided not to split it into 2 parts. And I'll even admit this is probably my least favorite that I've written. It is based off of the episode Malleus Maleficarum from season 3. And with everything going on I just had trouble finishing it, finding a way to put a better spin on it for Lady, etc. Anyway, over this hump I have some better ideas for future chapters and I hope they are easier to write. Thanks for reading, please review :)_


	101. Dean's Birthday, January 2008

**January 23, 2008**

Over two weeks of time had passed since the satanic coven in Maryland, and the trio only got as far as Georgia where they came across another demon that gave sent them…and Sam was nearly driven crazy after Lady and Dean listened to 'The Devil went down to Georgia' for the twentieth time.

But once the demon was taken care of it was back searching for the next job. Lady didn't understand why the brothers didn't sit back and enjoy a break, they worked too damn much. Lady had to threaten to cut the power cord of Sam's laptop to get him to look at her.

"What?" he asked.

"Don't snap at me like I interrupted you surfing porn," Lady said hotly, then frowned. "Did I interrupt you surfing porn?"

"No, Lady, I'm just trying to find job."

"Lots of different jobs," Lady gave him a grin that Sam couldn't resist and had to return. "I just want to know if you are doing anything for Dean's birthday."

Sam shook his head, "I haven't really thought about it. I suppose it's coming up soon."

Lady frowned, "I thought his birthday was the twenty-fourth."

"It is," Sam said, looking back at his computer. "Oh shit…it's tomorrow," he muttered.

Lady looked at Sam with concern, not even enjoying that she had been on top of something before him. "You okay, big guy?"

Sam rubbed his eyes, "Not really, no."

"What's wrong?"

Sam shrugged, "Everything. I mean, Dean has less than four months. This stupid…war? With the demons? We haven't even made a dent, we don't even know what they are doing. And now…what, am I supposed to do something for him for his birthday? I mean…damn it…all I think about these days is what the hell I'm going to do without him."

"So you've given up trying to save him?" Lady asked Sam with wide eyes.

Sam shrugged, "How can I save him, when he doesn't want to save himself." Sam looked her over, "You know how to live without him. You've done this alone before…sometimes I think you'd rather be off on your own."

Lady saw no point in arguing, "True. But…I like having people to go back to. And as for his birthday, I just figured we'd get him a big ass cake and…well, if this is his last birthday why not take a few hours to enjoy it?"

"Pretend he isn't going to see another one?"

"Yeah," Lady said.

Sam looked angrily at his computer, "Yeah, you and Dean are both real good at pretending nothing is wrong. I suppose that's why you two are freaking meant for each other."

"Like it or not, it's how I keep going," Lady said. "We've all been there, just wanting to take the fetal position until it is over but…Sam, I've been through this. Counting down the clock, it's painful. For everyone involved."

Sam let out a huff of breath, "Yeah, I know. So, big ass cake, where do we find one?"

Lady looked him over with concern, "Are you sure you are okay with this?"

Sam managed a small smile, "Yeah, I'm okay with this."

Lady ruffled his shaggy hair before kissing the top of his head, "Thanks."

**January 24, 2008**

Lady hadn't celebrated her birthday in over ten years, the last person to give her anything for her birthday was the witch that nearly killed her. But she remembered her birthdays as a kid before her mother died and participated in several birthdays for family members of Mason's family. What everyone always said was to be nice to the person, give them a gift, and let them have the first piece of cake. Lady thought she was always nice to Dean, in her own special way…she figured she could at least drop any of the normal insults and let him have his way instead of playing their familiar tug-of-war games. And the gift was easy, his choice of handcuffs and positions…and maybe a good bottle of whiskey. As for getting the first piece of cake that was just going to depend on how hungry Lady was when Sam found one.

When Lady woke up she silently got out of bed and got dressed, letting Dean sleep in. Her first nice act for the day, which only lasted a few minutes. Dean had gotten so used to her early start times that he woke up with the birds just like she did, and he had developed a sort of sixth sense when she got out of bed.

"You can sleep in," Lady said quickly as he sat up.

"Nah, I'm up," he said.

"Well…since you are awake," Lady smiled happily and bounced back into the bed to push him down. "Happy birthday."

Dean smiled a bit, "Thanks."

"I'll go grab breakfast and coffee. You want anything special?" She asked.

Dean studied her face, "What are you up to?"

"I have to be up to something?"

Dean nodded, "Most of the time, yes."

"Nothing. Just thought I'd be a little nice to you on your birthday."

Dean grimaced a bit, "Yeah…don't. Makes me feel like you are up to something, or trying to butter me up before you tell me you did something incredibly stupid."

Lady thought about it, it was totally something she'd do, no doubt about it. But after a few moments she was sure she hadn't done anything recently that would piss Dean off so she assured him with a brief kiss and hopped off the bed. "I'll be back!" She promised, skipping out the door. She came back a second later, "I forgot to put my shoes on. Okay, now I'm leaving."

Lady returned with breakfast and they went to Sam's room to eat together.

"Happy birthday, bro," Sam offered to his brother.

"Yeah, thanks," Dean muttered. "Any luck on finding a new job?"

"No, not yet," Sam said. "Our rooms are paid up for two more nights, where do you want to go when that happens?"

Dean glanced at Lady who was hungrily eating her breakfast and then to his brother, "Maybe we can go south into Florida. Stay warm, maybe go to Orlando to see Erin and Derek."

Sam had to admit the suggestion was tempting. But he only shrugged, "If that's what you want to do."

Dean gave his brother a roll of the eyes. "Well, if we don't have anything here to do we can go to a movie. Something, any ideas?"

"Whatever you want to do, Dean," Sam said.

Dean glanced between Sam and Lady, then shook his head in mild annoyance. "You two have a mind of your own at all?"

"Dean, it's your birthday. Whatever you want to do, we're up for it," Sam offered with an uncomfortable smile.

Lady washed down a large bite of food with some water, "There is an antique car show today."

Dean looked at her suspiciously, "How would you even know that?"

Lady shrugged, "I talk to people. It sounds fun."

"You can't tell a Ford from a Chevy," Dean accused her.

A comment like that from Dean would often turn into a good fifteen to twenty minute conversation of bickering back and forth, that was normal for them and almost like foreplay. But Lady just gave him a sweet smile, "Well, you'd probably like it more than I would. It's just a suggestion. Sam and I just want you to enjoy your birthday, and a way to show we are glad that you were born." Lady grinned a bit wider and nudged Dean, "It's because we love you oh so much, Dean-o."

Sam fought a smirk, "Oh so much, Dean-o," he mimicked.

Dean had to admit, going to a car show sounded fun. Neither Sam or Lady were into cars like he was, but this was probably the only time he could get company going to one of them, so he decided to enjoy the day.

Sam knew a bit about cars, it just came with living with his brother and father who were gear-heads. On the way there he actually felt bad for Lady who knew next to nothing about cars. She knew how to drive, but other than that relied on Bobby's expertise.

When they reached the car show Lady actually did enjoy it. Maybe she couldn't tell what make and model the cars were, but there were some cool looking rides. She hadn't given up her wish of having her own vehicle, but the benefit didn't outweigh the cost.

"Oo, they are selling funnel cake," Lady said happily.

Sam let out a laugh as Lady walked away, "For a second I thought she was going to say 'Oo, look shiny' and get to work hotwiring something." Sam followed Dean between a few cars, keeping Lady in sight just in case.

"So, what do you think about Florida?" Dean asked casually.

"If you want to, man," Sam said.

"C'mon, Sammy," Dean said. "You like Erin, and she was into you. Why not? I mean, it isn't like the girl has a normal life anyway. She survived a hell-ride on a Puca, she's awesome."

"Yeah, she is," Sam agreed. "But it wouldn't work out."

"You know…when I'm gone you could move to North Dakota. Maxine has the area protected, you wouldn't even have to worry about the war," Dean said, studying Sam's face as he suggested it.

Sam was surprised at first, then shook his head, "I can't do that, Dean. I mean, it sounds tempting, but…no. It's my fault all those demons are out, and I can't stop until they are back in hell or dead."

Lady returned with two plates of funnel cake, "I like this place. I'm not even wearing my real high heels and this guy offered to pay for me." Lady looked around, "Probably helps that I'm the only donut in a sausage factory. But still, free food. You think they sell donuts here?"

Sam fought a smirk, "I think I just figured out why most guys don't let their girlfriends join them."

Lady looked confused for a brief moment and then suddenly offended, "Hey!" She frowned and looked away, and then her eyes widened as they fell on a car, "Oo, look shiny!"

Dean was in a good mood when they returned to the motel. Sam left, saying he was going for a run. And then Lady convinced Dean to go pick up supper. Dean was only gone ten minutes when Sam returned with a cake.

"You said you wanted a big ass cake," Sam said to Lady as he set it on the table. Carefully he cut away the tape holding the top on the flat bottom, and lifted the top so she could see it.

Lady covered her mouth with her hand. The cake was in the shape of an actual ass, two perfect butt cheeks with flesh-colored frosting. "Sam…I am so proud of you at this particular moment I may actually shed a tear…" Lady managed to say before she burst out laughing. "Where did you get this?"

"Ah, you don't want to know," he laughed with her.

Dean returned with a pizza half an hour later, and looked at the cake with a blank face for several moments before snorting a laugh. "Well, that's a big ass cake."

After enjoying some pizza and ass-cake, which was much more tasty than it sounds, the trio went out to a bar to end the night. Dean and Sam played pool against each other, sharpening their skills. Having a few beers and just hanging out. It wasn't something they got to do often anymore, and the best part of the whole day in Dean's mind was that he just got to have a normal day with his brother and girlfriend.

Sam and Dean both looked up from their game when a fight broke out on the other side of the bar. "Shit, where's Lady?" Dean asked.

Dean jerked as a firm pinch landed on his butt, "Right here," Lady said. "Ooo, bar fight."

"Looks bad enough for the cops to be called, why don't we get out of here?" Sam suggested.

By the time they reached the motel Sam was stifling yawns and said goodnight before going into his motel room.

Dean and Lady entered their motel room. "So, is there anything special you want for your birthday?" Lady asked, looking up at Dean from under her eyelashes while tugging on her lower lip with her teeth. She almost appeared sweet and innocent, but there was no hiding the lust in her eyes or the seductive way she was nibbling on her own lip.

By now Dean knew just much he could get out of Lady in bed, he knew which requests would get laughed down and the ones she'd happily join him in. "You have something in mind?" Dean asked, unable to help the smile that was tugging at the corner of his lips.

"I do!" She said happily, grabbing a chair and setting it in the middle of the floor. "Several, actually," she added while leading him to the chair. Dean shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it on the bed before sitting down.

Lady swayed her hips more than necessary as she grabbed a beer out of the cooler and offered it to Dean. Then she pulled out the secondhand laptop she had. She plugged it in and opened the music player. Dean grinned freely as Def Leppard's 'Pour Some Sugar on Me' began playing.

Lady bent over, letting her skirt raise to show more of her thighs while looking at Dean over her shoulder. She moved her hips to the music, slowly standing up straight and turning to face him while unbuttoning her shirt until part of a sheer white bra was revealed.

Lady put a hand on Dean's shoulder and walked around him, his head turning to keep her in view until she was right behind him. From behind she ran her hands over his firm chest, her nimble fingers getting the buttons out of the way while gently massaging him. Dean played along, taking a drink of his beer and enjoying her touch without interfering.

Lady ran her hand through his hair as she walked back around him. She put her hands on his shoulders and leaned towards him. She grinned as he tried to kiss her, she dodged it so their cheeks moved against each other until her lips were at his ear, "Lose the shirt," she ordered before leaning back and taking a few steps away from him.

Dean didn't take his eyes off her as he shrugged out of his button-down shirt. Lady's hips moved to the music and she turned her back to him. She finished the last button of her shirt, opening it wide once to show him that it was done, but held it to her front as she turned to face him again. While dancing she held back one side of the shirt, then the other, giving him short glimpses of the bra, before she shrugged one shoulder out of the shirt, followed by the next.

The song changed on the laptop to Billy Idol's 'Eyes Without a Face' and Lady began moved more slowly to match the music. She turned her back to him, reaching behind back and slowly unzipping her skirt. Dean saw the white g-string slowly be uncovered. She looked over her shoulder at him as she moved her hips back and forth, and the skirt slowly began to fall over her hips without the aid of her hands. When it fell to the floor she gracefully stepped out of it, turning and strutting closer to him.

Lady stepped to the side of him, lightly running her fingertips over his bare shoulder and across the bottom of his neck. Before he could take her hand she slipped away. She grinned in victory as Dean let out a heavy breath.

On the table most of the cake was left over. Lady scooped up the frosting on one of her fingers and went to Dean's side again. This time she swung her leg over his lap to straddle him. Dean's hands had been itching to come into contact with her during the striptease and quickly ran up her bare thighs to grip her butt.

Lady lightly painted a line of frosting up his chest, over his neck and to his lips. He took her finger into his mouth, licking and sucking the remaining sweet frosting off. Lady pulled her finger back, holding his face while leaning forward to take his mouth. Slowly tasting the frosting on his lips and kissing him deeply to share the sweetness.

Dean let out a low moan as her mouth went down his neck, sucking and licking the trail of frosting from his skin slowly. He tilted his head back and closed his eyes, enjoying the sensuous foreplay. His hands moved up her back, easily unclasping her bra. Without taking her mouth from his neck she let the straps slide down her shoulders and come free. Her mouth continued to move down his chest, leaving a sticky wet trail of red marks until the last of the frosting had been licked clean. She let Dean pull her to his lips. His strong hands moved over her body with rough need and desire.

She ran her hands through his hair gently before grasping it firmly and pulling him back from the kiss. She looked into his hazel eyes, and unable to help herself smiled smugly at the lust she saw in them. She licked her lips slowly. "Did you have a good birthday, Dean?"

He nodded, "Yeah, and it's about to get better."

She grinned devilishly as she got off his lap, "Are you sure?"

Dean balled his hands into fists to keep himself from pulling Lady back to him, aching to see if she had more ideas of what to do to him. "I'm positive," he answered.

"Well, it's now after midnight," Lady told him, moving behind him and going back to the cake. "Which means your birthday is over. Which means I don't have to be nice to you anymore."

Dean was on the verge of being tortured already, but was thoroughly enjoying it. He was aching to move from the chair to the bed, or floor. "You know I like it when you get naughty."

Lady picked up a piece of cake and stood behind him, "And dirty?"

"Oh, God, yes," Dean breathed, feeling her standing close.

With his answer Lady took the cake and quickly pressed it into his face.

Dean was frozen and stunned for a moment, before slowly wiping away the cake from his nose and mouth. Lady giggled, and let out a brief shriek as he grabbed her arm and pulled her onto his lap. "You are lucky this tastes good," Dean said before pressing his face into her neck, smearing it with the cake as his hand rubbed it over her. Mixing the sweet cake with the salty taste of her skin tasted even better.

Lady was smeared from her face to her navel with cake and frosting as Dean lifted her up and dropped her on the bed. He needed to take an extra moment to get out of his jeans and relieve the pressure that had built up behind them before laying down next to her.

Lady felt her pulse jump as Dean held her down firmly and slowly nibbled and licked away the cake from her body. Her desire quickly escalated until it was almost uncomfortable and she was squirming with need from his touch. She kicked her heels off and began to pull off her thong before Dean's hands grabbed it and removed it for her.

"I want you so bad," she breathed in his ear, snapping the waistband of his boxers before slipping her hand between the fabric and his skin.

Dean pulled her hand away and pinned it onto the mattress, enjoying turning the tables on her. Her thigh was between his legs, feeling the hard erection and rubbing against it. Lady let out a breathy moan as Dean's mouth covered a sensitive nipple, his tongue circling and pressing against it. With her thigh pressing against his erection he could barely stand waiting any longer. And Lady's pleading whimpers nearly sent him over the edge.

The moment Dean removed his boxers Lady wrapped a leg around his waist to draw him close to her. She thought she might burst into flames if he kept teasing, but neither of them could hold back any longer. The moment he pressed into her there was a feeling of relief that the teasing was done, but it was quickly replaced by the same pulsing desire and need they had been building up in each other.

Dean let Lady roll him onto his back, his eyes going over her body as she moved her hips back and forth on top of him. He let out a low moan as tight muscles flexed around his erection. Lady leaned back, putting her hands on his thighs as she closed her eyes and moved slowly. She let out escalating moans of pleasure as his hands rubbed her inner thighs. Dean raised his hips to meet her as they reached their climax.

Lady was panting and quivering with pleasure as she slid off of Dean and laid by his side in his arms. Dean lightly nibbled her collarbone, "Don't even think about going to sleep," he breathed.

Lady firmly ran her hands over his chest, the desire was momentarily quieted but no where near satisfied. "Lucky for you, I'm free all night."

**January 25, 2008**

Lady woke up and slowly stretched stiff muscles that still tingled with pleasure. The music on the laptop was still playing, it had drowned out the sounds of birds so she had managed to even sleep in a bit.

Dean opened his eyes at her movement, and a slow smile spread across his face. The memories of the things they had done to each other, and to the cake, the night before came rushing to the forefront of his mind. "That was the best sex of my life," he declared aloud.

Lady grinned, "The first time? Or the second? Or the third…?"

Dean chuckled and pulled her close, "Mm, give me a few minutes and we'll go for a new record."

"Too bad we finished off the cake," Lady said as she wiped away a few crumbs they had missed the night before. The bed was covered in dried crumbs and smeared frosting. She giggled as she saw a few hickeys on Dean from where she had eaten cake off of him, "You look like a leopard."

"So do you," Dean said, kissing a few red spots on her neck and chest where he had left the same marks.

Lady let out a soft breath at his gentle touch, "Mm, I love you," she breathed.

Dean replied by taking her mouth, her tongue still tasted sugary sweet. Her body arched readily to his, returning the kiss with growing passion. "We should take a shower," Dean suggested.

"I'll get it started," Lady said.

After a long shower they got dressed and Dean went next door to check on Sam.

Sam was awake and dressed. "Hey, I was about to get some breakfast without you guys," he said. "I'm starving. Is there any cake left?"

Dean looked at his brother blankly for a few moments before saying, "No. No there is not."

Sam looked surprised that Lady and Dean could finish off the cake by themselves. "Do you want me to bring something back? Or should we go out together?"

"I'll check with Lady," Dean said, walking back to his room.

Lady was working on pulling the crumb-covered sheets off the bed when her cell phone rang. She frowned when she didn't recognize the number, but answered it. "Hello?"

An unfamiliar woman asked, "May I speak with Lady Singer?"

"That's me," she answered. Singer wasn't her last name, but a few times Bobby had introduced her as such and claimed she was his niece to explain why such a young girl was occasionally living with him.

"I'm Joy Goodwin, a nurse at Sacred Heart Hospital. I'm calling on behalf of Robert Singer, you were listed as his emergency contact and next of kin. He's been admitted here, and currently is in a coma."

Lady heard her blood rushing through her ears, "Where at?" Before the nurse could answer aloud Lady hung up, her hand trembling as she stuffed her phone in her pocket. Her elated mood was completely forgotten, effectively crushed as she shakily gathered her things.

Dean stepped into the room, "We're going…"

"I'm going to Pittsburgh. Bobby's in the hospital," Lady interrupted him.

Dean's face went solemn quickly. He leaned out of the room, "Sam, we're leaving. Pack up."

**A/N** – _Happy 4th of July everyone!  
_

_Songs for this chapter:_

_Devil Went Down to Georgia, by Charlie Daniels Band_

_Pour Some Sugar On Me, by Def Leppard_

_Eyes Without a Face, by Billy Idol_


	102. Dream Root, January 2008

**A/N**** – **_This chapter takes place during the season 3 episode 'Dream a Little Dream of Me'_

_Song for this chapter:_

_Dream Warriors, by Dokken_

**January 25, 2008**

They reached Pittsburgh late in the evening, thanks to Dean's lead foot and Sam's navigating. Lady had the strange sensation that the drive took forever, but when they reached Sacred Heart Hospital it felt like no time at all had passed since she had received the call in Georgia.

And then they were taken to Bobby's hospital room. The whole drive Lady had been tight lipped and worried, but seeing Bobby unconscious on the hospital bed made her curl in on herself on the nearest chair. Her insides churned uncomfortably with worry.

"What's the diagnosis?" Sam asked the doctor.

The doctor looked younger than Dean, but held himself with confidence and compassion. "We've tested everything we can think to test. He seems perfectly healthy.

"Except that he's comatose," Dean countered.

The doctor looked uncomfortably at Dean, and then to Lady, "Ms. Singer, I'd like to speak to you about..."

"If you can't tell, she's having trouble coping," Sam said, stepping between the doctor and Lady. Lady could get unpredictable and even hysterical with her phobia of hospitals, at the moment she was focusing her energy into worrying about Bobby but there was no telling if she'd tackle the doctor for blocking her only exit.

"What would help us is getting some history on him. Is there anything we should know about? Any illnesses?" The doctor asked.

"No, he never gets sick. I mean, he doesn't even catch cold," Dean answered. "Is there anything you can do for him?"

The doctor looked at them apologetically, "Look, I'm sorry, but we don't know what's causing it so we don't know how to treat it. He just seems to have went to sleep, and didn't wake up."

Sam and Dean looked over Bobby. Dean put a hand on Lady's shoulder, "Babe, when was the last time you talked to him?"

"Last week," Lady answered.

"He say he was coming here? Why he was?" Sam asked. They all kept in contact with Bobby, but Lady was the closest to him.

Lady shook her head.

Dean nodded toward the door while looking at Sam, and both of them stepped outside. "Lady's like a freaking zombie, I'm going to find a motel room so she can get some sleep."

"She's scared to death," Sam said flatly. "Dean, if Bobby doesn't wake up..."

"We'll figure this out," Dean said firmly. "He had to be here on a job, we retrace his steps and find out what happened. You heard the doc, they can't figure it out. That means it's probably something we need to handle."

Sam nodded in agreement, "Okay. Let's get Lady out of here and get to work."

Lady was in a chair with her knees hugged to her chest while she watched Bobby. His chest rose and fell steadily. He had a few IVs in his hands, but that was it. "Sam and I are going to get to work and take care of this," Dean told her. "Come on, I'll get you out of here and somewhere safe."

Lady shook her head, "I'm not leaving."

Dean gave his brother an anxious look before putting a hand on Lady's shoulder, "Babe, you're in a hospital. No offense, but you and these places don't mix. Nothing wrong with that, but I can't leave you here alone. Not in good conscience, you've been known to give nurses black eyes."

"It's Bobby," she snapped at him.

Dean gave her shoulder a squeeze. Lady would behave herself, for the good of Bobby she would. "Okay. We'll be back as soon as we can."

Lady didn't pay attention to the time. Stretches of minutes felt like hours, an hour felt like minutes. At some point she had uncurled herself from her ball and leaned toward Bobby to take one of his hands while fighting terrified tears. "Whatever is wrong with you, you old bastard, you better shake it off and wake up."

Sam and Dean paused outside the hospital room as Lady spoke. Dean stepped in first, making sure his footsteps were loud. Lady sniffed back some tears and wiped at her eyes. "Find anything?" she asked in a thick voice.

"We think so," Sam said.

Dean dragged a chair across the floor and sat next to Lady. "Bobby was here looking into the death of Dr. Gregg, he worked at the university. The obituary said he just fell asleep, and didn't wake up."

"Oh god," Lady uttered, looking at Bobby.

"We aren't letting that happen to Bobby," Dean assured her. "Dr. Gregg was treating something called Charcot-Wilbrand syndrome. Have you ever heard of it?"

Lady shook her head.

"You should have, you have it," Dean said. "It's what they call someone with the inability to dream."

"And he was treating it with a plant called Silene capensis. Also known as African Dream Root," Sam added.

Lady's eyes widened, "I've heard of that. It's used for spiritual visions and dream walking."

"That's right. It's some serious mojo. You take enough of it, with practice, you can become a regular Freddy Krueger. You can control anything. Turn bad dreams good, you could turn good dreams bad."

"Kill someone in their sleep?" Lady asked tensely.

Sam pressed his lips together in a tight line and nodded, "Yeah. We figure Dr. Gregg was testing this stuff on his patients, and one of them decided to pay him a dream visit. That tipped Bobby off to investigate, and then they decide to do the same to him. But Bobby's strong, he's tough as hell. He's fighting it, whatever is going on."

"It's already been a day," Lady said. "How long did the doctor last?"

Sam and Dean exchanged a look, silently arguing over whether or not to tell the truth. Dean won and said, "No way to tell. But we have an idea of how to help Bobby. If we can get our hands on some of this Dream Root we can get in there, help him and talk to him. If he can tell us who's doing this we can stop it."

"Problem is Dr. Gregg was out of the Dream Root. We don't know where to get any more, we were hoping you might know where," Sam added.

"Uh..." Lady rubbed her forehead as she tried to push back her fear and anxiety so she could focus and think. "Africa is a bit out of the way, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is," Dean said.

"I'll call Maxine, maybe she has some," Lady said, going into her pocket for her cell phone. Her hand fumbled wildly in an unusual show of clumsiness from her, and the phone fell to the floor with a crack. "Oh god!" Lady gasped, curling her hands into fists to try and keep them from trembling.

"It's okay," Sam said quickly, scooping the phone from the floor. "I'll call her, I got this."

Lady nodded stiffly and pulled her knees back to her chest. Sam stepped outside the hospital room while Dean put a hand on Lady's back.

"Bobby's been like a father to us, too," Dean said quietly. "In a lot of ways he was a hell of a lot better at it than my real father."

"If he doesn't wake up..." Lady shook her head.

Dean put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. She put her head on his shoulder and he rested his face in her hair, "I know," he said. "We won't let him die."

Sam returned and gave Lady her cell phone back. "Maxine doesn't have any, said it might take days for her to even find some. I don't think we can wait," he said.

"We're going to get back to work, babe," Dean said. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

Dean let out a tense breath as they walked down the hospital hallway. "I've never seen her like that," Dean said.

Sam frowned, "Are you surprised? Bobby's been her closest friend half her life."

"I'm not surprise, just worried," Dean muttered.

"Worried? I think it's insightful. I'm getting a glimpse of what she'll be like after you are gone," Sam said flatly.

Dean stopped walking, and Sam took a few more steps before stopping and turning to look at him. "You have to bring this up now? Bobby's in the hospital, Lady's completely useless...and you want to drop this guilt trip on me now? Of all times?" Dean said, looking offended.

"No guilt trip, I'm done with that," Sam said. "I did what I could to save you. There is just no point in it. No one can save you unless you want to be, Dean."

Dean shook his head and continued walking, quickly passing his brother angrily.

They rented a motel room with two beds and got to work. They both agreed that they couldn't wait and hope that Maxine came through for them, and called someone they both believed could quickly gain access to some of the dream root.

Bela Talbot.

Bela had screwed the brothers over on a few occasions, and just asking for her help made Dean feel like he needed a shower. But he'd do just about anything for Bobby, including swallowing down his pride.

"Dean Winchester, what do you want?" Bela asked haughtily when she answered the phone.

"Nice to talk to you, too, Bela," Dean said dryly. "We need a favor. Our friend, Bobby Singer, got on the bad side of a dream-walker. We need some African Dream Root, delivered to Pittsburgh ASAP."

"That's a highly controlled and desired plant," Bela said. "I can get you some within twenty-four hours for fifty-thousand."

"That's great. You know I don't have that kind of cash," Dean said. "He may die, Bela."

"Dean, I really don't have time for negotiations right now. Call me back if we have a deal," Bela said, and abruptly hung up on him.

Dean glared at his phone, "Bitch," he snarled angrily.

XXXXX

Bela hung up her phone and shut it off. She got out of her car and walked to the center of the empty crossroad, looking around to be sure she hadn't been followed. She dug a shallow hole in the middle of the crossroads and buried a small tin box, inside were the items needed to summon a Crossroads Demon. She waited anxiously, looking in all directions for the demon to appear.

"Bela Talbot, why am I even here?" a voice said.

Bela turned to face the demon, "I want to rearrange my deal."

"No can do, love," the demon replied. "You got yourself a few months left, you should be making the best of it."

"I'm not ready to die," Bela said, pleading with the demon. "I'll do anything."

The demon slowly circled her, "You've been doing rather well for yourself, haven't you? Purveyor of arcane artifacts, chatting up spirits, that sort of thing. Yes?"

"Yes," Bela answered.

The demon stopped walking and faced her, "Have you ever heard of the mystical gun? An old Colt, capable of killing demons."

Bela nodded once, "Yes, the Winchesters have it."

The demon smiled, "Tell you what, love, you get me that gun and maybe, just maybe, we can discuss your contract."

Bela felt a glimmer of hope fill her chest, "I'll do it," she said eagerly.

She already knew where the brothers were, and chances were good that they had the Colt with them. And she was willing to bet if she arrived with some of the dream root Dean was asking for she'd be in good enough graces to even get close to it. She made a few calls, got a plane ticket, and was on her way. She reached Pittsburgh early in the morning, from there tracking Dean and Sam down was easy. Now all she had to do was wait for her time to strike.

**January 26, 2008**

Lady was still awake, still sitting in her chair at Bobby's side, in the morning when her phone rang. "Yeah?" she answered.

"Hey, babe, how's he doing?" Dean asked her.

"No change," Lady said in a weak voice.

"Don't you worry, Sam and I got this," Dean said. "We got some of that dream root delivered to us this morning, Sam's preparing the tea right now. We're going in after him."

"Where'd you get it?" Lady asked.

"Bela Talbot," Dean answered bitterly.

"Dean..." Lady began, wanting to tell him it'd be safer to wait. He should bring it to her so she could examine it, make sure it was the real thing and not tainted. But Bobby had been out for so long, she didn't know how long he could last. "You two be careful."

"Like I said, don't you worry," Dean replied.

XXXXX

Bobby was reliving the most terrifying moment of his life, and being tortured by it. Years ago his wife had been possessed by a demon and had attacked him. Before he knew anything about the supernatural. At the time he didn't know what was going on, he only knew that the woman he loved had gone insane and was trying to kill him. And what he had done had haunted his nightmares for years and driven him into his life of hunting.

He had stabbed her. Killing his wife, but that had done nothing to kill the demon.

In his nightmare his wife was screaming, her chest covered in stab wounds, and chasing after him in the house they once shared. He'd been fighting for his life the whole time when Dean appeared. Dean told him it was all a dream, and it took Bobby a while to believe him. With a work of will Bobby forced himself to wake-up.

Bobby sat up straight in a hospital bed, sucking in grateful breaths of air as if he had been underwater. Relief filled him as he realized the nightmare was over. He only got a moment of relief before Lady wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed him tightly.

Lady sat on the edge of Bobby's bed, giving the nurses deathly glares when they asked her to leave so they could look Bobby over. "Kid, give me five minutes of privacy, will ya?" Bobby pleaded, finally making her leave his side for the first time since she arrived.

When she was able to return to his side he welcomed her. "You okay, kid? You look beat," he said.

"I've been up the past day looking over you," she admitted. "You ever scare me like that again...and you won't want to wake up. Understand?"

Bobby leaned back into his pillows, "This is one close call I don't want to repeat. If it wasn't for Dean I'd still be in there."

And with that Dean entered the hospital room. Lady took a few quick steps to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him gratefully. Knowing that he had prevented Bobby's death that would be a tragedy to all of them, was one of the greatest rewards he ever experienced. The bonus that Lady was smiling again didn't go unnoticed.

"Good job, babe," Lady said, giving him a tight hug before pulling him to a nearby chair. The relief that Bobby was okay and the gratitude she felt toward Dean had lifted her mood considerably.

"How you feeling, Bobby?" Dean asked as he sat in the chair. Lady leaned against the edge of Bobby's bed.

"Alive, thanks to you," Bobby said. "I owe you one."

Dean shook his head, "You would've done the same for me."

After a few moments Sam came in, handing Bobby a folder with the research they had taken from his motel room and what they had gotten on their own. "I pulled some information on Jeremy Frost, the student we found poking around in your head," Sam said.

Bobby frowned as he picked up a picture of Jeremy. A kid in his early twenties, a college student that had been part of Dr. Gregg's dream study. "Yup, that's him. I did a little research on him. Full-on genius. Hundred-and-sixty IQ. Which is sayin' something, considering his dad took a baseball bat to his head." Bobby shuffled through some other photos and held up an old copy of a driver's license. "Here's Father of the Year. He died before Jeremy was 10. The head injury gave Jeremy Charcot-Wilbrand, he hasn't dreamt since."

"Brain damage?" Lady looked up at Bobby, her brow furrowed.

"That's right," Bobby said, and then quickly added, "There isn't anything wrong with the people that can't dream, Lady. Whether or not you actually have the same thing doesn't matter. It's what this kid is doing with the dream root that makes him dangerous."

"Bobby, I have to ask," Sam began. "How'd he get in your head in the first place? Isn't he supposed to have some of your hair, your DNA or something? We needed some of your hair to get in there."

Bobby looked bitter, "Yeah. Before I knew it was him, he offered me a beer. I drank it. Dumbest frigging thing."

Dean's eyes widened, "Oh, I don't know. It wasn't that dumb." Dean let out a nervous laugh as eyes fell on him.

"Dean, you didn't," Sam said flatly.

Dean grimaced. The night before he had spoken to Jeremy in his dorm room, and had taken the beer he offered. "I was thirsty," he said as an excuse.

"That's great, now he can come after either one of you," Sam said angrily.

"How many freaking times do I have to tell you not to accept food or drinks from strangers?" Lady snapped at him.

"Hey! I'll be fine, okay? We just have to find him first," Dean said.

"We better work fast and coffee up. Because one thing we cannot do is fall asleep," Bobby agreed.

XXXXX

Once Bobby was released from the hospital they went to the motel. Lady got some sleep as the men went out in search of their deadly dream-walker, Jeremy.

That evening Bobby and Dean were both feeling the strain of fatigue pulling on them, but fought the desire to sleep. Sam got in a nap, needing to be sharp for when they finally found Jeremy. While Sam was resting Lady took the passenger seat as Dean continued in his search for Jeremy and his fight to stay awake.

Dean finished sucking down his third energy drink, the kind that Lady liked. "God, that tastes like piss. How can you drink those?"

"Guaranteed to keep you awake and make your pee turn green," Lady said brightly, helping herself to one.

Dean frowned at her, "Seriously?"

"No," Lady smirked. They were parked outside Jeremy's dorm, watching the students entering and exiting the building hoping Jeremy would be among one of them. Lady had already examined his room, looking for a piece of his hair or something of his that she may be able to manage a locating spell with. But the kid was good, paranoid to the point of obsession, considering he knew what a little DNA could do to a person. The room was unnatural clean for a college dorm room, and they were stuck waiting.

"Bobby ever talk to you about his wife?" Dean asked.

"Karen?" Lady looked at Dean with wide eyes. "Uh...no, he doesn't really talk about it. But John told me about her."

"Did he know her?" Dean asked.

Lady looked surprised, "No. She died before John and Bobby met." Lady looked away from Dean. "You knew Bobby before I did. John probably didn't tell you because you were just kids. Bobby is still pretty sensitive about it, but her death is the reason he got into hunting. I mean, everyone needs their motivation. Bobby's motivation was to know what happened to his wife, and how to keep it from happening again."

"Yeah, I guess," Dean muttered.

Lady looked sadly out the window of the Impala, "We all know that losing someone you love is hard. It changes people."

Dean went quiet as he thought about that. He didn't feel that he was a different person from his father's death, but his life was different without his father still there. And he quickly thought about Lady, her mental breakdown after her mother's murder had sent her running all the way from Louisiana to Nevada. And Bobby's close call had briefly turned her into a helpless mess. He remembered what Sam said, Lady didn't cope well. And the past few months she'd been relying on Dean for just about everything. He didn't like thinking just what sort of changes she might go through after he was gone.

**January 27, 2008**

Dean was fighting yawns as the sun rose, and forced down another energy drink. They were so sweet he felt like he needed to brush his teeth before they started falling out. Lady had fallen asleep and without her chatter staying awake was getting harder. They went back to the motel for a break, waking up Sam and checking on Bobby and Bela's progress.

"What is she still doing here?" Lady hissed at Dean as they walked into the room.

"I can hear you, you know," Bela said in her elegant British accent.

"Then maybe you'll answer me," Lady said, mimicking her accent perfectly.

"I do have skills," Bela answered. "I'm preparing to communicate with the spirits, trying to see if they can find your dream-walker before someone falls asleep, never to wake up again."

Lady looked at Dean, "I don't like her."

"I can still hear you," Bela said.

"I wanted you to hear me," Lady snapped.

"No one likes her," Dean said. "But she helped us."

Lady frowned. She didn't need to remind Dean that Bela had also 'helped' Gordon Walker find them. Trusting people had never been Lady's strong suit, and forgiving people hadn't been an easy thing for her to learn either. She knew Dean had a point, and with lives at stake she had to swallow back her pride and let Bela assist.

"I'm going to take a shower. Don't get in a catfight unless I can watch," Dean said, giving Lady a playful wink before going to the bathroom.

Lady and Bela looked at each other for several moments before Lady turned her back on her.

After getting ready for another day of aimlessly searching Sam and Dean went out. Lady got in a nap and then worked on keeping Bobby caffeinated before she rejoined the brothers in the backseat of the Impala.

"Coffee is in this one," Lady said, handing Dean a thermos of hot and strong coffee.

"What's that other one?" Dean asked.

"This is the dream root tea, I brewed some up," Lady said. "Dean, you are getting close to two days without sleep. Sam said if you pass out he's not letting you go in there alone."

Dean turned his head slowly to glare at his brother.

Sam slowly turned his head to glare at Lady, "I thought it was obvious, but when I asked you to do that I did so hoping you understood that Dean wasn't supposed to know."

Lady shrugged, "I love you, Sam, but I'm sleeping with him. My loyalties lie with who I lie with." Lady gave him a smile.

"If I fall asleep I don't want you poking around in my head," Dean said angrily.

"I'm siding with Sam on this one. I'm not crossing my fingers in hopes that we find something. That Bela is helping doesn't actually ease my worries," Lady said. "I don't get why she is still here, anyway."

Dean rubbed his tired eyes, "She owed Bobby a favor, he saved her ass once."

"Really?" Lady leaned forward in interest. "What happened?"

"I don't know. I don't care," Dean said.

Lady leaned back with a frown. That was the closest she'd been able to get to interesting gossip since she left North Dakota. She made a mental note to ask Bobby for the story when they made it back to the motel.

**January 28, 2008**

It was four in the morning when Dean muttered a string of frustrated curses and pulled over to the side of the road. Sam, who had been close to dozing off himself, jerked in surprise. "What's going on?"

Dean shut off the car and leaned back, "Taking myself a long-overdue nap."

"That's it? You're giving up?" Sam asked.

Dean glared at him, "Giving up? You've been able to sleep the past two days! I'm tired, man! We can't find him, so we'll let him come to me."

"On his own turf? Where he's basically a god?" Sam countered.

"Yup," Dean said, leaning his head back.

Sam frowned and reached over to pull his brother's hair, "Not alone."

"Ouch! Hey!" Dean rubbed his head where his hair had been pulled out. "I told you, I don't want you poking around in my head."

"Too bad," Sam said as he filled a cup of tea from the thermos Lady brought.

Lady leaned forward, "So...what? I'm supposed to sit in a dead car while you two snuggle?"

Dean looked out the front window, fighting to keep his eyes awake. He just couldn't take it anymore. No amount of coffee or sugary energy drinks could keep him awake any longer. His eyes closed and didn't open.

"Dean?" Lady poked him.

"He's out," Sam said. "And I'm about to be, too. Lady...well, keys are in the ignition if anything happens."

Lady looked at him with wide eyes as he drank down the dream root tea. "Serious?" She said as Sam slowly slumped to the side, falling asleep under the influence of the tea. She looked between the brothers, hating that she had to sit on the sidelines.

And then she thought of Jeremy. He hadn't been able to dream since he was a kid, much longer than Lady. Maybe his condition was caused by blunt-force trauma, while Lady's was caused by having a shock of magic course through her, but if the dream root worked for him she didn't see why it wouldn't work for her. She reached over the front of the seat to take back the thermos and the lid that doubled as a cup. She poured the liquid in, and took a few of Dean's hairs to add. The tea was warm, foul smelling and tasted nasty, but she slurped it down. She was sick of being in the backseat while Sam and Dean were risking their lives. She was sick of waiting around, anxiously waiting to see if she'd ever see them alive again.


	103. Dream a Little Dream, January 2008

**January 28, 2008**

Lady knew the tea caused sleep almost instantly, but several moments afterward she still felt awake. And was still in the Impala. But Sam and Dean were both awake and speaking.

"Think it worked?" Sam was saying, looking out the passenger window.

"Why are we still here?" Dean asked.

"I think it worked," Lady said.

"Jesus Christ!" Dean jumped.

"Holy shit!" Sam jerked in surprise.

They both turned in their seats to look at her. "You weren't there a second ago," Dean said.

"Did we wake up?" Sam looked at Dean.

"No, I decided to come with," Lady said.

"Are you crazy?" Dean snapped at her. "Never mind, forget I asked."

"This is good," Sam said. "Three against one. Jeremy will have a hard time attacking. We got your back, Dean."

Dean glared at his brother, "Thank you," he said sarcastically.

Lady put her arm over the seat and lightly touched Dean's face, "Babe, this asshole doesn't know who he's dealing with. We know his game, and you have a pretty strong will. This is going to be a cakewalk."

"Hey, guys...someone is out there," Sam said, looking out the window.

Together they got out of the car. It appeared to be the same area they had parked in. Rural, gravel road with a dead end, trees and bushes. Very remote. "I hear something," Lady said, turning her head.

The brother's followed her eyes and an empty patch of grass suddenly became illuminated. Out of thin air a woman appeared. She was sitting on a blanket, holding a glass of wine with a picnic basket beside her. She was beautiful, wavy dark hair and a trim figure. She smiled warming, looking right at Dean.

"Who is she?" Lady asked flatly.

"Oh god," Dean winced.

"Is that Lisa?" Sam asked.

"Hey, Dean. You gonna sit down?" The woman asked pulling out another glass of wine from the basket and offering it to Dean. "Come on. We only have an hour before we have to pick Ben up from baseball."

Dean turned to Lady, "I've never had this dream before."

Lady's eyes widened, "You're lying to me!"

"She's just...it's nothing, babe. Really," Dean said.

Lady glared back at the woman of Dean's dreams. Lisa was smiling happily as she said, "Dean, I love you."

Suddenly the image shuddered and vanished, leaving them in the darkness again. "Lady..." Dean began.

Lady cut him off, "I see Jeremy. There!"

"Lady, wait!" Dean called as she started running off. Sam and Dean both quickly followed her.

Lady dodged trees and fallen branches as she chased after Jeremy, hearing Sam and Dean behind her. She slowed to a stop, looking around. "I lost him," she panted. "Go that way, I'm heading through here."

"Got it," Sam said, breaking off and continuing to run.

Dean chased after Lady again. "Lady, this isn't safe."

"So far I haven't seen anything dangerous in your dreams, Dean," she snapped back at him as she ran, keeping herself a few strides ahead of him.

Dean suddenly realized that he had been letting himself get out of shape. Lady had always been quicker in short sprints, but she didn't have long endurance. And now he was having trouble keeping up. She disappeared behind some tree branches and he jumped over a fallen branch to keep her in sight, but when he pulled the branches back there was a door blocking his path. He pounded on the door, "Lady! Lady!"

Lady stopped running, hearing Dean's voice distantly. "Dean?" She called back. Behind her the trees had vanished. "Whoa, trippy." She backtracked, or at least tried to. It seemed the area she had ran through had just vanished. She didn't see the car, she didn't hear Sam or Dean.

Dean opened the door that blocked him, and found it led into a long empty hallway. Slowly he stepped down it, "Lady?" he called in a hushed voice. "Babe, I get that you are pissed but if you can hear me please...just come out so I can stop worrying."

At the end of the hall a door slowly creaked open. Dean looked around cautiously as he approached it slowly.

Lady found the door in the middle of nothing, and went down the hallway silently when she saw Dean at the end of it. She reached out to touch his shoulder, but stopped when her future-sight warned her that was a quick way to startle him and get slammed into the wall. She kept her distance, "Find something?" she asked.

Dean jerked in shock. "You stay close," he ordered, grabbing her wrist in his hand.

"You were the..." Lady began to hiss back, but stopped at the glare he gave her.

The two of them stepped through the doorway and walked down a short flight of stairs into what looked like a basement. They both stopped at the bottom of the stairs, at the end of the room was a man sitting at a desk. "Jeremy?" Dean called, slowly pulling Lady behind him.

The man stood up and faced them. Lady looked around Dean's shoulder, her lips parted in surprise. It wasn't Jeremy, it was Dean. She stepped away, glancing back and forth. Two Deans.

"Hey, Dean," the Dream Dean said. He looked at Lady, "Hey, sweetheart."

Lady looked at the real Dean, "I thought I was supposed to be the crazy one."

"Ah, your boy here has more problems than you know," Dream Dean said, taking slow steps toward them.

"I get it. I get it. I'm my own worst nightmare, is that it? Huh? Kind of like the Superman III junkyard scene? A little mano y mano with myself?" the Real Dean countered, trying to keep himself between Lady and the other him. The room seemed to shrink around them, though, and he kept getting closer.

"Joke all you want, smart-ass," the Dream Dean said.

"Lady, the door," Dean said in a low voice.

Lady moved along the wall, reaching the door and opening it. "It's just a closet," she said, but before she could move back the door swung shut, taking her inside and locking her in.

"Lady!" Dean shouted, and she heard him pound on the door and try to open it from the other side.

"I'm okay!" Lady said. "Smells like Sam's socks, but I'm okay."

"We need to talk, Dean," the Dream Dean said.

Dean glared at him, "Sorry, pal, it's not gonna work."

"You can't lie to me. I know the truth," Dream Dean said. "I know how dead you are inside. How worthless you feel. I know how you look into a mirror... and hate what you see. I mean, you're going to hell and you won't lift a finger to stop it. Talk about low self-esteem. Then again, I guess it's not much of a life worth saving, now is it? I mean, after all, you've got nothing outside of Sam. You are nothing. You're as mindless and obedient as an attack dog."

The Real Dean smiled a bit, "That...That's not true." But in fact his insides were turning, because every nail was being hit right on the head.

"No?" Dream Dean raised an eyebrow at him. "What are the things that you want? What are the things that you dream? I mean, your car? That's Dad's. Your favorite leather jacket? Dad's. Your music? Dad's." Dream Dean chuckled a bit, "Hell, even your girlfriend is a woman Dad sent your way. She's the only good thing he ever gave you, and he did all he could to keep that from even happening. Do you even have an original thought?"

Dean lost the bit of the smile he had managed, his face grimacing.

Dream Dean gave him a hard stare, "No. No, all there is, is 'Watch out for Sammy. Look out for your little brother, boy!' You can still hear your Dad's voice in your head, can't you?"

"Just shut up," Dean said in a low voice.

"I mean, think about it," Dream Dean continued. "All he ever did is train you, boss you around. But Sam...Sam he doted on. Sam, he loved. Dad knew who you really were. A good soldier and nothing else. Daddy's blunt little instrument. Your own father didn't care whether you lived or died. Why should you?"

Dean lost it, "Son of a bitch!" He surged forward, attacking his other self and pushing him against the wall. "My father was an obsessed bastard!" He kicked his other self down and then whipped the butt of the sawed-off shotgun against his face. "All that crap he dumped on me, about protecting Sam. That was his crap. He's the one who couldn't protect his family. He's the one who let Mom die. Who wasn't there for Sam. I always was! He wasn't there! I didn't deserve what he put on me!" Dean stepped back and shouted, "And I don't deserve to go to hell!"

He fired the sawed-off shotgun without thinking twice, and panted hard. He looked at his own body, blood splattered across the face and a gaping hole from the close-range shot.

He dropped the gun as he heard Lady pounding on the closet door and shouting his name. Dean grabbed the door handle and wrenched the door open. Lady spilled out, looking around wildly. She saw the body, and looked anxiously at Dean. Her mind worked quickly, it was really him. If it wasn't she would have woken up. "Dean..." Lady began, but turned her head sharply when the body moved. "We need to get out..."

Before she could finish the body of Dream Dean, surged forward. Eyes wide and full black. Lady was pushed to one side as the real Dean became pinned against the wall. "You can't escape me, Dean. You're gonna die. And this, this is what you're gonna become!" it hissed at him as they struggled.

Lady jumped on Dream Dean's back, locking one arm around his neck while clawing at his face with sharp manicured nails.

When Sam went his separate way he caught up to the dream-walker Jeremy, but quickly became overpowered. Jeremy controlled the world, and pinned Sam down. Savagely beating him with a baseball bat. Sam remembered that Jeremy's condition was caused by his father beating him with a baseball bat, and concentrated firmly on the picture of Jeremy's father. His concentration, along with his own consumption of the dream root, allowed him to make Jeremy's father appear. Jeremy was momentarily stunned, then scared, of his father's appearance. Giving Sam enough time to get the baseball bat and take a strong swing right into Jeremy's temple. He heard the sickening crack of skull breaking.

The next instant all three of them woke up in the car.

Dean jerked, putting his hands up to try and protect himself from the attack he had been going through right before he woke up. Lady jumped out of her seat, stunned and confused that the person she had been attacking viciously a second ago had vanished.

"We all okay?" Sam breathed.

Lady slumped down in her seat, working on catching her breath. "Yeah, we're good," she answered.

XXXXX

The sun was trying to break over the horizon when they made it back to the motel. Drinking the Dream Root tea had left a bad taste in Lady's mouth and when she looked through old food containers for something to help take away the taste she felt a bad headache coming on and her stomach churned a bit.

Dean knocked on the door before entering, "Sam and Bobby are out trying to find Jeremy, make sure he's dead and if he isn't solve the problem."

"That's good," she said, pinching the bridge of her nose as she dug through her bag for some pain killers.

Dean could tell by the way she held her shoulders and that she hadn't turned to look at him that she was at the very least unhappy, but more likely she was flat-out pissed. All night had been spent trying to locate where Jeremy might be, see if he was still alive or not. It was his first chance to talk to her alone. "Can we talk?"

"We don't have to," Lady said with a sigh.

Dean's jaw involuntarily flexed, "Okay, maybe we don't. Can you at least...beat me over the head or something? Just, whatever you have to do so we're good again?"

Lady rolled her eyes, "I don't want to beat you, Dean."

"Shoot me. Stab me. Something. Vent your anger however you like."

Lady roughly stuffed a few things into her bag before turning back to him, "I'm not mad at you."

"You're pissed," Dean told her.

Lady thought about it, "I'm confused. Frustrated. And, yeah, fine, I'm pissed. I am so regretting stepping into your head, you have no idea."

"Lady...I'm sorry," Dean said.

Lady's face fell, "Why? Who? Just...I don't get it, Dean. I know people can't control what they see in their dreams...but I also know that dreams have a way of telling you about yourself. And I don't know what the hell it says about you. But...what the fuck, man? Some strange woman...with wine? I don't even know you right now! And what is that even say about me? Maybe I'm putting myself a higher on the pedestal than I deserve, but I'm pretty sure that I'm supposed to have a role in your dreams." Lady let out a huff of breath and began to rub her temples as her headache intensified.

"Her name is Lisa Braedon," Dean told her. "Uh, I met her once years ago, she was just a fling. But...while you were gone, just days before you came back, I saw her again. She has a kid now, named Ben. He's eight. And it just sort of hit me back then, how much life I was going to miss out on. It still does, to be honest. She...she has it all. House, family, kid. Just a perfect little slice of normal life...and that's what I always wished for. If there was anything I ever wanted more, that I'll never get, it's that. But not with her, I wanted it with you."

"Are you high?" Lady asked.

Dean shook his head, "Lady...did Sam or Bobby ever tell you I got attacked by a djinn? About a month after you were pulled into the ley lines?"

Lady shook her head.

Dean briefly told her about the djinn (**reference chapters 56 and 57**), and how it had made him believe his wish had been granted. And finished by saying, "This life, hunting...if I had a chance to get out and have something like that I'd take it. And take you with me."

Lady looked at him with wide eyes, "You're telling me that...that you want to mow lawns and pop out a few kids?"

"You're telling me you wouldn't want something safe and normal if we could?" he asked her.

"I tried safe and normal. In Louisiana, remember?" she countered. "It didn't work out well. I function best in the middle of chaos and insanity! Without it my weirdness stands out like a big fucking neon sign. And my will to live withers up and dies. So no, safe and normal doesn't work for me."

"We've made it work," Dean said "Lady, we work together. Whether it is hunting, or just waiting for the next thing to come along. We could...we could have made that work."

Lady's face softened, "Maybe. But I just can't see that ever happening in my life."

Dean nodded, "Yeah, guess I don't either. That's why all it'll ever be is a dream. I'm sorry, Lady. I don't know if I'll be around to even try. But...I want to be. I don't know what you heard, but I'm not ready to die. I know I'm late in deciding it. And we've been here before...if I can survive this I don't want to be alone when it's over. I don't want to be without you."

Lady nodded, "I'm with you, to the end, Dean. No matter how much of a narcissistic bastard you are, I'm too stubborn to back out now." Lady's shoulders slumped in defeat, "You know I heard most of what was said in there, right?"

Dean tensed, "You did?"

She nodded, "Yeah. I'm sorry, but I was locked in a closet and all I could do was listen." She looked down, "You really think it was a good thing that John sent me to meet up with you guys?"

"How could I not? Maybe we're together just because...because let's face it, no one else in the right frame of mind would put up with either of us for more than a few dates. I like having you around. And...to be honest, these past few months sometimes the only reason I even bother to get out of bed is because you are there...and if I don't you are going to shooting down birds nests."

"I only threatened to do that once!" Lady protested. "And for your information, I'm a fucking joy to be around. And you know what, you aren't half bad yourself. Maybe your dad didn't always do right by you, but you came out on top. You are rabidly loyal, and you know you hide behind this macho guise that I think is hot as hell, but you care about people. I knew John, and you are ten times better than he was on his best day. So here is the deal, end the self-pity guilt trip thing you have going on...or I'll kick your ass."

Dean looked at her evenly, "You're going to kick my ass?"

"I'm not half bad at a choker-hold," Lady said, trying to stand up a bit taller to appear possibly threatening, but stretching seemed to aggravate her headache so she quickly slumped down.

Dean was nearly amused, but he couldn't manage a smile. Lady was always quick to try and pick him up. He pulled her into a close hug, deeply breathing in the smell of her shampoo. He tilted his neck and lightly kissed her, slowly testing the water to make sure things were okay. He'd been through so many ups and downs with Lady it'd be a relief if it had been this easy.

Lady's brain was throbbing in her skull and the conversation with Dean had barely been able to take her focus off of it. The pain streaked from behind her eyes all the way back to her neck, and she suddenly felt sick. She pulled away from him and ran to the bathroom, slamming the door only moments before throwing up.

Dean had never had a woman throw up from kissing him before. He'd been slapped, shoved, kneed and even had angry brothers or significant others come after him. But never that reaction. "You okay?" he asked, grimacing as Lady loudly emptied her stomach.

"Ugh…I think that stuff made me sick," Lady moaned from behind the door. "Or I caught something at the hospital. I don't feel…oh god."

Dean backed away from the bathroom as she resumed throwing up, "You need anything?" He winced at the retching sound.

The toilet flushed and the sink ran for several minutes as Lady washed her mouth out. She stepped out of the bathroom, a light sheen of sweat on her face. "I'm going to bed," she said in a rough voice.

Lady took a handful of pills from her bag and covered her head with the blanket as the headache intensified into a full-blown migraine. Even under the darkness of the blankets when she closed her eyes she saw bright white light that made the headache extend down into her neck and shoulders and did nothing to help with the nausea. It seemed to take hours for the mix of pills to work their magic and knock her out.

It was about an hour when Dean noticed her breathing starting to calm down. It was almost fortunate that he had gotten a room with two beds, he really didn't want to lay down next to Lady if she was going to be throwing up. Hell, not running out when she started retching in the bathroom had taken a lot of willpower. When he and Sam had checked into the motel room they just wanted somewhere private to work, he hadn't even been thinking about getting privacy for him and Lady.

Dean grimaced when Lady jerked awake, clawing her way out from under the blankets and rushing to the bathroom as someone loudly knocked on the door. Dean was unlocking the door as he got to listen to the second round of her being sick. Sam and Bobby walked into the room.

"Hey, what's…" Sam started then frowned toward the bathroom, "Is that Lady?"

"It's not the Cookie Monster," Dean muttered. "She thinks the dream root made her sick. You feeling okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sam said. "That doesn't sound good."

Lady took her time washing out her mouth. The headache was a throbbing pain but the nausea was what nearly took her to her knees. She shuffled out of the bathroom and collapsed on the bed. "Go away," she moaned, covering her head with the blankets again.

"We just got word from the police that they found Jeremy's body, basement of his mother's house," Bobby said. "It's over."

"That's good news," Dean said. "As soon as Lady stop puking we can get out of here."

"There's nothing left," she moaned painfully from beneath the blankets. "Oh, god, someone shoot me."

Sam looked sympathetically at the lump under the blankets and back at Dean, "I'm going to let Bela know that everything is taken care of. Want me to run out and pick anything up for her?"

Dean shrugged, "Whatever will make her stop throwing up. If I have to hear it one more time I'm going to bunk with Bobby."

"Like hell you are," Bobby muttered. "She probably has gingerroot somewhere."

At the mention of ingesting anything Lady stumbled out of bed and ran to the bathroom again.

Sam made a face, "Yeah, I'm going to talk with Bela. I'll look for the gingerroot."

Bobby frowned at the bathroom door as Lady dry-heaved and moaned in pain. "This is nothing. I once tried a counter-curse on her that made her eyes bleed."

Dean looked at Bobby, "Nice to know. Thanks."

Sam came back as Lady was going back to her bed. "Anyone seen Bela? She's not in her room."

"She must've taken off," Dean said, raising the blankets so Lady could crawl under them and dropping them over her head.

"Just like that? It's a little weird," Sam said.

"Yeah well, if you ask me what's weird is why she helped us in the first place," Bobby said.

Dean looked up at him, "I thought you saved her life."

Bobby looked confused, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"The thing in Flagstaff," Dean said in an obvious tone.

"That thing in Flagstaff was an amulet. I gave her a good deal, that's all," Bobby said.

Dean stood up straight, "She told us you saved her life in Flagstaff."

"You boys better check your pockets," Bobby warned them. The brothers both patted themselves down and Bobby scoffed, "Not literally."

Dean tensed as his eyes moved across the motel to the small closet. Inside was a safe that they had drawn a devil's trap on and placed the Colt in. "No, no, no, no," Dean uttered as he crossed the room and reached the safe. He opened it, and let out a curse when he saw it was empty.

"Bela stole the Colt!" Sam stepped forward to look at the small safe to be sure it was empty. "Oh, shit!"

"Dammit, boys!" Bobby shouted.

Lady weakly lifted her head from the blankets, "Oh, fuck me," she moaned as the tragic news bounced inside her already pounding head.

"Pack you crap," Dean ordered, grabbing his bag and throwing his things inside. "We're gonna go hunt the bitch down."

"I'm going to check with some people, see if I can find out what direction she went," Bobby said, leaving the room.

Lady slowly moved as to help him, but stopped. That Bela had pulled a fast one on them pissed her off. While none of them trusted Bela, they had accepted her help. Lady actually enjoyed the thought of finding her and teaching the British Bitch what happened when she messed with them.

But she thought about riding in the Impala, the roar of the engine, Dean's pounding loud music, the motion of the car.

"Go without me," she said, her voice hoarse. "I'll just slow you down and you know it. When I can I'll meet back up with you to help."

Dean and Sam exchanged a look. Lady would be beneficial on a hunt like this. Bela probably expected them to come after her, and she was probably using her spirit board to keep tabs on them. Lady may have been able to counter that or even use that against her. But right then Lady could barely keep her head up.

"You can't let Bela get any more of a head start," she said, sinking back into the bed.

Dean tossed his bag to Sam, "Grab whatever of Lady's stuff that is in the car and bring it in here. Then we're leaving," he ordered.

"Got it," Sam said, leaving the room.

Lady clamped her teeth down and took shallow breaths to hold back the nausea and ease the throbbing pain in her head while Dean sat on the edge of the bed. "Not that I like seeing you be sick, but I don't like leaving you like this."

"I've been through worse, I'll be fine," she said in a strained voice.

"Yeah, I know. As soon as you can manage it we could really use your help," Dean said. He leaned forward and pressed his lips against her sweaty forehead, "I love you."

"I love you. Be careful," she said painfully, hoping she could holdback the urge to puke until he left. He didn't like seeing her like that, and she hated people being around her while she was sick. Mostly she just wanted him to leave so there was less noise to set off the throbbing headache.

Sam returned, dropping Lady's bags. "Hope you feel better, Lady," he said before taking Dean and leaving.

In the Impala Dean took a few moments to gather his thoughts, his hand on the key in preparation to start the car.

"Everything is okay with you and Lady, right?" Sam asked.

Dean looked at him, "Yeah, seems to be," he muttered. "Hey, Sam?"

"Yeah?" Sam looked at him.

"I've been doing some thinking. And...well, the thing is...I don't wanna die. I don't wanna go to hell," Dean confessed to his brother.

Sam felt a bit of hope that he hadn't felt in weeks, maybe months. Maybe now that his brother was on board they may just have a fighting chance of saving him. "Alright. Yeah. We'll find a way to save you."

Dean started up the Impala, "Okay, good."

**A/N** - _While I was editing this I noticed I sort of had bad timing with giving Lady the flu right after Dean talks about wanting to have kids. I just want to assure everyone that there will be no pitter-patter of little feet (at least anytime within the Supernatural Canon. I'd have to be a cruel and evil person to drop a kid in Lady's lap). New chapter will probably be next weekend, thanks for reading and please review!  
_

_Songs for this chapter:_

_Teenage Dream, by Katy Perry_

_Dreams, by Buckcherry_


	104. Bobby's House, February 2008

**February 1, 2008**

Bobby poured himself what was left of the coffee and picked up his phone, "Singer Auto Salvage," he answered tiredly.

"Hey, Bobby, it's Dean. You hear anything?"

Bobby let out a sigh, "I have my feelers out. You didn't find her in New York?"

"We got into her apartment, but she hadn't been there in weeks," Dean said angrily. "We're heading to Chicago now. It's a freaking goose chase."

"I've called every hunter and contact I can think of, asking for them to keep their eyes open and ears to the ground," Bobby reminded him.

"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry, Bobby. I appreciate it...just...calling her for help was my idea. I screwed up, I should have...I should have done something," Dean said.

"If you hadn't called her I'd be dead," Bobby said firmly. "Chances are you would've been, too."

"Yeah, I know," Dean muttered, reigning in the rest of his temper. "Is Lady there?"

"She's sleeping, she's just starting to get over whatever it was she caught," Bobby told him. "If she's up for it I got a car running, she can take it tomorrow."

"Yeah, I'll call back in the morning to check in. Thanks for everything, Bobby," Dean said, ending the call.

Bobby finished his coffee and walked through his house, making sure windows and doors were locked. He peaked in Lady's room, she was sprawled out across her bed and snoring. Since they got back from Pittsburgh she'd been feeling off but had tried to help out where she could. She'd called Maxine, asking the medicine woman for whatever help she could provide in their search for Bela or the Colt. Lady had tried her own tracking spell for the Colt, but Bela had been smart enough to find a way to counter that.

It was nearing midnight and Bobby was contemplating brewing another pot of coffee over calling it a night when Lady shuffled sleepily into the kitchen. "Everything okay, kid?" Bobby asked, looking at her with confusion. Her eyes were half-open.

"Yeah, just need a drink," Lady said while walking to the basement door.

Bobby looked at her in confusion, "Ain't nothing to drink down there," he said as she opened the door.

Lady took one step down the stairs to the basement, and then toppled down them in a loud crash.

Bobby jumped out of his chair, "Lady? Jesus Christ!" He shouted, running down the stairs after her. She was sprawled out at the bottom of the stairs, not moving at first. He got to her side, "Kid, you okay?"

Lady looked around in a daze and winced in pain, "What happened?"

Bobby looked at her with concern as he helped her to her feet, "You fell down the stairs."

Lady looked up the stairs and at him, "Ouch," she complained.

"Yeah, I bet. Come on," he said, guiding her back up the steps and staying behind her. "Were you drinking?"

"No," Lady said when they reached the kitchen, sitting down. "I...I went to bed and I woke up down there." She looked at Bobby with wide eyes, "I don't remember anything between that."

"Well, you hit your head about three times going down," Bobby muttered, looking into her eyes to make sure her pupils were even and reacting to light. "You weren't having a vision, were you?"

Lady thought about it and shook her head, "No. I haven't had one since July."

"That's a long stretch without one," Bobby said with a frown.

Lady shook her head, "With Donovan screwing around within the ley lines I really didn't think it was a problem."

"Okay. You need anything?"

Lady shook her head, "No, I'm just going to go to back to bed."

Lady stretched out across the bed. Ebony and Ivory were battling it out and her hand got caught in their fray for a few moments before they jumped off her bed and down the hallway. She considered getting up to shut the door so they couldn't get back in, but she was just too tired to do it.

**February 2, 2008**

Bobby was woken up with a phone call and was downstairs starting coffee before six in the morning. "Too damn old for this," he muttered as he walked with stiff joints to the bathroom.

He turned the light on and took one step into the bathroom before stopping. He stepped in a puddle and saw there was a towel stuffed in the toilet and water was spilling over. For a moment he was ready to blame the cats' fascination with the toilet, but when he turned to leave the bathroom he saw the mirror. On the mirror there were smudges in soap, they appeared to be strange sigils.

"Lady! Lady! Get up!" Bobby barked, and roughly nudged her.

"I'm up," she snorted awake, wiping her mouth to make sure she hadn't been drooling.

"Get in here," he ordered, and she followed him to the bathroom.

"Ew," Lady said when she saw the toilet overflowing. "Dude, there is a plunger right there. That just isn't sanitary! I sit on that seat!"

"Not that. Look at those," Bobby said.

Lady's eyes widened at the sigils, "Huh."

"Yeah, what do you think?"

She nibbled at her lip for a moment, "It isn't Roman. Oh no."

"What?" Bobby asked urgently.

"I really have to pee," Lady said, frowning at the toilet.

Lady used the upstairs bathroom while Bobby worked on cleaning up the downstairs bathroom. Then they both got to work figuring out the sigils.

"Found it," Bobby said. "I knew they looked familiar. Enochian."

"Ah," Lady nodded, the piece clicking in her own mind. "Popular language of occultists, witches and freaks."

"Yeah. But why is it on my bathroom mirror?" Bobby asked. "You hear anything last night?"

Lady shook her head, "Nothing. And you know I'm usually a light sleeper."

"Like we need more crap on top of what we already got," Bobby uttered. "Okay, I'm going to try and translate these. Check with Maxine and Dean, see how the Bela hunt is going. You think you are feeling good enough to leave today?"

Lady thought about it, she didn't feel like she was back to normal but she hadn't thrown up in two days and she was managing the headache with over-the-counter pain killers instead of narcotics. "We'll see what we can find out about this first, if something is going on I don't feel right leaving you here alone."

Bobby laughed, "You think you can protect me?"

Lady looked at him evenly, "I'm sorry, who was in a coma in Pittsburgh?"

Bobby frowned at her, "Just go make your damn calls, kid."

Bobby worked tirelessly through the morning, checking his house for EMF to rule out demons and spirits. Lady was on the phone with Maxine, Dean and Sam throughout the morning, checking various things and trying to assist in locating Bela Talbot.

At noon Lady slumped over the kitchen table, "I hate that bitch so much right now."

"Don't worry, those boys have a few tricks up their sleeves. They'll get the better of her," Bobby assured her.

"Any luck translating?" Lady asked.

"Yeah, part of a banishing spell," Bobby said with a frown. "Don't make much sense to me. No EMF, not sure how they got there."

"Nothing was missing, right?" Lady asked.

"I checked everything valuable or rare, it's all here," Bobby answered. "Doors all locked, windows all locked. I checked them, last night and this morning. This language is used pretty heavily in necromancy, think Maxine might have some insight?"

"No, she knows next to nothing about Satanism."

"You know Enochian is said to be the language of the angels," Bobby told her.

Lady snorted, "Its primary use is in satanic rituals. I don't know why anyone even bothers with it, Latin is more powerful. Easier to read, too. Angels, seriously, Bobby?"

"Just saying, kid, you don't know everything about everything," Bobby said. "Learning the history and origin is important."

"Right," Lady rolled her eyes. "You want a hot pocket? I want a hot pocket."

**February 3, 2008**

Bobby woke up and went downstairs shortly after sunrise. He turned on the coffee and walked down the hall to check on Lady, but she wasn't in her bed. He went out to the living room and found she had fallen asleep on the couch with a book on her chest, but on the wall above the couch written in what looked like blue candle wax were at least a hundred more sigils.

Lady woke up when Bobby pulled her off of the couch and away from the sigils. "What the hell? Bobby!" Lady complained.

"Shut up!" Bobby snapped, and made her look at the sigils.

"Holy shit," Lady muttered.

"You slept through someone doing that?" Bobby asked as he turned on his EMF reader and checked the salt lines to make sure they were intact.

Lady brought her fingernails to her mouth and began chewing, "What the hell is going on?"

After Bobby took pictures of the sigils Lady was tasked with scraping the wax off the walls, it took her most of the morning. She was just finishing scrubbing the wall clean when Dean called to check in with them.

Bobby answered the phone and spoke to Dean, telling him that unfortunately they had no new news about Bela, and then told Dean about what was happening in his house before handing over the phone to Lady.

"Babe, you okay?" Dean asked.

"Fine, just confused," Lady said. "We laid down salt, there is no EMF. We aren't sure what's causing this."

"I can drop Sam off in Chicago and come there," he offered.

"No, finding Bela is too important," Lady said. "Everything is fine here, nothing but some symbols appearing. I'll keep you in the loop."

"Okay, yeah you do that. I'll call back in a few hours," Dean said.

Lady hung up the phone and sat at the table. Temporarily at a dead end in their search for Bela she tried to help Bobby with the sigils. Lounging in the recliner she flipped through pages of books, reading what she could about the Enochian language. It was dull work, and she fought yawns as the afternoon dragged on.

"Lady..."

Lady opened her eyes wide, trying to shake the fatigue from her head. "What do you want?" She asked, looking across the living room at Bobby who was sitting at his desk.

Bobby looked up at her in confusion, "Excuse me?"

"Did you say..." Lady started, but her future-sight told her that Bobby was going to tell her he did not say her name. "Never mind. I need a coffee boost."

They both worked late into the evening until Lady couldn't keep her eyes open any longer. She checked the salt lines in her bedroom and a few protection amulets that hung from the wall before turning off the light and going to bed.

**February 4, 2008**

It was shortly after three in the morning when Bobby woke up. He heard a noise downstairs and silently moved with his pistol drawn. He wasn't sure if he'd be lucky or in trouble if he caught whatever had been haunting them, but he was ready to get whatever it was out of his house.

Bobby let out a frustrated breath when he saw Lady poking around in the fridge, "Jeez, kid, I could've shot ya," Bobby uttered. Lady closed the fridge, without the light it became pitch black in the kitchen. "Whatchya doin?" Bobby asked, taking a few steps to the wall to hit the light switch. "Lady?" He asked when she didn't answer.

He turned the light on and winced as his eyes adjusted. Lady was standing in front of the fridge, a bottle of ketchup tucked under one arm and a pool of it on her palm while her other hand finger painted on the fridge. Similar symbols to what they had been finding.

"Lady? What are you doing?" Bobby asked firmly, standing next to her.

Lady's eyes were half-closed, unfocused on what she was doing as if she were in a trance. Bobby snapped his fingers in front of her face but she didn't even blink. Bobby backed away slowly, uttering a few choice curses as he hunted down his camcorder and EMF detector.

The camcorder detected no orbs or visages that he couldn't see with his own eyes. The EMF didn't register anything but his own appliances. Lady covered the freezer with sigils drawn in ketchup, then put the bottle away and washed her hands. Bobby followed her down the hall where she went back into bed.

XXXXX

Lady didn't want to get out of bed, it was warm and comfortable and she was still tired as hell. But she heard Bobby working in the kitchen already and decided she should make herself useful. Hopefully they figured something out soon, she was aching to meet up with the Winchesters so they had an extra hand when they tracked down Bela.

"How's the work going?" Lady asked as she grabbed her favorite mug out of the sink and rinsed it out.

Bobby looked like he'd been up all night, and didn't look happy with her. She avoided his eyes, Bobby was good at being grumpy when he was in a good mood. When he was in a bad mood he could be a flat-out bastard.

"Sleep well, kid?" he asked in a rough tone.

Lady shrugged, "Fine. I take it you didn't?"

Bobby took his hat off briefly to scratch at his head and replaced it, "I've been up since three this morning. Been on the phone to three different psychics and an army of hunters."

Lady filled her mug with coffee and sat next to him, "This is really bothering you, isn't it?"

Bobby studied her, "You have no idea."

Lady looked at him sympathetically, "I'm sorry. I'll do whatever I can to help you figure it out."

"I got it figured out, kid," Bobby said gruffly. "Mostly, anyway."

Lady perked up a bit, "That's great."

"It's you," he said flatly.

Lady nodded, a bit ashamed, "Those symbols showing up right above me on the wall yesterday sort of made me think it's about me, but I've never come across a witch that used those symbols."

"No, Lady, it's you," Bobby said more firmly. "You are sleepwalking."

Lady arched an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"

Bobby looked at her with angry surprise, "Oh…kid," he snarled. He stood up roughly and crossed the room to grab his camcorder. He pushed a few buttons, "You want to know what the hell woke me up this morning? Take a damn look."

Lady didn't argue or protest, she wouldn't dare when Bobby was genuinely pissed off like this. She watched the small screen, her face changing into confused shock as she saw what Bobby had video taped her doing in the kitchen just hours earlier. She looked at him with wide eyes, "I don't remember doing this."

"Like you don't remember falling down the stairs. Or flooding my bathroom, or writing on the wall or mirror. I know," Bobby said, letting out a breath to calm himself down.

Lady rested her face in her hands, "Okay, what do I do?"

"Hell if I know," Bobby admitted with a sigh. "I figure you should call Dean, ask him what he knows."

Lady whined, "Do I have to?"

"Kid, something is seriously wrong here. I don't know how wrong it is, but it sure as hell ain't good," Bobby said.

Lady shook her head, "He has to find Bela, he has to get the Colt back. I can't bother him with this."

Bobby frowned at her, "I sent copies of the symbols off to a professor on the east coast to get translated. Cost me a hell of a lot of sucking up, but hopefully I can get them back today. We find out what they mean and maybe we'll figure out how to stop this."

"How can I be writing those symbols? I don't even understand them," Lady said.

Bobby could only shrug, "That's the million dollar question, kid."

Lady looked over at him, "Bobby, I'm so sorry."

"For what?" he asked confused.

She shook her head, "Problems like this, they just…they never stop. Not for me. You are always the one who is dealing with them."

Lady curled up on Bobby's recliner with a large book, trying to read but her mind was too unfocused. She kept trying to remember her sleepwalking episode, to understand why she was doing it and for what purpose. Why couldn't it just be someone holding a gun to her head? So much simpler.

In the afternoon Bobby picked up the phone, "That you, Doc?"

An elderly sounding man replied, "It's me, Bobby. Got that translation you ordered, cost a bit more than I originally quoted you."

Bobby made a face, "Just charge it on the credit card. What do you have?"

"Some of it doesn't make sense, we may not have it in context but I'll send you the full translation through email within an hour. A few things were repeated, though. Awakening a Goddess."

Bobby felt the color drain from his face and his eyes looked at Lady who was watching him over the top of the recliner. "Thanks, Doc, that makes sense," Bobby said numbly and hung up.

"Well?" Lady asked.

Bobby grabbed a bottle of whiskey off his top shelf and poured a glass, "Remember all that research you haven't had time to do lately? Get your ass on it," Bobby told her before downing his drink.

XXXXX

Lady turned her cell phone over in her hand. She was waiting for a call back from Maxine, hoping the medicine woman would have some insight and answers. It didn't make sense to Lady that she'd be unconsciously trying to summon the Goddess. She looked at Bobby's computer where his friend had emailed him the full translation of the symbols, but they didn't complete make sense. Translating a crap language like Enochian was hit or miss.

"Why isn't it in Latin? The coven always used Latin, never this," Lady muttered, mostly to herself.

"The Goddess visited several different cultures, Latin wasn't her only language," Bobby said, but it was only a guess. He looked up when his phone rang and answered it quickly, "Yup...Thanks for calling me back…Yeah, when isn't she in trouble?"

Lady looked up, "Hey," she frowned.

Bobby gave her a brief glare and continued his conversation, "We need to figure it out as fast as possible, I'll try anything…okay, we'll leave now. I'll see you tonight."

"Who was…" Lady began and with her future-sight saw what his answer was going to be. "Aw! You called Missouri?"

Bobby was already moving to get his things together, "Only a few psychics I trust. One of them is unconsciously trying to summon a Goddess right now. Missouri knows you, I know she won't screw around where she shouldn't, and she has an idea."

"What idea?" Lady asked, grudgingly getting ready to leave. She understood Bobby's urgency, she felt the same way. She needed to take care of what was in her head, and soon, before something bad happened.

Bobby began pulling on his boots, "She's going to hypnotize you."

Lady stopped moving to stare at him, "That's the idea? That's bull shit."

Bobby glared at her, "You got a better idea I'm all ears, kid."

Lady looked away from his glare, "I'm not saying I have any idea at all, but I want to state my opinion."

"Your opinion is bull shit," he countered. "You got five minutes to get your ass in the car, get moving."

Lady muttered grumpily under her breath as she got dressed and ready to leave. Within five minutes Bobby's car was chugging, trying to warm up from the extreme cold, and they were on their way to Kansas.

Before they were out of South Dakota Lady's phone rang, and she answered it quickly when she saw it was Maxine. "Please tell me you have something to save my ass," Lady pleaded, hoping Maxine could figure out something better than Missouri had.

"Not exactly," Maxine said. "Figured a few things out from what you and Bobby sent me, though. Just guesses at the moment."

"That's not any better than what we have," Lady told her.

"You remember how Max pulled you out of the spirit realm and back into your body?"

"Barely, there was a lot going on I couldn't really keep track of it all," Lady admitted.

Maxine sighed, "Short explanation, for a few minutes you and the Goddess were roommates in your head, and my guess is when you kicked her ass out you didn't give her enough time to pack up all her belongings. Bits and pieces are still in there."

"Okay, but why now?"

"May just be your luck," Maxine said dryly. "My vision of your future hasn't changed, I don't see that you actually summon the power of the Goddess back into you."

Hearing that was a relief, even though Lady knew visions of the future could change drastically in moments. "Maybe that means what I'm about to do will work," Lady muttered.

"What are you about to do?" Maxine asked, her voice had a tone of caution as if she didn't really want to know.

Lady let out a sigh, "I know another psychic, she's going to try and hypnotize me."

Maxine was quiet for several moments before saying, "Actually, that's a good idea if she can pull it off. A controlled environment, well, as controlled as your head can ever be."

"I'm really getting sick of people making fun of my ADD," Lady said in a tired voice.

Maxine replied in a more sympathetic tone, "Whatever happens, we'll do whatever we can to help you. I'll go back to meditating and call you if I see anything."

"Okay, thanks, Maxine," Lady said with a sigh.

Lady looked at the window at the passing countryside and towns while misery and dread filled her. The miles and hours went by and they reached Lawrence, Kansas late in the evening.


	105. Kansas, February 2008

**February 4, 2008**

**Lawrence, Kansas**

Missouri greeted them both at the door, ushering them inside and out of the cold. Lady was unusually quiet as Bobby went over details with Missouri.

Missouri smiled warmly at Lady, "Don't you worry so much, we're going to get to the bottom of this."

Lady tried to keep her thoughts in check, knowing that Missouri could hear inside her head. "If this doesn't work we don't have anything else," Lady said.

"We won't know until we try," Missouri said, taking Lady's hand and moving her to a comfortable recliner. "Get comfortable."

Lady pulled out the footrest and leaned back, it was pretty comfortable. Missouri began instructing her to empty her mind. Lady worked on doing that, trying to forget about the unusual predicament she was in and the hundreds of worries she'd been dwelling on all day. One by one she forced them to the back of her mind.

And then she saw a yellowish spot on Missouri's ceiling. She wondered what it was. Had water been leaking? Missouri should get that fixed, mold can grow. Probably not this time of year but the summers were hot and humid, perfect for a bad infestation. Maybe it wasn't leaking but perhaps something spilled? It was hard to spill on the ceiling…

"This won't work if you don't clear your mind," Missouri said. "You do want to figure this out, don't you? Before something bad happens?"

Lady tried to loosen her face from the frown that was forming, but it was hard. She looked away from the spot on the ceiling and worked on thinking about something plain and white, absolute nothingness.

It had been over a year since she had seen Missouri, the house still smelled the same. Didn't she ever try new perfume or something? It wasn't a bad smell, it smelled good. But Lady liked to mix up scents. Apparently Missouri was one of those unchanging types, but in a way that was good. Missouri was a good woman, she didn't have to change.

Lady leaned back in the recliner and closed her eyes, taking several minutes just to clean out her busy head once again. When Missouri spoke again it was in a soft and soothing voice, "I want you to picture yourself in a safe place, the safest place you've ever known."

Lady wondered how the hell she was supposed to keep her mind clear when Missouri asked her to think. Safe? No where was safe if she was there, that was proven time and time again.

"It doesn't have to be a physical place, think about a memory, find something soothing and relaxing," Missouri instructed.

Lady thought of the obvious stuff. Field of flowers, but when she thought of that she thought about magical qualities and what she could do with them. A beach? She thought about Garrett melting the sand into glass, vanishing right from under her. And barely thinking about a tropical area made her think of birds and their infuriating chirping.

Missouri let out an impatient sigh.

"I'm sorry!" Lady sat up. "I can't help it!"

"It's okay, let's try again," Missouri said, trying to hide her own frustration.

Lady focused her mind once more. She wasn't confident that Missouri could get the job done, but she was willing to try if it gave them half a chance. Her focus began to turn to why she needed to understand what was happening, if she didn't she'd lose herself. While the world may not miss her, and she didn't think she'd miss it, there were things worth sticking around for. Summer bonfires in North Dakota, watching out for Bobby when he got old and senile, sharing an amused look with Sam at Dean's expense…and of course Dean himself.

Lady found a memory. It had been a lazy weekend and she was in a motel with Dean and Sam. She couldn't remember the name of the motel or even what part of the country they had been in. It was a long night of idle conversation, a few jokes, and a movie. Sam had been staying in the room with them, they didn't always have the extra money for two separate rooms. But no one was bothered by it. When they decided to get some sleep they moved like one unit putting things away in case they had to leave quickly, taking turns in the bathroom, and shutting off the lights before going under the blankets. There was a sense that they had each other's backs. They were a well-functioning family unit. A feeling of comfort and safety filled Lady as she focused on the memory.

And then she slipped into sleep.

"You are now in a deep sleep," Missouri coached, and Lady's chin slid down to her chest. Missouri let out a relieved breath, "I was afraid I wasn't going to get her this far."

"Now what?" Bobby asked.

"Lady, can you hear me?" Missouri asked.

"Yes," Lady answered in a soft voice.

"I want you to try and remember the symbols you were drawing in your sleep. Can you remember them?" Missouri asked.

"It wasn't me," Lady said. "It was the other me."

"What do you mean the other you?" Missouri asked. "Is there something else in there?"

Lady was quiet for several moments before answering, "Yes."

"The Goddess?" Missouri asked.

"Yes," Lady answered.

"Do you want her in there?" Missouri asked.

"No," Lady said, her voice almost a mumble.

"We're going to send her away, Lady," Missouri said calmly. "If I ask you to can you find her?"

"No…something…something's there…stopping me," Lady said, her face twisting into a grimace.

"It's okay, just back away from it," Missouri said, and Lady relaxed again. "What does it look like?"

Lady was quiet for several seconds before answering, "Vines and monkshood. Ananda's monkshood."

"Why is it Ananda's?" Missouri asked.

"She used it in her spells and rituals," Lady murmured. "I can't get away from it…it's suffocating…"

"No it isn't," Missouri assured her. "We're in control here, Lady. Not Ananda. Not the Goddess. Us. Now tell me, how do we get rid of the monkshood?"

"Activated charcoal, wolfsbane, mandrake, jasmine," Lady said. "Ground, stirred clockwise with a shot of club soda."

"She telling us to make that?" Bobby asked.

"Yes, she is," Missouri said, standing up. "Lady, go back to your safe place and wait for us there."

XXXXX

Lady was comfortable in bed, and stretched a bit to find Dean on his side of the bed. She scooted over and pressed her face between his shoulder blades while putting an arm over his side, "I miss you," she murmured. "Mm…I'm supposed to be doing something. What is…"

Lady looked around the motel room, and the wall that usually had the television against it was covered in purple flowered monkshood. She got out of bed and crept toward the wall to get a closer look. She remembered separating the petals and pressing the flowers to get the little bit of juice from them. It was toxic, and fairly powerful within magic. Ananda had her gather twenty of the flowers, and Lady had without question. Almost gladly.

After gathering them Ananda mixed the poison taken from them with a spell, and it marked the end of Ananda playing nice. For months afterward Lady had been in hell, tortured daily with spells and rituals. A lot of it she had blocked out, she had been so young she didn't know how to handle it. She didn't understand most of it then, she just wished she had been somewhere else doing anything else.

"Lady, you need to drink this," Missouri's voice said.

Lady went still, remembering Missouri had been trying to hypnotize her, and she realized it had worked.

"I think I'm waking up," Lady warned. "I'm aware of what's going on."

"You won't wake up until I tell you to," Missouri said in an order. "Drink."

Lady wondered what she was supposed to drink, but saw a glass on the floor. She picked it up and sipped at it. The flowers on the wall began to shrivel and dry. She took a longer drink and the dead flowers began to fall from their stems and vines. When she finished the drink the wall of monkshood was gone and behind them was a door. "I see a door," Lady said.

"Good, I want you to open the door," Missouri told her.

"I thought you just wanted me to stare at it, thanks for clarifying," Lady said snarkily as she grabbed the door handle and pulled it open. "Wow…"

"What is it?" Missouri asked.

Lady looked at the bright landscape beyond the door, "I think I'm in Egypt."

Lady stepped onto warm sun, in the far distance she saw peaks of stone pyramids. People wearing scraps of clothing moved past her without notice, and foot traffic increased as she reached some sort of village. "Correction, I think I'm in ancient Egypt. I don't like this."

"You are safe, nothing can harm you," Missouri assured her. "This is nothing more than a memory."

"Sure as hell isn't one of mine," Lady snapped.

"You are right, it isn't. We're here to find the Goddess, can you find her?"

Lady looked at the distance peaks of pyramids, "I know where I'd be if I was a God."

She passed the distance quickly and gained entrance into the pyramid. She could feel she was getting closer to her destination, and in a chamber within the pyramid she found a group of people. At the front of them was a beautiful woman, golden skin and exotic dark eyes.

"What have you done, Isis?" A man that had facial features resembling a falcon said.

The woman looked annoyed, "I can do as I wish."

"You've gone crazy with power," another woman said.

"We're Gods, they are mortals. It's as simple as that," Isis said.

"Then you leave us no choice, I hope you remember you brought this on yourself," another man said.

"You can't kill me," Isis said, a smug smile spreading as her eyes became nearly feral.

"Maybe we can't, but we can banish you," one of the others said.

"Banish me from this land, I'll find a new one," Isis promised. "And when I do I will take my land back."

Lady tensed and closed her eyes until Missouri's calm voice said, "What do you see, Lady?"

Lady opened her eyes and looked around, she was somewhere else. "The Goddess…the other Egyptian Gods banished her. She was pretty pissed, and half crazy. She's gone now, I don't know where she is."

"We'll find her again, these are just memories we must go through to find her," Missouri said. "Where are you now?"

Lady turned slowly until she saw a landmark, "Um…Stonehenge."

Lady had never been overseas to see it with her own eyes, though she heard stories of its mystical nature. The most she had seen were pictures of it, but never cared much. Standing atop of the giant stones were several people.

One woman was standing on the ground, looking up at the others with defiance. She had golden hair than hung in loose curls down to her ankles, was wearing a pure white dress that glowed in the moonlight. "I came here and created you. Gave you immortality, magic, power and worshippers…and this is what you do to me?"

"Why should we trust you, Freyja?" A man asked. "You fornicate with our enemies, answer prayers of those that threaten our lands…"

"I am more powerful than all of you! All of the world worships ms, instead of a few measly farmers or warriors I have them _all_," Freyja snapped back.

"Our ways are dying, can't you feel it?" a woman snapped at her.

"Our ways will never die! I will not let them," Freyja the Goddess said.

"Mortals are finding ways to slay our kin," a man said in a subdued voice, sounding like he was afraid to speak out.

"I will make more," Freyja answered.

"No, we're done with you," a woman said firmly.

"Fine, I'll return north," Freyja snarled.

"No," a man said.

Freyja's eyes widened, "Odr? I've given you everything you've ever asked for."

"And now I lead our kind in asking you to leave," the man said.

Her beautiful face twisted in fury, "You will all die without me. And when you are gone I will return and reclaim my land and my people."

Lady watched with curiosity, "Wow, the Goddess is an arrogant bitch."

Freyja faced the group of Gods and the earth began to shake. A few of the others fell from their high stage upon the rocks, a few of the rocks themselves cracked and fell over in her show of power. It was a temper tantrum a toddler could be proud of. And then she was gone.

The Gods stayed gathered. "We cannot allow her to return. She's destructive, and dangerous."

"How can we banish something as powerful as her?"

"Why stop there? We're stronger together, let's kill her," one of them plotted.

"It's impossible," another said.

"It's been done before, she just returns as another form," one said.

They continued, arguing and planning. In the end nothing was done and they left, one by one. Riding massive mystical beasts or turning into animals or just vanishing. Until only one remained. Lady couldn't see who it was. He stood in the center of Stonehenge, and when he was alone he raised his hand and snapped his fingers. Briefly Enochian symbols glowed on the remaining stones before fading.

Lady tried to hold onto the memory, trying to see and understand the symbols, but it changed too quickly. Next thing she knew she was on a large boat, open ocean all around her. Freyja was at the stern, looking out at the horizon.

"You see how they dismiss me?" Freyja said, and Lady's lips parted in surprise as she realized the Goddess was actually speaking to her. Freyja turned to look at her, large blue eyes glittered like diamonds.

"Maybe if you weren't such an arrogant bitch they'd give you another chance," Lady said, tensing as she felt out of her element. "I don't understand it. Isis and Freyja were good Goddesses, how can you be them?"

"I've been many Gods," Freyja answered. "I've been killed, resurrected, relocated. I keep coming back. My followers always find a way to bring me back."

"That's what you are trying to do through me?" Lady asked.

"I'm trying to undo the magic that has chained me…I'm weaker than I've ever been. Stripped of my power, trapped outside of my realm. I must get free," Freyja said, almost pleading with her.

Lady shook her head, "No, I can't let that happen."

"This magic that binds me, it's more powerful than I understand," Freyja uttered, looking down.

Lady looked down at the wooden deck of the ship she was riding on, painted on it in blood were the Enochian symbols. When she looked up again she wasn't on the boat, but in the desert. The lights of Las Vegas were an eerie distant glow, and she realized she was at the altar where Ananda once tried to sacrifice her. "Ananda was trying to summon the Goddess," Lady said aloud. "I don't want to be here. Missouri."

"I'm with you, honey, I'm right here," Missouri's voice said soothingly. "Stay on track, Lady," Missouri's voice said.

"I can't control this, it keeps jumping around!" Lady snapped. Lady looked in horror as blue fire ignited several torches around an altar. "Oh god," she breathed.

"Stay calm," Missouri instructed.

"No! I want out!" Lady shouted as fire grew around her.

"Nothing can hurt you, believe that," Missouri said. "Find the Goddess, don't let her escape you. This is all in your head, Lady."

Lady let out a soft whimper as a column of blue fire erupted in the center of the altar. "Found her," Lady whispered.

The blue fire was silent and didn't radiate any heat, it flickered and swayed slightly and in the flames she saw a silhouette of a woman.

"What do you see, Lady?" Missouri asked.

Lady stared into the fire, the very essence of the Goddess. Over thousands of years the Goddess had different names and faces, but in the end she was the very essence of magic. At her core she was pure power, easily manipulated and used. Not evil, but not good, either. A power that possibly existed before mankind that became sentient over time.

"I can feel her," Lady said. "She's pissed. She can't go home, and no one will help her. No one will take her back. The Enochian magic isn't hers, she's trying to find a way to undo it. She isn't even close to figuring it out."

"You've reached the spot where the two of you first connected," Missouri said. "You are going to sever that connection and free yourself from her."

"How?" Lady asked.

"Lady, there is a string that connects the two of you. I want you to see it," Missouri said.

"There is no…" Lady began, but before she finished there was a tug around her waist. She saw a thick rope around her that reached into the flames. The rope pulled and Lady's feet dragged on the ground as she was pulled to the flames. "She's pulling me in!"

"No, she isn't," Missouri said. "Because you are going to cut that string. Go ahead and cut that string."

Lady leaned back with all her weight, digging her heels into the ground to keep from falling into the fire as she searched her person for something to cut the rope with. She found her butterfly knife in her pocket and fanned it open, the sharp blade cut at the rope. It took a few swipes to get through the thick rope but when she did she felt a snap and she fell backwards onto the ground.

For several moments Lady stared up at the sky, the moon was so bright the stars were barely visible.

XXXXX

Lady relaxed on the recliner. "Well?" Bobby asked.

"Lady, I want you to search your mind. Is she gone?" Missouri asked.

"Yes," Lady answered.

"I'm going to count down from ten. When I get to one you are going to wake up. When you wake up I want you to remember what you saw, I want you to keep those memories. Ten, nine, eight…" Missouri began to count slowly.

Lady's eyes opened when Missouri finished. She looked around in a daze before resting her head back, "That was more trippy than acid," she breathed.

Bobby and Missouri gave Lady a few moments of privacy and spoke quietly in the kitchen. "Any idea what caused this to start?" Bobby asked.

"I think you know," Missouri said. "Or you are at least wondering about it. It started happening after she took some Dream Root, right?"

"But how could that cause it?" Lady asked, stepping into the kitchen to join them.

Missouri looked at her, "You saw a wall of monkshood. It was something the witch used in her spells, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, but it's used in a lot of spells," Lady said.

"Monkshood is sometimes used as a remedy to quiet dreams and nightmares. It's probably why you haven't dreamed in so many years," Missouri said.

Lady shook her head, "Monkshood leaves the system after a few days. That is if it doesn't kill you first."

Missouri looked at her with impatience, "Honey, your brain has been marinated in magic steadily the past ten years. Traces of this stuff get left behind and do permanent damage."

"It still doesn't give us an explanation," Lady said flatly.

"Here is your explanation," Missouri said, getting a bit huffy. "When you dream you get unfiltered access to your deepest emotions and desires and fears. Taking a bit of that Dream Root gave you a bit of access, at least enough so memories of the Goddess could leak out. The potion you drank tonight gave you the rest of the access you needed."

"How will we be sure it's all taken care of?" Bobby asked.

"It's taken care of," Missouri assured him. "In fact, I think we may have finally cured Lady's inability to dream."

"Say what?" Lady looked at her with wide eyes.

"I suppose we won't know until you go to sleep, but it would make sense," Missouri said. "We opened access so you could get into those darker regions of your mind."

Lady leaned against the wall as she thought about it. While under hypnosis it felt like a dream, though much too vivid to be a naturally occurring dream. That she couldn't dream had been an oddity, but it had never bothered her or caused problems. Waking Dean up from his occasional nightmare actually made her feel a bit fortunate to not have the ability to dream.

Lady looked at Missouri seriously, "You have any monkshood?"

Missouri frowned at her, "Dreaming is natural, and it's good for you. Give it a few nights before you try poisoning yourself."

Bobby and Lady thanked Missouri as she walked them out.

"Well?" Bobby asked after several miles of driving.

"Well what?" Lady looked at him.

"Something's on your mind, you got that look," he muttered.

Lady let out a breath, "I went through memories from a few _thousand_ years ago. Yeah, I have something on my mind." Lady rubbed her forehead and frowned, "Some God plastered Stonehenge with those symbols to banish the Goddess from the area, and that made her leave to go to America with the Vikings. I thought Enochian was, well, Satanic necromancy magic. If that's the case why were Pagan Gods using it then?"

"Guess that's just one of those things we might never find out," Bobby said.

**February 5, 2008**

_Lady was running through sloshy ground. Mud splashed on her and weighed down her legs. 'Why am I running?' she wondered, and her thoughts were answered by snarls and barks from behind. She didn't look back, knowing where she was and what was after her. 'No, this can't be happening! NO!'_

Lady jerked awake, looking around her room. She was home, at Bobby's, in her bed. She let out a groan as she realized that Missouri's theory had been correct. What had prevented her from dreaming for years was gone from her mind, and she had just experienced her first dream in over ten years. "Great," she groaned as she slumped back into her pillows. As her racing heart slowed she worked in her mind things that needed to get done. She'd want to talk to Maxine, see if the medicine woman had a way to shut off the dreams again. But more importantly was getting back to helping Sam and Dean hunt for Bela.

Slowly she climbed out of bed and shuffled to the bathroom and then the kitchen. Bobby was still sleeping but she knew he'd be up soon enough. She started the coffee and began scrounging in the fridge for breakfast.

Lady froze when her future-sight warned her that the front door was about to be unlocked. She moved swiftly to the counter and reached behind the breadbox for one of the pistols Bobby had hidden there. She barely relaxed when Sam and Dean came through the front door.

Dean saw her in the kitchen and his lip twitched in a smile, "G'Morning."

Lady released her hold on the pistol without removing it from its hiding spot, "What are you doing here?" she asked in surprise.

Dean shook some snow from his hair while stepping into the kitchen, "Warming my hands, for starters," he said, slipping his hands over her waist and under her shirt.

Lady squirmed as his cold hands tried to move up her back, "Hey! No! Stop, that's cold!" she protested and struggled as he pulled her into him.

Dean chuckled as he got her body pressed against his and tilted his head for a kiss. Lady shivered as she felt the cold from outside that lingered around him. It had been over a week since they parted ways in Pittsburgh, and while they had been occupied with other things Lady didn't recall a moment where she hadn't wished she was with the Winchesters instead of at Bobby's.

Lady pulled back from the kiss, "You are supposed to be in Chicago," she said. "What about Bela?"

Dean released her and frowned, "Our leads ran dry," Dean said bitterly. "Figure we need to regroup and search for other tactics. Besides, after Missouri played with your head I want to be sure everything is okay."

Sam looked at her as if he was expecting her to have an extra limb after her experience, "Is everything okay?"

"I had my first dream in over ten years. I was being chased by feral dogs through a swamp. So much fun," she said bitterly.

Dean was quiet, and then chuckled, "No worries, babe, I got a garnet charm you can borrow."

"Thanks…I might need it," Lady said. She was unable to keep herself from smiling, "I'm so glad to see you guys again."

"I'm going to grab the laundry out of the car," Sam said, excusing himself.

Once Sam was out the door Dean put his hand on Lady's face and restarted their kiss. Lady put her hand on the back of his neck, her fingers stroking the short hairs there while holding him close. Dean was a great kisser, but sometimes it took being without his kiss to remind her of that. Within moments her heart was beating harder with excitement and her lips were tingling with pleasure.

Neither of them noticed that Bobby had come downstairs until he interrupted them by saying, "My kitchen ain't no place for that."

They pulled back from the kiss and Lady put her fingers to her lips to wipe away some of the wetness left behind and to cool the tingling. "Hey, Bobby, how's it going?" Dean asked.

"Ask me after I've had my coffee," Bobby grumbled.

"I'm almost dead on my feet, I drove through the night to get here. I'm going to get some sleep," Dean said, reaching down to pick up the bag he had dropped.

"I'm going to help him," Lady said, giving Bobby a happy smile before following Dean down the hall.

Sam came in from outside, hauling two over-stuffed bags of dirty clothes. "Hey, Bobby. Sorry if we woke you up."

Bobby shook his head as he sipped on his coffee, "Don't worry about it."

"How is everything?" Sam asked.

From the bedroom down the hall they heard Lady giggling. Bobby let out a sigh, "Everything seems to be back to normal."

**A/N** - _I'm heading out for the weekend, so instead of waiting until Sunday night here is the 'conclusion' to Lady's problem. Thanks for reading and reviewing! Almost at 300, wowzers!_


	106. Bobby's House and Florida, Feb 2008

**February 7, 2008**

_Lady immediately had the sense that something wasn't quite right. The weather was warm and sunny, instead of bitter cold. Not to mention she was standing on water. It was water in all directions that she could see, but in the water were glittering coins that seemed to be whispering to her. She couldn't make out the words, but something was chattering. She knelt to get closer to the water, reaching for one of the coins. Without warning she was pulled under the surface._

Dean's eyes opened as Lady's arms and legs kicked out, jostling the whole bed. Tiredly he reached over to put an arm around her, but at his touch she flipped out and started kicking and slapping at him.

"Ouch! Lady! Stop that!" Dean barked.

Lady landed a few good kicks to his shins before fully waking up and realizing she wasn't being drowned. She looked up at the ceiling which she had decorated in twenty different charms and dreamcatchers, the damn things weren't doing their job.

"You okay?" Dean asked, slowly reaching for her.

"Don't touch me," she said roughly.

Dean took his hand back. He hadn't been sleeping well since arriving at Bobby's. Lady had always been a good person to share the bed with. She didn't take up a lot of room and when she was in the mood to cuddle she fit perfectly against him. The only things he could complain about were her early wake-up times and cold feet. But since her dreams started she tossed and turned and kicked and did every possible thing to make it nearly impossible to share the bed with her. Either he was going to bring up a cot from the basement so he could sleep in the living room or tie her down to make her immobile, he hadn't decided which yet.

Once Lady's heart calmed down she pulled the blankets closer to herself, the strange dream had left her feeling cold and tired. The last thing she wanted to do was go back to sleep to see what new crazy thing her mind would cook up but she couldn't help it.

When Dean was sure she had fallen back asleep he shifted so his back was to her, at least if she kicked him again his shins would be safe. He looked at the clock and it was only two in the morning, and without wasting time he closed his eyes to go back to sleep, hoping she was done dreaming for the night.

Dean was just beginning to drift off when he became vaguely aware of Lady shifting on the bed next to him. He didn't move when she pressed herself against his back, too tired to give it much notice. But his eyes opened when she pressed her face against the back of his head, one of her hands grabbing onto his short hair while her other wrapped around his chest and grabbed a fistful of his t-shirt. She wiggled a bit to get comfortable and then let out a snore. 'Well, this is weird,' he thought as he stayed still. He closed his eyes, going back to sleep.

Lady woke up and grimaced at the strange position she was in. It took a few moments to realize almost her whole body was on top of Dean, using him as a mattress. He was on his stomach and she was stretched out across his back. 'Well, this is weird,' she thought as she rolled off of him. She didn't remember waking up after the first time, but apparently she had been restless at some point in the night.

Dean made a noise and moved, "You awake?" he asked.

"Yeah," Lady said.

He chuckled, "You're funny when you're sleeping."

Lady made a face and laid on her back so she could glare at the various dream charms hanging over the bed, "I don't think this is funny."

"You started chatting last night, it was hilarious," Dean said. "With that deep southern Cajun accent. Didn't make a lick of sense, something about gold and moonshine. Ah, you are such a redneck."

Lady turned her glare to him, but his eyes were closed while he had an amused look on his face. "I'm going to start peeing the bed so you'll sleep somewhere else," she threatened.

"I'm used to wet spots in the bed because of you, doesn't bother me," he said with a smirk.

Lady let out a huff and shoved her half of the blankets at him before getting out of bed before she made good on her bed-wetting threat.

The morning started out slowly. Bobby and Dean were back to searching for signs of Bela while Lady got on the phone to Maxine.

"Do something, anything to me to make this stop," Lady pleaded with Maxine over the phone.

"I can't," Maxine said. "I know a hundred and ten ways how to get someone to dream, have peaceful dreams, have vivid dreams and do just about anything with dreams. But I can't make them stop. Just work on tiring yourself out, drink herbal teas and lay off the caffeine and sugar, maybe then you'll sleep more soundly and won't remember them."

"You want to tell me that between the two of us we don't know how to stop this?" Lady asked angrily.

"Pretty much," Maxine said. "Lady, don't be such a baby. None of it is real."

Lady mocked Maxine tone before hanging up on her.

In the living room Dean and Bobby were frowning as they came up empty-handed in their search for Bela. "How's Lady been sleeping?" Bobby asked.

Dean shrugged, "Better than me, I woke up every time she moved. Which seemed to be every fifteen minutes."

Sam came up to the desk, "Hey, I think we have a job."

"Bela?" Dean looked at him hopefully.

"No, a missing persons in Broward County, Florida," Sam answered.

Dean stared at him for a few moments before saying, "I think we have more important things to handle right now, don't you?"

"There are people out there that still need our help," Sam said. "Besides, Bela isn't stupid. She's managed to keep us off her trail so far, I'm sure she isn't going to let her guard down this soon."

"Where is this place anyway?" Dean asked.

"South of Orlando," Sam said. "And get this, he went missing at a local tourist attraction, a Mystery Spot."

"Mystery Spot? Those are the places where they make balls roll up hills and stuff, right?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah, exactly," Sam nodded. He looked at Dean, "We know Bela does most of her work on the east coast anyway, chances are we'll be closer to her if we go there."

Dean had already made up his mind, "We'll check it out. Let's leave today."

"I'll start getting the car packed," Sam said. "Is Lady going to come with?"

"I'll ask," Dean said, going to her bedroom.

Lady was glaring at her phone when Dean walked in. He sat next to her on the bed, "Sam and I have a job, you want to stay here?"

Lady thought about it and shook her head, "I don't, I'm getting cabin fever stuck here. But I don't know if I should leave."

"Then come with us," Dean said.

Lady sighed and then nodded. "Yeah, I'll come. Where are we going?"

"Florida," Dean answered. With a smile he asked, "Think you can give Erin or Derek a call and see if we can stop in?"

"Yeah, no problem…wait a second," Lady narrowed her eyes on him as she realized he was aiming to get Sam and Erin together. "You devious bastard."

Dean grinned, "The kids are into each other, give them a day or two together."

Lady frowned but agreed, "Yeah, fine."

"Great, pack up and let's go," Dean said, moving into motion to do the same.

**February 10, 2008**

Sam consulted his map as Dean took an exit, "Where are you going? Broward County isn't on this exit."

"Erin and Derek are going to let us stay with them," Dean said.

"That's a bad idea, the traffic in and out of the city is going to slow us down," Sam said.

"Should have said something earlier, too late now," Dean said as he maneuvered the car into the morning traffic rush. "It took us two days to drive here, let's take a break, get something to eat."

"Derek said he got a hot tub to help with his physical therapy," Lady piped up, leaning forward so her chin rested on the back of the seat between the brothers.

Dean smiled, "And do a little hot-tubbing while we're at it."

Sam frowned a bit, "The man that went missing may not have a day for us to take a break."

"He went missing over a week ago, hate to say it but he's probably already dead," Lady said. "That is if this is even a case for you guys." She put her hands on the back of Sam's neck and rubbed a bit, "We'll just stop in, Erin will make us lunch, and best of all we'll get out of this car for a few hours."

"I know I'm ready for a break," Dean said, glancing over at her rubbing Sam's neck. "Hey, bring some of that over here, I'm the one who's been driving the past four hours."

It took over an hour of driving to reach the house that Erin and Derek were staying in. It was their uncle's and wasn't too far from the university that they both attended. When Dean pulled into the driveway he saw the wheelchair ramp that had been built over the front steps to accommodate Derek.

Erin stepped out of the house jogging happily to them, "Lady, I've missed you!" She said, pulling Lady into a hug the moment she stepped out of the car. "Hey, Sam!" She said energetically, pulling him into a tight hug and kissing his cheek. "I've been looking forward to seeing you guys since Lady called. Come inside, I already started breakfast."

Lady and Erin walked ahead, talking happily. Dean gave Sam a smile, "Admit that you are glad we stopped," he said.

Sam was finding it hard not to smile, "It's not that I'm not glad, just…"

"Stop dragging your feet and get in here," Erin said from the doorstep.

"Yeah, Sam, stop dragging your feet," Dean said, giving his brother a smirk before taking a few quick steps up the ramp and into the house.

Derek was still in a wheelchair most of the time. The nerve damage he had sustained from the Puca wasn't going to be permanent and he could walk short distances with the aid of crutches, but with physical therapy he was aiming for full recovery. "Lady, you're looking good," Derek gave her a wide smile. He patted his lap, "Get over here."

Lady lightly sat on his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug, "How have you been?" she asked.

"You have to meet my physical therapist, she's so hot," Derek said.

"It's going to be a while before you can do much about that," Lady laughed.

"Hey, my equipment works perfectly fine, it's my other two legs that aren't so hot." Derek gave her a grin, "I wouldn't mind proving it to you."

Lady laughed at his offer, "Ah, aren't you just a precious little thing," she teased and pinched his cheek.

Lady got off his lap and pushed his chair into the dining room where Erin was serving breakfast. After a tense few weeks it felt good to sit back, just chatting and laughing. She lost Dean's attention when Derek started talking about cars and it was hard to even catch Erin's attention once Sam started asking her questions about school. Time went by fast and it was nearly lunchtime before they even left the dining room.

"You guys are staying here, right?" Erin looked at them with a bit of hope.

"I don't know, Sam, are we?" Dean asked.

"We should probably keep driving south," Sam said.

Erin gave him a wide smile, "Is there any harm in staying for the night?"

Sam shook his head, "No, probably not."

"Great. I'm going to run to the grocery store, I'll be back in an hour," Erin said.

"Did you need help?" Sam asked.

She smiled, "No, but I wouldn't mind company."

Derek waited until after his sister and Sam left to say, "Aw, aren't they cute? They better not have sex in my car."

"Your car isn't even big enough for me to have sex in, let alone those two giants," Lady muttered.

"Ah, sure it is, just have to get a bit creative on positions and not care if half of you is hanging out of the window," Dean said with a smirk.

"Thanks for the mental image of my sister, man," Derek said.

Dean let his smile fall, "Sorry."

"Uh huh," Derek mumbled. "I need to do some of my exercises. Make yourselves at home, ignore any screams of pain I may make."

"Have fun," Lady said, falling onto the couch and grabbing the television remote.

Dean sat next to her and she automatically leaned into him. "This thing with Sam and Erin still bug you?" he asked.

"More than you know," Lady admitted.

"Why?" Dean asked.

She looked at him, "She's like a little sister to me. And Sam is like a brother. In some way that feels wrong anyway."

Dean smiled a bit, "You know Sam is actually my brother, by blood. Does it feel wrong to be with me?"

She frowned as he broke apart her reasoning. "She's only eighteen. And I get that she's not a kid and that in no way shape or form comes from a _normal_ family. But I just think she'd be better off finding someone stable instead of trying some sort of casual thing with Sam."

"You don't think Sam is stable?" Dean asked, actually looking offended.

"Well he's more stable than you are," Lady said before she could stop herself. "Dean, you know what I mean. Someone she'd see every day. With Sam it would be once a month, if that. I don't know, I'll probably always see her as a little kid and imagining her having a fuck-buddy is sort of weird. Although if she had to have one she couldn't have done any better than Sam. He probably likes to cuddle afterward."

"You don't even know that they are sleeping together," Dean scoffed. He had never told her that he'd walked in on Sam and Erin the morning after.

Lady looked at him seriously, "Oh, believe me they have. You can tell how they look at each other and by how they are acting. Stupid flirting rituals…more complicated than turning corpses into zombies."

Dean gave her a handsome smile, "Having something casual isn't a bad thing. Hey, that's how we started."

Lady stared at him for several moments, "This works for us, it does and to be honest it's probably one of the better things to happen to me. But my life wasn't all that great to begin with. Erin has already shown an interest in hunting, I bet if Sam offered her the seat beside me in the back of your car she'd come along. If it comes to that I won't let her. For one, I'll be damned before I share the backseat. And for another, well…Erin has good intentions and a good heart and even good instincts, but she'd get herself killed." Lady let out a breath, "If, on the other hand, Sam decided to pack up and become stationary that wouldn't be so bad. I'd be upgraded to shotgun in the car and I wouldn't have to worry about Erin sticking her nose in places it shouldn't be." Lady tilted her head as her mind wandered.

"I have an idea," Dean said, grabbing her attention back. "Let's stop worrying about Sam's sex life, and work a bit on ours."

It took a few minutes of making out with Dean on the couch for her to stop dwelling over the possible outcomes of Sam and Erin. But between his mouth against hers and his hands moving over her body she had trouble thinking about much else than enjoying the physical interaction.

That evening Erin made a large supper, it was obvious to see she had learned cooking and portion sizes from her mother. After eating Derek was the first to go to bed. Not long afterward were Lady and Dean who wanted to continue what they had started on the couch.

Once inside the guest room they were staying in Dean eased Lady to the bed, laying with her on top of the blankets. Lady was halfway undressed when she chuckled, "You know, we never got around to checking out the hot tub."

Dean's mouth stopped at her neck and he looked up at her, "We need to go outside and do that."

Lady laughed as he got off the bed, "I don't even have a swimming suit."

Dean pulled her off the bed, "Oh, you won't need one," he promised her.

Lady pulled her jeans back on as they went down the dark hallway. Sam and Erin were no longer in the kitchen and she assumed they had gone to bed as well. She led the way in the dark to the backdoor of the house, but stopped before opening it. "Wait…I think someone is already using it," she said, moving to look out a window. "Oh…"

"What? Oh…" Dean said as he stood next to her to see what she was talking about. "Huh, guess Sam and Erin had the same idea."

"Don't watch!" Lady hissed, pulling him away from the window.

"They aren't even doing anything!" Dean said, laughing as she pulled him back to the stairs.

**February 11, 2008**

_Lady was trying to hold her breath, watching black smoke fill the room she was in. The smoke was so thick and massive that little shocks of electricity sparked within it, or maybe it was shorting out the lights. She was crawling across the room, searching for an exit as the smoke assaulted her. Blood and salt covered her hands and she was trying to remember why…was it her blood? Her jaw was locked and she was trying so hard not to inhale…_

Lady sucked in a sudden breath that woke her up. She sat up, sniffing urgently to make sure the house wasn't on fire. No fire, the pale light of pre-dawn was showing through the window.

"You okay, babe?" Dean asked in a murmur as he reached across the bed to put a hand on her thigh. He was sleeping on his stomach and turned his head to look at her.

Satisfied that it had just been another confusing dream she sank back into the pillows and moved across the bed to share the pillow with Dean. "This is the cruelest thing anyone has ever done to me…and I did it to myself," Lady complained.

Dean shifted so he was on his side and wrapped an arm around Lady, "Just have to get used to it," he muttered sleepily.

"No I don't. You can bash me over the head, give me brain damage so they stop," she suggested.

Dean rested his face in her hair, waking up a bit more and trying to tell if she was being sarcastic or not. "If you don't have permanent brain damage by now, I don't think you are lucky enough to get it now. Pretty sure your skull is made of iron."

"That would be my luck," she sighed, running her fingertips over his arm until she found the upraised scar of a gunshot wound. He had a few of them but that one was from her. With an uncomfortable groan she pulled herself out of bed before she became tempted to drift back to sleep. Soon after Dean did the same thing.

XXXXX

Sam loved Dean and Lady, they were family and he'd give his life for them, and knew they'd do the same if the situation came up. They were all a bit crazy one way or another, which was probably a job requirement for what they did. He remembered growing up and feeling like he never quite fit in with his father and brother, and sometimes he still felt like the odd man out. But when he was spending time with Erin he didn't feel that way. The conversation moved easily from her classes or family, to his work and family, to current events and political ideas. He didn't get many chances at honest intellectual conversation.

Not that Dean and Lady weren't smart. But Dean didn't read front-page news and Lady didn't attempt to read unless she had no other choice. The most heated debate they ever had were arguments over song lyrics. With Erin he even felt challenged. He hadn't been in school for a few years so he was a bit behind. She was up on literature and happenings he hadn't even heard of.

Lady came in from outside, skipping a few steps to join Sam and Erin in the dining room. "I love getting a sun tan in February," Lady smiled, leaning against the table.

"I never thought about it. I got that year-round tan," Erin said. "You do look like you need to see sunlight more often. You get any pastier you are going to get mistaken for a ghost."

Lady frowned, "I'm not pasty," she muttered.

Erin glanced at the clock, "Derek and I have class in an hour, where is he?"

"He's blowing off macho-steam looking under Dean's hood," Lady said and tilted her head in thought. "Hm, that sounded dirty in a way I did not intend it to. Would it be weird if I said Dean's enjoying it? Yeah, that sounds worse."

Erin giggled, "I'm sure Derek is happy to have anyone to hang out with besides me. I was hoping that you and me would get a chance for some girl time while you are here."

Lady's eyebrows shot up with interest. Girl time? It had been so long since she experienced it she wasn't sure it even existed anymore. "Oh? Like what?"

Erin shrugged, "I don't know. Hit the mall or watch movies. Anything without Derek."

Sam saw Lady's face have child-like eagerness before falling into a regretful frown and Erin's face slowly matched hers. Sam knew that Erin and Derek would be leaving to go to their classes soon, and not long after that they'd be leaving to investigate the Broward County Mystery Spot. There was no time for them to spend time together. "You know what, Lady, why don't you stay here? Dean and I will check out the missing person, it might not even be our type of job. Give us a day or two to scope it out, have some fun."

Lady searched his face, "You sure?" She asked. She only asked to be nice. Sam and Dean were more than capable of handling a job without her.

Sam smiled as Erin and Lady's mood improved before his eyes, "Yeah, I'm sure."

Lady wrapped an arm around Sam's neck and gave his cheek a wet kiss, "You are such a sweet boy, Sam my man."

"What are you guys looking into?" Erin asked when Lady released her hold on Sam.

"A man went missing in Broward County," Sam answered. "Have you ever heard of the Mystery Spot?"

Erin nodded, "Yeah, Derek and I went to it once. It's a lame tourist trap, like most places in Florida."

"I don't care if it's a trap, Disney World is awesome," Lady said.

"If you guys need anything just give me a call," Erin offered. "My classes are done at one tomorrow, anytime after that I can drive down to drop of Lady."

"I'm sure we'll be fine," Sam said.

"I'm going to grab my stuff out of the car and let Dean know the plan," Lady said, hopping up and skipping happily outside.

When Sam and Erin were alone she asked, "You guys know how long you'll be there?"

Sam shook his head, "A few days, maybe a week."

"Well, I can give Lady a ride so she can meet up with you guys. I'm sure she'd like to spend Valentines with Dean," Erin said.

Sam nodded, "I guess we'll see where we are on the job then. How about you, spending that day with anyone?"

Erin smiled at him, "I'm hoping I'll get to."

Sam took a quick glance at the door, half-expecting Lady to reenter, and looked back at Erin. He leaned forward to kiss her. "I'll call you later," he said after the kiss was over.

XXXXX

Sam and Dean left, traveling south to reach their job, while Lady stayed behind. After Erin and Derek were done with classes for the day she got to go shopping, using Derek's handicap pass to get close parking. Unable to help herself she got a cute swimsuit and a new pair of shoes, along with a manicure and pedicure with Erin. Afterward she met Derek's physical therapist and helped him get a date. And after making sure the hot tub had a healthy dose of chlorine she hopped in with Erin and Derek, drinking beers and hung out.

"You ever feel bad for letting those two go off on their own?" Erin asked her as the night wound down, Derek had already gone to bed for the night.

Lady shook her head, "Sometimes they work better without me. Besides, I think this job was an excuse for Sam to come to Florida."

Erin smiled a bit, "Does he…you know, talk about me?"

Lady sighed, "Erin, I can tell he is nuts about you. But…well, I don't know. Do you even know what you want from him?"

Erin's smile faded, "No, I don't. He's a good guy, a great guy. If he hung around for more than a few days at a time I think it'd be pretty awesome."

Lady searched Erin's face, "Sam has had some hard hits over the years. Just don't hurt him, okay?"

Erin nodded, "We're being pretty realistic, right now I think we both just want to have a bit of fun together. That's not bad, is it?"

"I can't say no, that's how I used to live my life," Lady muttered.

"You and Dean, though, I mean…well," Erin's face scrunched up as if she wasn't sure she should keep talking. She relaxed a bit and decided to say, "You seem to love him a lot."

Lady tapped her newly manicured fingernails on the table, "Yeah, I do."

Erin smiled, "I am really happy for you."

"And Sam, too," Lady said. Lady looked at her seriously, "Sometimes I wish I didn't."

Erin's smile vanished.

Lady looked down, "I was never very good at being close to people."

Softly Erin said, "I know it took you a while to warm up to my family. Do you wish you hadn't?"

"Sometimes," Lady admitted. She let out a sigh, "Erin, I didn't spend all those years slutting around and keeping everyone at a distance without a reason. Mostly I told myself it was better for everyone because I thought I was going to die any second but…the longer I keep breathing the more I realize having any sort of relationship is scary as hell. With Dean I'm vulnerable, emotional and a weird dependence I haven't experienced since I was a kid. But as much as I don't like those feelings I'd rather be like that than without him." Lady looked at her nice fingernails to avoid looking at Erin. "And I don't know if I can ever go back to how I used to live anymore…before I knew him."

"I never knew you to take the easy route," Erin said. "But I have seen you bounce back from so many things…Lady, I know your life is crazy and…well, okay I don't really know what to say."

Lady let out a humorless snort of laughter and held up her beer, "That's fine, it's just the booze talking anyway. I think I'm going to head to bed."

**February 13, 2008**

Sam and Dean returned to Orlando late in the afternoon on a Wednesday. Sam got out of the car and quickly ran into the house, finding Lady on the couch and lifting her into his arms, tightly hugging her to him.

"Sam…what…is…up…?" Lady choked out as he squeezed her so tight she could barely breathe.

"You have no idea how glad I am to see you," Sam breathed. "I feel like I haven't seen you for months."

Dean made it to the house, "Sam! She's turning red, drop her."

"Sorry," Sam said, hastily letting Lady go.

"Where are Erin and Derek?" Dean asked.

Lady rubbed sore ribs while taking a few breaths, "Derek has an evening class, Erin is at the college with him. What happened?"

Dean shrugged, "That job we thought was bogus? It was the Trickster. Loki was there."

Lady's eyes widened, "What? How…he's dead, you killed him."

"Guess that was just one of his tricks," Dean said bitterly.

"I'm…I should have come with you guys," Lady muttered.

"No! No, it was good that you were here," Sam said quickly. "Believe me…it's just good you were here."

Dean gave his brother a concerned look and then back to Lady, "Does Derek have any pot to calm him down?"

"Not here. But like I said he's at the college, I can call him to pick some up," Lady offered.

"I don't want to get high, I'm good, really. I'm just glad to see you," Sam said, giving her a smile.

"Oh-kay," Dean said slowly. "I'm going to take a shower, it was a long drive."

Lady watched Sam carefully for a few minutes before asking, "So what happened to you?"

Sam looked like he was debating on whether or not to tell her, and finally he sat down and his face fell. "It's a crazy story. Uh, when we got to Broward County on Monday night we checked into a motel and got some sleep. On Tuesday we checked the town out, we went to the Mystery Spot where the guy had vanished from. When we were there Dean got shot. He died in my arms," Sam said.

Lady searched his face, "Are you sure you aren't already high?"

Sam looked at her with a bit of an annoyance, "No, I'm not. I told you it's a crazy story. I was stuck in some sort of time-loop and…so help me god of you reference Groundhog Day I'll leave," Sam looked at her seriously and she pressed her lips closed in a tight line while biting her tongue to keep from using the reference. "And every day I watched Dean die, one way or another. I couldn't stop it. I must have lived through over a hundred Tuesday's. Then I figured out it was a Trickster. And I finally got to reach Wednesday."

Lady chewed on her lip for a few moments, "Why didn't you call me?"

Sam looked at her with wide eyes, "I did. Dean did. Dozens of times, you…you don't remember any of it?"

Lady shook her head, "No. I mean, why didn't I just drive down to you guys?"

"You tried, but Erin's car broke on the interstate. Every time you tried you got stranded a hundred miles away, and before we could get to you or you could get to us Dean died and the day reset itself." Sam looked at his hands, "Lady…it was horrible, it was miserable. I've had some bad things happen to me, but never like this." He looked up at her with haunted eyes, "Loki said he was trying to teach me a lesson, that I can't save my brother. He's right, isn't he?"

Lady swallowed hard, "Loki is a monster, a bastard Pagan that gets a hard-on by screwing with people. Whatever we can do to save Dean, we will."

"Even if that means sacrificing ourselves or others?" Sam asked her.

Lady looked away from his intense eyes, "I usually save those life-or-death decisions for spur-of-the-moment situations. We'll do what we can."

Sam looked up at her, "How is he so powerful? He actually bent time."

"He can't be," Lady said firmly. "No one, and no thing, can actually alter time. All that happened was he mind-fucked you, basically. It all must have been in your head."

Sam looked thoughtful, "You think?"

Lady nodded, "Yeah. First time I ran into him he kept making me have visions."

"I remember you telling me about that," Sam muttered. He let out a sigh, "It's been about a year."

"What has?" she asked.

"Since we last ran into him. Remember? It was right around this time last year when he turned you into a dog."

Lady frowned, "I tried to forget."

After a few moments Sam's lips twitched in a smile. "You were a pretty convincing Chihuahua."

Lady frowned at him, "You are lucky I just got a manicure, otherwise I'd be beating your ass right now."

Sam chuckled, starting to feel that his life was going back to normal after the hectic confrontation with the Trickster.

Erin and Derek returned early in the evening and Erin got to work making supper after welcoming Sam and Dean back. Sam had a hard time enjoying the extra company after the rough job, but as the night wound down he and Erin were the only ones still awake.

"You seem sort of distracted," she said, sitting close to him on the couch.

"That thing in Broward County was pretty hard on me," Sam admitted, but didn't want to go into details.

He closed his eyes as she used her fingertips to tuck some of his shaggy hair behind his ear. She curled up on the couch and leaned against him, smiling when he put an arm around her shoulder and leaned into her as well. It wasn't the most comfortable position but after only a few minutes he felt himself drifting off to sleep, until he heard someone coming down the stairs. He raised his head in time to see Dean and Lady making their way through the kitchen and out the backdoor.

Erin made a noise, "Oh, I'll need to pick up more chlorine for the hot tub tomorrow."

Sam chuckled, "Let's go upstairs, probably don't want to be down here when they come back in."

**February 14, 2008**

Sam woke up with renewed motivation to finding a way to save his brother and was on the phone most of the morning. Lady and Dean stayed in their room, Sam assumed they were sleeping because he hadn't heard any noise from them since they returned from their hot-tub adventure. Erin and Derek were in classes most of the morning so it felt like he had the house to himself.

Lady and Dean came down the stairs around noon. "Ah, look, Erin made heart-shaped pancakes," Lady said.

"They've been there since eight this morning," Sam told her.

"Still taste good," Lady said as she folded one in half and took a bite.

"What are you working on?" Dean asked.

"I thought of a way to trap Bela," Sam said. "Ellen is helping."

"What sort of trap?" Dean asked.

Sam looked at him, "We can't find her, we need her come to us. I'm trying to get someone not associated with us to set up a deal with her. Once we have the meeting spot we swoop in."

"And nail the bitch. I like it, good thinking, Sammy," Dean said, smiling proudly at his brother.

Sam didn't have a moment to appreciate his brother's approval, his phone rang and he answered it quickly. "Ellen, yeah? You did? That…it'll be a long drive but we'll make it work. Thanks, we owe you big time."

"We in business?" Dean asked as Sam hurried to close his laptop and gather his things.

"We have a date with Bela in three days," Sam smiled broadly. His smile faltered a bit, "Bad news is it's in Colorado. We need to leave."

Dean grimaced at the short timeframe but moved into action.

"So much for a day of gorging on chocolate and sex," Lady said, grabbing a few more pancakes before running upstairs to grab her bags.

"I don't know. The backseat is big enough, Sam can take the first shift driving," Dean chuckled, in high spirits from receiving the good news.

"I don't care what happens between here and there, just hurry up so we can leave," Sam shouted after them. Getting the Colt back from Bela would be a big victory, and hopefully it would get them a step closer to saving his brother from going to hell. He didn't care what Loki said, he was going to find a way to save his brother.


	107. Jus In Bello, Colorado, Feb 2008

**February 17, 2008**

Bela Talbot had arranged to make a deal for some arcane objects in Monument, Colorado. However the deal was bogus, the person who arranged the meeting were friends of a friend. It was all a trap to get Bela's location and ambush her. Lady didn't know all the details, she really didn't care. All she knew was that by this time tomorrow Bela would be a bad memory and they'd be back in business with the Colt.

Sam and Dean were able to track Bela to a nice hotel in town and made a swift plan to ambush her. "Lady, this is the closest exit. Watch it, if she slips by us don't think twice."

Lady nodded once. Her pistol was in her jacket, her hand already wrapped around it. She had put on a silencer. Sam and Dean had taken care of any security cameras looking over the parking lot, and it was late at night so there was no one outside in the freezing mountain winter. They found Bela's rental car and it took Dean less than a minute to make sure it wouldn't start if she managed to get that far past all three of them. Everything was perfect, in less than ten minutes they had formed a plan and acted on it. The only thing that could screw it up was possibly Dean's temper and itchy trigger finger.

"Don't kill her until you know for sure she still has the Colt," Lady said firmly. It'd be just their luck to kill the bitch when she had stashed the gun away somewhere, or worse already sold it.

Sam and Dean entered the hotel while Lady stayed outside to watch the exit and parking lot. Within minutes a hunt that had taken them more than two weeks would be over. Lady didn't like the idea of killing an actual human, but for Bela she was ready to make an exception.

Lady tensed as a police car slowly moved through the parking lot toward the door she was watching. Trying to look like she was just waiting for a ride or getting some air she looked away from the police car, but kept it in her peripheral so she saw when it came to a stop not far from her. She got a sudden sense that things weren't right and as her hand itched to reach for her cell phone and call Dean the officer got out of the car.

The second the officer looked at her she knew they had been made. The officer waited no time drawing his pistol and shouting orders for her to hold up her hands and get on the ground. Lady used her future-sight and saw that the officer wouldn't shoot if she just ran, so that's what she did.

Lady bolted off like a bat out of hell, the officer quickly on her tail. The mountain air was thin and soon she was huffing for breath. The cold air stung her face and lungs as she tried to win the race against the officer. And then without warning there was a sudden pain that started in her rear end and jolted throughout her body.

Lady let out a shriek as she convulsed and fell to the ground. The officer was panting as he jogged the last few steps to stand over her. The taser he'd used had wires connected to a few barbs that had poked through her jeans in order to send electricity through her and stop her from running. Lady was a bit out of it as the officer cuffed her hands behind her back and began patting her down. He found her pistol within her coat and was pulling the knife from her pocket when she began struggling.

"Ma'am, you are resisting arrest, I must ask you to stop or..." the officer began to say.

"Get the fuck off of me!" Lady snarled, contorting her body the best she could with the layers she was wearing against the cold in an effort to get the larger man off of her. She let out a grunt of pain as he roughly grabbed the back of her coat and lifted her off the ground. She dragged her feet and kicked as he pulled her back to the police car and shoved her inside head first.

Trapped within the car Lady reserved her energy as the officer radioed that he had the suspect Betty Normal in custody. After a few moments the radio chattered to reply the FBI had apprehended the Winchesters. Lady let her head fall back and let out a painful moan, realizing that the trap they had set for Bela had backfired, they were all going to jail. Lady decided right then that if they got out of this jam she didn't care if Bela was human, she'd shoot the bitch herself if she got a chance.

With that fire in her mind Lady tried, in vain, to kick the back window out of the car out. Fighting and struggling until the officer pulled over and threatened to use pepper spray. Lady went still, contemplating if the pain was worth throwing her temper tantrum, and then let out a pissed breath trying to calm herself down.

Lady was mostly compliant as she was led into the police station.

"What took you so long, Phil?" A heavy middle-aged man asked.

"Sorry, Sheriff, this one is a handful," the officer that was leading Lady huffed. "I hit her with the stun-gun and she was still spitting fire until I threatened to use the pepper spray."

"You don't want to see me spit fire, dickweed. I can do it, too," Lady threatened.

"Betty Normal," a man chuckled. "But you prefer Lady, right? Just Lady, like just Cleopatra?"

Lady froze for a moment before craning her neck to see who had recognized her. Her face fell, "FBI Special Agent Henriksen, ah fuck me."

"No time for that, sweetheart," he said. "Got a cell nice and warm for you. Far away from your friends." Henriksen looked at the officer that was holding her, "Did you search her for weapons?"

"She had a gun and a knife on her," Officer Phil said.

"Search her thoroughly and get her fingerprinted," Henriksen ordered. He stared down at Lady, "No bathroom breaks for you this time."

"Yeah, I sort of figured that," Lady muttered as Phil led her into a private room.

Phil removed her bracelet, took her boots. "Those are Tecnica Moon Boots, don't mess with them," Lady warned.

Phil turned each of the boots upside down and shook them. Lady made a face when a small pocket knife fell out.

Phil briefly uncuffed her so she could take off her jacket and then cuffed her hands in front of her before leading her back into the office. Lady let out a defeated sigh as he stained her fingers with black ink and pressed each of them down onto paper to collect her fingerprints.

Henriksen took the paper and smiled at her, "You ran off before I could get these last time. I wonder just what I'll find when I put these into the computer."

Lady looked at him, "You probably don't want to know."

"Put her in a cell," Henriksen ordered.

Lady was led by Phil through a heavy reinforced door, and behind it was a short corridor with three empty cells. "Where are Sam and Dean?" she asked.

"On the other side of the building, that's where we house male prisoners. This is the women's side," Phil answered, leading her into the middle cell and slamming the door closed behind her. "You need anything?"

"Nothing that you'll give me," Lady muttered bitterly.

**February 18, 2008**

Lady watched the clock outside her cell bars hit midnight, they'd been in jail for three hours. As an afterthought she remembered it was her birthday. She had never really cared to celebrate her birthday, but she would have preferred doing anything besides sitting in a jail cell when she turned twenty-seven.

She laid back on the flat cot and looked at the handcuffs. The Impala had a few sets in the trunk but as far as Lady knew they were only used for fun instead of work. Dean had attempted to show her how to pick the lock on them a few times, but she hadn't really caught on. A few times in the past Lady had been thin enough to easily slip out of cuffs, but between being a healthier weight and having crooked thumbs she couldn't manage it any longer.

She looked up as Agent Henriksen walked down the short line of cells to her. "I thought you would've learned from last time, fighting police officers usually ends badly."

Lady grimaced at him, her still butt ached from being tased, "I think the lesson hit home this time."

"Got some good news," he said, smiling at her. "Sam and Dean are going to be on their way to a Super-Max before morning."

"I think we have different definitions of good news," Lady said bitterly.

"I suppose. Good news, you won't be leaving here. We dug a bit into your identity, it's fake," he said.

Lady smirked, "I could have told you that. It was expensive, too, let me tell you."

"Seems we're back at square one, Lady. With me asking you just what the hell is your name?"

"Blow me," Lady said evenly.

Henriksen nodded, "Be that way. In a few hours I'll know if your fingerprints have been logged into any system before. Now that Sam and Dean are out of the picture I have all the time in the world to dig into you. Find out who you are, where you belong, and all the things you are hiding from. Sounds like fun."

"I'll wear my party hat," Lady said sarcastically.

Lady tilted her head at the sound of a helicopter flying low overhead, and then it was almost deafening for several moments until the motor was cut off.

Henriksen smiled, "There's my ride. I'll be back in a few days, by then they should have you in a nice orange jumpsuit, should go nicely with the paper shoes they let you wear."

"Paper shoes?" Lady almost whimpered as he left her alone. Ugly bracelets, the color orange…and paper shoes. Hello Hell.

XXXXX

On the other side of the police station Sam and Dean were handcuffed and shackled to each other. The helicopter was going to be their transport to a super-max prison in Nevada where they were going to be locked in solitary until the court system caught up to them. From there they may go to Missouri, Maryland, Arkansas or a dozen other states that had warrants out for them.

"Think Lady got out?" Dean asked numbly.

"I don't know," Sam replied the same way, coming to terms that their run from the law was over.

They both looked up when a man in a suit walked down the row of cells to them. Dean stood up and Sam followed suit, both of them facing the bars.

"Sam and Dean Winchester. I'm deputy director Steven Groves. This is a pleasure," he introduced himself.

Dean gave him a bit of a smile, "Glad one of us feels that way."

"I've been waiting a long time for you two to come out of the woodwork," the man said, returning the smile.

Suddenly Groves pulled a pistol from his holster and fired a shot. Dean let out a cry of surprise and pain as a bullet hit his left shoulder and exited out his back, the force sending him falling back on the flat cot. Sam surged forward, grabbing the pistol through the bars and pointing it upward so another shot couldn't hit him or his brother. He struggled for several moments with the Groves, and then he saw that Groves's eyes had begun to turn pitch black, showing he was possessed by a demon. Sam quickly began reciting a Latin exorcism, but before he could finish it the demon smoked out of the body, escaping being sent back to hell.

On her side of the prison Lady heard the gun shots, and the scream of a demon erupting from a body. Her eyes went wide as lights flickered. "Hey! Someone! What happened? What's going on? Dean? Sam?" She shouted as loud as she could, but the only sound she heard was her own voice echoing off of cement walls. She leaned against the bars, listening as hard as she could. And then a deafening blast shook the very foundation of the prison, nearly knocking her off her feet.

XXXXX

Henriksen was calm and cool under pressure, he hadn't served fifteen years with the FBI without learning how to deal in high-stress situations. But after Groves fell down dead outside of Sam and Dean's cell he was a bit shaken up. However he was still much better off than the others. The Sheriff had a small group of officers and deputies, most of which were outside watching the parking lot and keeping the building secure. And the secretary Nancy who hadn't stopped fingering the silver cross she wore since he warned her that Sam and Dean were Satan worshippers.

Henriksen sat at one of the desks, going over paperwork while waiting on hold on the phone. He was trying to get through to his supervisor, to anyone at headquarters, and let them know Groves was dead. He looked up at an incoming fax and wheeled the chair over. It was on FBI heading, addressed to his attention. It was the results from sending in Lady's fingerprints. Before it printed the actual results the phone lines went dead, stopping the fax and his phone call. He tried his cell but it was also dead.

He looked up when there was a massive explosion outside, and it took him only an instant to realize the helicopter that he had relied on to get him and the Winchesters out of Colorado had blown up. A glance out the window told him he was right. It also allowed him to see two dead bodies of a deputy and his partner.

The secretary Nancy frantically tried to get the phone to work while the Sheriff and officer Phil began loading weapons.

"What the hell's happening out there?" Phil asked.

"All phone lines are dead. The internet, the fax, my cell. It's all dead, how can it all be dead?" Nancy asked, looking up frantically.

Nancy let out a soft cry when the lights went out. It took a few moments for the back-up generators to kick in an power the emergency lights. "Oh my god!" Nancy gasped.

"It's okay, it's okay. We're going…we're going to go. Right now," the Sheriff said, raising the rifle he had been loading.

"Nobody's going anywhere. Everybody, calm down," Henriksen said, standing tall and preparing to take charge.

"My men are out there! Your men!" the Sheriff shouted.

"I know. We go out there, we're asking to die too. Don't you get it?" Henriksen countered. "They're out there and they're coming in here. This is a siege. So this might be a good time for you to lock the doors and the window, take a breath, and maybe deal with this like trained professionals with some sense in their heads."

Phil and the Sheriff looked at each other, both visibly trying to calm their nerves. Henriksen knew he had a lot on his shoulders. Several men were already dead outside, he had to do everything in his power to protect everyone in the office with him and do everything to keep the prisoners he had locked up in chains.

XXXXX

Lady was pacing anxiously when the lights fizzed and went dark. She stopped moving until the generator kicked in, dim emergency lights kept the prison from being pitch black. "Hey! I need someone in here! You need to let me out of here!" She tried shouting again.

It was half an hour before Henriksen walked in angrily, facing her. "The brothers won't talk, but you better."

"Are they okay?" Lady asked.

"They won't be," he said in a hard voice. "Four officers are dead, the chopper was blown to hell and now someone has cut access to the power and phone lines. Who is helping them, Lady?"

"Believe me, no one here is helping anyone," Lady muttered. "You got to cut us loose, you don't know what you are dealing with."

Henriksen leaned close enough to the bars that she could have reached out and touched him if she wanted to. She sort of wanted to grab his shirt and slam his head into the bars, but she knew she wasn't strong enough to knock him out or even daze him long enough to swipe keys from his pocket. "You three aren't getting out of here." Henriksen bared his teeth at her and backed away. He muttered a few angry words under his breath as he walked down the hallway, leaving her alone again.

XXXXX

Henriksen closed himself in a private office to take a few moments for himself. He had three of the sickest most twisted people he had ever heard of handcuffed and behind bars, and he believed someone was out there trying to set them free. He needed a breather to get his wits back and be ready for the next plan of action.

He heard a rustling noise in the ceiling and reached for his pistol. He looked up and saw an air vent. At first he thought it was shadows but there was black smoke coming out of it. Briefly he worried that whoever was outside was trying to smoke them out, but before he could think of an action plan the black smoke swirled down to him. It crawled down his throat, into his very being. The next instant he was trapped within his own body, unable to control himself as he walked out of the office and to where Sam and Dean were locked up.

The Sheriff was trying to go behind Henriksen's back and make a run for it. He opened Sam and Dean's cell, telling them to follow him. Before the Sheriff could get them moving Henriksen moved swiftly to them to stop him. When the Sheriff argued Henriksen pulled out his pistol and shot him once in the head.

Sam and Dean both moved into action. Dean wrestled the gun from his hand while Sam shoved his face into the toilet where they had turned the water into holy water. Sam repeated an exorcism in rapid Latin while Dean guarded his work when Officer Phil tried to come to the rescue.

The demon that had possessed Henriksen was banished by the exorcism, and Henriksen looked at everyone with wide stunned eyes. "I…I shot the Sheriff," he uttered in shock.

Dean looked at the dead body and back to the FBI Agent, "But you didn't shoot the deputy," Dean offered with a smirk.

Henriksen didn't even look up at him, "Five minutes ago I was…I was fine, and then…"

"Let me guess. Some nasty black smoke jammed itself down your throat?" Dean said.

Henriksen nodded weakly.

"You were possessed," Sam said.

"Possessed, like…possessed?" Henriksen looked at Sam, fear still in his eyes.

"That's what it feels like. Now you know," Sam said bitterly.

Dean offered Henriksen's pistol to him, "I owe you the biggest 'I told you so' ever," he said.

Henriksen took his pistol. He had always been a man who believed what he saw, and he couldn't deny what he had seen. And he couldn't deny what he had felt or heard going on his own head for those few minutes he had a demon inside of him. More were coming, a lot more. And they weren't going to leave any survivors. "Phil, the keys," Henriksen ordered, standing up and getting over the shock. He unlocked Sam and Dean's handcuffs, "How do we survive?"

"First we grab Lady," Dean said.

XXXXX

Lady watched the clock and listened for what seemed to be the longest half hour of her life when she heard another gunshot from the other side of the prison. She stood up, hanging onto the bars with white knuckles. Several minutes later another unnatural scream sounded, the sound a demon made when it was expelled from a body with an exorcism. She closed her eyes, focusing on listening for anything. She didn't open them again until she heard the sound of footsteps.

"Dean! Sam!" She looked at them with relief.

Dean looked at Henriksen who was trailing behind, "Where are the damn keys?"

Henriksen held them up but hesitated, "She's a little crazy and reckless."

Dean shrugged, "Yeah, but she's cute." He snatched the keys and quickly moved to unlock Lady's cell door.

Lady looked at him with wide eyes while he unlocked her handcuffs, "You're bleeding," she said.

"It isn't that bad," Dean grimaced as he tried to find a way to hold his arm that lessened the pain from the gunshot.

"What's going on?" Lady asked, looking suspiciously at Henriksen and officer Phil.

Sam looked at her tensely, "Demons. They saw us exorcise the last one, they finally believe us. But more are coming."

"Why?" Lady asked.

"Uh...they want to play charades?" Dean snapped. "Why the hell do you think, they are coming to kill us!"

"I don't think I deserve that tone," Lady said, slightly offended.

"Our best bet is to get fortified, we're going to need everyone's help," Sam said.

"Yeah, sure. Where is everyone else?" Lady asked.

"This is it," Henriksen. "Everyone else is already dead."

Lady swallowed hard, "We have a lot of work to do." She narrowed her eyes on officer Phil, "I want my boots back."

After getting the possessions and weapons that were taken from them when they arrived at the police station Lady and Dean went into the office so she could look at his wound. "The exit wound isn't that bad," she said, taking a flashlight to get a better look and see if there were any visible fragments left over. "Looks clean," she said softly.

"Looks like you've been through this before," Henriksen muttered as he set down a first-aid kit.

Dean glanced at the scar from a gunshot wound on his arm that was from Lady. "Yeah, that one was a bitch."

Lady didn't miss the brief glare Dean gave her when he remembered her shooting him months ago. "How many times do I have to say I'm sorry?" she hissed, taking some bandages and beginning to cover his wound. "You need to piss people off that don't aim for your heart. You get another scar on your left shoulder and I'm going to start playing connect the dots." Lady looked pleased when Dean worked on fighting a smirk.

"So how did they catch you?" Dean asked her, trying to find some distraction to the pain until the pills kicked in.

Lady made a face, "I got stopped by a taser," she said bitterly.

"Someone hit you with a taser?" Dean's repeated angrily. "What douchebag did that?"

Officer Phil looked away quickly at Lady's accusing glare. Dean followed her eyes to the officer and gave him a deathly glare that was interrupted by a short grunt of pain as Lady touched a tender spot on his shoulder.

"Grabbed everything I can find," Phil said, placing weapons and ammunition on a desk.

Dean looked them over as Lady secured his bandages. "Well, those are nice but it's not going to do you much good."

"We have an arsenal here, what else do we need?" Officer Phil asked.

"Salt, lots of salt," Dean answered.

"Salt?" Officer Phil asked, looking skeptical.

"Is there an echo in here?" Dean snapped.

"We have road salt in the store room," Nancy offered.

"Great, yeah, that's perfect," Dean said, using a softer tone with her. "We need to salt every door and window."

Lady rolled Dean's sleeve down, "You okay?"

Dean tested his arm for range of motion and nodded, "That's good, thanks. I need to get to my car, get some supplies."

"It's in the impound lot out back," Nancy said quietly, offering him the keys with a trembling hand.

Lady ran her hand over his hair and took two seconds to press her lips against his, hoping it wouldn't be the last time. "Watch yourself," she said and quickly followed Phil to help him with the salt.

"I don't see what salt has to do with anything," Phil muttered.

Lady was half tempted to kick his ass and then shoot him in the ass with a stun-gun, but decided it was best for everyone to get through the night before she aimed for any vengeance. "Salt is purifying. Demons cannot cross a line of salt, placing it at entrances or weak areas of a building prevents them from gaining access," she explained. "Salt in general is painful for them, shooting them with rock salt won't kill them but it will slow them down. Well, slow them down for a minute or two. When they get back up they'll be pissed as hell."

Lady took a moment to be fortunate they were in Colorado where salt in large quantities was not uncommon. It was used to de-ice sidewalks, driveways, basically anywhere someone wanted to walk without slipping and falling on their ass. She grabbed one heavy bag and began pouring lines of salt at every doorway and window she came across, and Phil did the same.

Dean had gone outside to grab several things from his trunk and ran back inside shouting a warning, "They're coming! Hurry!"

Lady checked the last line of salt she put down and moved quickly to regroup. She watched out the window with wide eyes as black smoke blocked out the lights and stars, so much of it was swirling together that it sparked bright flashes of electricity within it. The building shuddered as a hoarde of demon smoke rammed it, but the salt lines prevented it from getting inside. She watched with wide eyes as a fear settled deep in her core. She'd never seen anything like it before…but that wasn't entirely true. Just a few days ago she had seen something exactly like it in a dream, but in her dream it had been indoors.

"Everyone okay?" Sam asked as the smoke began to retreat.

"Define okay," Henriksen uttered, his eyes wide.

"Everyone is fine," Dean said, setting down guns he had brought in from his car and pulling out amulets. "Everybody needs to put these on. They'll keep you from being possessed."

Lady saw the pentagram on the necklace and recognized them as charms that Bobby kept around.

"What about you guys?" Nancy asked as she put the amulet on.

"We're covered," Dean said, grimacing as he pulled the collar of his shirt down far enough to show the pentagram tattoo. Sam did the same.

"And you?" Nancy asked, looking at Lady.

Lady opened her mouth and lifted her tongue to show a plainer pentagram, but effective nonetheless.

"This isn't over, we all need to bunker down and get ready," Dean warned. He handed Lady a shotgun and a box of shells, "Load that up for me, babe."

Lady worked on loading shotguns and filling extra rock salt rounds while watching out the window. The demons had returned, this time they had bodies. After the black smoke had left it probably went to find the first humans they could use as meat shields.

Lady carefully sat down and tried to find a comfortable position until giving up, standing with a grimace of pain.

"Is it bad?" Dean asked, barely looking at her as he continued to load shells into his shotgun.

"Feels like someone kicked my right cheek with steel-toe boots," Lady complained.

Dean set down his gun, "Okay, let's see it." Lady raised her eyebrows, but with a shrug her hands went to unbutton her jeans. "Don't bring out the full moon right here," Dean snapped, rolling his eyes while pulling her into an office and closing the door.

"Well you weren't specific," Lady said defensively as she tugged her jeans down far enough to show her right cheek. "How bad is it?"

"Damn near burned black," Dean muttered, pulling out a flashlight so he could see better. "You'll live…well, if we survive, that is."

Lady winced as she pulled her jeans back up, "I knew that, just figured you wanted to pull my pants down for one last hurrah before all our good parts are ripped out."

When she turned around Dean put his good arm around her waist and held her close, "I'm sorry."

"This isn't your fault," she said.

"They are here because of me and Sam," Dean said. "So yeah, it is my fault."

Lady shrugged, "We're pretty well fortified, maybe we can last through the night. Demons can't stay organized for long."

"Maybe," he muttered. "You know…this wasn't how I intended to spend your birthday."

Lady eyes widened, "You actually remembered the date?"

"Give me a little credit," he said, and then added, "Sam reminded me."

"It's not a big deal, just any other day," Lady said.

"Yeah, well, I know you don't seem to like your birthday but I thought if we pulled off getting the Colt back we'd be celebrating anyway." He looked at her seriously, "I'm going to do whatever I can to get us out of this alive."

"All of us, that means you too," Lady said firmly. "Promise me you aren't going to do some sort of suicidal run in hopes that we can run or something stupid like that."

Dean thought about it and nodded once, "Only if there is no other way."

Lady put her hand on his bad shoulder and looked ready to start squeezing. "Nothing stupid," she said firmly.

"Nothing stupid," he agreed quickly. "Let's get back out there."

Lady let out a slow breath and looked at her hands.

"Something wrong?" Dean asked.

"Besides this whole situation?" Lady looked up at him, and then back down. "Dean, I…that huge cloud of demons, I've seen it before."

Dean nodded, "Yeah, me too. That's what it looked like when all the demons got out of the hell gate in Wyoming." Dean frowned, remembering Lady hadn't been with them in Wyoming when that happened. She hadn't even been on the same plane of existence. "Where have you seen it?"

Lady briefly told him about her dream and ended with, "I thought I was in some sort of burning building."

"This building?" Dean asked.

Lady shook her head, "I don't think so."

"Was it like one of your visions?" he asked urgently.

"Nothing like them," Lady answered.

Dean's jaw flexed uncomfortably, "Okay, it doesn't matter."

"What if it was some sort of prophetic dream?" Lady asked, looking at him with wide eyes.

Dean didn't see Lady get scared often, but he saw it clearly right then. He knew Lady feigned fearlessness and easily got away with it because of her future-sight, and that she was dropping the act right then didn't sit well with him. "It wasn't," he said firmly and tried to add with assurance, "Just a bad dream that your fucked-up head created, that's all, babe."

Lady broke eye contact and nodded quickly, putting her guard back up so when she looked at him she appeared focused and unafraid of their situation. "Yeah, nothing to worry about right now."

She gave him a weak smile before leading him out of the office so they could regroup with the others.

Lady continued preparing more salt rounds as the time neared four in the morning.

"Shotgun shells full of salt," Henriksen muttered, still not able to get his head around it.

"Whatever works," Dean replied.

"Fighting off monsters with condiments. I can't believe demons are real," Henriksen sighed and picked up the next shotgun to load.

"FYI, ghosts are real, too. So are werewolves, vampires, changelings, evil clowns that eat people," Dean said and finished it with a smirk.

"Okay then," Henriksen gave him a blank look.

"If it makes you feel better, bigfoot is a hoax," Dean offered.

"It doesn't," Henriksen asid. "So, how many demons?"

"I count fifteen on this side," Lady said quietly.

"I mean total, all of them," Henriksen said.

"Total? Hah, well, no clue. A lot?" Dean guessed.

Henriksen didn't look comforted by that. "You know what? My job is boring, it's frustrating. You work three years for one break, and then maybe you can save few people. Maybe. That's the payoff. I've been busting my ass for 15 years to nail a handful of guys and all this while, there's something in the corner so big."

"You didn't know," Dean muttered.

"Now I do. What's out there? Can you guys beat it? Can you win?" Henriksen asked, looking hopeful.

"Honestly? I think the worlds gonna end bloody. But it doesn't me we shouldn't fight. We do have choices. I choose to go down swingin'." Dean answered.

"So this was what your father was doing? What he taught you, and passed down to you?" Henriksen asked.

"Pretty much," Dean muttered.

Henriksen looked over at Lady. "What's her story?"

Dean glanced at Lady and back at Henriksen, "Her story is none of your damn business."

"I mean, you what, recruited her into this?" Henriksen asked.

"I'm sort of a witch," Lady said, keeping her eyes on the window to watch the demons movement.

"I knew that when I met you in Las Vegas," Henriksen said.

Lady frowned and looked at him, "I mean an actual witch."

"Oh, yeah, those are real, too," Dean said, offering Henriksen another cheeky smile.

Lady turned to look back out the window, "So are psychics. Which I also am."

"You people, you just do this?" Henriksen asked.

"What do you mean you people?" Lady shot an amused look at him.

"What I meant is you do this for a living?" Henriksen clarified.

"No, see, what we used to do for a living were credit card scams which you screwed up for us," Dean said.

"You've scared me out of stepping into another casino for the rest of my life," Lady added. "But if you mean we consider this our job, then yeah, we do. And we aren't the only ones."

"There are others we can call for help?" Henriksen looked a bit helpful.

"If the phones worked, probably," Dean said.

"I get you, Dean, you grew up a soldier. But her...? She's no soldier," Henriksen said.

"Lady is someone you want to have on your side. What she doesn't have in size and training she makes up with experience and balls of brass," Dean muttered.

Lady smiled wide at the off-handed compliment, "But I let him hold onto them, they are a bit heavy for me to carry around."

Before any more banter could be exchanged they heard a crash from the other side of the building. Everyone rushed to the area to investigate.

The demon Ruby had broken through a poorly salted window, Lady made a mental note that it was one that Phil had done and decided to walk around to make sure other areas were secure. Before she could do that they still had to take care of the fact that there was a demon in the building they had tried to demon-proof. "Just what we needed, another demon."

"How do we kill her?" Henriksen asked.

"We don't," Sam said. "She's here to help."

Ruby stepped forward when Henriksen lowered his weapon, "Does anyone have a breath mint? Some guts splattered in my mouth while I was killing my way in here." Ruby pushed her way through the door and entered the office. Lady made a face and skirted around Ruby so she could fix the salt line.

"How many are out there?" Dean asked.

"Thirty, at least. That's so far," Ruby said.

"Who sent them?" Dean asked.

"There's a big new up and corner. Real pied piper, that wants Sam's intestines on a stick. She sees him as competition," Ruby answered.

"She?" Lady asked. "You guys actually have genders besides who you slither your way into?"

Ruby glared at her, "Her name is Lilith."

"Fine, why don't you take that magical little knife of yours and go stab it in her back?" Lady asked. "We'll wait here."

"She's not out there," Ruby said snottily. "We'll need the Colt if we want to get out alive. Where is it?"

Sam looked down, "It got stolen," he murmured.

"I'm sorry. I must have blood in my ear. I thought I just heard you say that you were stupid enough to let the cot get grabbed out of your thick, clumsy, idiotic hands," Ruby snapped, giving the brothers and Lady deathly glares. "Fantastic, this is just peachy," she snarled and began to pace. After a few moments she stopped and looked at them again, "Fine. Since I don't see that there's no other any option. There's one other way I know how to get you out of here alive. I know a spell. It'll vaporize every demon in a one-mile radius. Myself included. So, you let the Colt out of your sight and now I have to die. Next time, be more careful. How's that for a dying wish?"

Lady nodded, "I'm looking forward to this. What do you need?" And more importantly Lady wanted to learn the spell. Without the Colt it would come in very handy.

"The spell is very specific, it calls for a person of virtue," Ruby said.

Lady went still, feeling a chill creep up her spine.

"I got virtue," Dean said.

Ruby snorted a laugh.

"She means she wants a virgin," Lady said numbly.

Dean rolled his eyes, "Well then we are all dead because nobody's a virgin."

Ruby gave him an amused glare and slowly turned to look at Nancy the secretary. Dean followed her gaze and his surprise spread across his face. "No, no way. You're kidding me," he said. Nancy was in her mid to late twenties, maybe not smoking hot but pretty enough to have had a few dates in her life and attract sleezeballs looking for one-night stands. Dean would have hit on her if he wanted to avoid a lonely night.

Nancy put her fingertips to the silver cross she wore around her neck, "What? It's a choice, okay?"

"You've never...not even once?" Dean asked. "Wow."

Nancy looked uncomfortable and her eyes went to her feet, "So, this spell...what can I do?"

Ruby took a step toward Nancy, and Lady took a step to block her. "You can hold still while I cut your heart out of your chest," Ruby said.

"You aren't touching her," Lady said, nearly toe-to-toe with the demon.

"Get your witch of a girlfriend out of my face, Dean," Ruby said.

"Shut your mouth or I'll let her cut out _your_ heart," Dean threatened the demon. "Are you crazy? You are talking about sacrifice!"

"I'm offering a solution," Ruby said with annoyance. "What do you think is gonna happen to this girl when the demons get in?"

"We're going to protect her," Henriksen said, his eyes looking around for assurance from the others.

Nancy hadn't moved and in a small voice, "Those people out there, the ones that are possessed, will it save them?"

Ruby looked over Lady's shoulder to look at Nancy, "It'll blow the demons out of their bodies. So if their bodies are okay, yeah."

"I'll do it," Nancy offered.

"No. Hell no," Henriksen said.

"All my friends are out there," Nancy said, looking at him.

"I'm not letting you sacrifice anyone," Lady said.

"Ah? Did I touch a nerve, Lady?" Ruby asked, smiling a bit.

Dean got an arm around Lady's waist just an instant before she tried to wrap her hands around the demon's neck. "Lady, no...no, you can't wrestle a demon," Dean said, easily pulling her away.

"Better get a leash on your cat, Dean. If she keeps picking fights with big dogs she's going to get eaten," Ruby warned.

Lady was tense but stopped fighting against Dean, "You want her, you'll go through me. I won't sit back and let this happen."

"We don't have a choice here," Ruby said.

"Your choice is not a choice," Dean barked.

Ruby looked at Sam who was silently listening from the doorway, "You know it's the only way, Sam."

Dean looked at his brother, desperately wanting his back-up. But Sam stayed quiet. "Sam? Sam, tell her," Dean said.

"It's my decision," Nancy said in the silence that followed.

"Stop! Stop!" Dean shouted as Lady twitched as if she was going to move again. "Sam, I need to talk to you. Lady, stay here and make sure the virgin stays alive."

Lady looked Ruby squarely in the eye. Maybe the demon had saved their lives before, and Lady had never considered what Ruby had done to aide them before. But Lady saw a line she wouldn't cross. She knew she couldn't stop Ruby, especially if Nancy was willing to sacrifice herself, but she'd die trying if she had to. She had spent years fighting witches and human sacrifice, she wasn't about to sit idle while it happened even if it was going to be for her benefit.

Dean pulled Sam down the hall for some privacy. "Sam, please tell me you're not considering this. We're talking about holding down a girl and cutting out her heart."

"And we're also talking about 30 people out there, Dean. Innocent people who are all gonna die, along with everyone in here," Sam said.

"It doesn't mean that we throw away the rule book and stop acting like humans. I'm not gonna let that demon kill some nice, sweet, innocent girl, who hasn't even been laid. I mean, look, if that's how you win wars, then I don't want to win," Dean said, searching his brother's face and aching to see some of the annoying compassion that Sam usually had.

"Then what? What do we do, Dean?" Sam asked, looking lost and scared.

"I got a plan. I'm not saying it's a good one. I'm not even saying that it'll work. But it sure as hell beats killing a virgin," Dean offered. "Remember Wal-Mart?"

Sam's eyes widened, "Sure, but this is a lot different."

Dean shook his head, "We open the doors, let them in, and fight."

"There were maybe a dozen demons within two-hundred _thousand_ square feet. Here we have over thirty demons, and less than a quarter of the room. Not to mention the demons were already inside there," Sam said.

"All we have to do is buy someone enough time to salt the all the exits and hope we survive long enough to pull off a mass exorcism," Dean said. "Tell me you'd rather kill a virgin than try, Sam, and I'll just walk out those doors myself. 'Cause I'm not sticking around for that."

Sam swallowed hard and nodded, "Let's do it."

Sam and Dean regrouped with the others and went over the plan.

"It's not going to work," Ruby said after listening. "So long, boys."

"You're just going to leave?" Sam asked.

"Ciao, bitch," Lady nearly spat.

"Hey. I was gonna kill myself to help you win. I'm not gonna stand here and watch you lose. And I'm disappointed because I tried. I really did, but clearly I bet on the wrong horse," Ruby said, looking directly at Sam. "Mind letting me out?"

Sam broke a salt line so Ruby could leave, and then they all got to work.

While Lady and Sam were working to get a radio to work in order to broadcast an exorcism over the loud speakers Nancy and Phil were gathering salt to put on the exits after the demons entered, and Dean and Henriksen were checking the weapons again. "Shouldn't Lady be out of the fray with Phil and Nancy?"

"Why?" Dean asked.

"If we don't make it, we're all going to die," Henriksen said in an obvious tone.

"Ah, well, if you want to try that women and children first thing with her, go right ahead," Dean said. "But it's going to be pure chaos in here once we open these doors. Lady prefers going in cloak-and-dagger style, but she can hold her own. She fights dirty and shoots straight, she's better in here than out there." Dean lifted a shotgun and rested it on his good shoulder, "This isn't your thing, Henriksen, you can be outside when this starts."

Henriksen lifted his own shotgun and shook his head, "I'm not leaving."

Sam and Lady came out of the office, "We ready?" Sam asked.

"Now or never," Dean said, offering Lady a sawed-off shotgun with a pistol grip. "Be careful."

Lady took the shotgun and pulled it along with Dean to her. She thought his plan was suicide, but if it was that versus sacrificing Nancy she'd take it. Her lips met his in a tender kiss, if it was going to be their final one she was going to make it last as long as she could. All they were armed with were flasks of holy water, rock salt and a loudspeaker ready to play back a recorded exorcism. It was too bad they didn't have the time for a quickie in one of the offices or even the bathroom.

"Watch your ass," Lady breathed, giving him a quick pinch before stepping away.

"You too," he said, patting her sore cheek.

"Ow..." Lady complained. She stepped to Sam and put one arm around his waist in a quick hug, "Be careful, big guy," she said.

Sam leaned down to kiss the top of her head, but didn't say anything. What could he say? Sorry that demons had actually organized after nearly a year of random chaos and had decided to lay siege on them and she was caught with them? Well, he could but it wasn't going to matter. He prayed that at least Phil and Nancy got out alive, and that they sent as many demons as they could back to hell if they died.

The four of them each took a door, the plan was to lead the demons in toward the center of the building. Once they were inside Nancy and Phil would go around the building salting the doors to prevent the demons from escaping. The recording of the exorcism had a two minute delay to start, they had to survive thirty or more demons in that amount of time. Very few people survived even one demon more than a few seconds.

At Dean's signal Lady opened her door and swiped the salt line with her foot. She backed away, aiming her shotgun at the entrance, counting the seconds. In fifteen seconds demons began rushing in. The door was narrow and a nice choke point. She fired the rock salt, the spray holding them back a good thirty seconds as she kept backing to the center of the building. She saw the door close behind the demons and knew Nancy and Phil were doing their job, and trying to do it as quickly as possible.

"Sam! Down!" Lady shouted, reloading her shotgun and aiming it as Sam ducked to the floor. She nailed two demons that were rushing him.

"Thanks..." Sam breathed. "Watch out!"

Lady was hit hard from the side by the demons that she had been holding back. Her count was at a minute and fifteen seconds.

Lady grimaced as hands pressed her down, fingertips digging into her flesh to try and rip her arms from their sockets. She closed her eyes as a shotgun blasted, a few hard grains of rock salt hit and stung at her face. The next instant Sam pulled her to her feet.

One minute and thirty seconds.

"Where's Henriksen?" Sam shouted as Dean backed into the room.

Lady tucked her shotgun under her arm and opened a flask of holy water, splashing it outwards towards demons that were getting closer. "Haven't seen him," Lady said as her and Sam fought back-to-back, inching their way closer to Dean.

One minute and forty-five seconds.

Dean let out a grunt of pain as he became pinned to the wall. Lady pulled her shotgun and before she could fire one of the demons raised their hands, pinning all three of them to the wall. "Oh...my ass," Lady moaned, the only thing she could think of saying as the demons smiled victoriously at them. All of them moving slowly to savor the moment before they could rip into them.

Lady suddenly returned their smile, her mental count had hit two minutes. And right on time the recorded exorcism began playing.

The effect was instant. Demons began howling and scurrying around to escape the sound. The windows were still salted, and they found the doors locked and salted. Within a minute all of them smoked out of their bodies, leaving the massive cloud of black smoke so ignited with demonic power it sparked with electricity floating at the ceiling. Lady saw the ruined office space, stained with salt and blood…it was exactly like her dream now.

The cloud of demonic smoke churned for several moments before collapsing in on itself in a fireball that let the putrid smell of sulfur hanging in the air.

Lady relaxed against the wall and let out a chuckle of relief, "I love a man with a plan. Get over here," she breathed, grabbing the front of Dean's shirt and giving him a brief victory kiss.

Henriksen was bruised and a bit bloody, but alive. Phil and Nancy were unharmed. And all of the possessed people began to come to. They were probably all shaken up and confused, not to mention sore from being assaulted by rounds of rock salt, but not a single casualty.

Once everyone got to take a short breath people began cleaning up the crazy mess. Henriksen watched for a few moments before saying, "I better call in. Hell of a story. I won't be telling."

"What are you going to tell them?" Sam asked.

Henriksen shrugged, "Sam and Dean Winchester were in the chopper when it caught on fire. Nothing left. Can't even identify them with dental records."

"And Lady?" Dean asked.

Henriksen looked at her, "All I got were her prints, I'll think of some explanation to why I ran them."

"Yeah, what did you find out?" Lady asked brightly. "I'm actually wondering what I might be in the system for."

Henriksen just shrugged, "Power went out before I got the full fax. Why, what do you think you are wanted for?"

"Probably nothing good," Lady said and looked away, eager to get out of the police station.

Dean knew what Lady was thinking about. She was thinking about numerous dead bodies she had left behind while killing off her coven of witches. She hadn't always been careful about not leaving prints but had always been fortunate enough to be far away from the scene before police showed up. It'd be interesting to see how many dead bodies, across how many states, her fingerprints would be connected to. Dean had a sudden thought, "Say they are from a woman using the alias of Bela Talbot."

"Who is that?" Henriksen asked him.

"The bitch that tipped you off to where we would be," Dean said.

Henriksen nodded in agreement, "I can do that. Now you all get out of here."

Lady hesitated and with a frown she handed Henriksen a leather wallet, "Here, you can have this back."

Henriksen patted his pocket and narrowed his eyes on her when she had picked her pocket. He took his wallet back with a frown, "Anything else I'm missing?"

Lady looked thoughtful and after a moment dug in her pocket for a set of keys, an FBI badge and pack of gum. She gave him a sheepish smile, "Sorry, but you have to admit you were sort of a dick to us. But you're doing us a solid favor here. Thanks."

Henriksen took the things she had stolen from his pockets, "Don't make me regret it," he said.

Dean retrieved his car from the impound lot and they drove as far south as they could before needing to get a motel.

Sam was in the shower while Lady checked Dean's gunshot wound. "The pain pills kick in yet?" she asked as she changed the bandage.

"Not really," Dean said, taking a tense breath.

Lady finished bandaging him and gently ran her fingertips over his bare shoulders, "What's our next move?"

Dean glanced at the bathroom door while taking her hand and pulling her to sit next to him, "Get some sleep and get on the move again before Lilith can take another shot at Sam," he decided. "Lady, I need a favor."

She searched his face, "Anything."

"If...if I don't make it through this deal...look after Sam for me," he said. His face looked pained, but she wasn't sure if it was from his wound or various bruises or if it was him asking for her to take on a burden he had been carrying his entire life. "Last night...if I hadn't been there I think he would have listened to Ruby. He's scaring the crap out of me. Just...be there and keep him on the right track. Whatever you have to."

Lady put her hand on the side of his neck, "Sam's a good kid, he would have done the right thing. If I have to I'll make sure to remind him of that, even if I have to shove a shoe up his ass to do it."

Dean nodded a thanks and pulled her close. Moving slowly to avoid aggravating his injuries he laid back on the bed. It took some adjusting to find a position that was comfortable and not painful, but once he did Lady moved in close to him. She had his good arm as a pillow and her face was tucked into his neck while her hand was a light weight across his stomach. They both reeked of sulfur but were too tired to get a shower in once Sam was done.

Lady closed her eyes as she tried to think of how to bring up the subject of her dream. There was never going to be a good time to add onto the problems they already had, but keeping information from Dean and Sam wasn't a good idea. She decided to at least let Dean get some rest and maybe a decent meal before she unloaded it on him.

Early in the afternoon they woke up and moved slowly with stiff limbs to get ready to be on the move again. It was hard to appreciate the silver lining that Sam and Dean no longer had to worry about the FBI chasing them while Bela was still out there with the Colt.

Lady was packing her bag when there was a knock on the door. Dean moved cautiously to it, and frowned as he opened it to let Ruby in.

"Turn on the news," she ordered, striding into the room with a frown.

Sam grabbed the remote and turned on the television. The news reporter was at a scene of a destroyed and still smoking building. The ticker at the bottom of the screen said it was the Monument police station. The reporter said, "From the tragedy that happened just a few hours ago, authorities believe a gas main ruptured causing the massive explosion that ripped apart the police station and claimed the lives of everyone inside. Among the deceased, at least six police officers and staff, including sheriff Melvin Dodd, deputy Phil Amici, and secretary Nancy Fitzgerald. As well as three FBI agents, identified as Steven Groves, Calvin Reidy, and Victor Henrikssen. Three fugitives in custody were also killed." Ruby shut the TV off before it could continue.

"Must have happened right after we left," Sam muttered, looking down at his hands. They hadn't gotten more than a few towns from Monument before stopping to rest.

"Considering the size of the blast, smart money's on Lilith," Ruby said. She pulled a few bags out of her pocket and threw them at Sam and Dean, and then to Lady.

Lady looked it over and felt what was inside. It was some sort of gris-gris bag. She gave it a quick smell, "What's in these?" she asked.

"Something that'll protect you. Throw Lilith off your trail…for the time being, at least," Ruby said.

"Thanks," Sam muttered.

"Don't thank me. Lilith killed everyone. She slaughtered your precious little virgin, plus a half a dozen other people. So after your big speech about humanity and war, turns out your plan was the one with the body count. Do you know how to run a battle? You strike fast and you don't leave any survivors. So no one can go running to tell the boss. So next time… we go with my plan." Ruby gave them all a hard stare before turning on her heel and leaving.

Lady started moving first, stuffing the bag Ruby had given her in her pocket and grabbing her things.

"We should have done something," Sam muttered miserably.

"Lilith killed those people, not us," Lady said. "We did the right thing."

"Those people are dead because of us," Dean said.

Lady couldn't argue with that, she couldn't even try. "Lilith might still be in the area, let's get moving. Guys, come on."

Sam and Dean both slowly moved into motion as Lady moved more vigorously. The problems just kept adding up.


	108. February 2008

**February 23, 2008**

Lady looked at the contents of the gris-gris bag that Ruby had given each of them to make sure they were legit, and was actually unhappy to discover they were. She wasn't too familiar with the magic used to activate them but the ingredients inside were surprisingly clean considering they came from a demon. A few of the things inside weren't easy to find but she was sure she could replicate the spell used to make them.

"They are good," Lady said, throwing what she had emptied from the bag into the garbage. When the tie was broken the magic had been undone, her satchel was no longer any good. "Powerful, too."

"Powerful enough to keep Lilith off our trail?" Dean asked.

"Not as powerful as the cloaking ritual I used to do, but pretty damn powerful," Lady said.

"So we have to carry these things around with us wherever we go?" Dean asked.

"On or near your person," Lady said. "The range is good, not infinite but good. I'd guess if you are within a quarter mile of this thing Lilith won't be able to find you the easy way."

Dean turned his bag over in his hand and then tossed it at Lady, "Keep that until you can make another one."

Lady threw it back to him, "I doubt a big-league demon like Lilith is that interested in finding me," Lady said.

Dean threw it back at her, "Yeah, but she's probably smart enough to realize if she finds you we can't be far away."

Lady frowned and decided to cut the argument short by stuffing the silk satchel into her bag.

Sam walked out of the bathroom wearing sweatpants and a towel around his shoulders. Lady stood up, "It's about time. You take longer showers than a teenage girl."

Sam ignored her and sat on his bed wishing they had the extra cash for a second motel room. "Any luck figuring out how Bela got another one over on us?" Sam asked.

Dean shook his head, "No. Ellen said the guys she put up to the task were trustworthy. Maybe Bela's spirit-board warned her."

"Yeah, I guess," Sam said, running his towel through his wet hair. "What do you think we should do?"

"Keep on doing like we always have," Dean muttered. "We don't stay in one place for long, keep our ears to the ground, and business as usual." Dean tenderly tested his shoulder, it was still sore but seemed to be healing well.

Lady came out of the bathroom, "I freaking hate stun-guns. Check out this bruise." She turned and pulled her pants down far enough to show a wicked looking bruise on her right butt cheek. "My skinny-jeans did nothing to save my ass...literally."

"Okay, you can put that away, Lady," Sam said, a bit uncomfortable at receiving a half-moon from his brother's girlfriend.

Lady walked backwards, wiggling her butt in Sam's face, "Look at it...c'mon, look!"

Lady laughed and fell onto the bed, hugging one of Sam's arms and wrapping an arm around his neck to pull him toward her so she could kiss his cheek. "Dean, your girlfriend is trying to switch allegiances right now," Sam laughed.

"Yeah? Take her for a few nights, you'll be begging me to take her back," Dean said tiredly.

Sam didn't argue with that. Sharing a motel room he got to see Lady's tossing and turning. He was in a separate bed and even he woke up a few times because of it. Dean tried to leave her be but eventually woke her from whatever nightmare she was experiencing and worked on calming her down so they could all go back to sleep.

Sam finished getting dress and went out to pick up lunch. Lady bounced on the bed next to Dean, "You feeling okay?"

"More or less," he muttered. "I really wish you weren't caught up in all of this."

Lady stretched out on the bed, "I'm not bad at getting in trouble, it would have come around to me eventually."

Lady smiled a bit as he laid down next to her, laying on his right side while propping his head up with an elbow. "So how tender is that butt of yours?" he asked, putting his hand on her waist and slowly inching down.

"Not too bad, I just hope it finishes healing. My ass was one of the few places that wasn't scarred," Lady said.

"You do look like you've tried to kill yourself a dozen times," he said with a smirk. The numerous scars on her wrists and forearms were mostly old and faded, barely visible unless someone was looking for them. But her legs had their share of scars, including one from a bullet, and a few lighter scars on her torso from when she had died. Lady didn't wear her scars with pride, but didn't go to great lengths to hide them either. She didn't think much of them, injuries were just a possibility in her job that she had to deal with them when they came.

"You have a problem with scars?" she asked, arching a teasing eyebrow.

He just chuckled and leaned towards her while caressing her rear. She leaned forward to close the distance and kissed him. Her fingers trailed lightly up his arm, stopping short of his injured shoulder and moved around his back to hold him. She let out a soft sigh as his tongue slipped into her mouth and without thinking she arched her body towards him. Her leg moved against his in an inviting way just as Sam knocked on the door in a brief opening before letting himself in.

"We're running low on cash," Sam said, ignoring that he had interrupted them. He put a few bags of fast food on the table. "I drove past a few bars in town, we need to make some money. Think you are up for it?"

Dean grimaced at the thought of shooting pool with his injured shoulder. "Guess we'll have to scrounge up what we can."

Dean ate before sleeping off his pain meds. That evening they went to three separate bars with only fifty dollars a piece to make some money. Dean found some luck at a blackjack table and had his feelers out for a back alley poker game if he got enough money for a buy-in. Sam went to a pool hall, he wasn't quite as good at hustling pool as Dean was but he did okay. And Lady just stuck with her womanly charms to draw men into a game of darts before robbing them blind.

Dean and Sam had hustling down pretty well. Lady found it a bit more difficult. Not that she didn't understand the games or how to play people, she was pretty good at both of those things. However men were less likely to bet against a woman, mostly because their pride would rather back down than even risk losing to a woman. But others were chivalrous and tried to protect her from men that would take her up on a bet, which only served to frustrate her. And others were just chauvinistic that suggested if she wanted to double her money she should join them in the bathroom for a quickie.

But even with the extra challenges of being the fairer sex she strutted out of the bar with five-hundred bucks. The weather wasn't ideal for her outfit, a tight skirt that stopped a few inches above her knees and a low-cut sweater which hugged her curves that were amplified with a push-up bra. But she knew she only had to walk one block to the next bar so she could meet up with Dean. Before she reached the end of the parking lot someone was shouting after her.

"You bitch! You cheated me!"

Lady turned carefully on her four-inch heels to face the guy chasing after her, "Sorry pal, happens to the best of us." Lady flashed him a pretty smile. Those things didn't happen to her, of course. And she didn't really consider the guy to be in the realm of the best, but why not try and make him feel a bit better? She did, after all, make him go to the ATM a few times during their dart game. And after he gave her sore butt-cheek a not-so-friendly pinch she swiped his ATM card and planned on draining it before she left town.

"I want my money back," he said angrily.

"Ah, no can do. A bet is a bet," she said apologetically.

He got closer to her, "You don't know who you are messing with, lady."

Lady grinned. She had never given the man her name but always got a kick when people used it unintentionally. "You're right, I don't. But I don't give a shit. In general I don't give a shit."

The man reached for her, aiming to grab a fistful of her hair. Before he managed it she kicked his kneecap with the pointy toe of her shoe. He fell onto the pavement howling in pain and cursing her.

"Well that's just not very nice," Lady said, taking a cautious step back as he tried to get back to his feet. "Ah! Now look what you made me do, wrinkled the leather. Argh," she huffed as she turned around and continued walking to the bar Dean was working in. She shot a few glances behind her shoulder to make sure the guy didn't follow her and wasn't able to see where she went.

By the time she reached the bar Dean was in she was shivering from the cold and had wished she'd put some tights on under the skirt. She found Dean doing well at the blackjack table and took a seat next to him. He glanced over at her, but acted like he didn't know her.

"You want in, sweetheart?" The dealer asked.

Lady pulled a large folded group of bills from her bra and peeled off several bills, "I sure do."

Lady smiled as her foot found Dean's boot and she worked her toe up his pant leg to rub against his ankle. She focused on the cards in front of her and in front of Dean. They had done this a few times before and had worked out a few signals so she could warn Dean if he was safe to hit for another card, or if he needed to stay or double-down on his cards to avoid going over twenty-one. Her sight wasn't usually good enough to be used for blackjack, but she was having a good night.

Dean smiled as he counted his money, "I think you are my Lady Luck," he said, giving her a long look and a smile.

"For some people I am," Lady said, returning his smile.

Dean looked past her to the door as Sam entered, "How about we cash out and I buy you a drink?"

Lady looked away from him, "Thanks, but I can hold out for someone better."

Dean chucked and his hand rested on her thigh, "You sure? It's almost last call."

Lady pulled out business cards and numbers she had received at the previous bar, "I can call Justin, he's a contractor. Or Emilio, an operations manager. Or Daniel who..."

Dean pulled the numbers from her hand and crumpled them in his fist, "They got nothing on me."

Lady gave him a sexy smile, "When you say it like that, sure."

They met Sam at the bar and ordered a few beers while checking how much money between the three of them they had managed. They turned a hundred and fifty dollars into almost two thousand, which was a good night.

"Now that we don't have to worry about the feds maybe you should drop me off at a casino," Lady suggested.

"We can probably swing that," Dean said. Right now they were secure for cash but he knew they would run out again soon enough.

Lady slowly turned to watch the door in time to watch the man she'd earned most of her money off of come limping in, and she rolled her eyes in annoyance when he spotted her immediately. He took a few limping steps toward her before she put an arm around Sam's waist and looked up at him with a wide smile.

Sam looked down at her, "What?"

"Have I told you lately that you need a haircut?" she asked.

"Don't screw with my hair," Sam said firmly, but put a friendly arm around her shoulders.

Lady glanced at the man she had assaulted earlier and he was backing away seeing she was with Sam. She chuckled and gave Sam a brief squeeze. There were benefits to having a giant as a friend.

"No dice on getting into a poker game," Dean said. "Let's get out of here."

Dean didn't seem to mind that Lady hung on Sam as they left the bar. Sam probably blocked her from more of the chilling wind than Dean did. The first thing Lady did once they reached the motel was start a hot shower to warm herself up.

She was wrapped in a towel when she came out and grabbed her bag to find something to wear while she slept. "Where's Sam?" she asked.

Dean was standing shirtless carefully fixing his bandage on his shoulder, "He got a separate room," Dean answered. "That means you and your kicking can sleep in the other bed."

"Okey dokey," Lady said, dropping her bag and falling face first on the bed. If Sam wasn't around she didn't have to worry about making him uncomfortable and once she finished drying she could sleep naked if she wanted to.

Dean grimaced as he stretched aching muscles to take care of his healing gunshot wound and let out a breath of relief when it was over. He shut off one of the lights and undressed down to his boxers. He checked that the window and door were salted before getting into bed next to Lady.

"Me and my kicking have reserved this bed," she said sleepily.

Dean glanced at the two beds and back at her, "I meant that for when we went to sleep…and when that happens your ass is going to the other bed."

Lady closed her eyes as his fingertips moved her wet hair from the back of her neck and lightly stroked down her spine. Dean had his own set of quirks, but he enforced them with his obsessive attitude. He always, no matter what, had to have the bed closest to the door. And if he was in the same bed as her he wanted to sleep on the side closest to the bed. It didn't matter if he was rooming with Sam or her, he had to have that spot. And she had been forcefully moved if she was in that spot before. It was one of the rare fights that she could not win against Dean, he wouldn't budge on it. Just like when they went out to eat, he had to sit facing the exit. Small things such as that were drilled into him by his father and he was too paranoid to give up on.

Lady moved onto her side to face him, "You think buying me one beer means you are going to get lucky?"

"You are a notoriously cheap date, so yes, I do," Dean said with a smile.

"I really need to up my standards," she teased.

Dean tugged on the side of the towel wrapped around her body and moved it aside to uncover her body. His hand explored her skin, still damp from her shower. He moved so he was on his side while she was on her back, his hand caressing a breast before circling his tongue around a firm nipple. Lady moved her fingertips through his hair as he kissed and teased her chest. His normal rough stubble had gone unmaintained long enough to become prickly whiskers that tickled her skin and made her arch her back towards him. Her head fell back as his hand moved between her thighs and his fingertips lightly moved against the sensitive flesh there.

Lady gripped his neck and pulled his face to hers, kissing him deeply while lifting her hips toward his hand that was still massaging her. She let out a needful whimper as he sucked on her bottom lip. She moved her hand down his bare abdomen and until the waistband of his boxers, pulling a low sound from him as her fingers wrapped around the hard column of flesh there. "We going to play all night, babe?" she breathed, stroking him firmly.

The rough whiskers on Dean's cheek scraped against hers, "You know I could," he said in a husky voice before licking her earlobe. The past several days they'd either been trapped in the Impala or sharing a motel room with Sam, he was looking forward to taking advantage of a night alone.

Lady shivered as a sudden wave of pleasure that started where Dean's fingers were rubbing her and went all the way up her spine. She lifted her hips toward his hand, trying to hold onto the sensation.

Impatiently Lady snapped the waistband of his shorts, "Lose these before I take a knife after them," she threatened.

As soon as he kicked his boxers off the bed he moved to his knees and pulled her onto his lap. Lady wrapped an arm around his good shoulder while slowly rubbing against him before pushing him inside. Dean nibbled and sucked on her neck as she ground her hips into his. Her hands moved through his hair and pulled his head back so she could kiss him. He held her hips tightly as he lifted his hips to move deep inside of her, both of them breathing heavily and moaning as she tightened around him.

Lady fell backward onto the pillows and disentangled her legs from Dean as he laid down next to her. Before he could get an arm around her she gathered up her damp towel and sat on the edge of the bed. "Hey, get over here," he said.

"Me and my kicking are sleeping in the other bed, remember?" she said, holding her towel over her arm as she went to the bathroom.

Dean put his hands behind his head and enjoyed the relaxed feeling he was experiencing, "Doesn't have to be right now," he said.

Lady came out of the bathroom and burrowed under the blankets of the spare bed, "Goodnight, Dean," she said.

XXXXX

Dean was already reaching for his pistol before fully waking up. There was a thumping noise and he was trying to determine what sort of risk it was. He could tell, with the strange sixth sense he had developed, that Lady wasn't in bed next to him. It took him a moment to remember she was on the spare bed, and the noise seemed to be coming from that direction. Without turning on the light he sat up to look around the motel room, and he heard the thumping again. He moved to the edge of his bed and suddenly he realized what the noise was.

Lady was kicking her bed.

He let out a breath and put his pistol back under his pillow. He sat at the edge of the bed contemplating going back to sleep, sleep he was being deprived of frequently the past few weeks, or waking her up to get her out of whatever weird dream she was going through.

_Lady watched with wide eyes as a group of people surrounded a massive wicker-man. At least six people had their hands tied and were being led into the empty belly of the construction.. A man holding a bible was cursing them while at the same time asking God to give them mercy. Declaring them villains and scum. The people didn't argue or beg for their lives or for a less excruciating execution. One of them raised their chin in defiance and even smiled arrogantly as a flame neared the dry kindle that would quickly ignite the whole construct they were being forced into. Lady couldn't watch, she didn't want to hear when the screams started or smell the stench of burning flesh. Torture had never been her thing. She could dish out a few bitch slaps when needed, but when she had to kill someone she just preferred to get it over with. She turned and wanted to get away. But before she could she came face-to-face with the man holding a bible in one hand, and a length of rope in another. "String her up! String up and burn the malicious witch!" he called. Lady was seized by the arms to be tied up along the other witches. She tried to pull away, to kick and to free herself. Her voice was gone, she couldn't open her mouth to talk or protest or to even beg._

Dean leaned over Lady and put a hand on her arm, unable to take her thrashing any longer. "Babe, wake up," he said, giving her a rough shake. Without warning her hand flew up, her boney knuckles connecting with his mouth. "Ow! Son of a..." Dean pulled back, immediately feeling his bottom lip swelling up.

Lady jerked awake, taking quick breaths and trembling in fear. Her eyes scanned the dark motel room for threats as her heart fluttered in her chest.

Dean touched the tip of his tongue to his lip, tasting a bit of blood. He sat on the edge of her bed, "Everything is fine, do you..."

"Go away," Lady said in a rough voice.

Dean watched her curl up tightly, the blankets tightly wound around her like a cocoon. "Babe..."

"Go. Away," she said, sounding like she was having a hard time getting the words out. And then he heard a muffled sniffle and saw her bury her face in her pillow while she trembled.

Dean stood up and felt around the floor for his pants. He pulled them on and put on his t-shirt and his boots without socks before leaving the motel room and getting into his car. At first he just sat behind the wheel. It was his favorite place. The seat may not be the most comfortable, but he spent so much time there it fit him like a glove. If he leaned back he could probably fall asleep. He knew his car wasn't as safe as the motel room lined with salt. But the car gave him some sort of shelter from the wind and a sense of comfort, and even helped ease the intense frustration he was feeling.

He didn't know how to help Lady. Most nights weren't that bad. Some kicking and murmurs, but then she'd wake up. At first she'd be confused or even a bit delirious, but then she'd relax. She might stay on her side of the bed or move closer to him, depending on her mood or how cold the room was. But he could tell the dreams were screwing with her and made her miserable. And he couldn't do anything because it was all in her jacked-up head. How the hell was he supposed to protect her from a dream?

Dean looked thoughtfully out the window of his car as he remembered the dream root that had sparked her problem. They still had some left, but it was at Bobby's to be stored properly. Dean got to experience dream-walking in Bobby's head. It hadn't been pleasant, but Bobby's dreams were being controlled by a sadistic dream-weaver. However he had also experienced Lady and Sam snooping around inside his head, and doubted that Lady would approve him even suggesting they tried it. But he wasn't so sure he could just sit back and watch her be tortured every night, either.

He went back into the motel after half an hour, guessing Lady had enough time to either come to her senses that it was a dream or even fall back asleep. He kicked off his boots before checking on her. She had uncurled herself and was staring angrily at the ceiling. Moving gently to keep from moving the bed too much he laid down on top of what was left of the blankets next to her and wished he had half a clue what to do. "Want to at least tell me about it?" he asked tiredly.

Lady wished he wasn't there, that she was alone, anywhere else than with him. These dreams screwed with her head and the one she had just woken up from had rattled her very core. She couldn't even put a finger on why it had. It made her feel weak and vulnerable, and since Dean got to be a witness she couldn't pretend it didn't happen. "Ever see a Wicker Man before?" she asked.

"I watched the movie," he answered.

"Did they burn people alive inside of it in the movie?" she asked.

"Yup," he answered.

"Well, there you go," she muttered. "It doesn't make any sense."

"Your head rarely does," Dean said lightly.

"I might be a bit screwed up but at least I understand my own intentions. This isn't coming from my head."

Dean was quiet several moments before asking, "You think it's a memory from that thing?"

Lady thought about it, "I don't know."

"Maybe if we went to Missouri she could..."

Lady let out a dry laugh, "Yeah, like I'm going to let that psychic hack around inside my head again."

Dean didn't need Lady's ability to see and hear the future to know that mentioning the dream root would be a quick way to get smacked again, this time intentionally. But even knowing that he was tempted to suggest it. "We have to do something. I can't take much more of this. I'm getting the crap kicked out of me by my girlfriend while she's sleeping. It's embarrassing."

Lady hugged the blankets closer to her and moved onto her side so her back was to him, "It wouldn't of happened if you just stayed on your bed."

"Yeah, like I'm just supposed to hang out and watch you thrash around like someone strangling you to death," he muttered. "We're doing something about this."

"When you get a brilliant idea that doesn't involve rewiring my brain, let me know," she said flatly. "I'm sorry, okay? It's my problem, don't worry about it."

Dean worked on not grinding his teeth, "Well, it's my problem too."

"If you are that pissed about me interrupting your beauty sleep you can bunk with Sam," Lady said defensively.

"Stop being a bitch about this, Lady," Dean said in a tired voice. "I can't deal with this, babe. I have to do something."

Lady sighed and worked with the blankets until she got enough of them unwound so she could throw them over Dean and moved closer to him. She didn't understand how he could possibly feel warmer than she was after being outside, but he was. "You want to do something? Shut the fuck up and go back to sleep," she said tiredly. "You talk like a damn woman. You keep yapping I'm going to make you paint my toe nails and braid my hair."

Dean got an arm around her and went quiet as his mind kept working. He wasn't sure how many more nights of her freaking out he could handle before he gave up and did something, but he had to give Lady her shot at dealing with it. He was wondering if there was any possible way to bring up suggestions when he became distracted by how soft the skin of her back felt under his fingertips. She was like an oversized sexy naked teddy bear to sleep with. Lady could be an excellent distraction when he wanted one, but she was pretty effective at doing that even when she wasn't trying and he wasn't looking for one. He had to wonder if ADD wasn't contagious because a few minutes of being in contact with her he wasn't thinking about being rudely awakened or anything important.

**February 28, 2008**

After spending a few days making sure they hadn't left a trail from Colorado and making money they ended up in Oklahoma to check out a haunted house. They were getting back into their routine, as much of a routine as they ever had, and were feeling more comfortable that they were safely hidden from both police and demons.

"What's the job?" Lady asked as she looked for a clean shirt.

"Morten house," Dean said, taking a little extra time to look through his bag and making a mental list of things he needed. "Legend has it that it's haunted, but only on leap years. Dad and I researched it a few times, but we never made it there before. This year is finally a leap year and we can make it. A lot of stupid people have gone missing over the years after being dared to spend the night there. And anyone who was in the house at midnight when it turned into leap day were never heard from again."

"A real haunted house. Sweet," Lady said, not nearly as excited as Dean was.

Dean threw an empty stick of deodorant away and zipped up his bag, "We need to stop somewhere before we go. Light a match under it, will you?"

Lady silently mocked him as he left the room to start packing the car. She couldn't help it, she was a bit grumpy. Most of it was from fatigue, Dean hadn't given her enough time to finish her coffee for the caffeine boost that she needed. All she wanted to do was curl back up under the blankets, hug a pillow and nap. Lady moaned at the dull ache in her abdomen and quietly swore as she counted back the days to her last period. "Great...this is going to be a fan-fucking-tastic drive," she uttered as she unpacked her bag to get to the supply of tampons at the bottom.

Dean came back in as Lady came out of the bathroom. "Seriously?" he asked.

Lady finished off her coffee and swallowed two Midol. Quietly she hoped that the pills kicked in before Dean said something really stupid. "I'm ready," she said, stuffing the last of her things in her bag so she could follow him out.

Dean stopped at a local drug store in a small town, and all three of them entered. Lady separated immediately, shopping with the Winchesters wasn't nearly as much fun as shopping by herself. Shopping at a drug store wasn't much fun at all, but they all needed some basic necessities.

Sam and Dean walked down the aisles, Sam was taller than the shelves and kept an eye on Lady as she darted between make-up counters in an effort to get everything she wanted in Dean's time limit of fifteen minutes. "How's she been sleeping?" Sam asked casually as he stopped to look at deodorant.

Dean shrugged. "Some nights are better than others."

Sam tried to fight the smirk, "I don't see a limp or a black eye on you, last night wasn't too bad?"

"Shut up," Dean muttered.

"You know, the first step to fixing an abusive relationship is to talk about it..." Sam tried to say in a serious tone but started snickering. Sam felt bad for Lady, he knew she felt out of her element having dreams forced on her after years without them. But seeing his brother's 'battle wounds' from sharing the bed with the small woman was amusing.

"Laugh it up," Dean said, grabbing a stick of deodorant.

Sam turned and grabbed a pack of razors, "I swear I just bought some of these," he muttered before scratching at the bit of stubble that was growing on his face.

Dean smirked, "Yeah, you did. I gave them to Lady."

"What? Why?" Sam asked.

"She was out," Dean said, as if it was obvious. "If I didn't it would be like humping a cactus."

"Oh!" Sam winced, and Dean got a chuckle at his expense. "That's just wrong."

"Tell me about it. I got whisker burn on my..." Dean began.

"No, dude, no," Sam interrupted him. "I got the idea."

"On my legs, man," Dean finished. "Pervert."

Dean chuckled again and continued down the aisle. Sam frowned at him before grabbing a random pack of pink razors so he didn't have to share.

Sam checked his watch and moved with his brother to the counter. He caught sight of Lady's head moving like a shark's fin through the aisles toward them.

"Is this everything?" the man behind the counter asked.

"And these," Lady said, bumping Sam to the side so she could set a box of tampons on the counter.

"Aw, come on. You have your own money," Dean complained as he reached for his wallet.

"You think I buy these jeans for the pockets? I left my cash in my bag," Lady said.

"Price of living with your girlfriend," Sam chuckled at the uncomfortable look Dean had.

While they waited for their basic toiletry and hygiene supplies to be bagged and paid for Lady looked with interest at cheap pieces of jewelry and decorative items that were for sale. She didn't have much use for anything like that. What little jewelry she wore was limited to her charm bracelet and the garnet charm she wore around her neck in an attempt to ease nightmares. And it wasn't like she had shelves or places to put adorable little ceramics. She thought about her bedroom at Bobby's and tried to imagine shelves lining the walls, all filled with little ceramic children with cherub-like faces and eerily large eyes. Or maybe the collection of ceramic cats. Then she remembered Ebony and Ivory, those little bastards would have a blast climbing on shelves and breaking all of the little trinkets. But she still thought shelves would be a nice addition to her small room. More places to put things. She had a lot of work to do if she ever wanted to restock her old supply of things. Of course at Bobby's he had his own large stock of almost everything she'd ever need, but there was no harm in doing more. But then again...

Dean pinched Lady's rear to get her attention, breaking her random trains of thought. She took the bag he pushed into her hand and followed the brothers out.

"What is your aversion to tampons? They are just little cotton tubes," Lady said when they were back in the car.

"You just don't make a dude buy your tampons, Lady. It's wrong," Dean said.

"Are you afraid the guy inside the store thought they were for you?" Lady laughed, and Sam joined in with his own chuckle.

Lady dug into the pockets of her jeans and pulled out a few pieces of make-up she had lifted from the store. She hadn't needed them but the store was practically robbing people by charging ten dollars for a tube of lipstick, it only felt right to rob them right back.

"Shut up," Dean said to both of them. "Do me a favor and save those razors until after you are done."

Lady looked up from the small mirror she'd been using to apply make-up, "Done with what?"

"With...you know," Dean said.

Sam made a face, "Guys, can you save this conversation for when I'm not here?"

Lady looked between the two brothers, "Wow, you are both dickheads."

"I'm just asking to be spared," Sam said defensively.

Lady nodded, "You are right, Sam. What happens between my legs is no concern of yours and you don't need to know about it, and I apologize. Dean, you are still a dickhead."

"And the PMS starts," Dean muttered.

"Oh, if I have PMS you will know. One second before I drive a sharp object through your temple," Lady lightly threatened.

Sam was silently grateful that they had enough extra money for separate rooms.

Lady shifted so she could grab her cell phone out of her pocket and answered it right when it began to ring, "You got everything?"

"Hi, Lady. How are you? I'm doing well…considering I've been searching the internet, pastures and hundreds of things left behind by my predecessor to find what you asked me to find," Maxine said tensely.

"Well it took you almost a week, I'm not known for my patience," Lady said.

Maxine sighed, "Yeah, I know. Yes, I found everything you asked for. It wasn't easy."

"How is the supply?" Lady asked.

"To your specifications, we can probably make half a dozen at least," Maxine said.

"Yes!" Lady hissed in triumph. "Okay, I'll be on my way soon."

"When do you…" Maxine began but Lady hung up before she could finish.

"Maxine has what I need to make more of the gris-gris bags," Lady said excitedly.

"You want to leave now? We haven't even got to check out the Morten House," Dean said.

"The sooner we can replace those bags the better," Lady said. "They are keeping demons off our backs, but there is still one that can locate us."

"Ruby," Dean said bitterly.

"Yup. She made them, I bet she has a way to find them. And in turn us," Lady said.

"So far all Ruby has done is save our lives," Sam reminded them.

"So far," Lady and Dean said at the same time. "Okay, let's get back to the motel and pack up."

"I can go alone," Lady said. "Dean, you've been wanting to do this hunt for years. I have one bag, you two share the other until I get back. Or we meet up somewhere."

Dean made a face, "I don't like the idea of us splitting up."

"Demons are chasing their tails. I'm going to be bitchy the rest of the week anyway. Just let me go," Lady said.

Dean thought about it and nodded, "Okay, let's find you a car."

Sam rolled his eyes as Dean began looking for a parking lot without surveillance cameras. "Guys…we have the extra cash. Why don't we just rent one?"

Dean and Lady both looked at him with disbelief. "And waste the money?" Lady asked. "Ton of cars just laying around, not being used."

Sam looked at her with his own disbelief, "And all with owners that will report them stolen. We barely got out of the FBI's radar, let's try and keep it that way for more than two weeks."

"Yeah, he has a point," Dean muttered.

"Takes all the fun out of everything," Lady muttered.

"Will it make you feel better if we say you don't have to return it?" Dean asked.

"Maybe a little," Lady said.

"Can we try to return it?" Sam asked.

"Why are you such a killjoy?" Lady asked hotly.

"Because I think maintaining a low profile and reducing our risks is smart I'm a killjoy?" Sam snapped back.

"Shut up," Dean quickly shut down the argument before it could continue between his brother and girlfriend.

Dean found a place that rented out cars and got one for a week. Maybe they'd get it back, maybe not. Lady's track-record with vehicles wasn't very good, but none of them would still be in Oklahoma after a week so it didn't matter all that much.

Lady grabbed one of her bags and threw it in the passenger seat of the silver Grand-Am she would be taking, and if Sam had his way she would have to return it as well. "We can stop at the motel to get the rest of your things," Dean offered.

Lady shook her head, she was took excited to be on her way. Besides, if Dean had some of her things it meant she could pressure him into joining her in North Dakota once he was done. "I got enough. You'll bring the rest to me when you are done," she said, putting a hand on his hip.

"Yeah, I will. I'll see you in a few days," he said.

The corners of his eyes crinkled a bit before he leaned down to give her a goodbye kiss. She wanted to ask him to skip his job, screw the haunted house and come with her. This wasn't the first time they went their separate ways, and every time they did it was with reluctance. The kiss lingered as she enjoyed his touch and taste, and it was hard to let go of it. She knew she'd miss him, and with their job and knack for finding trouble she never knew with certainty that she'd see him again. With a force of will she let the kiss end with a tight hug while pressing her nose into his neck to smell the delicious scent of leather and gun powder the always hung around him. "I love you," she whispered.

Dean's face rested in her hair, enjoying the scent of her shampoo. It changed frequently, he had lost count of how many half-full bottles she had left abandoned in motel bathrooms because she changed her preference. From floral to fruity, it always smelled fantastic on her when it mixed with her own unique feminine smell. "I love you. Be safe," he muttered in her ear before kissing it.

Lady released Dean and went to Sam. She pulled him down for a tight hug, "Do me a favor and don't go into the haunted house where no one has come out of it alive before?"

Sam chuckled, "Don't worry, we got this job in the bag. We'll be on our way to see you in a day or two," he promised.

Lady gave them both a sad wave before getting into the car and leaving them behind.

XXXXX

Lady was sipping on coffee as the moon rose high above. She was nearing South Dakota already, the Grand-Am was cruising nicely. But she was feeling a hard pull of fatigue. Over the past several months of riding in Dean's car she had gotten used to napping or watching movies on a laptop while on the road, she wasn't used to driving like she once was. However she was determined to reach Bobby's before stopping, but that wouldn't be for several more hours.

Lady yawned widely, so hard that her body felt numb and disconnected. Then her heart pounded in excitement as the sensation didn't immediately fade away. She barely looked into her mirrors as she hit the brake and maneuvered the car to the shoulder and narrowly shifted it into park before her first vision in months broke through and left her blind to her surroundings.

_She was in a large building, and it had been badly damaged. Part of the ceiling had collapsed. There was yellow tape, declaring the building condemned, but it hadn't been torn down. The only light came from a few oil lanterns that a person was sitting next to, probably for the warmth. She saw a white mist from the person's breath, it was cold. No heat, nighttime, and in February. She couldn't feel the chill but something told her it was near zero degrees, too cold for someone to be in a poor shelter like this. The person was wrapped in heavy ragged clothes, it seemed to be layered and she couldn't even tell if it was a man or a woman. She watched as the person pulled off a holey glove, the hand looked like it belonged to a man. The fingers were long, boney and pale, larger than most woman's hands. The pulled out an old looking revolver and had trouble finding the strength to cock the gun. Once the gun was prepared to fire they didn't hesitate to place the barrel to the side of their head. Without looking up so Lady could see their face they pulled the trigger, slumping over onto their side as blood, bone and brains flew out the other side._

Lady blinked furiously as she was freed from the initial viewing of the vision. She took a few breaths as the vision continued to play in the back of her head. Even while watching someone blow their brains out she had to smile. The feeling she got with a vision was instant energy. All fatigue and discomfort she had been experiencing was forgotten. She felt the pull of the victim, she knew where she had to go.

Her last vision had also happened when she was driving, but it had caused her to roll the car and she had nearly been killed in the accident. This time she had managed to safely get the car off the road in time to receive the vision. Her heart was thudding with excitement as she shifted into gear to continue driving, letting the internal compass in her head tell her where to go so she could save the person that was going to kill themselves.


	109. Unknown Location, February 2008

**No particular place, February 29, 2008**

Time was a rather ridiculous concept. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries. It was just a way for humans to measure things. Oh, how humans loved to measure. Height, length, width. Weight, volume. And time.

Time was immeasurable to something so old that remembered the invention of measurements. Just how old?

Well, he'd never tell.

In February Loki had the fantastic pleasure of meeting the Winchester brothers for the second time. Not many hunters managed to get as close to him as those boys had, he was impressed. There wasn't any real antagonism toward them. Loki just liked to play. And the Winchesters were two favorite toys. He had been a little disappointed that they didn't have another favorite toy along with them, but knowing Lady he figured she couldn't be far away and eventually would join the game.

But before the first day was over he heard some disturbing information. Sam and Dean were having breakfast in the local diner, Loki was disguised and sitting at the counter just listening while enjoying some sweet pancakes and becoming eager as his plan started to be put into motion.

"You aren't already going through Lady-withdrawals, are you?" Sam joked with his brother.

Loki's lip curled into a smile, it was sort of sweet that Lady and Dean-o were still together. But he wasn't too terribly surprised, he had felt the strong bond she had with the eldest Winchester just a year ago. He wondered if when he was done messing with poor Sam if it wouldn't be fun to crash another one of Lady and Dean's Valentines Day adventures. He quickly decided that yes, it would be fun.

"Man, last night was the first night I didn't wake up at least twice," Dean said. "I don't know how to help her with these damn nightmares."

"They really that bad?" Sam asked.

"I have bruises," Dean said firmly. He let out a sigh and sunk his shoulders, "Some of them seem to be memories."

"From the Goddess?" Sam asked.

Loki tilted his head and became very interested in the conversation.

"Yeah," Dean muttered. "I mean, I get it. Or at least I'm trying to. She hasn't had a dream in ten years or so. It's different and she's a little freaked. But sometimes she sees things from a thousand years ago. Charms, dreamcatchers, nothing works."

"Is it even safe for her to have those memories?" Sam asked quietly.

Dean shrugged, "I don't know. To be honest I'm sort of hoping they give her some clue on how to destroy Donovan and the power he took from the Goddess. But I know it's screwing with her."

"Donovan has been silent since Vegas," Sam said.

Dean shook his head, "Not exactly. He stayed hidden in North Dakota, but he chatted a bit until Lady fried his ass."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Sam muttered.

"Here's your check, boys," the waitress said.

"Thanks, sweetheart," Dean said, already digging into his wallet and preparing to leave.

Loki was still as the brother's left. He kept their presence in his mind so he knew what they were doing, but once he was doing playing his small part in the game he slipped away to Orlando to find Lady.

Lady wasn't easy to find. Some sort of magic was cloaking her, and Loki recognized the source of the magic immediately. He almost couldn't keep his distance, tempted to grasp her arms and shake her in fury. Spurts of emotion like that weren't normal for Loki, however the Goddess had always known just how to get under his skin.

Lady was at the mall with a man in a wheelchair and a tall woman, both Native American. "You need some cute shoes to match that dress," Lady said, tugging the woman's hair playfully while leading the way into a store.

"They don't make cute shoes for women like me," Erin said. "I have size eleven feet. I'm already over six feet tall, I can't wear heels I'll be a total freak."

"You are gorgeous," Lady said in dismissal as she made a beeline for the shoes.

"Lady...I said I'm size eleven. Those are size seven," Erin said flatly.

"I'm allowed to look," Lady hissed.

Derek laughed, "Dean put a limit on how many shoes she's allowed to bring with."

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him and so help me if you say anything you'll never get out of the chair," Lady threatened.

Derek made a face, "I see dying and coming back to life hasn't given you any more sense of responsibility."

"Nope," Lady agreed.

"I, for one, am glad she hasn't changed," Erin said, smiling.

Lady grinned, "Who would want to change perfection?"

Loki suddenly remembered why he had been so drawn to Lady and held back the temptation to start a separate game for her while his one for the brothers was still ongoing. Instead he calmly walked up to the trio disguised as a female sales associate. "Can I help you find anything?"

Lady nearly pouted, knowing she didn't have the money needed for the shoes or the space to house them. Damn Dean and his threatening to tax her for every shoe she wanted to bring. However Erin didn't have the same restrictions. "Yes, we need a nice sandal. It should be a glossy black, as strappy and pointy as possible to hide her monster-feet."

"Hey!" Erin hissed in offense.

"I'm sorry, but you are freakishly large, Erin," Lady said, and turned back to Loki without recognizing him. "No heel."

"I know just the thing," Loki said, stepping behind a shelf before conjuring a pair of shoes. He walked back and held them out to Lady. "How are these?"

"Fantastic, exactly what I had in mind! You are wonderful," she said, looking Loki directly in the eye as she took the shoes from him.

Loki held her gaze for two seconds, and it was all he needed. Piecing together information he had received from Sam and Dean, and seeing into her eyes.

The Goddess had returned.

Lady helped Erin try on the shoes and turned to find the woman who had picked them out, only to find she had vanished. Lady didn't think much about it and went back to convincing Erin she had to buy those shoes.

Between his game of playing with Sam, repeatedly warping time within a small town he had set up to certain specifications, he had a lot of time to spare to consider the ramifications of the Goddess's return. And even more time to be a bit nostaligic.

The first time he had seen the Goddess was when she was barely more than an overpowered witch in what was now called Africa. The mass of land didn't even have a name then. She had been interesting, as interesting as humans could be at that time. But not interesting enough to really pay attention. He peeked in from time to time and saw her power grow and witnessed her conquer great regions of people until she arrived in the bustling middle east. That was the first time he heard her call herself a God. It had infuriated him, he had longed to watch her and the others she had helped turn into so-called 'gods' be destroyed.

And he watched when that happened in Egypt. She had tried to run, but instead she had been completely destroyed after the betrayal of her family of so called 'gods'. Soon after the remaining 'gods' vanished one by one.

But then she was resurrected. Her power was greatly diminished, but there she was again. And soon up to the same thing. Gaining followers, creating a family of other 'gods' to rule over people. And then the cycle repeated itself, she grew so powerful the other gods came together to destroy her.

Again and again it happened. For an unknown amount of time he hung back and just watched. Not just the Goddess but people as a whole. Until he became tired of watching. That was the first he ever felt the measure of time, and he didn't like it. This world wasn't going to be around forever, he was tired of just watching.

The Goddess was going by the name of Trivia by the Romans, and the Greeks called her Hecate. Every new moon her followers sacrificed black goats to earn her favor, and on the equinox they filled a massive Wicker Man with human sacrifices for her, burning them alive so she would grace them with good fortune, magic, fertility...whatever she felt in the mood to provide them. And he saw the cycle about to happen again, the other 'gods' were beginning to consider her dangerous. Too reckless and too powerful for her own good. Already plans had been laid out to destroy her.

So he went to her. It was the first time he had spoken to anyone since he had abandoned his home.

Bitterly, he acknowledged her as what she claimed her title was, "Goddess," he said in a gentle and polite voice.

She was inhumanly beautiful. Sapphire eyes, rich black hair, golden skin and exotic eyes. At least this incarnation of her appeared that way. He had also witnessed her vanity and her beauty shifted her outward appearance to what her followers believed was beautiful so they would always admire her. She didn't even feign surprise or fear at his presence. And his appearance and voice didn't seem to harm her like it did to most humans. "I've felt you around me a long time. Why have you finally decided to come to me?"

"To warn you. They are planning to destroy you," he said.

She curled a smug ruby lip, "Let them try."

"How can you be so arrogant? Why haven't you learned from your history?" he asked, a bit of frustration growing in him. Frustration wasn't a new thing for him, but it was the first time he felt it toward anyone but his own brothers. "It always happens. You aren't strong enough to survive them all."

"I have more allies than they know," she said, her perfectly straight aquiline nose in the air.

"They know. And they have turned them against you," he said. "They are all going to betray you. Your next new moon they will not be worshiping you...they'll be killing you."

"You lie," she said shortly.

"I do not lie," he said.

"You think I don't know what you are?" She looked within his presence and he felt her power prodding him. He didn't hold back anything. "Your kind try to take my followers, but your God is never anywhere to be seen. Of course you'd lie to me."

"Does it feel like I'm lying?" he asked gently.

Her beautiful cupids-bow lips twisted into a snarl and he felt her power angrily vibrate through him. "I have a suggestion. A way we can help each other. I can protect you from your kind...if you protect me from my kind."

Her snarl slowly softened as she considered his suggestion. "They call you Gabriel, do they not?" she asked.

"They do," he said.

"Gabriel, why should I?"

"Other than the fact I can save your life?" He asked, again the frustration creeping through him. "That I can prevent this stupid cycle of existence you've been going through for thousands of years? Because if you do...you'll gain a loyal follower. That is what you want, isn't it? Loyalty? Faithfulness?"

She glared into him, "You'll never have any loyalty except for the thing you call your father."

Pure fury ripped through him at how she spoke of his father, and unable to help himself he struck her with it. The Goddess flew backwards but landed gracefully on her feet. A wide grin stretched across her beautiful mouth. "That's what I'm taking about. Get angry. Let me see that rage," she taunted.

And he showed it to her. When he was done there was nothing left of the land they were in, and the Goddess was grinning like mad. "There you go, Gabriel. Feel better?"

If he had a body, he would have been panting for breath. "I could destroy you myself," he snarled.

"If that little show of power didn't do it, there isn't much that can," she giggled happily. "Now, this arrangement. You're going to need a body. Try to find something adorable, and make it fast."

"Arrangement? Forget it," he would have spit if he had a mouth to do it with.

She looked into his presence, right into his very essence, "Where else are you going to go, Gabriel? I see inside...you need something to hang onto. Just like I do. We join forces. With a little work I can even make you pass as one of mine. And if you ever betray me..."

He shrieked in pain. He had never felt pain before, and it ripped through his being and it was pure anguish. When it was over all he could hear was her gentle laughter.

"Do we have an understanding, Gabriel?" she asked.

"Yes," he answered, still reeling from what she had done to him.

"Good. Now, go get that body like I told you," she said, turning her back on him.

It seemed impossible to fit his entire self into one human form, but his chosen vessel fit like a very snug glove. Having a real form and a real voice and a body was alien to him, it went against what he was. But he was already going against what he was by joining with the Goddess.

The Goddess looked at the body with scrutiny, "Cute little German boy," she muttered.

"We need to..." he began.

"You want to be hidden. You don't want your family to know what you are doing...afraid of disappointing them?" she asked coyly.

"No," he admitted.

"They'd kill you for your betrayal?" she asked.

"I don't know," he admitted.

The Goddess approached him and gently moved her fingertips across his face. "How does it feel to be solid? To have a heart beating in your chest? Blood running through veins? Do you enjoy it?" she asked, her eyes bright with curiosity.

He thought about those physical sensations his vessel gave him, and he decided that he did like it. "Yes."

She laughed at him, "You know nothing of being human."

"And you do?" He asked, not bothering to hide the scathing tone his vessel allowed him to pull off.

She held his chin with one hand and pressed her lips against his mouth. His first kiss. The sensation created several reactions in his vessel. He was very aware of human intercourse, he understood what mating was and the reasons why humans did it so frequently. But it had never been something he was interested in. She pulled back and to look at him. Her brilliant blue eyes glittering with excitement, "Yes, Gabriel, I just may be able to teach you how to blend right in."

Time, that strange human concept, finally meant something to him. After securing the Goddess's safety from the Greek and Romans she secured his safety from where he had ran away from. For a long time they traveled together, taking different names, experiencing the world through his vessel's eyes. Over the time he was with her he found a greater understanding of humans. He had watched them for so long, but just a century or two of walking among them he learned so much more. Music, desire, food, all their simple pleasures. Why they sinned, because it felt so damn good.

And through it all the Goddess was always watching him. At times he considered her a friend and ally. But he doubted she considered him the same. She was just as curious about him as he was about humanity. But he kept true to his word. When the cycle came again where her power became more than other 'gods' dared to allow among their ranks he protected her. He warned her, was her one loyal companion over so many years.

She was calling herself Freyja, with the nickname of Lady, while they were in the cold Scandanavian countries. She gave him the name of Loki. She was working her way to the countries south of the coast when he saw that the cycle was coming full circle again. Her power was ridiculous from avoiding the cycle that caused her power to wane and for her to start over, but since the other gods got their power from her they were also dangerously powerful.

As Freyja the Goddess had taken a husband, Odr. Odr had fallen madly in love with the Goddess and it may have been a happy marriage if the Goddess wasn't such a malicious witch and a whore. But her arrogance reached all new heights, believing she had Odr's unwavering support and loyalty she didn't listen to Loki's warnings when he said her end was nearing. Odr, her doting husband, was the one to lead the other gods in a revolt against her. Over the centuries of living among Pagan's and humans Loki had come to understand jealousy, and he even felt sorry for Odr. The Goddess had gone to bed with just about all the male gods, a few of the women, several humans and there were even rumors of a goat and a boar being thrown in there. Okay...maybe he started the rumors about the goat and the boar, but his arrangement with the Goddess never meant he had to speak well of her.

He did his part, he tried desperately to keep her safe. But in the end the gods gathered and gave her a speech she had heard so many times before. And he did the only thing he could do, he banished her from the lands and told her to flee on a Viking ship heading west across the Atlantic ocean before she could be killed.

"Keep your followers, start new in a new land," he instructed. "I'll keep them off our backs until we can depart."

"Forget it," she said, turning her back to him.

"What?" He looked at her with surprise.

"The land over there...I'm going to do it right this time," she said. "I don't need you anymore."

He laughed, "I doubt that."

She glared at him furiously, "I don't understand your magic, but I know it is you who is forcing me from my lands. You broke your oath to me, I should break mine to you."

He looked at her calmly, "How else am I supposed to keep you alive? Do you want to start all over again? Can you even start all over again? The world is changing, Lady."

"It doesn't have to," she snarled.

"How long have you been blind? Do you ever look outside your own little world you make for yourself?" he looked at her with amazement.

"I control this world," she said.

He laughed darkly, "Oh, Lady, you can't even control yourself. That's why this keeps happening! You never learn!"

She raised her hand, and though she did not touch him he felt the force push on him. He pushed right back and glared at her. "I should expose you," she threatened in a growl.

He didn't even raise a hand to throw her off her feet. He stomped angrily toward her, looking down at her with disgust, "You hate my kind so much, why haven't you killed me?" He taunted. "Because you can't. It isn't that you lack the power, Lady. You have more than you know what to do with. It's because you are petty, arrogant and self-centered. You are more interested in pretty little trinkets and listening to people fawn over your power and your beauty, than lifting a finger to do anything. That is why Christianity is going to wipe out you and your kind."

"No..." she shook her head in disagreement.

"Can't you pay attention? Can't you feel the change?" he roared. "Others have gone quiet. They've been destroyed, by humans or each other. Give it another thousand years and you'll just be a memory. Forgotten. You might have a few pretty paintings or sculptures, but they'll get warped with age. And you'll be withered and powerless because all of your followers have given up on a whore of a Goddess that cared more about getting laid than taking care of her people. That's why, in the end, my kind will win. This world will end with people praying to my father, not you."

The Goddess got to her feet, "If I ever see you again, I'll kill you. You or the others try to move in on my new lands, I'll destroy each of you. Angel or Pagan."

"I'll believe that when I see it," he said. He looked at her, realizing suddenly that he was losing his only ally he had for so long. It hadn't been a good relationship by any means. In fact he really didn't like her. "Goodbye, Lady."

He had felt it when she had been bound within the ley lines of America, it reverberated back to all the other countries where she had once called her own. The intersections and crossroads that had been her focal points of power all burst to life with blue flames that made the humans and Pagan gods all cower. Little pieces of her were scattered all across the globe. Her disappearance marked the great change of the world. Christianity got a sudden boost, as if the humans felt her vanish and decided to accept the new faith. Loki didn't venture to America until several centuries later, enjoying his role as a Trickster and even enjoying that he no longer had to look after the Goddess.

The cycle that he had disrupted so long ago had finally come to a close with the Goddess being destroyed. And without her massive following and the growing popularity of Christianity none of her worshipers resurrected her. Sure, witches knew how to use the power of the Goddess by tapping into the ley lines, but they were mostly smart enough to know that the Goddess was better off not being a conscious entity roaming free. That is if they understood that an actually Goddess was trapped within the lines at all, most didn't.

When the Goddess briefly escaped her confines her power was a fraction of what it had once been, Loki hadn't even felt it. If he had it had been so long that he didn't recognize it. Or maybe he had been busy playing a game, he didn't know. But he now knew that by some extension the Goddess had been freed. Lady had already been branded by the Goddess, but she didn't have the power. He needed to find the one called Donovan.

The realm of the Goddess, a place within the ley lines that the Vikings called Folkvangr but Lady referred to as the spirit realm, was on a magical lock down. And the one called Donovan was securely hidden away within that realm. Loki knew if he wanted to see this newest incarnation of the Goddess he would need to draw it out.

Drawing on the power of the ley lines was impossible for him. He understood them, but had no access. Humans with enough knowledge of witchcraft could manage it, but there were only a few people in the world that could draw on it without the aid of witchcraft. And fortunately he had been keeping tabs on one just in case he required her.

Lady was cruising down the highway at a comfortable speed and unknown to her Loki was sitting in the backseat, invisible to her. She didn't even feel as if something was wrong or an impending sense of doom by his presence. Loki had knowledge of the power Lady relied on for her future-sight and visions, but he couldn't use it himself. But Lady couldn't tell if a vision was coming from the ley lines or just being planted in her mind. He pushed into her mind slowly, and she reacted instantly. Stepping on the brake and pulling to the side of the road with hazard lights flashing. Hurriedly putting the car in park before he let the vision take over her mind just long enough for it to feel like a normal and natural vision.

And he rode with her, enjoying the passing countryside and the silence, as she rushed to where he wanted her to go. His lip curled into a smile as he recognized the Goddess's power stirring within the ley lines, his tampering with Lady had not gone unnoticed.

Lady looked eager and excited as she found the location that Loki chose. She entered the condemned building, cautiously making her way through the hazardous place to look for a victim that wouldn't be there. But Donovan was already there, waiting.

"Lady," Donovan said stiffly.

Lady frozen, stunned, "You...son of a bitch. You tricked me here, didn't you?"

"No, not me," Donovan said, looking around cautiously before focusing on her again. "You've changed," he said aloud.

"You know, I live in a car with two guys and you are the first person to notice I got a haircut," Lady said, giving her shoulder length dark hair a brief flip. "I personally think the guy who did it cut the layers too short. Just goes to show you that straight men can't cut hair."

"Not your hair, you idiot," Donovan hissed. "I can see it in your eyes..." Donovan narrowed his eyes on the garnet hanging from her neck. "You've started to dream. Not only that...you've seen history." Donovan loudly cursed and angry blue fire flickered from his eyes. "Son of a bitch!"

Lady took several steps backward as heat radiated from him. Her hand itched to grab her pistol so she could fire a few rounds and run, but her feet became rooted to the ground and her arms pinned to her sides.

Donovan roared at her, "What did you do to yourself, Lady?"

She found herself unable to lie, "Dream root...it woke up part of my brain. Another potion did the rest."

Donovan released her and took a step back, "I apologize. I've been busy preparing for you to take over the power of the Goddess that I haven't been watching out for you like I should have been."

"Here we go. Can't go one fucking meeting without you bringing that up," Lady rolled her eyes. "It ain't going to happen, Donovan."

"My vision hasn't changed, Lady. You are meant to be the new Goddess."

"Nope, no way," Lady said.

"Are you sure? You are gaining her memories so you can learn from her mistakes. You will be a magnificent Goddess. Half-human, half-God. If her memories overtake you then all we will have is another corrupted Goddess. I just have to hope that you can keep yourself together until it is your turn to take your post. But you seem to be doing well." Donovan seemed to relax a bit. "Where is your lover and his giant of a brother?"

"None of your business," Lady said.

Donovan rolled his eyes, "They wouldn't be hard for me to find. I only ask to make conversation." He looked at her sadly. "I'll be glad when you are rid of them."

"I'm not hanging around to 'make conversation' with you," Lady said stiffly.

"I say that because being close to them is dangerous for you," Donovan said quickly. "The demon that holds Dean's contract isn't going to let go of it easily, most likely not at all. They want his soul more than anything."

Lady glared at him, "How would you know?"

"I hear them," Donovan said. "They've caught onto me and have gone mostly quiet in the past few months. The only tidbits I hear regarding him anymore are how they are preparing his welcoming party come May."

"Shut up," Lady snarled. "Just…fuck off."

"I could help you save him, if that would gain your allegiance to me," Donovan suggested.

Lady's jaw flexed and found herself unable to move. It wasn't because of any influence Donovan was putting on her, she just couldn't make a decision to move as she thought over his words. Bitterly she said, "No. You are the last person I will ever ask for help from."

"I'll make sure my schedule is clear on May second," Donovan said, looking at her with pity. "Lady, with your help I could be strong enough to save him. I'm not saying it would be easy, but to show you I am on your side I will do it. I don't agree with it, in fact I think killing Dean now would make my life so much easier. But if he is that important to you perhaps we can make an arrangement."

"Not going to happen," she said, looking at the ground while she was still considering his offer. They had been trying, in vain, to find a way out of Dean's deal. There was nothing out there. Right now the only reason she was saying no because she had promised Dean that was what she would do, but damnit the offer was tempting.

"Did you have another purpose for drawing my attention?" Donovan asked.

"I wasn't trying to," Lady said honestly.

Donovan searched her face, "You had some sort of vision. I felt something within you, it was very powerful."

"Yeah, I came here for a vision but..." She looked around. The vision had stopped once she saw Donovan, and they were completely alone. "There is no person here trying to blow their brains out."

Donovan frowned, "I've been controlling the ley lines. In order to keep demons out of the realm I've had to construct limitations. You'll never have a vision again because of it."

"But I did," she countered, and felt a chill run up her back.

Donovan looked around, a bit of anxiety showing in his face. "If it wasn't you, and it wasn't me..."

Loki, deciding he had heard enough to understand what was going on and that his presence could no longer go unnoticed, appeared behind Lady.

"Fucking A!" Lady shrieked, spinning and taking several steps back.

"Lady," Loki nodded and gave her a polite smile before turning a dark look at Donovan, "Well, aren't you an interesting little piece of something."

Donovan stretched his neck to appear taller and more powerful, "I'm afraid we have not met. Donovan, and you are..."

"Loki. You may have heard of me. Norse God of Mischief," he introduced himself.

"I've heard of you," Donovan nodded, slowing moving to get himself between Lady and Loki. "Let me guess, you sensed the great power of your former Goddess and came to check it out."

"Close enough," Loki said tensely and he gauged Donovan's abilities. Barely a fraction of what they were when Freyja had left with the Vikings. The cycle had started again, and this young man was the newest incarnation. Although he was trying to shove off the power to Lady. Lady, the little stubborn bitch that she was, was refusing.

Lady looked between two foes, and her eyes lit up as she looked at Loki, "It was you who banished the Goddess from the European countries." The old memory of a hidden figure branding Stone Henge with Enochian symbols to force the Goddess to leave came to her. She suddenly frowned, "But why would a pagan god use Enochian...unless," she looked up at him with wide eyes again and he briefly thought about killing her before she finished by saying, "You are into Satanism?"

"I like to dabble," Loki said flatly.

"You are here to kill him?" Lady asked.

"That's sort of the plan," Loki admitted.

"Gonna kill me?" Lady asked him.

"I haven't decided," Loki admitted bitterly.

"You touch her and I'll destroy you," Donovan warned, taking a protective step toward Lady.

Loki laughed, "You think this little tart is going to be the new Goddess?"

"Hey..." Lady frowned in offense.

"She will be," Donovan said, sounding proud. "She already absorbed the Goddess's essence, all she needs to do now is summon the power."

"Let me tell you something, kiddies, I knew the real goddess," Loki said.

"I know you did," Donovan said. "When she was Freyja. If the legends are correct you even banged her a few times."

Loki thought about it, and nodded, "Yeah. When she was Freyja, Trivia, Hecate, we go back a ways. And because I know the bitch so well, I don't want her coming back. She's a real buzz kill."

"I'll give you one chance to leave, Loki. You can't kill me," Donovan said.

"That's where you are wrong, kid," Loki said. "The Goddess, I can't kill her. Not completely. But you, you aren't her. And it's time you stopped trying to dance in her shoes before you wake up some old foes."

Donovan grinned, "You mean the other gods? Let them wake up. By the time they find me, the power will return to its rightful heir. You should have gone underground with the other gods. You'll wish you hadn't tried to take me on yourself."

"Do your worst," Loki dared him.

Blue fire erupted from Donovan's eyes as he drew on the power within him and the nearby ley lines. The ground shuddered and cracked as he unleashed it all on Loki.

When the fire receded Loki was no where to be seen, just ash and smoldering earth.

"My turn," Loki said from behind Donovan.

Donovan let out a cry of pay as he was thrown forward, skidding across the scalding earth for several feet until coming to a stop. "How did...you can't do that," Donovan breathed painfully.

"I can do a lot," Loki said, his nostrils flaring angrily.

Donovan studied Loki, and his eyes went wide, "What are you?"

Loki didn't answer him. Without a word he thrust his hand into Donovan's chest, grabbing hold of his very spirit and the magic he held within him. Donovan let out an unearthly scream of pain as the power was violently ripped from him. Loki felt the power abandon its host and surge back into the ley lines, and he continued his attack on Donovan until there was nothing left but a scorched skeleton.

Lady crouched down, covering her head with her hands and trying to protect herself while making her way to the door. Before she could make a hasty exit and hopefully save her life the screaming stopped, fire vanished, and the ground went still. She didn't look back, just kept moving to escape. But before she could Loki was right in front of her giving her a cold stare.

Lady straightened, if she was going to die it wasn't going to be while she was cowering. She looked back at Loki, daring him to do his worst.

"I'll make this quick, I feel like I might get tetanus if I stick around much longer. You summon the Goddess, Lady, and I'll kill you like I killed him." Loki warned seriously.

"That's it?" she asked. "No screwing with my head? No turning me into a dog? No turning me inside out?"

"You want me to?"

"No," she answered quickly. "I just don't get why you are suddenly a good Samaritan all of the sudden."

Loki glared into her pale eyes. Lady had her faults. She was arrogant, selfish, reckless and it was possible that locked inside her head, along with all the memories of the Goddess were his true origins. All of that was dangerous and more than enough to make him not miss her.

But she was also self-sacrificing, eager to do good where she could, and was probably going to end up dying soon enough as it was. Loki had never killed needlessly, and the humans he did kill had walked right into it.

"I should kill you," he said in a threatening tone. "But I believe you are so stubborn that when you say you won't summon the Goddess that you won't go back on that. Are you that stubborn."

"I'm totally that stubborn," Lady nodded energetically.

"Good," he said in a low growl. "And if you aren't...well..." Loki nodded behind her to where Donovan was still smoldering.

Lady looked back to see the remains, mostly just a blackened skeleton. She turned back to look at Loki, but he had vanished.

XXXXX

Lady stood over Donovan's remains, she couldn't believe it was over. Just like that. She nudged the skull and it rolled away from the body. With a grimace she picked it up. The eyes had been melted away and there wasn't much left of the brain. She doubted even with the power of the Goddess that he could put himself back together, but she wasn't making the same mistake that she did with Garrett's body. She got to work packing up the pieces and scratching a few Latin spells into the skull.

Lady got back on the road, her mind surprisingly numb after what had happened. She couldn't believe it. Could it have been one of Loki's tricks?

She wrestled her phone out of her jeans pocket after about an hour of driving, "Yeah, Bobby?"

"You okay, kid?" he asked.

"Yeah...why?" she asked.

Bobby was quiet for a moment before saying, "I got a few dozen reports of terrorist activity across the world, that's so far. Explosions of blue fire. I checked your cell phone GPS and you were in the middle of three of them not long ago."

Goose-bumps rose all over her body. "Donovan is dead," she said softly, finally believing it herself.

"What? How'd you manage that?" he asked.

"I didn't," she said. "But he is. The power of the Goddess went back into the ley lines, overloaded them so they all spit fire...he's dead, Bobby. You won't fucking believe what happened to me tonight."

Lady reached South Dakota as the sun was coming up. She hadn't been able to get a hold of Sam or Dean but she had spent most of the drive on the phone with Bobby hearing updates. The explosions and blue fire only lasted for a few seconds when they appeared, but they didn't stop appearing for five hours and the final count was over three hundred. Bobby was able to confirm that some of them were on known ley line intersections, but Lady wouldn't be surprised if they all were. All across the world, from Los Angeles to Chicago to New York to London to Berlin to Moscow to Bangcok to Tokyo...all places the Goddess had left her mark. And already the media and government were calling it a major hoax or mass hysteria. No deaths or injuries, and not even major structural damage to any buildings.

Once at Bobby's the two of them looked over Donovan's remains that Lady had brought with. They were working on a secure magic lock box to bury the bones in when Dean finally returned Lady's voice mails.

"Hey, babe, you make it to North Dakota already?" he asked.

"No, I'm at Bobby's," she said. "Dean, you aren't going to believe what Bobby and I are making a coffin for right now."

"Ivory?" Dean asked, sounding almost hopeful. He didn't mind Ebony, the black kitten so much. But Ivory was a vicious bastard at times.

Lady ignored him, "Donovan's bones," she said.

"Are...you're serious?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm serious!" she said happily, and then her tone changed. "Why would you want me to make a coffin for my cat? You prick!"

Dean ignored her last comment and said, "Donovan is dead? For sure he is?"

"Yes!" she answered, already forgetting about Ivory.

She heard Dean tell Sam the news in the background before he said, "We're heading north now, babe. Good job."

"Heh...well, not my good job but thanks," Lady said a bit tensely. "But it's over, this time for good. You are going to hear a lot of crazy things over the next few days, but I'm in the clear. We don't have to worry about him ever again."

Lady finished telling Dean what had happened and went back to helping Bobby with the magical lock box that would prevent magic from getting in or out. If there was anything left of Donovan so he could piece himself back together he wasn't going to manage to do it within there. She felt the finality of it all as Bobby closed the lid and nailed it shut. Ten years, eight months and a few weeks...every member of the coven was dead. The Goddess and her secrets would die with her, and she could very well live for another fifty years. She doubted she'd make it any where close that amount of time, but for a girl who was supposed to die when she was sixteen she was doing pretty damn well.

It was a good thing her boyfriend was still eyes-deep in trouble so she had something to do besides hang out at Bobby's playing with her cats. She was going to get bored doing that real quick.

**A/N** - _I feel bad because Donovan's end came abruptly (and not by Lady's hand) and this wasn't my original plan to finish him off. However the more I think about it I like not having him breathing down Lady's neck. I hope people didn't mind reading from Loki/Gabriel's POV for most of this chapter, and I hope it wasn't confusing when he referred to the Goddess/Freyja as Lady as well, that was another name Freyja went by and I hope that was clear. I hope this chapter was enjoyable and fulfilled people's wishes of Lady and Loki meeting again. Also just to be clear, Lady has no flippin clue that Gabriel is actually Arch Angel Gabriel. And I thought it was fun to include the original Goddess as the one who helped Gabriel enter 'witness protection' after he abandoned heaven. Please, let me know what you think! New chapter(s) will come again next weekend._


	110. Dakotas, March 2008

**March 2, 2008**

_Lady was trying to keep her cool, as much as possible, as she searched for an exit. Any exit, window or door, out of the hospital. Every door she went through was just another long corridor lined by doors to patient's rooms. A sickly green color and stained white tiles checkered the floor. The walls were a dingy blue with a few peeling sections of wall paper. Behind her a door slammed and she looked over her shoulder in fear. An old man with a bad limp was chasing her, and no matter how fast she ran he kept closing his distance. An almost comically large metal syringe with a needle at least a foot long was in his hand and he gave it the slightest squeeze so a few drops of liquid glistened at the top of the needle. "God, please, no," Lady gulped as she turned to keep searching for a way out. She heard the limping man keeping up his chase, getting closer with each uneven step. Lady's jaw locked down. No one was helping her, she wanted to scream for help or just to scream to release some of the pressure the building terror had formed in her. She felt his breath on her neck, so very close. And then the pain in her rear as he stabbed her with the needle. Her jaw unlocked and she screamed._

Lady woke up with a scream, still thrashing as she became free of the nightmare. Her t-shirt was tightly wound around her torso and clung to her skin. Panting heavily she fell back into the pillows, but jerked when something poked her butt again. Panicking she threw the blankets off of her and stumbled off of the bed, struggling to reach the light switch. It hurt her eyes when the unfamiliar room illuminated, but when they adjusted she saw one of her dream catchers had fallen into the bed with her.

With weak knees she slid to the floor, trying to catch her breath and calm her fluttering heart. "I can't take this anymore," she breathed, putting a hand to her face.

Maxine lightly knocked on the door before opening it. She looked at Lady sympathetically, "Must have been a bad one."

Lady briefly glared at her. After stopping at Bobby's she had gone to North Dakota. After making several gris-gris bags she had gone to bed in Maxine's spare bedroom, now she had a new witness to one of her night terrors.

"You didn't tell me they got so violent," Maxine said softly. "But I suppose I should have assumed, considering how violent you and your life is."

"Now you know," Lady said roughly, standing on shaky legs.

"I don't think it's safe for you to keep dreaming," Maxine said.

"What other choice do I have? Monkshood will poison me, and none of these damn charms are working," Lady said. "Besides, some of these dreams are actually prophetic. Seeing some of this might actually keep me alive."

Maxine searched her face, "Power of persuasion might do the trick. Go under hypnosis again."

Lady thought about it and shrugged, "I don't know. With everything that is going on…well, I just don't know."

Understanding crossed Maxine's face, "You are hoping you'll see something in your dreams that might help you save Dean."

Lady looked down guiltily, "I'm not that hopeful, but I've caught lucky breaks before."

Maxine pursed her lips, "I'm sorry, Lady, I don't see any changes in the future for Dean."

Lady nodded, "Yeah, I know."

"Dean's fate may or may not be sealed, the future is never certain," Maxine said firmly. "I'm more concerned about your future."

"You see something interesting about me?" Lady asked.

Maxine shook her head, "No, I haven't. But with the power of the Goddess again trapped within the ley lines, and a blue moon in a few months, I have concerns. You should, too. Let's go into the kitchen and talk."

XXXXX

Lady left Maxine's house in the country and went into town after a few hours to wait for the brothers at the Casino. It was nearly ten in the morning when they arrived. She looked at Sam's swollen left eye and Dean's limp with a frown. "You idiots just _had_ to go into the haunted house," she said, but couldn't help the smile from spreading across her face as they reached her. "Mason is giving us a few rooms, and you guys look like you could use a bed." And after her sleep was interrupted earlier that morning she was feeling pretty tired herself. A nice mid-morning nap sounded good.

"Yeah, we drove pretty much non-stop," Sam said, adjusting the bag over his shoulder.

"I'm good, we can leave for Bobby's now," Dean said. "We can make it back there before night."

Sam looked at Dean with concern and then looked at Lady. It was strange, she had often noticed silent communication between Sam and Dean but she suddenly realized she was doing the same thing with Sam right then. He gave her a look telling her that something was wrong. However she hadn't had enough practice to understand what, so she needed some time to get Sam alone so he could tell her just what. "I already checked you guys into rooms and ordered some breakfast," Lady said. "Plus I need to check with Maxine on a few things before I leave," she added as an excuse.

Dean looked tense as he said, "Fine. Can we at least leave before noon?"

"I'll try to swing that," Lady said, handing him a key card. "I'll give her a call and bring up breakfast in half an hour."

"We can wait here," Dean suggested without accepting the key to the room.

"Okay…I'll be back in a few minutes," Lady said, looking at Sam as she handed him two key cards for hotel rooms and hoping he could read her mind which was screaming, 'What the fuck is his problem?'

Sam waited until Lady disappeared into the office and turned to his brother, "What the fuck is your problem?" Sam asked.

"I just want to get back on the road," Dean said. "In case you've forgotten Lilith wants you dead. Lady was threatened by Loki, and Donovan who has been quietly protecting her for years is dead."

"That's it? You are…what, wishing Donovan was still alive?" Sam asked.

"No!" Dean snapped.

"Then what is it, Dean? You are running on fumes, you barely slept even when I was driving."

"I just want to get somewhere I know is safe," Dean said.

"Bobby's is no safer than here," Sam told him. "Let's go upstairs, at least take a shower and maybe you can get a few hours of sleep."

Dean took the key card and left Sam behind in the lobby. He just didn't have the energy to keep arguing. Sam was right, he was running on fumes. He was tired as hell, but he doubted he could get any sleep. But he sure as hell didn't want to listen to Sam's bitching for another second.

Lady poked her head out of the office before slowly coming out, "I haven't seen you guys for a few days, how can he even be mad at me?"

Sam looked at her tiredly, "I don't think he's mad at you. I don't know what is going on. He barely slept the whole drive here, I figured once we got here the first thing he'd want to do is get into a bed."

"Why didn't you guys stay at Bobby's last night?" Lady asked.

Sam shrugged, "We didn't pass through Sioux Falls. I mean, I get it he wanted to get here as fast as he could to see you. Make sure you were okay. I wanted the same thing. But I also want to spend a day out of that damn car before I suffocate." Sam looked at her seriously, "So I don't know what's up his ass. Figure it out and you'll earn a cookie, but for now I give up."

Lady made a mental note to grab some cookies from the restaurant. Not a traditional breakfast food but they sounded tasty all of the sudden. "You know he has two months. Exactly two months."

Sam nodded, "Yeah, I know. Don't bring it up, though. It'll be a quick way to piss him off and get us both stranded here."

Lady let out a miserable sigh, "I'll see if I can convince him to stay the night. Go upstairs, I'll bring up breakfast once it's ready."

XXXXX

Dean reached his hotel room and Lady's bags were already inside. It wasn't a suite, it only had the basics of a bed, TV, table and a few chairs. Salt lined the windows and doorway already, but the bed was still made so he doubted Lady had spent the night there. After a shower and a change of clothes he helped himself to Lady's bag, looking at four gris-gris bags she had on top of them. They were in white silk bags instead of black like Ruby's.

Lady entered the room, two styrofoam containers balanced on her palm. "Got food," she announced.

"These work?" Dean asked, holding up the bag.

"Yup," she said. "Exactly like what Ruby made, with the benefit of not being made by a demon. Now we can burn the ones she made so she can't track them herself."

"You're sure?" Dean asked.

Lady huffed, "Of course I'm sure. Chances are if Ruby made them she can track them, in turn us. With these the worst person that could find is us Maxine."

"Sounds good," Dean said, taking one of the Styrofoam boxes and opening it. Inside was an omelet with a side of hash browns. Chunks of ham and bacon along with melted cheese were oozing out of the sides. He and Sam hadn't eaten anything except gas station sandwiches during the drive and a real meal sounded good.

Lady sat at the table and Dean joined her. "What's the rush?" she asked.

"No point in staying here," Dean said.

"Sure, but no point in leaving right now, either," she replied.

Dean looked at the omelet, suddenly not hungry. He closed the lid of the box and stared at it for a few moments, "I don't really like it here, Lady."

"Yeah, weather sucks this time of year," she agreed as she bit into a sausage.

He looked at her seriously, "The lake is frozen. Snow on the ground. It looks exactly like...like the night I lost you. Jesus, right now you even look like you did the last time I saw you before...well, before I figured I'd never see you again." That wasn't all of it. The whole thing was like freaking deja vu. The anxious drive from Oklahoma to North Dakota, reports of blue fire spurting up from the ground, hunters calling him and Sam. He had even gotten a phone call from the jackass Roy to compare information. Not to mention any damn time he called to check on Lady all she did was use her damn happy-voice saying everything was fine and dandy. Her actual words, 'fine and dandy'.

Lady was still as she stared back at him with open eyes. "Sorry, I didn't realize that."

Dean looked down, "I get it, these people are your friends. Like family to you. I just don't want to hang around here if we don't have to."

Lady closed her container of food, suddenly not hungry herself, and had to work hard on swallowing the little that had made it into her mouth. Memories from that night were hard to dig up, she had tried to forget a lot of it. She had been completely engrossed in what had happened to her, what she had become and the power that was pulsing through her. But she remembered her brief goodbye with Dean, the pain in his eyes and the sound of his voice when he told her he didn't want to lose her. Back then they had barely been experimenting with a serious relationship. Things were so different now, for both of them. Their relationship had changed from mutual desire and caring for each other to loving each other and even relying and depending on each other. She couldn't help but think back to Dean after his father's death. The constant look of pain on his face, the bottled-up emotions that erupted in spurts of violent anger. Was that what he had been like after she had died?

And then she had to think about what her life would be like in just two months. She couldn't do it, she couldn't imagine spending one day without at least being able to call him.

"Okay, we'll leave for Bobby's whenever you are ready," Lady said, trying to make her voice sound nonchalant or even chipper, but failed horribly.

"Yeah, well I'm ready now," Dean said.

"Okay," Lady said, throwing her food in the garbage and grabbing her bag.

Sam wasn't entirely surprised that Lady couldn't convince Dean to stay the night, but he thought she could at least get him to stay longer than an hour. He tried to give her a questioning look, wanting to know what was going on, she couldn't even meet his eyes.

Lady had guessed that Dean was having a bad day because his time was running so short. But hearing that it wasn't, knowing that it was because he was having some weird flashback memory to the first time she died, had her feeling guilty. It wasn't just that she had managed to pull Dean into a mood so foul that even Sam was concerned.

Mostly it was because while she had been in North Dakota her and Maxine had a long discussion about possible problems now that Donovan was dead and gone. Lady knew that Donovan had been keeping witches from using the ley lines, now that he was gone no one would be. It was possible that witches, other than the coven Lady was experienced in hunting, would start up again. It wouldn't be right away, maybe a few months or even a few years, but it was a possibility.

Donovan had also mentioned his concern that the Goddess's memories could overcome Lady, but that seemed to be a low risk. Maxine was sure that Lady's own personality was strong enough to prevent that from happening, but she wanted to find a way to help Lady shut-down her dreams quickly to make sure it didn't happen. And wanted it taken care of before the blue moon that was in the middle of May.

And of course, Donovan's offer to save Dean. With Donovan's sudden death Lady wouldn't know what his plan had been, but she couldn't deny that she hadn't considered taking him up on it. Half a dozen dangerous ideas that she knew no one in the right mind would listen to…they were all things she had planned to talk to him and Sam about while they were in North Dakota. But now she couldn't find the strength to bring it up. Dean only had two months left to find a way out of his deal, and she had the rest of her life to deal with those problems. She just had to worry about them at a later time.

On the drive to Bobby's she couldn't tell if Dean's mood was improving or if lack of sleep just meant he only had energy to focus on driving instead of being pissy. Sam was fighting the desire to sleep if only to make sure Dean didn't pass out behind the wheel. Lady was tired, but had at least gotten enough sleep that she could have drove without any problem…however she wasn't allowed to drive Dean's precious prehistoric car.

"Hey," Bobby said gruffly, not even looking up as they entered his house that evening.

"Hey, Bobby," Sam and Dean both mumbled. The two of them separating immediately. Sam went to the living room toward the couch, while Dean went through the kitchen and down the hall to the bedroom.

"Hey, Bobby!" Lady said happily, wrapping an arm around his neck and kissing his furry cheek.

"Get any work done?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah…well, we'll go with yeah," Lady said with a sigh before handing him one of the white gris-gris bags. "For you."

Bobby looked it over in his hand before dropping it on the kitchen table, "Thanks," he muttered.

Lady gave his shoulder a friendly squeeze, "So…"

Bobby slowly turned, looking at her tiredly, "So what, kid?"

Lady's eyes shifted from the hallway to the doorway, and then nodded her head toward the door outside. With a frown Bobby got up and silently followed her outside.

Lady let out a puff of white breath in the cold before saying, "Maxine and I had a long talk. We came up with a few theories, most born out of paranoia but all plausible."

"And?" Bobby asked.

"I think it's just important we be alert on the blue moon this year, keep our ears open. Garrett's coven is gone, but another one might spring up," Lady said. "But this morning she said she was worried about the strength of my dreams. She thinks it would be smart if I got that part of my brain locked down again, and I'm with her on it."

"Okay. How do we do that?" Bobby asked.

Lady shrugged, "She wants to try another hypnosis session. But it needs to wait."

"Why wait?"

"Dude, I only got two months left with Dean. We sort of need all hands on deck right now. I say we leave this crap on the sidelines for the moment. We'll pick it back up later," Lady said.

Bobby let out a long breath, he couldn't say he agreed with her reasoning. There was sadly no way to save Dean, they didn't even have a stepping stone to attempt it. But he didn't argue. "Okay, kid."

The two of them went back inside and Lady was fighting shivers as she went down the hallway to her room. Dean had fallen face-first on top of the blankets, fully dressed with his boots on, and was already asleep. She fought back the sudden annoyance that he was getting her blankets dirty and the urge to rip his shoes off and hit him with them. In two months she knew that he wouldn't be around to mess up her stuff. Maybe she wouldn't miss that part, but she'd miss the rest of him.

Without bouncing the bed she climbed in next to him and slid her hand across the back of his neck. His eyes cracked open to look at her briefly and he sluggishly lifted his arm inviting her to get closer, which she did.

**March 3, 2008**

Dean was used to surviving on little sleep. After a solid six hours he woke up in a considerably good mood. Lady had her back to him and was on her side, the position accentuated what little hips she had. His arm was comfortably resting in that curve, on the full-sized bed there wasn't much room for either of them to have separate sides but he was in a rather sharing type of mood.

His watch told him it was only two in the morning, there was no good reason to get out of bed. And only an insane man would want to leave the warm and safe and comfort he had right there. Just because he didn't want to get out of bed didn't mean he had any intention of going back to sleep. Gently he moved some of Lady's dark hair from the back of her neck to expose the skin and lightly kissed it before breathing on it softly. Lady let out an unintelligible mutter and tensed a bit. "Babe, wake up," he breathed in her ear. In an effort to make it clear to her that he was feeling frisky and to get her full attention he lightly licked the curve of her ear before giving it a gentle suck.

He didn't get the reaction he had expected and it was nothing close to what he had wanted.

_"This is so a dream," Lady said to herself as she stood face-to-face with John Winchester._

_ "You sure of that, Little Lady?" John asked gruffly._

_ Lady thought about it and wasn't that sure. She looked around at the small room they were in. It looked like any of the junky motels she had been in the past several months. Salt lined the windows and door and a devil's trap was perfectly painted above the door. Her eyes went back to John, "You look good for a dead guy…or a spirit."_

_ "Thanks," he answered. "You don't look half bad yourself."_

_ "Well, you know I try to stay in shape. I have to admit I'm not getting as much exercise as I used to, and all this diner food is going right to my thighs. I've been trying to go out jogging with Sam when I can."_

_ "Yeah? How is Sammy?" John asked._

_ "He's alright," Lady said._

_ "And Dean?" John asked._

_ "Not so good," Lady admitted._

_ John nodded sadly, "Yeah, I know. But you and him, you got together, didn't you?"_

_ "Yeah, we did. It's crazy, John, but we really love each other. I'd do anything for him," Lady said._

_ "I'm sure," John muttered. "But you couldn't do the one thing I asked and just keep your distance from him."_

_ Lady's face fell and her eyes widened, "You practically dropped me on his lap to spy for you."_

_ "If I had known this would happen I wouldn't have," John said._

_ "Why would you say that? I'm the best thing you ever sent Dean's way," Lady said, repeating what Dean had told her just a month ago._

_ "You ever wonder why I never brought him by to meet you when you were younger? I always knew he'd have a soft spot for you the instant he met you. That if he ever met you he'd forget his mission and be lost to me."_

_ Lady shook her head, "This is a dream."_

_ John took a step toward her and she held her ground. "What has he been doing all this time, Lady? He's been looking after you, hasn't he?"_

_ "We cover each other's backs," Lady said, that was always how it went._

_ "Do you think you really belong with my son? Do you?" John asked._

_ Lady looked at him seriously, "You aren't real. This is just a dream, feeding off of insecurities. I grew up with a mentally insane mother, I got to tag along on a lot of her counseling sessions."_

_ Lady was frozen in shock as John grabbed her tight and forced her into a kiss. She jerked violently in surprise._

Lady jerked awake and pushed Dean's face away, "Ugh! Gross! Sick!"

"What?" Dean immediately backed off.

Lady looked at Dean, and in the darkness the shadows on his features showed a vague resemblance to his father that he normally didn't have. "Jesus Christ!" Lady shrieked, and jumped out of bed. She turned on the light and turned, looking at Dean with wide eyes to make sure she was fully awake and he wasn't his father. "Oh, thank god," she breathed.

"You okay?" Dean asked.

Lady nodded, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

"What was it?" Dean asked, immediately curious as to whatever dream he had interrupted her from.

Lady went silent, no way in hell she was telling him John appeared in her dream. And she'd take the part where he had kissed her to her death bed. Dean had enough daddy issues as it was, she wasn't going to bring up John unless someone's life depended on it…and even then only if it was to save a person she liked. "Nothing," she said.

"Yeah, sure," Dean said slowly. "Okay. Kill the light, come here."

"Um…you know what, no. No, I'm not doing that. In fact, I'm going to make coffee. You stay here. I go make coffee." Lady said, opening the door. "Lots and lots of fucking coffee," she muttered bitterly before shuddering.

Lady worked on dissecting her dream over a cup of extra-strength coffee, it was so black if she had added another scoop she would have been drinking tar. She knew John had been against her hooking up with Dean, but had never understood why. John had never hated her, but he didn't seem to like her that much, either. John had been fairly straight with her most of the time, and rather strict. While she had trusted John she had a habit of disobeying him, being reckless and talking back, none of which John approved of. Maybe if she had let him mold her into a perfect soldier like he had done his sons…

Immediately she regretted thinking poorly of John. The man had screwed up plenty, but as a human he was entitled to mistakes. However she wasn't sure what those mistakes would be anymore. But because of him selling his soul Dean was still alive…or would be for two more months at least. Everything she remembered about John and found out about him after his passing all told her that he was too occupied with his hunting to even pay attention to his kids.

But she didn't think that was right. Surely John must have known what his kids were like, beyond their abilities as hunters. He was pretty focused on his job, but Lady knew from experience there was a lot of down time between finding jobs. He must have spent some of that time doing regular father-son type of things, right?

What if John really did understand his kids? Or at the very least Dean, because it was apparent that John and Sam never did have a clear understanding of each other. What if John recognized something in her personality that matched up with Dean's? Years ago, before the great fight between John and Bobby that marked a significant decrease in her meetings with John, there were times where she had missed meeting Sam and Dean by days or maybe just hours. She wasn't the same then as she was now, but she was sure Dean wasn't the same stupid teenager he had been either…

Actually, she thought he probably was. She doubted John ever gave Dean an opportunity to be a dumb teenager. In fact she could imagine Dean at age five being almost the same as he was now.

If Dean had met her when they were still teenagers he would have met a cursed kid who was frequently sick and hovering under a hundred pounds. Frail and dying half the time, the other half tired and weak. And it clicked in her head exactly what Dean would have done if he had met her ten years ago.

He would have done everything he could think of to help her. Maybe not because he wanted to save her so they could be together, but his sense of duty would make him want to save her. John would have had to know enough about Dean to know that, after all he had trained his son to do exactly that. But would he really have avoided introducing them for that?

Lady's shoulders slumped, accepting that she'd never know.

"Got your head on straight?" Dean asked from the doorway.

"Yeah," Lady lied.

He stepped into the kitchen and sat at the table. "Want to talk about it?"

Lady shook her head, "Nothing to tell."

Dean nodded, accepting that she didn't want to share. From the living room they heard Sam let out a snore. "Alright. Come with me."

Lady didn't argue as he pulled her up and led her outside to his car. "Where are we going?"

"No where," he said, tugging open the car door a motioning for her to get in. She stepped in and slid across to the passenger seat. Dean started up the car and fiddled with the heat controls.

"What are we doing?" she asked.

"Nothing," he gave her a smile. "C'mon, when's the last time we just parked and hung out?"

"Last Wednesday," she said through chattering teeth.

Dean tuned the radio to a local station he didn't mind and pulled Lady to lean against him for warmth until the heater warmed up. "Listen, I was sort of a dick in North Dakota, I'm sorry," he said reluctantly.

"It's not a big deal," Lady muttered.

"You never said if Maxine saw anything in the future, with Donovan being dead and all," Dean said.

"She hasn't seen anything," Lady said stiffly, at least that was the truth. There were several concerns, but nothing that needed immediate attention. "The coven is dead and gone."

Dean loved hearing those words. A good solid accomplishment, a real win. "And Loki? Think he'll be a problem?"

"Loki will always be a problem, but I figure he'd rather be out having fun with people than coming after me," Lady said.

Dean nodded, that sounded like the pagan's god MO and he was satisfied with that. Feeling like everything was taken care of he move his fingertips over Lady's face and pulled her closer. She didn't resist as he pulled her toward him, but she really didn't feel like kissing him or anyone for that matter after the strange dream. However the familiar and unique feel of his mouth against hers was nothing like the dream. It was solid and real, with feeling, and quickly helped her push away the last bit of queasiness the dream had left her with. His strong hand holding her there was unnecessary as she felt herself melting into him, enjoying herself as she suddenly remembered she had just spent a few days without him.

Dean ended the kiss and hid his smug smile, in a way it felt like he had some magical power that made Lady's body go from wire-tense to so relaxed her body molded against his. He liked the intimacy they shared, the unwavering trust and honesty. Lady's dreams were a nuisance, but they were going to make it work. They watched snow flakes gently come down while the Impala heated up, listened to the music on the radio and let the rumble of the engine lull them back to sleep.

XXXXX

"How long you guys staying?" Bobby asked after the sun was up and everyone was invading his kitchen eating his food.

Dean just shrugged, "Couple of days until something strikes our interest."

"Something has struck my interest," Sam said, looking at his brother. "I spent most of the morning looking into mythology experts, priests of a few different religions. I think we should go meet some of them."

The kitchen went so quiet they could have heard a pin drop. Sam looked around, everyone's eyes went to the ground and he knew what they were thinking. Why try? He wasn't going to find a way to save Dean, he was just kidding himself. But he couldn't give up, not now. Now they all had to work harder than ever. "We're going, alright?" Sam said firmly.

Lady was the first, "Yeah, sounds good. When do you want to leave, Sam?"

Sam relaxed a bit as Lady joined his side, "Sooner the better." Because they had just two months to find out what they had been unable to discover in the past ten months. A way to free Dean from his demon deal and save his soul.

**A/N** - _Wowzers, 110 chapters. Sorry that this is more of a buffer chapter and it's all I have this weekend. But I'd like to thank every single person for reading, and double-thanks to everyone who reviews and provides feedback. I really enjoy reading what you guys have to say and it's a great motivation for me to keep up with writing. I hope you all have a great weekend!_


	111. Louisiana, March 2008

**March 15, 2008**

The past two weeks had Lady worn out and tired. It wasn't enough that she couldn't get more than a few hours of sleep a night because of her nightmares, but she was sick and tired of being constantly on the road. Sam had them moving from Wyoming, Colorado, northern California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas and now had them in northern Louisiana. All for the same purpose, speaking to so-called experts about possible ways to get Dean out of his deal.

The first few stops Dean and Lady both actively helped. But Dean's hope, which had been pretty low to begin with, was down to almost nothing before they got over the mountains. Over the past ten months the reality of his choice had hit him at various times and gave him a wide range of emotions. It hit him really hard again. Less than two months to live, six weeks, and he'd be gone. He wouldn't take another breath, he would never have another beer, he wouldn't get to listen to his favorite songs, cruise in his car, have sex, nothing. He wouldn't exist any longer. He only had six weeks to enjoy what he could. When he had first sold his soul he had a similar mindset. But instead of feeling the pride of saving his little brother's life with his sacrifice it was more motivated by fear.

"We should head to Tennessee. There is this professor at the University of Nashville who seems to know his stuff," Sam said.

"We just got here," Dean said. "C'mon, let's hang out for a day or two. Get in on a crawfish boil. Louisiana, man."

Sam frowned at the wide grin Dean had, "I just don't see why we should stay here, there is nothing here."

"Good food. Good music. Good parties," Dean said. "Plus, we keep Lady around the locals long enough she starts talking in that cute southern accent. She doesn't even notice, it's awesome."

Sam had constructed a plan. Drive a day, spend a day in a location while he researched and grabbed what he could, research while driving another day, stop again, and so on. Somewhere someone had to have information to help them and he was determined to find it. His brother's life depended on it.

"We don't…" Sam began to argue.

"We're staying for a few days," Dean said, turning his back and refusing to argue about it any further. "We all need a break. You probably more than any of us."

Lady was walking up to the motel door when Sam angrily opened it and slammed it behind him. She looked around, momentarily wondering if she had time to avoid him, but there was no where she could hide from him. And for some damn reason she cared why he was upset and had to ask, "What's wrong?"

Sam shook his head, "It's like he doesn't even care. Like he doesn't even want to try."

Lady internally groaned, this again? "Things aren't that simple for him, Sam."

"It's pretty damn simple. Either he's given up, or he wants to fight. One or the other," Sam said.

"No, it's not like that," Lady argued. "I wish I could explain it but…"

"Right, cause you know exactly what he's going through," he said sarcastically.

"You know what, fine. Be a dick," Lady said flatly. "If you want to spend the next month and a half bitching, go right ahead. I want Dean out of this deal as much as anyone, but I'm not going to sacrifice whatever time he has left by immersing myself in bullshit that isn't going to help him."

Lady didn't like it when Sam was in a bad mood. Half the time they were in the Impala and when Sam was pissy negative energy rolled off of him in waves that infected everyone. Dean was usually pretty easy to pep up, and Lady herself couldn't focus enough to stay in a bad mood very long. Sam, however, could brood for _days_. And they were all sick of it.

Lady went into the motel room, seeing Dean wasn't in that great of a mood either. Obviously whatever fight he and his brother had was bothering him, but he showed a bit of effort to hide it when she came in. "Hey, we should go out tonight."

"Okay, where?" Lady asked.

"I don't care," Dean said and gave her a smile, "Wear something skimpy."

"My underwear? Otherwise all I have are farmer clothes," Lady joked.

"Go get something, we have extra cash," Dean suggested.

That right there tipped her off that something wasn't quite right. Dean accepted her joy of shopping and cute clothes as a typical girl thing, but considered it impractical and unnecessary. She had to agree and her normal wardrobe lately was jeans, t-shirts, and sweatshirts. Maybe the occasional skirt with high heels.

"Something going on?" Lady asked.

"No, I just really want to go out and have a good time," he said, and smiled a bit. "It can be like a date. No hustling for cash, no picking pockets. Just us, some drinks, some music."

Lady arched an eyebrow, "Is that your ass-backwards way of asking me out on a date?"

"If you aren't up for it I'll find another woman who is," Dean said, flashing her a cocky smile.

And damn it, she knew he could. Maybe he was out of practice of picking up women in bars for one-night stands, but that grin of his was hard to resist. "Okay," she gave in, not like she was going to hold out much longer anyway. "Give me three hours at a mall and your wallet."

"I said skimpy, you only need half an hour and twenty bucks to pull that off," Dean said.

"This is the first time you've asked me out on a date, Dean, I got to look my best," Lady joked and grinned widely as she held up his wallet she had lifted from his pocket. "Going to drive me to the mall, or should I take myself?" She dangled his set of keys she had also lifted.

"You are lucky you are a good lay," Dean joked as he took back his keys. "Let's go."

XXXXX

That evening Dean was leaning against the hood of his car waiting for Lady. The night wasn't too cold and with a flannel shirt it was just about right. While waiting and enjoying the quiet area he was in his peace was broken as Sam came walking through the parking lot. The messenger bag over Sam's shoulder made him guess that his brother had gone somewhere with wi-fi access, which their motel did not have, to go online. Dean waited until Sam got closer and said, "Lady and I are going out. You want to come with?"

Sam looked between the car and his motel room. On one hand, Dean wasn't lifting a finger to save himself which meant Sam had to do it, had to do _something_ even if it was only to try. On the other hand, Sam wasn't stupid and knew they had next to no chance, and Lady was right he should probably spend time with his brother. Torn between the two options he had to really think about it.

Before Sam could answer Lady came out of her motel room. Dean's face spread into an immediate grin. Lady in her natural state was rather cute, but give her a few hundred bucks and set her loose she turned herself into a jaw-dropping knock-out. Dean took his time looking her over as she walked to him. The only way she could walk was with a strut in the knee-high boots with four-inch heels, they were black and textured, little rhinestones glittered around the top and around the toe. The dress she was wearing was also black, the bottom hugged her hips but flared away from her thighs and ended a few inches above her knees. The top was strapless, leaving her shoulders and arms bare. The whole dress had a shimmering layer of lace over it. Her straight dark hair rested lightly on her bare shoulders, framing her face. Her full lips had a light shimmer, and her pale-blue eyes were framed with dark long lashes and looking right back at him wickedly.

"I am so getting laid tonight," Dean said as he moved his hand over her waist. The thin fabric of the dress felt great under his fingertips, but he had to see if there was anything under that dress. There wasn't from what he could tell.

Lady leaned against him, rather happy she had his approval. Not that Dean seemed to care about cute clothes, make-up, or shoes. He was a guy, he didn't understand the importance of all those things. And she had no plans to try and teach him. The only thing that mattered was that she had the ability to make a guy who saw her naked almost every day drool while she was clothed. That right there was power.

"Are you coming with, Sam? Should be fun," Lady said hopefully.

Sam wasn't sure how Lady could put Dean's future in the back of her mind and have a good time, but he knew he couldn't. It was hard to even look at the two of them. Dean looked happy and relaxed, Lady looked beautiful and without a care.

"Sam, take a break and get in the damn car," Dean said.

"Yeah, sure," Sam said. But it wasn't so he could have a good time, which he doubted he could get into the frame of mind. It was just a chance to see his brother happy, because he didn't know how many more good days Dean would have left.

"That's my boy," Dean said happily.

The bar was the typical kind of bar Dean liked. Cheap beer, cheaper women, hazy with smoke and packed on a Saturday night. A sign on the door declared 'Men: No shirt, no service. Ladies: No shirt, free drink!' Dean immediately grinned at Lady after reading the sign and led them inside. Maybe he would have preferred something that wasn't so crowded it became a fire hazard, but he had his brother at his back and his Lady on his arm which was all that mattered.

"Go find somewhere to sit, I'll grab some drinks," Dean said. "Keep her hands out of other guy's pockets, will ya?"

Lady grinned as Dean took her hand and she spun once so he got a 360 view of her before she let herself be passed over to Sam. She hugged one of his arms as his large frame pushed them through people and his height allowed him to spot an empty table. "I'm really glad you came with," she said loudly over the buzz of voices and music.

Sam couldn't say he was glad to be there, so he kept quiet. Lady gave his arm a squeeze, wishing he could loosen up a bit.

Dean barely set the beers on the table when he eyed a pool game where cash was being exchanged. Sure, right then they didn't need the money but he enjoyed playing pool. Lady followed his eyes, "Want me to get us that table?" she asked.

"You want to play?" he asked.

"I love playing with balls," Lady said lightly as she stood up. Dean grinned as she strutted to the pool table.

"You up for a game, Sammy?" Dean asked.

"Nah, I'll just watch," Sam said. "Have fun, Dean."

The men at the pool table stepped aside and Lady gave Dean a nod for him to come over. "Don't sprain something with all the fun you are having," Dean muttered to his brother before joining her.

Maybe Lady cheated in pool and he rarely won when playing against her, but if anything she was fun to watch when she was bending over and lining up a shot. "You got to tell me where you found her," a man who had been watching Lady clear the table said to Dean.

Dean smirked, "A haunted house in Kansas."

A few games of pool, several beers, and many quarters in the jukebox later Lady and Dean returned to the table where they had left Sam. "You ready to leave?" Dean asked his brother.

"Yeah," Sam said, standing up.

At some point while they were in the noisy bar a heavy rain had started to fall, leaving puddles of water throughout the parking lot and pelting them with cold rain drops. After several drinks and on four-inch heels Lady frowned at the sudden obstacle course before her on the way to the car. "I just bought these boots," she bitterly said.

"I gotcha," Dean said. Wrapping an arm under her butt and pressing her tight to his side while lifting her high enough off the ground to avoid the puddles.

"Ah, my top is sliding down!" Lady giggled.

"It was going to happen soon enough anyway," Dean chuckled as they reached the Impala. He quickly opened the driver's side door and Lady slid in to sit in the middle while Dean and Sam got on either side of her. She shivered at the cold rain that had landed on her and adjusted her top. Dean started up the car and comfortably put his hand on Lady's knee and moved up her thigh. "Got you a little wet, babe," he chuckled again as he started to drive.

Sam rolled his eyes and leaned against the passenger side window, wishing he had stayed at the motel working or at the very least got spared his brother's innuendos. Once Dean parked the car at the motel Sam said goodnight and got out of the car.

"Mm, hold on, I like this song," Dean said when Lady was about to get out of the car.

"You would," Lady smirked as she recognized 'Bad to the Bone' on the radio.

Dean effortlessly tugged her onto his lap so her back was against the car door. Lady put a hand on his neck, light stroking it with newly manicured nails, and leaned forward to put her mouth on his. He let out a low hum of pleasure that vibrated his chest and made her tighten her hold on his neck to draw him in deeper. Soon her hand was moving through his hair that was damp from the rain, and guiding his hand up her thigh and under her dress.

Lady stopped suddenly and without catching her breath whispered, "Someone's outside the car."

The next moment there was a sharp rap on the driver's side window. Lady moved to wipe away some of the fog from the window and saw it was the motel desk clerk. Dean rolled down the window a few inches.

"Hey, pal, sorry to interrupt but you can't be doing that in your car. Take the nice lady into a room if you have to, but not here in my parking lot," the guy said.

"Will do," Dean said and leaned into Lady's chest while fighting laughter. "At least I would if I had a nice Lady in here," he laughed once the man had walked away.

"You better pray I'm nice to you tonight," Lady breathed while adjusting her dress. "I might just tie you up and take advantage of you all night. I want you so bad."

"I'm not going to be the one getting tied up tonight," Dean said, pulling her out of the car with him.

They hurried into their motel room. Dean locked and bolted the door as Lady turned on the closest lamp. They both turned to face each other at the same time and quickly picked up where they had been interrupted. Lady got her arms around Dean's neck and as his hands grabbed her rear she lifted herself up to hold onto his hips with her knees. She let out a low moan as Dean pressed her between his body and the wall, holding her tightly as he hungrily kissed her mouth.

Dean moved and dropped Lady onto the bed. He wrestled with her legs when she tried to pull her down with him and gave her a wicked grin before reaching into his bag.

Lady sat on the bed and reached forward to wrap her arms around his shoulders, pulling at the flannel shirt. He let her pull it off of him one arm at a time as he dug through his bag. "What are you…oh come on," Lady laughed as he pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

"You are the one who brought up bondage," Dean said, pushing her back into the bed and covering her body with his as he worked to get her arms above her head. He chuckled in her ear, "Stop fighting, you know how this will end."

Maybe Lady knew, but she wasn't entirely ready to give in so easily. But after a few moments Dean had both of her arms over her head and her wrists handcuffed together and to the metal bar of the headboard. Her heart was already pounding from making out and the building anticipation.

"Now what are you doing?" she asked as he got off the bed.

"Setting the mood," he teased as he unfolded her laptop and tapped a few keys to start the music player. "Your playlists suck…"

"Yeah, well I'm not laying here tied up while you make a new one. Get over here," she demanded.

Dean grinned and took his time pulling off his t-shirt and leaned over the bed to begin rolling down her top to expose her chest.

"You know, I'm not good at being a passive participant, you should really uncuff me," Lady breathed, aching to reach out and pull him to her.

"No, this is too much fun," Dean chuckled as his thumb rolled over her hard nipple and made her shudder and arch her body toward him. It was pretty easy to get Lady riled up. "But you are right, just doesn't seem fair having you there all defenseless, especially with all the plans I have for you," he said in a husky voice that made her grind her teeth in order to stay silent. "I'll make you a deal, babe, you get yourself free at any time and we can go however you like. Until then you are all mine," Dean pulled a paperclip from his pocket and placed it in her palm.

"You are an ass," Lady breathed, letting her head fall back.

"Bet you wished you had paid attention when I showed you how to pick locks, don't ya?" Dean chuckled as he moved down the bed to remove her deadliest weapon, her spiky heeled boots. Inside one was her butterfly knife which he dropped on his bag.

Once both boots were removed he slowly tugged the thin silky black socks she was wearing. Lady had her head back and was working on bending the paperclip in order to pick the lock while keeping her knees together from letting Dean get an early show. She looked at him as she felt his fingertips moving over her legs. "What are you going to do with that?" Lady asked cautiously as he held up one of her socks.

Dean moved the sock over Lady's eyes and quickly tied it behind her head.

"You better not stretch these out," Lady said flatly. "And…you bastard," she hissed as she realized she had no hope of unlocking the handcuffs without being able to see them. She could see faint light from the lamp, but nothing else.

Dean's hands held her face and led her to his mouth. She kissed him back and bit at his lip. Dean let out a few low chuckles, "I have one more sock for your mouth if you need it."

"Babe, I want you to remember something very, _very_, important," Lady breathed as his hands moved over her shackled wrists and down her arms. "The tables are going to be turned some other night, and I won't show you any mercy."

Right in her ear he breathed, "I look forward to it."

Lady didn't like the idea of being both shackled and blinded, but it was hard to focus on feeling vulnerable when she was paying attention to the sound of Dean moving around and the nearly silent sound of his breathing trying to figure out what the hell he was doing. The bed shifted with his weight and he felt his warm body radiated heat to her. Slowly she moved her legs in search for him, and when her leg touched his she grinned at the feel of skin-to-skin contact. She lifted her chin as his mouth touched her chest and suppressed a shudder as his hands worked on rolling down her dress to her waist.

The desire that had been building most of the day was becoming unbearable as she felt Dean's tongue moving slowly and teasingly down her ribs, making sure to give the bird tattoo on her ribs a long kiss moving across her abdomen. His lips and stubble grazed her stomach while his hands moved behind her back to lift her to him. When he reached her navel he took several extra seconds kissing it, moving his tongue around the edges before slipping inside. "Oh Jesus," Lady breathed as a shudder moved up her back. She could feel Dean's lips pull into one of his smug smirks against her abdomen.

Dean's hands moved the dress down her hips and paused to take a moment to kiss the small shamrock tattoo on her hipbone, and continued to slide the dress down her legs. Lady cooperated as he parted his legs so he could kneel between them. But once he let go she wrapped her legs around him and pulled him close. "Want me to start over again?" Dean teased as he moved his hands over her legs. She could feel his hard erection pressing toward her through his boxers and thought if he gave her a little time she could finish undressing him with her toes. But he grabbed her legs firmly to free himself.

Lady tensed in anticipation as she felt his breath between her thighs, and let out a needful whimper as he kissed each of her thighs. "Oh, fuck me," she moaned as a curse more than an order.

"What if I just want to cuddle?" Dean teased and she felt him shift the bed to remove his boxers.

"I'll hurt you," Lady said, biting down on her bottom lip as she waited for him. She was already so wet they were lucky they weren't swimming.

Dean's hands held onto her hips and raised them off the bed and she felt the head of his erection move against her. She let out a soft moan as he slowly pressed his way inside. "Oh god yes," she breathed as he filled her and began moving inside of her.

Dean moved his hips into hers slowly, holding onto her tightly as he worked to control his own building desire. Lady's moans and how she felt wrapped tightly and pulsing around his erection weren't making it easy. At her escalating moans he couldn't stand it any longer. He lowered her hips to the bed and slowly moved his body over hers while rotating his hips.

Lady was riding waves of pleasure as Dean shifted their position and almost didn't notice until his lips moved against hers. She turned her head and his lips moved across her jaw, and she rubbed her head against his in order to get rid of the blindfold. Dean grabbed it roughly and moved it to the side before firmly kissing her and increasing his rhythm.

Lady's head fell back as she breathed heavily. Dean moaned softly in her ear while her legs rubbed against his and her hips shifted to meet his. The activity had them both working up a sweat and Lady felt her right hand start to slide through the handcuffs. She let go of the paperclip she had clasped in her fist and worked on getting her hand slippery enough that it could slide through. With a hard pull, and maybe sacrifice of a layer or two of skin, her right hand slipped through the handcuffs.

Dean slowed to a stop, grabbing her hands before she could move, "That's cheating," he panted, resting his forehead against hers while trying to get her back in her shackles.

He lifted his head as he heard the handcuff grind and the next instant it was around his right wrist. "Since when have I played fair?" she breathed, looking at him with lust-filled eyes.

"Good point," he moaned and began moving again.

Lady used her free right hand to move across his arm and back, lightly dragging her fingernails. Her left wrist was cuffed to his right, and when he moved that hand her hand followed. Lady's leg trembled and she curled her toes against his calf as he moved with deep and powerful thrusts. It didn't matter if she wasn't handcuffed, she was completely helpless at the sensations that were building up in her. Lady's fingernails bit into Dean's shoulder and she let out several soft moans right in his ear that tipped him over the edge.

XXXXX

Dean's lips pulled into a smile at memories from the previous night as he woke up, glad he had gotten a few pictures on his cell phone when Lady was still blindfolded in case he ever needed a more visual reminder. He began to move but when still as he realized he was still handcuffed to Lady. Both of them were sleeping on their stomachs, his arm stretched across her back and his hand rested on hers with their fingers loosely intertwined. Lady was still sleeping, and he could tell she hadn't moved in her sleep. And even more, birds outside were chirping and she was still sleeping. He would have let her sleep as long as she needed, if only his damn cell phone hadn't started ringing.

Lady's eyes opened at the annoying ring tone that started playing. She stretched lazily and giggled when she felt the tug on her wrist from the handcuffs. "Got the phone?" she asked.

"Almost," Dean said, reaching off the bed. "It's just Sam," he said and flipped it open. "What?...We're awake now, thanks to you…Okay, we'll come over."

"What is it?" Lady asked.

"Sam picked up coffee and breakfast," Dean said, shifting to hold her against him. "You sleep okay?"

"You kidding? I was in a sex coma, it was fucking fantastic." Lady shook their conjoined wrists, "Going to set me loose so I can go to the bathroom?"

"Where's the paperclip?" Dean asked.

"I have no clue," Lady admitted.

"Crap," Dean chuckled. "Hold on." Lady held back her giggles as Dean called his brother. "Sam, we need a favor. You have a handcuff key? If you could just slide it under the door, we'd really appreciate it."

After getting the cuffs unlocked and cleaned up Lady and Dean joined Sam for a breakfast of coffee that had gone gold and donuts.

Sam waited until Dean finished complaining about the coffee to say, "I'm going up to Tennessee today."

"Pretty sure we agreed to hang out here for a few days," Dean said.

"That's what you said you wanted to do, I didn't agree with it," Sam said.

Lady casually moved her chair a few inches back so she didn't feel like she was between the two brothers.

"Yeah, well, we're not going, Sam," Dean said.

"I didn't say we, I said I was going," Sam said. "Stay here if that's what you want to do. I'll get there by myself."

Lady was pretty damn good at getting her way, but she had to give Sam credit for knowing how Dean would handle this. Dean loathed the idea of Sam going out on his own. "What's the rush, Sammy?" Dean asked. "We can go there in a few days."

"Yeah, well that means I have a few days less to try and find a way to save you," Sam said seriously. "That's the rush, Dean."

"Nashville sounds good," Lady said. "There isn't much here in Louisiana, why not go?"

Dean looked down. It was pointless to go but just as pointless to stay in Louisiana. "Okay," he bitterly agreed. "Guess I better go pack."

Lady watched as Dean left the room, closing the door a little harder than necessary. "Too bad, he actually woke up in a good mood," Lady sighed.

Sam turned on her, "You could be helping, you know. Instead of screwing around you could be getting on his ass to do something about this."

"Excuse me for trying to keep him happy over pissing him off," Lady said lightly, leaving the same way Dean had.

**March 17, 2008**

It was late in the evening and Sam was still awake going through several books he had taken from a library in Nevada. They had gotten into Nashville late and he hadn't been able to get into the University to meet with the man he had wanted to. A meeting had been set up for the next morning but he was still staying up to go through things.

It was a mind-numbing process, sorting through a bunch of useless information for maybe the tiniest bit of relevant information but even then he often found that information to be incorrect.

Sam looked up as he heard a light knock on the door, and immediately could tell it was Lady. He got up to unlock the door and let her inside. "What's up?" he asked.

"Dean's sleeping, I thought I'd come help you," Lady said, looking at the running computer and spread out books. "Where should I start?"

Sam closed a book, "It's all pointless. None of it has what we need."

"Just show me where you left off and I'll pick it up," Lady offered.

"Go back to bed, Lady," Sam muttered.

"Sam, I'm in this with you," Lady said firmly. "We have different methods of dealing with this but in the end we want the same thing. I'm not all great at the research or reading in general, but we need to do something. Dean's…well," Lady said down on the edge of the bed with a sigh. "Dean's at a place where he doesn't really have any hope. I remember what that's like and when I went through it I remember being quietly sick with fear all the time. And the only thing that stopped me from just putting a gun to my head was finding ways to enjoy life. But in the end you know what saved me?"

"No," Sam said.

"You and Dean," Lady admitted. "When you guys helped me find that black book of spells from the coven for the first time in years I felt like I had a real chance. Right now we don't have to look for a solid answer. We just need to find something, and it's going to be easier if we work together than alone. I need you to help me keep Dean from falling into depression, and I'll help you research the best I can."

Sam nodded, immediately accepting the deal. Lady had always been vibrant and energetic, he frequently forgot that when they had first met she was in serious danger of dying from a curse. She had a lot more insight into Dean's sheltered thoughts than he did because she got to experience for years the feeling of her impending death. "Uh, this book seems promising but I feel like if I read another page I'll pass out," Sam said, opening back the book.

Lady took the book and made herself comfortable. Sam picked up another book. Sam noticed that for every five or so pages he turned Lady only managed to get through one, and soon her normal frustrated fidgets began to happen. With a quick thought he grabbed a notebook and tore off a few clean pieces of paper, "Lady, will you try something?" he asked.

"Everything at least once," she said, looking up at him with tired eyes.

Sam knew Lady was extremely sensitive to the point of near-violence when it came to her dyslexia and chose his words very carefully, "I know when books aren't in Latin you have some trouble. While I was in college I tutored some kids who had dyslexia and found a trick that worked for some of them." Sam placed the two pieces of paper over the book so they were only far enough apart to show one line of writing. "They said when we did this it was easier to read, just because the other words below and above didn't mix in." Lady was tense just because he was talking about it and he couldn't tell if she was going to throw the book at him or not. "A lot of people have problems reading, Lady. To be honest you are a lot smarter than most of the people I went to college with, if anyone can overcome it it's you," Sam said, ending it with a compliment to rub her ego.

Lady glared back at the book and continued reading using the suggestion Sam had made. Sam smiled when he heard her turn a page after he had turned three. Still slow as hell, but that was an improvement.

**March 18, 2008**

Lady and Dean accompanied Sam to the college. Dean caught sight of a hot dog stand and immediately thought lunch on a bench on a nice spring day. Lady and Sam went inside the university without him.

Professor Lowell was younger than Lady expected, late thirties and he still had all of his hair. He was a mythology professor and had written several articles on demonology and paganism. Sam spoke to him for two minutes and Lady immediately realized the professor didn't know jack shit.

The professor knew the lore perfectly well. But he had no real belief in the arcane, occult, or supernatural. Knowing the lore and actually believing it were two different things. Lady didn't blame the guy for not believing, most people were happier not knowing. Sam seemed to feel the same way and cut the meeting short.

"What a waste of time," Sam muttered as they walked out. "All of this is."

"Just because it doesn't feel like progress doesn't mean it isn't," Lady said halfheartedly. She felt the same way Sam did, but he didn't need to know that.

They walked across the large stone path where students were blowing off some pre-spring energy before their break. Dean was on the phone sitting on a bench. He saw them and hung up, finished his hot dog and walked up to them. "So?" he asked.

"He knew nothing," Sam said in a defeated tone.

"Shocking," Dean said. "Pack your panties, sweethearts, we're hitting the road."

"What?" Sam asked.

"That was Bobby on the phone. Some banker blew his head off in Ohio, he thinks it's a spirit involved," Dean said.

"So you two were talking a case?" Sam asked.

"No, we were actually talking about our feelings. And our favorite boy bands," Dean joked. "Yes, we are talking a case. The banker was complaining about some electrical problems for the past few weeks. Phones going haywire, lights going on and off."

"Okay, but Dean we are on a case," Sam said.

"Whose?" Dean asked in confusion.

"Yours," Sam said obviously.

Dean rolled his eyes and turned to walk away, "Yeah, right. Could have fooled me."

"Well what the hell else have we been doing lately other than trying to break your deal?" Sam asked.

"Chasing our tails, that's what!" Dean turned to face him. "Sam, we've talked to every professor, soothsayer, psychic and two-bit carnie act this whole month and we've got squat. We can't find Bela. We can't find the Colt. So until we actually find something I'd like to do my job."

Sam's eyes wandered for a few moments before focusing back on his brother, "We haven't tried one thing."

"Sam," Lady said sharply and gave him a warning look at what he was about to suggest.

Sam ignored her, "We should summon Ruby."

"Ruby can't do anything. She can't save me, nobody can. She told me so herself," Dean said angrily.

Sam looked away, frustrated and upset, and then angrily started walking. "Where are you going?" Dean called after him.

"Guess I'm going to Ohio," Sam snapped back.

"This is going to be a fun drive," Lady said softly as she took a few steps to catch up to Sam and Dean.

**A/N** - _I didn't want to go two weekends with the trio doing nothing so I have this update and this weekend I'll post a two-part 'episode'. I'm getting close to the end of the Season 3 chapters with only 3 episodes left in the cannon to write. I'd really appreciate any and all feedback you guys have. Is the story still doing okay? Have you noticed any major goofs I should fix?_


	112. Long Distance Call Part 1, March 2008

**March 20, 2008**

Milan, Ohio was a small town, but Lady found it sort of pleasant. Most of the winter was being thawed out and she even saw some early patches of green grass growing. They checked into two motel rooms and scoped out the town the day before.

Lady woke up after a rough few hours of sleep. For several minutes she was still and quiet as she worked to process the strange dream she had been having and get reacquainted with the surroundings of the motel room. Dean was still asleep, it was a bonus that she hadn't kicked or done something to wake him up. Although he was so tired by the time they got checked into the motel that he may have actually slept through it.

Lady slipped silently out of the warm bed and grabbed her bag on her way to the bathroom. It was only five in the morning, and Dean had set the alarm for eight. Which was stupid, because they rarely slept past dawn anymore. At least Dean would get an extra hour or so, she was done sleeping for the night.

Lady swallowed a few caffeine pills, those would keep her going until she could get dressed and go out for coffee and breakfast. Then she turned on the shower to start the process of fighting sleep deprivation and its side affects. And she felt like she needed a shower after the weird dream that had woken her up.

Lady took her time washing her hair, enjoying the smell of the new shampoo she picked up. It mixed nicely with her scented body wash. About twenty minutes had passed and Dean hadn't interrupted her so she even got to shave her legs. By the time she was done the bathroom was so thick with steam she could barely find the plain white towels. She wiped the condensation off of the mirror and dabbed some concealer under her eyes to hide the dark circles, brushed and flossed her teeth, practiced a few cute looks and stepped out of the bathroom an hour after she had stepped in.

Dean was just waking up, slowly stretching and making a few various grunts. "You been up long?" he mumbled.

"Just long enough to take a shower," Lady said. "I had a _really_ weird dream this morning."

"Yeah?" Dean rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked at her. She didn't share the dreams often even though he was rather curious what was going on inside her head.

Lady narrowed her eyes, "You're going to laugh at me."

"Is it funny?"

"I don't think so," she frowned. "I'm pretty sure it was a memory, though."

"Well?"

"I was knocking boots with a samurai," Lady muttered, wishing she hadn't mentioned it.

Dean fought the snickers at first but it didn't last long. It wasn't really that funny, in fact it was pretty damn disturbing that she was experiencing memories hundreds or even thousand years older than she was. "So how was it?" he had to ask.

"I'm not even talking to you until I get some coffee," Lady decided.

Dean pulled himself out of bed and into the bathroom. She heard his electric razor start after a few minutes and began to use some of her rare time alone to apply some cream to her hair that kept it soft and helped prevent split-ends. In the bathroom the electric razor shut off and the shower was turned on. Then a few sprays of another product that kept it from tangling. She had to dig through her bag to find a bottle of body lotion and applied it. She was just finishing rubbing lotion into her legs when Dean left the bathroom fifteen minutes later with a towel wrapped around his waist.

Dean pulled on some clothes and rubbed a towel through his hair until it was nearly dry. To keep the hair off of his forehead he applied some gel and swept it through his hair with perfect practice. He grabbed a flannel jacket and looked at Lady who was still in her towel, her hair still damp, and was in the process of rubbing some fruity smelling lotion on her feet. "Thought you wanted coffee?"

"I do," she answered.

Dean wrapped his keys into his fist. He had noticed when they checked into the motel that the nearest convenience store was on the highway about a mile away. While that wasn't very far, it was a distance to walk in the chilly morning with a tray of coffees which was what she normally did. Maybe he didn't outright say it but he enjoyed and even appreciated when Lady ran out for early morning coffee. He was used to that early dose of hot caffeine and was really missing it right then. The only thing he wanted more than a hot cup of joe was maybe some donuts or a big greasy breakfast. He was up, ready, and willing to drive her the small mile that it would take to get that satisfying drink.

Lady shifted to reach into her bag and instead of grabbing some clothes she pulled out a manicure kit and began working on her cuticles.

"You coming?" Dean asked flatly.

"I'm working on it," Lady answered. "Sort of on a roll this morning, in the zone."

"In the zone doing what?" Dean asked.

Lady just shook her head. Dean was a pretty smart guy, brilliant when it came to fighting tactics and hunting. He had plenty of skills. And for how long she had been living out of motels with him and even before that when he used to chase skirt like it was going out of style, he didn't seem to understand the work that went into being a woman. She knew he appreciated it, but he didn't understand it. A guy could take half an hour, smell like a bar of motel soap with a splash of aftershave or cologne, use some gel and be ready for the rest of the day. Lady was nearing her second hour of simple maintenance. Sure, she could have rolled out of bed, taken a ten minute shower and gotten dressed. But where was the fun in that? It was rare that she got a quiet morning to take care of herself.

"Whatever," Dean gave up. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

Once she went through her arsenal of pleasant smelling things she got dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. It was too bad it was too cold to wear shorts or a skirt, her legs looked really good. So did her toes.

Dean returned with a pair of coffees and a grocery bag. "Not much for breakfast, but I saw a diner downtown. We can go out for lunch."

Dean gave her a smile as she took her cup. Her hair was mostly dry now, but she hadn't combed it out so it was in a sexy tussle. A mix of scents lingered around her, none of them identifiable but just a smell he recognized as hers. He waited until she got a drink of the coffee before sliding an arm around her waist and pulling her close and into a belated good-morning kiss. Her mouth was warm from the coffee, and tasted better.

Lady finished the kiss with a smug smile. Maybe Dean didn't understand all the work she did, but he definitely appreciated it.

When the alarm clock finally went off at eight Dean moved into motion, getting ready to go with Sam to speak with the banker's widow. Sam knocked on the door just as Dean was adjusting a plain black tie.

"Ready to go?" Sam called.

Dean opened the door, dressed and eager to start the job. Sam looked surprised that Dean was ready. He looked past Dean to Lady, "You coming with?" he asked her.

"No, you guys do your thing," Lady said, walking with Dean out to the car and playfully tugged at his tie, "Lookin' good, handsome," she said.

Dean licked his lips at the look she was giving him, "Don't do this."

"Do what?" she asked coyly.

"You know what you do," he said, letting her tug him closer and pull him down for a kiss. Lady fought the grin that was making it hard to return his kiss.

"You just want me to handle this by myself?" Sam asked, still in a foul mood from his argument with Dean in Nashville.

Lady released Dean and took a step back, "Go, have fun. I'll hold down the fort."

"Be back in a few hours," Dean promised her, and gave Sam a glare before they both got in the car.

Lady was continuing Sam's mind-numbing reading while they were gone. A few hours later Sam and Dean returned. Sam sat in a chair near the door with his laptop on his knee while Dean and Lady sat on the bed going over the details that had been found out.

"Sounds like a spirit of some chick named Linda," Dean said. "Communicating through the phone. The banker's wife said she picked up the phone one night while her husband was chatting with the spirit, but all she heard was static."

"Found her," Sam said. "Linda Bateman. Apparently her and Ben, the victim, were high school sweethearts. She died about thirty years ago."

"That was easy," Dean said. "Wait until night so we can dig her up?"

"I don't think so, she was cremated," Sam announced.

Dean frowned, "Then why is she still floating around?"

"I think we need to check out that strange number that was on the caller ID," Sam said. "It showed up as SHA33."

"That's not a number," Lady said.

"Actually, it is. But it's over a hundred years old. It's from the time when phones had cranks," Sam said.

"Is it even possible to trace then?" Lady asked.

Sam looked thoughtful, "Not an easy way for us, but I know a place that should be able to pull up the records." He looked at his brother, "Ready to go to the phone company?"

Dean shrugged, he was still in his suit and tie so they might as well. "Want to come with?" he asked Lady.

"Pass," Lady said. "Come pick me up when you are done so we can go eat."

"Deal," Dean nodded.

After she heard the Impala leave she grabbed her cell phone and dialed Maxine. "Hey, you busy?" Lady asked.

"Not terribly. What's up?" Maxine asked.

"I had a sex dream about a samurai last night," Lady said bitterly.

"Oh? How was he?"

"Not very good," Lady said. "Maxine, I'm barely sleeping. I'm running on energy drinks and caffeine pills." Just admitting it Lady fought a yawn.

"We went over this when you were here. We can try to shut down those memories, but you decided you wanted to wait," Maxine said. "It's a long shot but it's the only safe thing I can think of. Your brain is too fried to do much else."

"Yeah, I know," Lady said. "But I had another one that has been bothering me. I saw part of a spell in it."

"What was it like?" Maxine asked, sounding interested.

"I didn't recognize the language, but there were at least a hundred bodies being bled," Lady said. She rubbed her forehead, "And how the dream went it was my hand slitting the throats."

"You just have to remember it wasn't you, that was a memory of the Goddess," Maxine said.

"I know but it's all screwed up," Lady sighed. "I was playing on the computer and managed to draw out some symbols I found. They aren't Roman, Greek, Enochian, or anything I know. If I email them to you can you do some searching?"

"Sure, but isn't that something you normally bug Bobby for?" Maxine asked.

"Bobby is busy, we all are," Lady said.

"Send it my way, I'll see if I can find anything."

"Thanks," Lady said and hung up.

Dean and Sam returned to the motel near noon. "Babe, you aren't going to believe what we found," Dean said as she got into the backseat of the car.

Sam turned to look at her, "We went to the phone company and had them run a trace on that strange phone number. They couldn't find where it was calling from, but it's been calling all around town. We have a dozen phone numbers. Also we have a dozen people to talk to now." Sam actually looked intrigued by the case, whatever bad mood that had been lingering had faded somewhat as he turned his focus to the job at hand.

Over lunch Sam and Dean discussed a plan of action and marked a local map with the addresses of the phone numbers that had received calls from the strange phone number. "Lady, we could use an extra hand here to talk to people," Sam said.

"Sure," Lady nodded. "I can manage going from door to door."

"We split up. I'll take these houses," Dean said, drawing a few lines to split up the work. "Sam, this section. Lady, this will be yours."

"I saw a car rental place," Sam said. "Be faster if we all have wheels."

Lady took the pencil from Dean's hand and adjusted her line, "If I take these ten blocks Dean can just drop me off and I can walk so we don't have to spend the extra money."

"Sounds good," Dean said. He gave her a handsome smile, "I love how you hold my pencil."

Lady grinned to show her teeth and slowly ran her fingers down the shaft of the pencil until Sam's frown made her stop.

After lunch Dean dropped Sam off so he could rent a car and drove through the town to drop Lady off. He parked the car on the side of the curb and pulled her toward him before she left. Lady leaned into him and grinned, "Think we have time for a quickie in the backseat?" she asked.

Dean laughed because at the same time a group of three children walked past the car, "We have time, we don't have privacy. But I had a great thought."

"I usually like those thoughts of yours," Lady said, running her fingernails through the short hair at the back of his head.

"Once we're done here lets head to Florida. Get Sam laid so he lightens up a bit," Dean suggested. "And have ourselves some fun in that hot tub again."

"That's not fair," Lady said.

"What's not fair? Set you up in front of one of those jets and you…"

"Your brother," Lady said flatly.

Dean had to take a moment to push away what he had been talking about so he could think about Sam. "What?"

"Sam isn't going to lighten up," Lady said. "What he's been working on is important, it might save your ass."

Dean lost his playful mood, "Not you too."

"If you want to go to Florida to have a good time, I'm with you," Lady said. "But Sam isn't going to lighten up…he just can't. He's worried and scared that he's going to lose you. I am too. He isn't going to stop trying to find a way to save you."

Dean ran a hand through his hair, "Yeah. Okay, uh…just call to check in after an hour, okay?"

Lady had avoided crossing the line about mentioning Dean's quickly upcoming death in order to keep the peace, and now that she had the conversation was over and he wouldn't talk about it further. She got out of the car and started on her part in the job.

There were three houses in the section of town she was taking. The first and second house no one answered the door, the third house was where Lady got someone to talk.

The man looked haggard and worn out, but he was only about thirty years old. He was partially dressed in a police man's uniform that made Lady a bit nervous, but she kept her cool.

"Hi, my name is Lady," she introduced herself.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

She nodded, "I hope so. I..." Lady frowned. Sam and Dean both suggested she say she was from the phone company, but that wasn't her style. For a few moments she used her future-sight and decided to say what got the biggest reaction, "I'm a paranormal investigator."

The man looked at her with wide eyes and stammered a bit, "A...a what...?"

"You know those shows that put stupid people inside haunted houses and give them silly gadgets? I'm sort of like that, however I really hate reality TV," Lady said. "Here is the deal. There seems to be a phone number of SHA33 that has called this house, and we know a ghost called someone else with the same number. So flat out, you talk to a ghost lately? Maybe a woman named Linda?"

The man stared at her for several long moments, but he didn't look at her like she was crazy. He looked at her more in relief, like he wasn't the one who was crazy. But still he shook his head at her and tried to close the door.

Lady put her foot in the door so he couldn't close it, "Hey, it's okay to be freaked out. I just put myself out there and asked you something that would make most people laugh in my face. Do me the decency of talking."

"What do you want?" he asked, tears welling up in his eyes.

"I just want to hear your story," Lady said. "That's all."

The man stepped aside so Lady could walk in. She followed him to his living room and sat herself on the sofa. For a long time he was quiet, and she let her eyes wander. There were signs of a woman's touch in the house. Photos hung on the walls, the furniture matched, and the curtains were rather tasteful. However there weren't any real signs of a woman. No woman's shoes by the door, no scent of perfume, and the place needed a good dusting. Her eyes saw a family photograph of the man with a woman and a young girl.

"What's your name?" Lady asked him to get things started.

"Scott," he answered.

"Scott, where is your family?" Lady asked, nodding to the photo.

He grimaced painfully, "They died, about a year ago now."

"What happened?" Lady asked softly, trying to look and sound like she had Sam's compassion.

Scott looked at his hands, "A burglar broke into the house, murdered them. Never found the bastard who did it."

Lady's eyes widened, suddenly she had intense empathy for the man. "I'm very sorry, Scott. I'm...I'm so sorry."

Scott sniffed and nodded a thanks.

Lady frowned a bit, "And the phone call you've been getting from SHA33?"

"They started about two weeks ago," he said, and let out a sob. "It's Elaine, my daughter. God, she was my whole world. She was only five years old."

Lady became uncomfortable as the man began to break down. She knew from experience being contacted by the ghost of a loved one was a rather emotional thing. She was trying to figure out why two ghosts would be calling around using the same phone number.

"Were was she buried?" Lady asked.

"Why?" he asked.

"It helps for me to know," Lady skirted the question. People rarely answered honestly if she told them it was because she needed to have their loved ones bones dug up and burned...people got touchy about corpse mutilation.

"Mill Road Cemetery," he answered.

Lady offered him a card with Sam's phone number on it, "This is the number to a guy I work with. If you hear from her again, or think of something, give us a call."

"Why are you here?" he asked her. "Why are looking into this?"

"If ghosts are around there is a reason for it," Lady answered. "Usually not a good one. Right now we're just trying to figure it out."

Lady left Scott's house and walked slowly down the sidewalk as she called Dean.

"Babe, I just had the craziest conversation with an 84 year old woman who's been having phone sex with her dead husband," Dean said.

"I would have traded you. I talked to a guy who is getting calls from his five-year old daughter who was murdered last year," Lady said.

"Rough," Dean muttered. "You all done?"

"I am. You?"

"I got a few houses that didn't answer, and a few more that probably won't. I'll check on Sam and come pick you up," Dean said.

"Okay, see you in a few," Lady said.

Dean hung up with Lady and called Sam. Sam told him that a teenage girl was having conversations with her dead mother, and then Dean relayed his own stories. "We need to figure out what is going on and soon, this place is turning into spook central."

"What are you thinking? Maybe something got stirred up like when Maxine was in Florida? Necromancy?" Sam suggested.

"It's a thought. I'm grabbing Lady and heading back to the motel, I'll see you there," Dean said.

"Okay, bye," Sam said.

Dean got into his car and started it up. He frowned when his phone rang again and he answered it, "Yeah?" he waited and when there was no answer he said, "Sam?"

"Dean?" A voice said through static. "Dean, is that you?"

The keys slipped through Dean's fingers at the sound of the voice. His heart thudded hard in his chest and he replied, "Dad?" There was more static and the call cut out.

XXXXX

Lady smiled at the sound of the Impala nearing. She saw it turn a corner and slow down for her to get in. "I think we..." She began but stopped at the look on Dean's face. "What's wrong?"

Dean shook his head, "You wouldn't believe me."

"Dean, what happened?" Lady asked seriously.

Dean had his cell phone in his hand, watching and waiting, but it didn't ring again. "I got a call...from my father."

Lady's eyes widened, "Your father...John?"

Dean nodded, "Yeah."

Lady looked out the window silently as Dean drove to the motel. Sam's rental car was already there and Lady knocked twice on his door before letting herself in, dragging Dean behind her.

"Sam, have you found out anything?" Lady asked.

"Not yet," Sam said, tapping a few strokes on his laptop. "What's wrong?"

Lady looked at Dean, "Tell him."

"I got a call from Dad," Dean said.

Sam's eyes widened, "Dad? You're sure?"

"Pretty sure," Dean said.

"What'd he say?" Sam asked.

Dean looked hopeless for a moment and shrugged, "My name."

"That's it?" Sam asked.

"The call dropped out," Dean muttered.

Sam thought about it and asked, "Why would he call?

"I don't know. Why are ghosts calling anybody in this town?" Dean asked. "But other people are hearing from their loved ones, why can't we?"

"I suppose that's a possibility," Sam said softly.

"Can I say something?" Lady chirped. "I'm going to anyway. I'm a little worried here. There are reasons we hunt ghosts, they stir up trouble. Even if they aren't intentionally hurting people...the guy I saw, Scott, is a wreck because he's being haunted by his dead daughter. We need to figure this out."

Sam nodded in agreement, "Yeah, we do."

"What am I supposed to do if he calls again?" Dean asked. "What am I supposed to say?"

Sam looked thoughtful before suggesting, "Hello?"

"Hello?" Dean snapped back. "That's it?" Sam shrugged. Dean rolled his eyes, and left.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked, looking at Lady seriously now that they were alone.

"I'm fine, I'm just worried about Dean," Lady said. "On the whole drive here he was holding his phone like a bomb would explode if he let it go."

"Well, he's going to be distracted for a while. I'm going to do some research on the town," Sam said.

"I'm going to stalk Dean to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid," Lady said.

"Have fun," Sam said lightly.

"Blow me," Lady replied as she walked out.

Dean was just a few doors down in the motel room he was sharing with Lady. She studied him a few moments and decided to quietly sit behind him on the bed and began rubbing his neck.

"You know I get that something bad is going on for this to be happening but...at the same time..." Dean shook his head. "Dad, you know?"

"Yeah, I get it," Lady said.

"No you don't, you had something against him," Dean muttered.

"For the most part I liked him," Lady said. "I had problems with him but...well, most people did. But it doesn't change that he was your father. When I had a chance to see my mother it was, well it was pretty fucked up to be honest. But I get it, a chance to talk to him is pretty major for you."

For an hour she watched him hold his phone like he was waiting for the most important call of his life. As the sun set he started to give up that he'd get another call from SHA33 and put the phone in his pocket. He paced the motel room a few times, unsure what to do, before deciding that television was the only thing.

"Maybe we should go out to eat," Lady suggested after watching him surf through the channels for the fourth time.

Dean didn't feel hungry but he slowly got to his feet. He set the television remote on the TV and as an afterthought grabbed a motel pamphlet that was on the dresser. "Hey, you know Thomas Edison was born here?" he asked.

"Who is that?" Lady asked.

Dean gave her a blank stare for a few moments, "Seriously? You don't know who Thomas Edison is? The dude invented the light bulb."

Lady shrugged, "So?"

Dean had to smirk at her clueless expression. "I remember I had to do a report on him in middle school. You know he was rumored to be an occultist?

"What's with the history lesson?" Lady asked.

A slow smile spread across his face as he continued to read the pamphlet, "We'll go out to eat later. I just figured out what is going on in this town."

Lady let Dean lead her back to Sam's room. "Find anything?" Dean asked.

"After three hours I have found no reason why anything supernatural would be going on here," Sam admitted.

"Ah, you'd think a Stanford education and a high school hooking up rate of zero would produce better results," Dean said with a cheeky grin.

Sam looked up at his brother, "Hilarious," he said, unable to hide a slight smile.

"You're just looking in the wrong places, pal," Dean said, handing him the pamphlet. "Milan, Ohio, birthplace of Thomas Edison."

"So?" Sam said.

"That's what I thought, but apparently Dean is really into light bulbs," Lady added.

"Read it," Dean ordered.

Sam looked over the pamphlet and let out a chuckle, "You're kidding me."

Lady frowned at the two brothers, "What?"

"Thomas Edison had a thing for the occult, nothing too dangerous however one of his last inventions that supposedly never worked is on display at a local museum. A spirit phone designed to allow people to communicate with the dead," Sam explained.

"I've never been so excited to go to a museum in my life," Dean said. He got an arm around Lady's waist and squeezed, "So who's up for some grub?"

After getting supper and checking out the museum from outside they returned to the motel. The museum was only open for a few hours in the afternoon so they had to wait until the next day to check it out. Dean's initial excitement over finding the cause of the ghost calls turned into anxiousness, wanting to look at the device so he could figure it out.

"Dean, please stop that," Lady said quietly after he checked his phone for the tenth time.

Dean sat it back on the nightstand and stared up at the ceiling.

Lady scooted over to his side of the bed, "Babe, get some sleep. We'll figure everything out tomorrow."

"I can't sleep," Dean said.

"Well, I can't sleep with you fidgeting every two minutes," Lady said.

"Now you know how I feel," Dean said lazily.

"I'm sorry, I never knew how annoying I was until you started acting like me," Lady said, smiling a bit. "Come here," she turned his face towards her so she could kiss him. "I know something that usually gets you to go right to sleep," she said, moving her hand up his arm and under the sleeve of his t-shirt.

"I could probably be persuaded into something," Dean said. "But you are rubbing the wrong muscle right now."

Lady grinned and playfully threw the blankets over their heads.

**March 21, 2008**

The morning seemed to go by slowly for all of them, and at one in the afternoon when the museum opened they were the first, and only, people in line. Ignoring all of the other exhibits they made a beeline for the so called spirit phone.

"That doesn't even look like a phone," Lady said flatly. It appeared to be wooden box with a small brass megaphone bolted onto it. "I'd call it a hunky-dory."

Sam glanced around and held his EMF reader near it. "Nothing," Sam muttered.

"What do you think?" Dean asked, studying the item.

"Honestly? It looks like an old pile of junk to me," Sam admitted.

"I'm with him," Lady muttered. "It's not even plugged in."

"It might not work like that, if it works at all," Sam said.

"Yeah. Maybe it's like a radio tower, broadcasting the dead all over town," Dean suggested.

"But why would it start working now after all this time?" Sam asked.

"I don't know. But as long as the moldies are calling the freshies around here it's the best reason we got," Dean said.

"Yeah, maybe," Sam reluctantly agreed.

"So maybe it really was Dad," Dean said, and Lady saw a bit of hope cross his face that he tried to hide.

Later that evening Lady and Sam put their heads together while Dean went to get take-out for supper.

"So, what? We bash the spirit phone? Burn it? Pee on it? Can I get a clue or buy a vowel somewhere?" Lady asked.

"I don't know," Sam admitted.

"C'mon, a small town museum has shit for security. Let's just go do it now," Lady said.

"Lady, it's a valuable piece of history," Sam said. "And I'm not that sure it's the cause here."

"What else do we have?" Lady asked.

"I don't know," Sam said. "Ghosts calling their loved ones, it doesn't sound all that menacing. Lots of ghosts don't move on but also don't cause trouble."

"However, a ghost calling that banker dude drove him insane to the point where he blew his brains out," Lady reminded Sam.

"There is that," Sam muttered.

"Ghosts are supposed to remain unseen, preferably not remain at all," Lady said.

Sam studied her face, "You are pretty worked up over this."

"No I'm not," Lady said quickly.

"What's going on with you?" Sam asked, seeing through her.

Lady licked her lips and glanced suspiciously at the door as if she expected Dean to stroll in. "You repeat this to your brother and I'll divorce you from your testicles."

"Not a word," Sam promised and shifted uncomfortably.

"I had this weird ass dream about John a few weeks ago," Lady said in a whisper.

Sam's eyes widened, "Please, if this is like the samurai I don't want to know..."

"It isn't," she snapped. "He was just talking to me. And he wasn't very happy that me and Dean were together."

Sam nodded thoughtfully, "Okay. Was it like a prophetic dream?"

"I can't freaking tell the difference," Lady muttered miserably. "I mean he wasn't on the phone in my dream, he was right there. But now he's communicating, I mean…what if it was prophetic?"

Sam saw the concern and anxiety she had been wrestling with. "It was just a dream," he assured her, understanding what it came from. Lady understood Dean's issues with their deceased father, but she also knew the loyalty Dean had for his father. If John said, even beyond the grave, that Dean shouldn't be with Lady well…Sam didn't know that Dean wouldn't obey. "Lady, if Dad could see you and Dean together he'd have to be happy for Dean."

Lady looked at Sam appreciatively, "You really think so?"

Sam nodded, "Yeah, I do."

Lady made a face, "Dean incoming," she warned just a few seconds before Dean entered the motel room with a box of pizza.

Lady could see Dean was still anxiously waiting for another phone call from John throughout the evening, and he wasn't even trying to hide it. When it got late Lady got into bed, expecting Dean to join her, but he stayed at the table with a cup of coffee in one hand and his cell phone in his other. For a long time she just stared at the wall and listened, but after a while sleep took over.

When Dean heard Lady's breathing change he quietly got up from the table and silently exited the motel room so he could sit in his car. He wasn't tired one bit, and it wasn't from the caffeine. His mind was sharp and focused, he may actually have a chance to talk to his father again.

**March 22, 2008**

Dean jerked awake at the sound of his phone ringing. He had dozed off in an uncomfortable position behind the wheel of his car but any discomfort was forgotten as he grabbed his phone and saw SHA33 on the caller ID.

"Dad?" he answered the phone.

"Dean," his father's voice replied.

"Is it really you?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, it's me," John said.

"How can I know for sure?" Dean challenged him.

"You can't," John said.

Dean let out a brief laugh of joy, that was exactly what his father would say. "Dad, I can't believe it. It's so good to hear your voice, you have no idea."

"It's good to hear from you, too, son," John said. "Dean, why did you do it?"

"Do what?" Dean asked.

"Sell your soul."

"I was looking after Sammy like you told me to," Dean said.

"I never wanted this!" John's voice turned rough and angry. "I don't want you to go to hell, Dean."

"Dad, I don't know how to stop it," Dean said.

"I know a way out for you," John said. "The demon that holds your contact, he's been following you. He can't be far, I can help you find him."

"Really?"

"Yes, son. And there is an exorcism that will kill the bastard. Not just send it to hell but kill it," John promised.

Dean let his head fall back and his smiled broadly as relief overcame him, "Thank you," Dean breathed. "What do I need?"

Dean was writing down every word his father told him. "That's it, son," John finished.

"Where is the demon?" Dean asked.

"I'm not sure yet, but I'll find him," John promised.

"Dad...everything is so crazy. The things we've learned and done the past few years without you...god I miss you so much. I wish you were with us."

"I am, Dean," John said, and Dean let out a few more happy chuckles and wiped at the tears filling his eyes. "I don't know how much longer we can talk, but there is something else you need to know."

"Yeah? What?"

"It's about Lady," John said. "I told you she was a black witch, why didn't you listen to me?"

"Dad, she isn't, not like..."

"Listen to me, boy," John said firmly. "She's up to something, she's keeping things from you."

"What?"

"Look in her email, her computer, it's all there," John told him.

"Dad, wait, what are..." Dean tried but the call cut out. The elated feeling he had before was deflated now. He took a moment to look over what he had wrote down and to think about what his father had told him. Then numbly got out of his car and quietly reentered the motel.

Lady had been tossing and turning in her sleep, the blankets were half off the bed and she was on her back snoring. He opened her laptop and opened the internet. He remembered a few months ago when Derek had set up the gmail account so he could send her pictures. Every now and then Sam still had to help her figure it out. The password was saved on the computer and a few times Dean had used the account to send things to Bobby, but otherwise he hadn't looked at anything. He never even considered that Lady may have something she wouldn't want him to see in there.

Dean had a bitter face as he looked at email correspondence with Maxine. Lady's poorly written description of a ritual full of typos and some words that didn't even exist, and Maxine's reply. "It's Mesopotamian. Really heavy summoning ritual if it calls for so much blood. Call me back and we can go over it more. P.S. Found a few old graves of children under 3 years old, let me know if you need bones." Between goofy photos from Derek and Erin the rest of the emails were from Maxine and all of them were about some of Lady's nightmares or strange rituals or spells or questions about the upcoming blue moon.

Dean was still hunched over the laptop when Lady jerked awake at her newest dream. She looked around warily and spotted him. "Did you sit there all night?" she asked, slowly sitting up.

"No," he answered.

Lady looked at the time and decided it wasn't worth going back to sleep. She got up and went to the bathroom. She brushed her teeth and poked her head out of the bathroom to smile at Dean, "Want to join me for a shower?"

"No," he answered angrily.

Lady looked at him with concern, "Dean, I'm sorry that your Dad didn't call you again..."

"He did call," Dean said, looking up at her.

"What'd he say?" she asked, stepping out of the bathroom.

"Why don't you tell me about this ritual you and Maxine are planning," Dean ignored her question while giving her a hard stare.

Lady looked confused, "I'm not planning anything."

"Yeah? A heavy weight Mesopotamian summoning ritual? She emailed you about it last night," Dean said.

"Oh," Lady remembered. "Not planning on doing anything, I was just trying to figure something out." Lady's eyes widened as she realized she had hit one of Dean's many paranoia buttons. "Dean, you just got something out of context. I'm not doing anything, I'm certainly not summoning anything."

"Yeah? How about her offer to get you infant bones?" Dean asked. "Hard to take that out of context."

"Okay, that is a little harder to explain," Lady muttered. Dean had a healthy respect for witchcraft. He understood the benefits, and the risks. Normally he left all that up to Lady, and trusted her enough to not need any explanation or even ask for one most of the time.

"I'm a fucking idiot when it comes to you," he said, standing up and grabbing the laptop angrily. "Funny, you forgot to mention there is a blue moon coming up in two months."

Lady tensed, "I'm not all that worried about it this year since there is no coven," she said as an excuse.

"Except for you," Dean said. "Because you still know how to use the ley lines. That's what Maxine says in her emails. What are you planning, Lady?"

"I'm not planning anything," she replied angrily.

"Fucking..." Dean growled and the next instant threw the laptop across the room.

Lady's jaw dropped as the cheap laptop hit the wall. The plaster wall cracked as the laptop bounced off of it. The plastic case of the laptop splintered and the hinges gave way and the screen shattered, when it hit the floor it fell into a few more pieces. It would have been pretty freaking cool if it hadn't been hers. "You fuckhead!" she shouted. "What the hell is your problem, Dean?"

"I've always been in your damn corner, Lady, the least you could do would be to come clean," he shouted back.

"Clean of what you fucking psycho?" Lady erupted back, too upset that he had smashed her laptop and was shouting at her to think clearly.

Dean shook his head, knowing he wasn't going to get anything from her. "I'm done."

"Excuse me?"

"You aren't fucking deaf but I'll say it again, I'm done," Dean said. "You are up to something, I don't want part of it."

"I'm not up to anything!" Lady screeched in frustration as he grabbed his things and shoved them into his bag. "Where are you going?"

"Away from you. Find your own way home," Dean said.

Lady watched in stunned silence as he grabbed the last of his things and walked out on her. After he slammed the door she let out a huff of breath, "Fucking assholes like him that really tempt me to use black magic," she snarled as she got to work picking up her trashed laptop.


	113. Long Distance Call Part 2, March 2008

**March 22, 2008**

Dean went a few doors down and pounded on Sam's door. When his brother opened it he pushed his way inside and dropped his bag on the ground. "What's going on?" Sam asked.

"Found out Lady is planning to do some summoning ritual on the blue moon," Dean told him.

"What!" Sam looked at him in shock. "Crap. Summoning the Goddess?"

"I assume so," Dean said.

"We need to stop that," Sam said.

"We'll deal with her later," Dean said. "Dad called last night. The demon that holds my contract is nearby, and I have an exorcism that will kill it." Dean managed a smile, "I'm gonna be saved, Sammy."

Sam looked at him with disbelief, "Wait, what?"

"Yeah, check this out," Dean said, handing him his notes. "Dad said he'd call when he found out where the demon is."

"How would Dad know?" Sam asked.

"He's a spirit, he can find these things out," Dean said quickly.

"Okay, I need a bit to wrap my head around all of this," Sam said uncomfortably.

"Don't take too long, he might call back any time. I'm going to use your shower," Dean said.

"Dean, what about Lady?" Sam asked.

Dean paused in grabbing some clean clothes, his face falling and shoulders tensing, "I don't know," he muttered. "I just don't have time to figure that out right now."

Sam rubbed his face tiredly and got dressed so he could go get some coffee, it seemed like one of those days where he was going to need it.

Lady was trying to get through to Maxine on the phone when Sam knocked on her door. She had half a mind to throw a knife at him just because he shared Dean's DNA, but she let him in. "Your brother is a fucking dipshit," she said angrily, throwing her phone on the bed.

"Yeah, I know," Sam said, offering her a cup of coffee. "You can't blame him for erupting after finding out you plan to summon the Goddess. What are you thinking?"

Lady let out a frustrated breath, "He jumped to that fucking conclusion? Real fucking original."

Sam made a face, "Nice to see you are using your word amplifiers to their full extent this morning."

"Swearing keeps me from violently stabbing something," Lady snapped. She let her shoulders slump and finally took the cup of coffee. "You know, I sacrificed a few cuddly animals when I was sixteen and everyone expects me to start up again."

"Are you?" Sam asked flatly.

"No!" Lady said.

"Lady...can you please put on some pants?" Sam asked.

Lady rolled her eyes but grabbed her jeans off the floor.

"Just tell me what happened," Sam said gently.

"Don't use that fucking tone with me," Lady snapped at him.

"Okay," Sam cleared his throat and roughly said, "Tell me what the fuck happened, Lady."

Lady's lip twitched as she fought a smile. "When I woke up he was on my laptop. He went through emails from Maxine. She was doing some research for me on a ritual I saw in a dream, I was just trying to understand it. I have no intention of using it, I wouldn't have the patience to wrangle up a hundred people and slit their throats."

Sam nodded, he agreed her patience limit would not allow something that time consuming. "And something about kid bones?"

Lady sighed, "The gris-gris bags to keep us hidden from Lilith require the pinky bones of children. I don't know, or want to know, how Ruby got hers. But I dug up a few graves to get what I needed."

Sam couldn't say he agreed with that, but Lady had done worse things to get ingredients for rituals. "So after his call from Dad he read your emails, blew things out of proportion?"

Lady nodded.

"And you have no intention of summoning the Goddess on the blue moon?" Sam asked bluntly.

She stared at him, "Sam, if I wanted to summon the Goddess do you really think I'd need to wait until the blue moon?"

Sam honestly wasn't sure, but if Lady was confident in her abilities and knowledge he trusted that. And he trusted her when she said she wasn't going to do anything. "Anything else?" Sam asked.

"He destroyed my laptop," she nodded towards the garbage can.

Sam frowned at the broken pieces. Maybe it was Lady's, but he had been the one to buy it and kept it running. With a sigh he removed the lid of his coffee and blew across the top, "Want me to hold his arms behind his back so you can clock him? Or should I just kick his ass for you?"

Lady looked down, "Just like in my dream John's cock-blocking me. John never did want me and Dean to hook up."

Sam pulled the cup from his lips, "Who gives a shit what Dad wanted?"

Lady's eyes widened.

"I...damn it," Sam uttered. "He's my father, I loved him and I miss him. I wish he was still with us, I really do. But that man...sometimes I think he drilled any original thought Dean ever had out of his head. Made him a perfect unquestioning soldier. I didn't like that. And now that he called I see some of that old obedience Dean has to him coming back." Sam looked at her seriously, "Dean loves you. He's tense as wire right now, but let us figure things out and he'll be begging you to forgive him. And if he doesn't, I'll make him."

Lady nodded, "So what am I supposed to do? Should I just leave town?"

Sam shook his head, "No, I think you should stay. Dad told Dean that the demon who holds his deal is going to be here."

Sam told Lady what Dean had told him, and showed her the exorcism Dean planned on using.

Lady studied the exorcism, "Latin is coherent, as for being a valid ritual you might want to check with Bobby if it'll actually kill a demon."

Sam nodded as his phone began to rang, "I already called him. He said it's a valid exorcism, just no proof that it will kill a demon. I don't know, everything seems shady." Sam pulled his phone from his pocket and answered the call from Dean. "Yeah, sure...be a few minutes." Sam hung up, "We're going out to lunch. Want me to bring you back something?"

"Yeah, you know what I like," Lady said.

Sam leaned over her and kissed the top of her head, "Call me if you need anything."

Sam left Lady behind in the motel room. This wasn't the first time Dean and Lady got so furious at one another that they had to be separated, and it was just best to keep them separated until they calmed down and one of them decided to apologize.

Lady had showered and changed her clothes by the time Sam returned with a box of lunch. He sat with her while she ate, preferring to keep his own distance from Dean who was becoming obsessed with looking at his phone.

The afternoon dragged on and Sam's phone rang again. However it wasn't Dean, but a teenage girl named Lanie who had been receiving calls from her dead mother. Sam spoke quickly, apparently trying to calm her down, before telling her he'd come over.

"Something wrong?" Lady asked.

"Yeah, Lanie is freaked out," Sam muttered. "The ghost of her mother really did a number on her."

"Can I come with?" Lady asked.

"Yeah, sure," Sam said. "I'm going to let Dean know I'm leaving, give me five minutes."

Sam went back to his motel room, Dean was hunched over the laptop and reading something. "What's up?" Dean asked him.

"The girl Lanie had a pretty bad spook from her mother last night," Sam said.

"That sucks," Dean muttered, grabbing a stack of papers and going through them. "Check this out. I've been working on this all day, I have proof. Dad is right, the demon is here."

Sam took the papers Dean offered him, "Weather reports?"

"Demonic omens," Dean corrected. "Electrical storms everywhere we have been the past two weeks."

"I don't remember any lightening storms," Sam said.

Dean looked at him, "Well I don't remember you studying meteorology as a kid, either. But I'm telling you that bastard has been tailing me."

"And it's following you because...?" Sam questioned.

Dean smirked a bit, "I guess I'm big game. My ass is too sweet to let out of sight."

Sam frowned, "Okay, sure."

Dean glared at him and roughly grabbed the papers out of his hand, "Don't get too excited, Sammy, you might pull something."

Sam sighed, "Dean, look, I want to believe this I really do but..."

"Then believe it!" Dean barked. "If we get this sucker it's Miller time."

"Yeah, that's the thing. Dad rattles off an exorcism that can kill a demon? Not just send it to hell but kill it?"

"I checked it out," Dean said. "It's heavy duty dark ages 15th century."

"Yeah, I checked on it too, Dean. So did Lady, so did Bobby," Sam said, not liking how Dean's eyes dropped at Lady's name. "There is no evidence that it can kill a demon."

"No evidence that it can't," Dean said hopefully.

Sam rolled his eyes, "C'mon, man..."

"Hey, the only one of I know who's actually been to hell is Dad. Think maybe he picked up a few things down there? Like what exorcisms work."

"I hope it does," Sam said quickly. "We just got to be sure."

"Why aren't we sure?" Dean snapped.

"Because I don't know what's going on!" Sam said in an exasperated tone. "Some guy blows his brains out. A little girl is scared out of her wits..."

"Wow!" Dean interrupted. "A couple of civvies are scared of ghosts. New flash, Sam, people are supposed to be scared of ghosts!"

Sam sighed and shook his head. He had doubts, but it was obvious Dean wasn't going to listen to any of his concerns. "Dad tell you where to find the demon?"

"I'm waiting on the call!" Dean snapped, holding up his cell phone that probably hadn't left his hand all day.

"I told Lanie I'd stop by, I have to go," Sam said.

Dean's eyes widened, "Serious? Okay, fine, you go hang out with jailbait. Meanwhile I'll be here getting ready to save my life." Sam turned to look at him, but had nothing to say. He turned again and continued heading toward the door when Dean continued with, "You are unbelievable, you know that? I mean for months we've been trying to break this demon deal and now Dad is about to give us the freaking address and you can't accept it? The man is dead and you're still butting heads with the guy!"

"That is not what this is about," Sam said in quick defense, taking a few steps toward his brother.

"Then what is it?" Dean shouted.

"The fact is we got no proof here, Dean!" Sam retorted. "Dad suddenly calls and you listen to every damn word he says without question. You accused Lady of..."

"I'll take care of her after this," Dean barked.

Sam's eyes widened, "Take care of her like she has been your girlfriend the past year? Or take care of her like she is some black witch that Dad said she was?" Sam studied his brother, "The problem is that after all this time you are still going on blind faith, Dean."

"Yeah, well maybe that's all I have left," Dean said. "I'll fix things with Lady once this is over. After this demon is gone I'll have plenty of time."

Sam looked at him sadly and nodded, "Yeah, I hope so. Because if you don't fix it, blind faith really will be all you have left."

Dean looked down understanding very well what Sam was saying. Once this was over if he didn't fix things he was going to lose Lady.

"Dean, please, I'll be back in an hour. Just don't go anywhere or do anything until I get back," Sam pleaded softly. Dean didn't even look at him and after a few moments Sam left.

Lady was already in the passenger seat of the rental car, "That was more than five minutes," she said when Sam got in.

Sam started the car, "Sorry."

Lady rubbed her hands together, "Something doesn't feel right to me. I should be really excited and thrilled that Dean can get out of his deal, but...I don't know."

"Yeah, I have the same feeling," Sam said.

The drive to Lanie's was about twenty minutes. Lanie was a cute teenage girl, about fifteen or sixteen. She let them inside and upstairs to her computer where her mother had been instant messenging her. Sam scanned it for EMF but didn't get a high enough reading to suggest a spirit was present.

"I even saw her reflection in the computer monitor," Lanie said, curling her arms around herself.

"Have you told your dad about any of this?" Sam asked.

"No," she said. "He'd think I was nuts."

"There are worse things than being crazy," Lady muttered.

"You would know," Sam muttered back, giving her a smile. He looked back at Lanie and worked on removing his smile, "What else did your mother say?"

Lanie looked at the floor, "She said she wanted to see me. At first I thought she meant to visit her grave. I did, but nothing happened there. Then she started asking me to do things."

"What kind of things?" Sam asked.

Lanie looked up at him with scared eyes, "Bad things," she whispered and sniffed, "Like go into Dad's medicine cabinet and take his sleeping pills. All of his sleeping pills."

Lady looked at her serious, "She asked you to kill yourself?"

Lanie nodded and sniffed again.

Sam and Lady looked at each other, both of them remembering the suicide that had brought them to the town in the first place.

"Why would my mom want me to do that?" Lanie asked as tears began to roll down her face.

"I don't know," Sam admitted.

"I mean, just so I could come to her?" Lanie said.

Sam's face changed, "Wait, what did you say?"

"She wanted me to come to her," Lanie repeated.

"No, how did she say it? Exactly?" Sam said, sounding urgent.

"Come to me," Lanie said loudly. "Like a million times!"

Understanding dawned across Sam's face, "Lanie, that's not your mother."

"What is it?" Lady asked.

Sam shook his head, "Lanie, we need to go. I promise you we're going to take care of this. Until then don't answer the phone. Don't go on the internet."

Lanie nodded and looked confused as Sam quickly pulled Lady out with him.

"Sam? What is it?" Lady asked.

Sam stopped at the car and looked at her seriously, "It isn't spirits calling people. It's something called a Crocotta. It's a scavenger. Mimics loved-ones voices and whispers 'come to me' so it can lure you into the dark and swallow your soul."

"Oh," Lady said as a comment for the new information. "So...if that's been mimicking voices of dead loved ones then...then it really isn't John calling Dean." Lady let out a breath of relief, she had been honestly worried about what speaking to John was doing to Dean, and the problems it had caused her. But the relief quickly changed as she realized this Crocotta was much more dangerous than John.

Sam pressed his lips together in a tight line, "No, it isn't. Get in the car."

Sam started the car and called Dean at the same time and was cruising down the road when Dean answered. "Dean, it's not Dad," Sam said urgently.

"Then who is it?" Dean asked.

"A Crocotta," Sam informed him.

Dean was quiet for a moment before letting out a low curse. "Damn, that makes sense."

"Dean, I'm sorry I know..."

"Hey, don't these things live in filth?" Dean interrupted him.

"Yeah," Sam said.

"Remember the phone company? That slob who searched the number for us? All those flies?" Dean asked.

"Crap, you are right. Makes perfect sense," Sam said.

"I'll head that way and meet you there," Dean said. "You have Lady with you?"

"Yeah, I do," Sam said.

"Can I talk to her?"

Sam glanced at Lady who grudgingly took the phone, "Yeah?" she answered.

"Baby, I'm so sorry," Dean said. "I'm a dick."

"Yeah, you are," she said flatly. She sighed, "Don't worry about it, Dean. We'll talk more once this is done."

"Yeah, okay. I love you, baby," Dean said.

"Love you too," Lady replied and hung up.

"Seriously?" Sam glanced at her. "You should make him grovel for what he said."

Lady shrugged, "I once shot him because my mother's spirit was driving me nuts."

While that was true, and would probably be a good enough reason to just accept Dean's apology and move on, it wasn't. Maybe she wasn't up to anything nearly as nefarious as he had thought she was, but she hadn't been completely honest with him lately. She didn't have the energy to fight or hold onto her anger, and she'd rather put it behind them and forget about it.

"So how do we kill this thing?" Lady asked to move Sam's attention back to the case.

"Pretty easy, just need to sever the spine. Cut the head off and bury it separate from the body," Sam said.

Lady looked around the rental car, "We have the weapons we need in this thing?"

"I have a big hunting knife that'll do the trick, but I'd rather use a machete," Sam said.

When they reached the telephone company it was dark. Lady stayed in the car to wait for Dean while Sam went to check out the building and see if the Crocotta was there. Lady kept a lookout for the Impala while she kept her hands busy playing with her butterfly knife. With a sigh she thought about how miserable Dean was going to be now that his hopes at saving his life had been crushed, a cruel prank by the Crocotta...god when Sam found the thing she hoped he made it suffer.

XXXXX

Sam had watched a man he knew as Stewie through a window. He was working on the computers and his desk was covered with fast food wrappers and garbage, and he knew that inside the room was a foul stench and buzzing flies. Sam and Dean had met Stewie when they visited the phone company to trace the SHA33 number but at the time hadn't thought anything supernaturally peculiar about him, except maybe his smell.

Sam tensed as the minutes ticked by and Dean hadn't arrived for back-up. But he couldn't wait any longer, Stewie got up from his desk and exited the building. Sam was determined not to lose the bastard. Because of the Crocotta poor Lanie was terrified, a man was already dead, and not to mention all the trouble it had caused with Dean. Sam stalked the man and when he got the chance pinned the man against his car, pressing the tip of his knife against his neck and threatening him. Telling him he knew what he was, looking to get a bit of confirmation before he made the killing blow. Stewie was so scared he pissed his pants, and made Sam back off unsure he had the right target. Before he could overcome his uncertainty something struck him in the back of the head and knocked him out.

Sam wasn't sure how much time it took for him to come to, but when he did he was in the Crocotta's lair in the phone company. He was tied to a chair, and across from him Stewie was also tied to a chair.

"Please, Clark, don't do it," Stewie pleaded to a tall bald man that was holding Sam's knife.

Sam had to blink a few times to focus his eyesight before he recognized Clark as a man who he and Dean had met at the phone company as well. "Don't, don't do it," Sam's voice mixed with Stewie's pleas as he realized Clark was the Crocotta. "Just let him go," Sam said as he tried to untie his hands from behind his back.

"You see, I would, if only I had eaten more than a salad for lunch. See, I'm just so hungry," Clark said, and thrust Sam's knife into Stewie's chest.

"No!" Sam snarled and struggled harder. He watched in horror as Clark's mouth unhinged to show spiky teeth. He witnessed Stewie's soul escape his body only to be inhaled by Clark.

Sam swallowed hard as he came to a realization, "My last call with Dean, it was you. You led me here." Sam looked down bitterly, realizing that Dean didn't know that the Crocotta was the one making the calls. Dean wasn't coming for back-up, he was probably at the motel with his phone in his hand waiting for that phone call from what he thought was their father.

Clark shrugged, "Some calls I make. Some calls I take. But you had to admit I had you fooled for a while." Clark smiled widely, "You know you aren't the only person I led here."

Sam clenched his jaw as he thought about Lady waiting alone in the rental car. He was sure more than enough time had passed for her patience to be used up. Sure enough, he heard his cell phone ringing.

Clark smiled and picked up Sam's cell phone that was sitting on a desk, "This will be a little too easy," he chuckled.

"No, you son of a..." Sam began but went quiet as Clark covered his mouth with a hand so tight Sam thought a tooth might break out of his cheek.

"Hey, Lady," Clark said, mimicking Sam's voice perfectly. "I saw a chance to strike and I had to take it. I couldn't let this thing get away. I'm inside, I could use some help cleaning up. Can you come to me?" Sam made only muffles in an attempt to warn Lady. "See you soon."

Clark hung up the phone and dropped it on Sam's lap, "She's on her way."

Sam eyes followed the monster in a fierce glare. "What are you doing now?" Sam asked.

Clark put his hand on a lit up board, "I'm killing your brother. Or another guy," he said with a shrug.

Across town at the police station Scott, the man who Lady had spoke with about the spirit calls, answered his cell phone already becoming misty eyed because he recognized the SHA33 number. His little girl was calling him again. He had begged her to stop, it broke his heart every time to hear her voice but never be able to hold her in his arms again. But tonight she had something important to tell him, the man that had murdered her was back in their house again. Scott was on his way quickly, expecting to find the man who murdered his wife and daughter. However Dean was already in the house, expecting to kill the demon and save his life.

Sam watched as Clark retrieved the knife from Stewie. "Playing Dean, that's one thing. But my dad, that's impressive."

"Well once I made you two as hunters it wasn't too hard. I found Dean's numbers, then your numbers, then your father's numbers, your voicemails. You see, people think all that stuff just vanishes in the air, but it doesn't. You'd be surprised by how much of yourself is floating out there."

"Dean's not going to fall for this. He's not going to kill that guy," Sam said, hoping he was right. But with how Dean had been worked up he wasn't sure.

"Then the guy kills him," Clark shrugged. "Technology is a wonderful thing. Used to be I'd wait in the woods, I'd be lucky to get one or two souls a year. But now you are all so connected, but you've never been so alone."

Sam grimaced as Clark neared him, a foul stench that hadn't been there before rolled off of him in waves.

"Lady should be here any minute," Clark said, smiling happily and moved to stand behind him.

Sam heard Lady's footsteps and shouted, "It's a trap!"

By the time Lady reached the doorway her knife was at her side. Lady frowned at the situation Sam was in. Tied to a chair with a knife at his neck and the monster using him as a shield. "I didn't think you had a sick enough sense of humor to say 'come to me' after telling me that was this things catchphrase," Lady muttered. "I mean, me? I totally would have said it. Didn't sound right for you to say it, though."

"Be a good girl and put the knife down, Little Lady," Clark said.

Lady frowned before fanning her knife closed and setting it on the ground. With a nudge of her toe it went skidding out of her reach. She held her hands open, "Give Sam some breathing room."

Clark slowly stood straight but kept the knife close to Sam.

"Dean isn't coming," Sam said.

"He isn't answering his phone, either," Lady said as her eyes moved around the room. "God this place stinks."

"Sorry, I sweat after I eat," Clark said snarkily.

"That would explain it," Sam grimaced.

"Cut to the chase, stinky, what do you want in exchange for Sam," Lady said.

"Nothing. Not. A. Thing," Clark said with a pleasant smile. "I would like it if you sat down, made yourself comfortable. I'll be with you in just a moment."

Lady caught Sam's eye and nodded once, "Sure. Should I sit on the desk or on the dead guy? Want me to tie myself up, too? You think I'm stupid?"

"I think you will do whatever I want you to, because you know if you don't this knife is going right through Sammy's neck," Clark said.

Sam watched Lady carefully as he felt his binds loosen enough so he could slip his hands through. When he saw her lip twitch into a smile he moved. One hand grabbed the knife and pulled it away from his neck and twisted Clarks arm. The knife fell to the ground and got kicked away as Sam and Clark briefly wrestled.

Sam grunted as the Crocotta's strength overwhelmed him and threw him down onto the floor. Lady dove to the ground, grabbing her knife and fanning it open. Before she could do anything else the Crocotta was on top of her, wrestling for the weapon. Lady clenched her teeth as she tried to hold onto it. In the struggle the blade slide across Lady's arm. Before the Crocotta managed to do any more damage Sam was back on his feet and pulled it off of her. Sam wrapped an arm around the Crocotta's neck and pulled it back. Lady crawled a few feet to grab Sam's large hunting knife and slowly stood up. The same time the Crocotta broke free of Sam's hold and stumbled away Lady swiped the knife out. Using as much of her bodyweight and momentum she could build up the blade hit the Crocotta on the side of the neck and halfway through. The Crocotta choked as it's spine was severed and collapsed on the ground.

Sam was breathing heavily, "You okay?"

Lady held her bleeding arm against her stomach in an effort to slow down the blood flow, "The fucker ruined my shirt," she said angrily. She adjusted her grip on the knife and in a chopping motion finished severing the head.

XXXXX

At the house that John had told Dean the demon would be going to Scott arrived prepared for a fight. Dean thought it was odd that a demon would be using guns, but quickly disarmed him and brawled until he got the man onto a devils trap. While trying to recite the exorcism Scott stepped right out of the trap, making Dean realize he wasn't a demon. He subdued Scott, apologized, and got the hell out of there.

Dean was in his car when Sam called. "Yeah?"

"Dean, please tell me you didn't kill anyone," Sam said urgently.

"I didn't. Something went wrong, I don't know..." Dean shook his head, unsure what had happened.

"Dean, it wasn't Dad. I'm sorry, I tried to warn you. It was a Crocotta, he's been controlling the phones. Lady and I just took care of it," Sam said.

Dean swallowed hard, "You okay?"

"Yeah, we are," Sam said. "Dean, I'm so sorry and..."

"I'll meet you back at the hotel," Dean muttered, hanging up the phone.

Dean couldn't recall ever feeling so stupid and hopeless at the same time before. He had heard his father's voice and while he had a few suspicions, he knew it was too good to be true, he had believed it. He'd beaten the crap out of a poor man trying to avenge his daughter's murder, had a pointless fight with Lady, another fight with Sam. All because he wanted to believe so damn bad that his father was coming to his rescue yet again.

He reached the motel first and leaned against the sink while pressing a cold washcloth to his bruised face. Sam came in about fifteen minutes later, looking equally bruised and beaten. "I see they improved your face," Dean commented.

"Same to you," Sam said after he got a look at Dean.

Dean shrugged and accepted it. "So, Crocotta, huh?"

"Yeah," Sam said uncomfortably as he sat on the edge of his bed.

Dean pressed on his ribs, deciding they were just a bit tender and not broken, and sat down in a chair.

"I'm sorry it wasn't Dad," Sam said sincerely.

"Sorry I fell for it," Dean said bitterly. He looked down at his hands, "I wanted to believe so badly that there was a way out of this. I'm staring down the barrel of this thing. You know? Hell. For real. Forever. I'm scared. I'm really scared."

"I know," Sam said.

"I guess I was willing to believe anything. Last act of a desperate man," Dean chuckled a few times but it just didn't sound right. It didn't feel right, either.

"Nothing wrong with having hope, Dean," Sam said.

"Hope gives you jack squat," Dean said roughly. "I can't expect Dad to show up and hand me some miracle at the last minute. I can't expect anybody to, you know?"

"We'll do whatever we can," Sam promised. "Lady and I have been working a lot. You missed it, Dean, seeing a hundred-fifteen pound woman behead a hundred-ninety pound man."

Dean looked up at Sam, "That just means she got a practice swing in before she gets to me."

Sam made a face, "Give her some time to unwind and stop bleeding."

"She get hurt bad?" Dean asked.

"I offered to stitch her up, but you know how she is with needles," Sam said. "She'll be fine."

Dean looked around the motel room. It only had the one bed for Sam. "Guess I'm crashing on your floor."

"I think you should talk to Lady now," Sam said. "We sort of left a couple of dead bodies so we might want to leave town within the next few hours. And I have a severed head I need to bury before I return my rental car."

Dean looked at Sam with wide eyes, "Any other messes you leave behind?"

Sam looked up at the ceiling in thought, "Not that I can think of, no."

XXXXX

Lady had managed to stop the bleeding. The slash was deep across the top of her arm, a few inches below her elbow. Now that the adrenaline had worn off it hurt like a bitch and she was trying to figure out how she could super-glue the skin together with just one hand.

Dean knocked before entering the motel, looking uncomfortable and wary.

"I'll be ready to leave in a few minutes," Lady said, not looking up at him.

"Lady, I'm really sorry, babe," Dean said, leaning against the door. "I know you, and I should have given you a chance to explain. I didn't, I just believed what that thing said. I don't know why, I shouldn't have. I'm so sorry. I am such a shit."

"It's fine," Lady said dismissively.

Dean watched for a few moments as she tried taking care of her arm. It didn't look bad right then, but judging by the blood all over her clothes it had been rather messy. Cautiously he stepped forward, "Here, let me help," he offered.

Lady was tense but let him hold the wound together so she could quickly apply super-glue to keep it closed. It wasn't pretty, but it got the job done. And it didn't require stitches.

"I'm sorry, I should have been there," Dean said.

"It's fine, Dean," she repeated herself.

"No it isn't," he answered, letting go of her arm and beginning to pack up her things so they could leave.

"To be fair, maybe I should let you know Maxine and I were working on things," Lady said. "We are worried about things that might come up now that Donovan is dead. Nothing has happened yet, mostly we just have to wait and watch."

"Nothing you are planning, right?" Dean asked seriously.

"I'm not planning anything. Just working with Maxine, bouncing off ideas and scenarios so we can stay sharp and ready," Lady said.

Dean nodded, that's what he should have expected…but that damned Crocotta had but more worrisome ideas in his head. "That sounds smart. There is nothing to worry about so far, though, right?"

"No," Lady answered.

"So all those emails and things...?"

"You took them out of context," Lady said flatly. "I call Maxine, we talk. She emails me something, or I email her something."

"Why isn't Bobby helping you?" Dean asked.

"He's busy enough as it is. Having him search for something that doesn't even exist right now is a waste of his time. Maxine and I are both better when it comes to witchcraft anyway," Lady explained.

"Now I feel like a real shit," Dean uttered. Like always, Lady got accused of black magic when all she was doing was trying to keep people from using it. "Why didn't you just tell us?"

"There was just never a right time. You were happy the coven was done with, I just let you believe it was all nice and clean when that isn't the case," Lady said.

"Things rarely are," Dean muttered. "It's fine. The blue moon isn't..." Dean cleared his throat as he realized he would be dead and gone by then. "It isn't until May nineteenth. That's when it would happen, right?"

"Maybe," Lady shrugged.

"What about the other stuff, your dreams and things?" Dean asked.

Lady looked a bit uncomfortable, "Well, that's a little more unclear." Lady sighed, "Before Donovan died he mentioned, barely in passing," she added quickly to make it sound like it was hardly worth mentioning, "that there was worry of the memories of the Goddess becoming more dominant."

Dean didn't buy for one second that it wasn't worth mentioning, "I thought that was all over and done with, Missouri and you cleared that thing out of your head."

Lady sighed, "Yeah. It's not nearly as bad as it sounds."

"Its sounds pretty freaking bad," Dean said, some of his anger returning.

"Maxine and I talked it over, we understand what is happening. They are just memories, the actual conscience of the Goddess isn't in my head anymore. She's just worried about how violent some of the dreams come through. We decided before the blue moon I'd let Missouri try to put me under hypnosis again and see if we can just block them off."

"Why not now?" Dean asked.

"We're sort of on a time crunch, Dean," Lady said seriously.

Dean understood quickly, Lady had planned to do it after he died. Whether it was because she wanted to wait so she didn't distract them, or spend more time with him, it didn't matter. He witnessed nightly how tortured she was by those dreams and nightmares. That she'd wait even an extra day to possibly be rid of them made no sense. "Yeah, maybe we are. But we can take care of this. I think we should, and soon."

"It can wait," Lady said.

"Well I don't want it to have to wait," he said. "We'll give Missouri a call tomorrow and see when she'll be up for it."

"The chances that she can change anything are real slim," Lady said. "Besides, some of the things I see are prophetic, they really happen. I mean so far nothing earth shattering or really clear, but if I can get the hang of it maybe I can see something important."

"We can't trust where you are getting these dreams from," Dean said flatly. "If we can stop them, we should." He looked at her seriously, "I'm sick of seeing you take two hours just to start waking up. Or waking up with you trying to pull your own hair out. If we have any chance of going back to how things are, I want to take it. I don't care if it's one in a million, I want to try."

Lady looked down as she tried to come up with an argument, but had none. She knew Dean was pretty damn perceptive when he had to be, but somehow she had fooled herself into thinking she had him believing she was fine. With a nod she said, "Okay."

Dean nodded. He knew he might have to nudge Lady along the way to Missouri's to get this done, but at least they had something to do. He shouldered her bag and made one last sweep of the motel room to make sure nothing was left behind before leading her out.

Dean followed Sam's rental car out of town so they could ditch the Crocotta head. When Sam was done Dean motioned for him to take the first shift driving so he could sit in the backseat. Lady looked at him curiously as he pushed her bag to the floor so he had room. She really didn't feel up to having to share the backseat, over the past few months she had sort of claimed it as her own, but she let Dean pull her against him. They were both experiencing a let-down and crush of hope after the Crocotta's trick and the best way they knew how to offer emotional support to each other was through physical action. So if Dean felt like putting an arm around her and having her lean against him she just had to put up with it.

Dean moved some of Lady's hair away from his face and softly offered the compliment, "You smell great."

Lady's lips curled into a smirk.


	114. Kansas, March 2008

**March 29, 2008**

_Lady looked up at her mother. Winifred was making a silly face that Lady couldn't help but grin at. "This way, Bernie-Bear," Winifred instructed, dancing to an old Motown song. Lady grabbed her mother's hands, unable to resist a few minutes of being goofy with her mom. Her mother spun her around so fast that the room tilted, and Lady giggled happily as her mother caught her before she fell over._

Dean cracked an eyelid as Lady giggled in her sleep. The past few days he'd actually made an effort to pay attention when she was asleep, this was the first giggle that had happened. After a few moments it happened again. It was actually sort of cute. He watched through the darkness as she shifted in her sleep, rolling across the empty space of the bed until the full length of her body bumped hard against his. She giggled again, and then let out a snort of a snore right into his ear. "Mm…play it again," she mumbled in a deep southern accent.

Dean shifted in an attempt to get comfortable, and the moment his arm moved Lady jerked awake. Her eyes wide in the darkness for a few moments before she slumped back down into the pillows and moved back to her side of the bed.

Lady drew her knees toward her and stared blankly at the dark shadows on the wall. It was the best dream she ever had, but she never felt worse after waking up. Her mother was always a sore subject, but Lady had loved her more than anything. After Winifred was murdered Lady had been heartbroken and shocked into running away, and the loneliness she had ended up being filled by witchcraft. That hadn't turned out so well. After Lady had been rescued by Bobby and John the only thing that kept her going was a will to survive, but even that wasn't a very strong will. Not until she found and rescued a puppy that would grow into a very large dog named Freddie.

Freddie had filled an emotional void in her life. She understood very well he was just a dog, but he was a damn good dog. Faithful, obedient, protective. And he had died protecting her friends from the warlock Garrett.

Lady had no doubts her mental stability wasn't what someone would call anywhere close to stable. And she couldn't help but think what was going to happen when her most recent emotional attachment, Dean, died in just a month. She was going to be alone again. There was no curse in her blood to motivate her to fight, no coven to hunt to take out her violent tendencies on.

There would be nothing. Just her. Alone.

Lady flinched as Dean shifted a bit closer to her, and got out of the bed before he could reach over to put an arm around her. Months ago, just days after she had said goodbye to her mother's spirit in Louisiana, she had gone up to Dean and asked him flat out if he wanted them to be together. Then she had assured him she wanted to, no matter what was going to happen to him at the end of his year. At the time she believed she could handle it. Spend his last months together, have as many good times as possible, and she thought then she could handle whatever heartbreak there would be when his time came.

Now she knew she had been fooling herself then. She'd loved Dean for a long time, but it had grown since they first started being serious about each other. And just the thought that one day he would cease to exist made her chest tighten painfully

Once inside the bathroom she turned on the shower. It was cold in the motel room and she thought a hot bath would be nice, but she wanted the sound of the running water. By the time she got out of her shorts and t-shirt and under the warm water a choking sob clutched at her throat. Fear and anxiety that had been building up for weeks, and would continue to do so, became unleashed in the privacy of the shower, the sounds masked by the running water and the tears mixing with the spray of water so they were unnoticeable.

When Lady was able to snap the lid back on her emotions she stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her body. Her future-sight warned her that Dean was awake in the other room, watching TV while he waited for the bathroom to be free. She took an extra few minutes to make sure she had herself under control. Crying was going to get her no where, and all she had accomplished so far was a stuffy nose.

Once she stepped out of the bathroom Dean moved into motion and went into it. She had hoped that the shower would start, giving her at least another ten minutes of personal time, but after hearing him brush his teeth he came back out while she was rubbing lotion on her arms.

For a few moments he just watched, and then she had to fight the urge to cringe when he asked, "You okay?"

He'd asked her that at least once a day the past week. Lady was pretty good at fooling people, Sam and Dean even had a hard time reading her and they were two of the most observant people she'd ever met, however it seemed lately she'd been failing at it. She wasn't sure if it was just the constant feeling of being tired and the lack of energy, or if his skills were getting sharper.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Lady said. With a sigh she added, "I'm tired and hungry."

Dean let out a breath and sat on the bed next to her. "After today no more nightmares, no more tossing and turning, no more screaming or scaring the crap out of me. Admit it, you'll be glad when these dreams are gone."

"Dean, this isn't a sure thing," Lady reminded him.

"I have a good feeling about this," Dean said. He was pretty sure he was a lost cause, but Lady didn't have to be.

Everything Lady knew told her this was a big ass waste of her time, however a few quiet days after their fight in Ohio, and actually watching Sam and Dean agree on something, was worth something. Not much, mind you, but something. Missouri would do what she could, and the best Lady could hope for was to just shut out the rest of the memories of the Goddess so they didn't assault her in her sleep any longer. It had been nearly two months and she'd witnessed horrors and miracles done by the Goddess's hand as if she had done them herself. She'd also been burned in a wicker man, torn apart by horses, fed to crocodiles and buried alive. Her own insane dreams, prophetic or otherwise, she thought she could manage.

Dean took a few moments to gauge her mood and decided it was better not to ask what her dream had been about that morning. She hadn't seemed distressed while sleeping, but she hadn't woken up in a good mood. "Okay, give me fifteen minutes and we'll get some breakfast."

XXXXX

Sam leaned against the Impala and contemplated calling Dean or Lady's phone again, or even knocking on the door. After Dean had dropped off breakfast, which was donuts and lukewarm coffee by the time it reached him, they had gone back to their room. They said they were almost ready, but that had been nearly half an hour ago. Missouri was waiting for them. Before he could call them their motel door opened and they came out. "Took you long enough," Sam said.

"We were having sex," Lady answered.

Sam paused in opening the passenger door, "Thanks for the update," he said flatly, shaking his head. Dean grinned widely at him, and as if bragging held up two fingers while wagging his eyebrows. Sam averted his eyes and got in the car.

Lady yawned loudly as they began the drive to Missouri's. At least after an hour of being under hypnosis she wouldn't be so tired. Until then the high-carb breakfast and morning sex would keep her going.

Dean parked his car on the street in front of Missouri's house. Missouri opened the front door as they walked up and said, "You are late. What took you so long?"

"Don't ask them that," Sam muttered.

"Mmhm," Missouri looked them all over as they stepped inside. "Lady, why don't you get comfortable?"

Lady sighed and with slumped shoulders went into Missouri's den and fell into a recliner. Before Dean could follow Missouri put a hand on his shoulder and led the brothers into the kitchen.

"She looks worn out," Missouri said, sounding worried.

"She doesn't sleep much. Most of the time she runs off of caffeine," Dean said.

Missouri nodded with disapproval, "I can tell, her mind is running slower than normal. That's good, it'll make this easier." Missouri studied Dean seriously, "I can't promise results. If I thought this was a good idea I would have done it when she saw me two months ago. But if I had known she'd have such a rough time I would have tried."

"What do you think the odds are?" Sam asked.

"It all depends on her," Missouri said. "Lady did very well last time. Once she went under she was surprisingly open to suggestion. That's all this really is, get her relaxed and allow her to broaden her mind. She's a rather visual person, I'll have her go into a dream-like state and we'll work from there."

From the den Lady called, "Can we get this over with so we can move on to more important things? Like getting me a cup of coffee?"

"This still might take a while," Missouri frowned.

Lady was pretty comfortable in the recliner. Missouri and the brothers joined her in the den, and Missouri began speaking in a soothing voice to instruct her to empty her mind.

Lady tried what had worked last time, imagining herself in a comfortable and safe place, but she couldn't hold onto it for very long. Her mind drifted to the job in Ohio where Dean and her fought, to her concerns over what John thought about her, to wondering how Bobby was doing, and to that stain that was still on Missouri's ceiling.

"Take your time, Lady," Missouri said soothingly, but was unable to completely hide the impatience in her voice.

Lady's mind bounced back and forth, as it often did. She was trying to at least control her thoughts in the presence of Missouri, but that didn't help her find one to focus on. Lady understood psychics, especially Missouri, and didn't appreciate that Missouri could actually hear thoughts. They were supposed to be private and safe, but they weren't in Missouri's presence. It was difficult to keep up her guard and become relaxed at the same time.

Unable to help herself Lady went back to her dream from that morning. A happy memory, one she didn't want to share with Missouri but it was too late now.

"That's it, Lady, it's okay," Missouri assured her.

Lady mentally thought a few curses in Missouri's direction, but now that she had a memory to focus on she couldn't let go of it. Just like when she was dreaming about it she didn't want to stop, she wanted to hold onto it as long as she could. Even knowing how sad it would be when it was over, how it had caused her emotions to become unleashed, didn't keep her from desiring that old joy of playing with her mother.

XXXXX

Lady's chin slid down to her chest, her body completely relaxed as she fell into under hypnosis.

Missouri let out a breath of relief, "Not quite as long as the first time," she said in a soft voice.

"Hey, can you make your quack like a duck?" Dean joked.

"This isn't a game, Dean," Missouri snapped at him.

"It was just a joke," Dean said in defense, and frowned. "Lady would have laughed."

From her chair Lady let out a light chuckle that made Dean smirk.

"Lady, can you hear me?" Missouri said gently.

"Yes," Lady answered in a disconnected voice.

"I want you to find the place where you last saw the Goddess, can you find it?" Missouri asked.

"I'm there," she answered after a few moments. Lady shifted uncomfortably I the chair, but her eyes stayed closed. "It doesn't feel right here. Something is…okay, I'm aware of this."

"That's okay," Missouri assured her. "I want you to be aware of what we are doing. You are going to stay in a deep sleep, and you won't wake up until I tell you to. This is just like one of your dreams, Lady, but we're in control here. Even after you wake up you are going to remember what we do here. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Lady answered.

"This won't be easy, but I want you to make a wall. All those memories the Goddess gave you, I want you to stuff them into that wall and seal it up tight so they can't get out," Missouri suggested. "Do you have what you need to make a wall?"

"Bricks…?" Lady mumbled.

"Those will work. Those will work very well," Missouri said. "I want you to start working on that wall, Lady. The labor is hard, it's going to feel like it will take forever. Brick by brick, you are working on that wall."

For a long time Lady was still and quiet, but after fifteen minutes a light sweat began to show on her forehead and her breathing increased.

"The work might seem impossible, but people are there to help you. You aren't alone," Missouri told her. "You see me there helping you with the next brick. Sam and Dean, too."

"No one is here," Lady said after a few minutes. "Just me…all alone."

"That's not true, Lady. We're right beside you, all of us working together to help you build this wall," Missouri instructed more firmly. "Because we call care about you, we all want this to work, so we are all helping you and you won't be alone."

Lady's face grimaced, "No, no one is here. No one is coming to help."

"No, Lady, listen to me," Missouri said more urgently. "You aren't alone. We are helping you."

Lady's leg suddenly jerked and her head moved back and forth. Dean had seen that several times during one of her nightmares. "Missouri, wake her up," Dean said.

"Lady, we're going to take a break," Missouri said. "I want you to start waking up. You can feel the chair beneath you. You can feel my hand on yours. I'm going to count to three, and when I hit three you will open your eyes and wake up. One…two…three…"

They watched Lady for several seconds, but she didn't open her eyes.

"Lady? Lady, can you hear me?" Missouri asked urgently. Missouri reached to Lady and shook her roughly. "Lady, wake up. Wake up right now."

"What's going on?" Dean asked again.

Missouri looked at them with wide eyes, "I lost her."

"What?" Dean snapped.

"One minute I was right there with her, the next she…well, she's off the reservation so to speak," Missouri said in horror.

"Do that snap your fingers thing and wake her up," Dean ordered.

Missouri tried, several times. But other than the occasional twitch Lady didn't move.

"Can't you read her mind? What's going on?" Sam asked.

Missouri shook her head, "It isn't that simple. She's dreaming right now, it's hard to hear her mind."

"But she isn't waking up, either," Dean said.

"She can't hear the command to wake up, she won't," Missouri muttered. "I don't know what to do."

Missouri stood up and paced around Lady's chair. "Dean, you need to tell me, was Lady taking anything?"

For a moment Dean looked confused, "What? Like drugs?"

"Anything," Missouri said.

Dean shrugged, "Caffeine pills in the morning, sometimes Valium at night, Vicodin or Oxy's a few days ago."

"Hallucinogens?" Missouri asked.

"Lady knows she's nutty enough without drugs, she doesn't use them," Dean said firmly. "She doesn't even smoke pot."

"What about herbal remedies? Anything?" Missouri asked, looking desperate for an explanation as to why she couldn't wake Lady up.

Dean grimaced, herbal remedies, folk magic, witchcraft, all that crap was Lady's specialty. He had a healthy respect for it and trusted her knowledge when it came down to it, but he only knew the basics. Which Lady said meant he knew shit. Compared to her that's all he did know. There was a nicely organized tote of things Lady had packed in the trunk of the Impala, the only bag she had been able to fit in the trunk, that had several things like herbs, bones and even a dried piece of monkey brain that he was rather curious how she got. Mostly she used them for protection spells, if she was using them for anything else he hadn't noticed. "I don't know," he admitted.

"Maybe we should call Maxine," Sam suggested.

"Yeah, good idea," Dean muttered even while Sam was pulling out his cell phone.

"Who is Maxine?" Missouri asked.

Dean rubbed his forehead, unsure if he should tell Missouri or not. But the psychic was undoubtedly reading his mind as he thought about Maxine so it was really too late to withhold the information. "She's a Native American medicine woman."

Missouri frowned, "I see. How long as Lady known her?"

"Years, like eight years," Dean said. Almost painfully he added, "We trust her." Dean could barely believe that what he was saying was the truth. There were definitely some bitter feelings toward Maxine, but she had won back Lady's trust. Which was not an easy thing to do.

Missouri frowned, listening to Dean's thoughts, and looked at Lady. "It isn't that strange that Maxine was able to regain Lady's trust. Lady doesn't have many emotional attachments, she needs to keep what few she has."

In the other room Sam hung up with Maxine and came back. "Maxine sounds concerned, but she isn't sure what caused this. She'll call back if she finds anything. I tried calling Bobby but he isn't at home."

"Try his cell," Dean said, and flinched as Lady's face twisted into a grimace and she tensed.

Missouri put her fingertips to her lips, "I don't know what is wrong," she answered Dean's concerned thoughts. To try and console him she said, "She might just need an hour or two of a deep sleep, she was exhausted when she came here."

Sam came back into the room, "Bobby is in California, not answering his cell but I left him a message."

Missouri looked at Dean, "Why don't you go out to your car, bring me anything she had access to."

Dean nodded once and did as he was asked, glad to have a job even if it was only for a few minutes.

When he returned Missouri went through small jars of herbs, opening some and setting others to the side. Once she had looked through them all she let out a sigh, "There is just so much, so many possibilities, I don't know where to start."

Dean looked at his watch, it was nearing noon. "She's been out over two hours. Any change?"

Missouri shook her head, "I catch bits and pieces, parts of dreams. A…a very sad and scared feeling. I have no control over it, and I'm not so sure she has any control over her dreams. I had hoped she'd just wake up on her own, but I don't think she can."

Dean already knew Lady had no control over her dreams. She had tried in vain for two months to just tame them down, but nothing worked.

His head turned as Lady made a noise. She was tense and her face twisted in a grimace. He watched, normally she woke up within a minute or two of doing that. After several minutes she seemed to relax.

"You said she's still dreaming, right?" Dean asked, thinking about the jar of dream root at Bobby's house.

"She's doing something," Missouri confirmed. Missouri looked at him sternly hearing his thoughts, "Dean, I don't think that's safe.

"What's safe?" Sam asked.

"Just like Bobby, remember? Alive, just sleeping and won't wake up. Playing around in dream land," Dean said. "Why not take some dream root, go in and pull her ass out?"

"Sure, but that was different with Bobby," Sam said.

"You got anything else?" Dean challenged them. They both looked away quietly. "Then I'm doing it." Sam got up to follow his brother but Dean shook his head, "Stay here, watch her. Call me if anything happens. I can be at Bobby's in five hours."

XXXXX

Lady was feeling fatigue settle into her limbs as she worked on literally building a wall of bricks. She knew it was all in her head, but at Missouri's suggestion under hypnosis she felt the strain of manual labor. She couldn't help but think it was a bunch of bull, but here she was working away.

When Missouri said she would be getting some help Lady had been relieved, but they didn't appear like Lady thought they should. Fear tightened at her chest as Missouri's voice faded and she felt cold when the connection with her psychic guide was severed. "Hello?" Lady turned around. "Missouri? Hey…you know I don't like this, get back here!" Lady turned sharply back at the bricks she had begun to lay down. They were gone, it was just an empty spot on the ground. She turned in a complete circle, "Missouri!" she called, feeling a chill as her voice echoed back.

A sharp crack of thunder sounded out, vibrating the ground and making the hairs on the back of her neck raise. Lady looked to the sky as dark rolling storm clouds gathered and were rushing toward her. "Oh, well, that's not ominous at all," she breathed. "Missouri! Hello? Someone…wake me up! Get me out of here!" Lady swallowed hard as she felt a cold sweat break out across her body, and just a few moments later growing shadows shifted unnaturally. "Oh, fuck me," she uttered as she shifted anxiously on her feet.

**A/N** - _Ok, shortest chapter I've posted in a while. I've been a bad writer this past week so I'm sorry, 115 is not ready to come out. It was meant to accompany this chapter but it isn't going to happen. :( My deepest apologies and if you feel I deserve to be spanked for being lazy I will not object. I simply request you have Dean carry out my punishment :) _

_Enjoy your weekend everyone._


	115. Dreams Part 1, March 2008

**March 29, 2008**

The sun was setting in the evening when Dean pulled into Bobby's lot. He was juggling his car keys, searching for the key he had for Bobby's front door, and his cell phone as it rang. "What?" He answered his phone.

"Dean, were are you?" Sam asked.

"Just getting into Bobby's now," Dean said, fighting with the first deadbolt of the paranoid old man's house. "Any change?"

"Uh…about the same. Thrashing around, sweating, breathing hard. She's pale and had to keep her from clawing the hell out of herself," Sam muttered. "Dean, we aren't sure you going in there is safe."

"Doesn't sound like Lady is any better, I'm doing it," Dean said, unlocking the third deadbolt and opening the door. He narrowly avoided tripping over a black heap of fur that was Ebony curled up by the door. "Fucking cat…" he growled as he stumbled a few steps.

"Okay, Dean…just be careful, all right?" Sam said.

Dean hung up the phone and shoved it in his pocket. He had to open a few cupboards to find the jar of dream root. He ran the water as hot as he could get it through the tap and added the herb. While it steeped he walked to the back bedroom. "Out!" he barked once to the white cat Ivory, who stretched slowly on the bed until Dean threatened to give him help exiting the room. He closed the door to keep the cats out and sat on the bed. He looked at his watch and tapped his foot. The dream root needed a minute in the water and he was waiting for the last few seconds. There wasn't much dream root left, he didn't have room for error on this. When the time had passed he dropped in the hairs he had taken from Lady.

He gulped down the hot liquid. It tasted like crap, most magical things did. He waited two heartbeats before looking around. Dean didn't feel any different, and the room didn't look any different, but he knew that didn't mean the dream root didn't work. Cautiously he got up and walked to the door and opened it.

He had expected to see Ivory and Ebony sitting at the door, looking up at him with wide yellow eyes hoping to be fed, or receive attention, or at the very least regain access to the nice comfortable bed inside the room.

He felt a lump settle into the pit of his stomach as he realized the dream root had in fact worked. He was officially inside Lady's head, and so far it didn't look all that great. There were holes in the walls, the doorways were crooked and misshapen, floorboards were missing. It didn't look like someone had destructed the building, it looked like it had been made intentionally. Like some sort of twisted fun house imitating a haunted house. Framed mirrors on the wall were distorted and cracked. Wild colors like neon green and hot pink were splashed on the wall, awkward angled lights cast strange shadows.

"Lady?" Dean called softly while carefully stepping over a hole in the floor.

The narrow hallway he had been working his way down opened into a large cluttered room. The ceiling was high and painted a shiny metallic black. The walls were a rainbow of different colors with stripes and dots and plashes. Several doors were on the walls, all of them different colors, sizes and shapes.

Dean knew Lady was a little nuts, but this was a bit more than he could handle.

In the corner of the large room was a monstrous stuffed animal. It was as big as a bull, but with thick shaggy hair and ears like a wolf. The nose was more like a horse. It had horns that came out of its forehead, long with sharp points and serrated for the whole length, obvious weapons. He'd never seen an animal like that before, with all his knowledge of supernatural monsters he wasn't sure what the thing was. "What the hell has Lady seen?" he muttered as he neared the monstrous thing. And he froze in his steps as the huge beast shifted. It wasn't some stuffed trophy, it was alive and its large eyes had been watching him the whole time.

Dean cautiously stepped back as two streams of smoke shot out of the beast's nostrils and it dragged a cloven hoof against the floor. The hooves were also serrated and tore apart the floor. It didn't take an animal trainer to understand that monsterous thing was ready to attack, and Dean backed himself up to the closest door and opened it just as the beast surged toward him. Dean ducked into the doorway and slammed the door shut. He backed off just far enough so when the serrated horns burst through they didn't impale him. He only had seconds before the door gave way, he needed to get as far away from that thing as possible.

He turned to look at the new room he was in. After a short landing there was a narrow staircase, and without a second thought he began to descend it. The monster was so wide he doubted it'd fit.

The staircase turned and twisted, as he made his way he heard sounds closing in. They weren't the clumsy heavy sounds of the beast he had narrowly avoided, but he couldn't quite place what they were. Cautious he pulled out a pistol from his waistband. He knew nothing there was really real, but the weight of the gun felt comforting in his hand.

He recognized the sounds as voices, and he moved as quickly as he could down the treacherous narrow staircase without making too much noise.

There was soft womanly laughter, not Lady's laugh. Lady's laugh was frequently a wicked giggle or an amused chuckle, maybe a snicker if she was trying not to laugh. This was soft and light, even high and haughty.

And then came a voice he recognized, "No! Get the fuck off of me! You are fucking dead! No!"

Dean stopped trying to be quiet and quickly ran down the rest of the stairs. The stairway widened toward the bottom and he jumped the last several steps and ran through the open doorway. The room was dim but he saw a tall woman with dark hair standing over a table. Lady was strapped to the table and struggling the best she could against what held her there.

Dean didn't think. He saw Lady, and the situation wasn't hard to dissect…much like Lady wasn't hard to dissect in that position. She was immobilized so she couldn't run or fight. The gleam of sharp metal wasn't far from the other woman's grasp. Without hesitation he fired off two rounds at the woman. He kept his gun trained on the body after it fell to the ground. Apparently firing dream-bullets into a dream-enemy worked just fine.

"Lady, it's okay," Dean said, unbuckling the straps on her wrists. As soon as one hand was free she quickly worked to unbuckle her other wrist while he worked on her ankles.

"Is she dead?" Lady asked urgently.

"One in the head, I'd say so," Dean answered as he helped her off the table. He put his hand on the side of her face and made her look at him, "Are you okay?"

"That was really close," she said in a shaky voice.

"No, it wasn't," he corrected her. "None of this is real, it's all just a bad dream, okay? That's why I'm here, you need to wake up, babe."

"I know," Lady said, looking at the dead woman. "Ananda died over ten years ago, dead and burned. It isn't real, it can't be."

"That's right," Dean said. "So, now that we have that in the clear you need to wake up."

She looked at him with wide defeated eyes, "I can't. I've been trying." She looked down, and then at the door he had come through. With what appeared to be a great strength of will she took a step toward it.

Dean grabbed her shoulder, it was a _very bad_ idea for her to go back up those stairs and to the monster thing he had escaped from. "You don't want to go that way," he assured her.

"I have to keep trying," she said quietly. "If I can just find Missouri I think she can talk me out of this. Unless you are here now to turn this into a sex dream I really don't have time to hang around."

"Lady, do you think I'm part of your dream?" Dean asked her seriously. "I'm not. I drove to Bobby's, took some dream root. I'm really here. And it's important we get you to wake up because you aren't doing so well."

She didn't seem to believe him, she just rolled her eyes.

"Babe, please listen to me for one minute," Dean pleaded. Lady let out an impatient breath but stared at him with her full attention. "I had to drive to Bobby's, I took some of the dream root. I'm really here, and I'm going to help you find Missouri. We need to get you to wake up, understand?"

"Yeah, okay," Lady answered impatiently.

Dean nodded, that was the best he would get out of her. He looked around the room for a different exit and his eyes fell back on the table he had just helped her off of. Another body was on it, now. A young woman, maybe just a teenager. She was strapped down, wrists, across her torso, neck, forehead, thighs, knees, and ankles. Completely immobilized. Her head was shaved and the hair was sticking to blood on the table that he couldn't even tell what color it was. Her eyelids were held open with needles, brown eyes were starting to turn milky as they stared blankly on the table. "Jesus…" Dean gagged. He'd seen some really sick things over the years, but that sight was rather nasty.

Lady followed his stare and looked at the person with haunted eyes. She appeared to be unable to turn away and had to close her eyes and turn her head before she opened them again. Lady wasn't squeamish, in fact she was spookily calm and cool when dealing with these sorts of things.

"It's Thelma," she answered before he could ask. "A friend of mine and Donny's…she moved in with Ananda, same time we did."

Ananda, the witch that had initiated Lady into the coven and then attempted to sacrifice her years ago. That was who Dean had shot, Lady was dreaming about her time with Ananda right then. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her away. Going through what she did, and seeing what she had, at just sixteen, probably the last bit of innocence she ever had was stripped away after Ananda was through with her.

"We'll stick together," Dean said as he walked to a door. "No running off," he added, and took hold of her hand. He interlocked his fingers with hers. If she wanted to get separated from him she'd have to chew her own hand.

He opened a door and looked around cautiously before stepping in. It was a house, not one he recognized. The carpet was cream colored, plush and soft. A shoe rack by the door had no less then ten pairs of woman's shoes on it, a few he had a feeling Lady would go nuts over. The living room had dark gray chairs and sofa with dark maroon accent pillows. The windows had dark maroon curtains, but they were pulled back to let in sunlight.

Lady let out a curse, "This place again."

"What's wrong with this place?" Dean asked. He was actually relieved to see something, well, normal. Compared to the fun-house killer-petting-zoo he first stepped into, this place looked nice.

"Never mind," she muttered and pulled him toward the front door.

"Maybe you should take a break," Dean suggested. She looked worn out, two steps from giving up.

"I'm not staying here," she said.

She paused at the door for a moment before opening it. A nicely manicured lawn stretched outside, large trees shaded the street. "Oh, thank god!" she cried out, trying to run forward but their connected hands pulled her back.

Dean didn't share her relief, only held her hand tightly so she couldn't run ahead of him. Parked on the street was an old Volkswagen Beetle, red with black dots. Dean knew Lady had made her way through several junker cars of Bobby's before she got her hands on that old Beetle that she affectionately named the Ladybug. Dean had never cared all that much for the car, but he had to admit having a set of wheels no matter how ugly made him feel pretty good.

"Please, please, please..." Lady uttered as she neared the car. With a grunt she opened the heavy trunk. Dean held it up with one arm as she rummaged around until she stepped back and snarled, "Fuck!"

"What are you looking for?" Dean asked.

"Something!" she snapped. She gave him an apologetic look, but then rolled her eyes. "Something I can use. A few ingredients to use a spell that maybe can make some sense of all this crap."

Dean slammed the trunk down, "Lady, this is a dream. None of this stuff is real."

"I know!" she shouted. "But if things are real enough here that maybe if I still mix a spell correctly I can do something to get out."

Dean nodded, maybe it would work. "Let's get going. We have a car, right now we are in Louisiana, we can drive to Kansas and find Missouri...in your head..." Dean frowned, hoping like hell that would work.

"Worth a shot," Lady breathed and stepped to the driver door.

"Oh, no, no way," Dean said, putting his hand over hers over the door handle. "I'll drive."

Lady looked at him with wide eyes, a few different strange expressions crossed her face in an instant before her lips parted in surprise, "Oh, shit. It really is you," she said, suddenly believing he wasn't just a figment in her head like everything else.

"I told you," Dean said, a bit relieved she finally accepted he was really there.

"You stupid ass!" she shouted at him. "How could you take dream root?"

"Can we save a fight for afterward?" Dean asked.

"Oh. My. God!" Lady freaked out, grabbing her hair and pulling on it. "Dean! Why would you do that?"

"Why? Biggest damn reason is I wanted my girlfriend to wake up. You've been out cold all day. Missouri can't hear your thoughts. It's like I'm watching you during a nightmare but I can't wake you up! Why? Because I'm scared to death you aren't going to wake up unless I give you a nudge. So here I am, but like always you are so god damn stubborn that even while I'm in your head I can't get through your thick fucking skull!"

"Dream root is dangerous," Lady said forcefully, trying to keep her voice even. "Dean, you just turned this into an incredibly inconvenient experience, into possibly a dangerous one. Besides, you aren't trained to even use it properly."

"And you are?" Dean countered. "As I remember, you were completely useless when you took it."

"You aren't even psychic, Dean, you can't handle this," Lady argued, her voice rising. "The dream root gives you telepathic abilities, dumb ass!"

"It does not give you telepathic abilities," he argued.

Lady frowned at him and in an obvious tone said, "Then how did you get into my head?"

Dean kept his face even, but he was rather upset that she was right. "So?"

Lady let out a frustrated growl, "If you thought I needed help you should have given the dream root to Missouri, at least she's psychic."

Dean nodded, "Maybe. But by the time I got to Bobby's Sam called and said you were scratching yourself, freaking out. Lady, something is seriously wrong."

Lady shifted on her feet, her lips in a hard line. "Yeah, it must be if you took that stuff. I get it, okay? But this isn't safe for you."

"I don't care. You're in trouble, I'm right by your side. That's how it is," he reasoned.

Lady nodded, it wasn't like she had any more of a choice. "Okay, but I drive. While I drive, you need to flex your non-existent psychic muscle and hopefully find us a short cut."

Dean frowned, but accepted her terms and got into the passenger seat. He didn't really think Lady was a bad driver per se. In fact he knew her future-sight made her a rather effective at maneuvering even the worst vehicles accurately, large trucks or the bulky Beetle included. But he couldn't see what she saw, and at times it scared the crap out of him when she blew through traffic without a warning. Not to mention that he liked being the driver, he liked the control that came with being the one behind the wheel.

"What are you trying to do?" Lady asked as they got on the road.

"Hoping I don't die, for starters," Dean uttered, slipping on his seatbelt.

Lady glared at him, "You understand that with enough focus you can make just about anything happen. You make Missouri appear in the backseat."

Dean thought about it. Visualized the calm psychic in the backseat. But nothing happened.

Lady drummed her thumbs on the steering wheel while chewing on her lip. "This isn't going to work," she uttered miserably. "Dean, you are good at a lot of things but this isn't one of them."

"Give me some time, I'll figure something out," he said defensively.

For what felt like about ten miles of highway driving Dean had to be impressed at the clarity of Lady's dreams. He had traveled these highways before, she had too, and they looked familiar. He traveled so many roads it could have just as easily been Maine over Louisiana, but it felt like he was just cruising to the next job for a while. Until dark clouds rolled in behind them and the thick trees around them got denser, putting them in near pitch-black darkness.

"Can you slow down?" Dean asked uncomfortably.

Lady was already doing so, "It's changing again," she said, sounding nervous. "Shit," she hissed, and braked hard.

Dean grimaced as his seat belt tightened and he barely saw the trees in the headlights that were now blocking the road. The car barely came to a stop before Lady shifted in reverse, obviously trying to go back. She let out another curse, but was unable to stop before she backed into something. Her chest heaved with panicked breaths. "We're trapped," she breathed.

Dean looked around at the dense forest they were in. "This look like Louisiana to you?"

Lady paled, "I don't think so."

"Where are we?" he asked.

Lady shook her head, "I can't even count how many times I've had to hike through forests to find ritual sites."

"So there might be a witch out there?" Dean asked. She nodded. "Great," he muttered, checking his pistol. "You have any weapons in here?"

"Dean, we shouldn't get out of the car. Just...we wait and maybe the road will open again," she said.

Dean looked into the darkness that surrounded them. It didn't feel safe in the car, he felt like a sitting duck. "It was a long shot that we'd be able to get very far. We need to keep moving, staying in one spot isn't a good idea."

Lady looked like she wanted to argue as she often did, but nodded. They both got out of the car and Dean followed her to the trunk. Lady unloaded what few supplies she had. A pistol, a couple of knives and two flashlights. Staying close to each other the moved into the thick trees, walking slowly and keeping their flashlights at the ground.

Lady seemed to take an interest in the trees. Her face frowned, "I think this is northern Nebraska."

"You sure? Nebraska isn't really known for its forests," Dean said as he pushed branches out of the way. The next step he took he was in a corn field. "However this does sort of look like Nebraska," he muttered.

Lady shifted on her feet, "Okay, well this isn't all that bad," she breathed.

"Is this a memory?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," she said. "No witch," she added. "I..." Lady looked down and shook her head.

"You what?" Dean asked.

"It doesn't matter," she muttered.

"Hey, this matters. I need to be ready if something is going to jump out at me," Dean said seriously.

"I got lost here," she huffed, sounding embarrassed. "It's like a hundred acres of corn taller than I am."

Lady glared as Dean fought snickers.

"Fuck you, man," she muttered angrily.

"I'm sorry, but that's funny," Dean said. "You got lost in a corn field."

"There were some bad circumstances," Lady said defensively.

"Other than just the fact that women have crappy senses of direction?" Dean teased.

Lady gave him a hard stare for several moments, "I was sick and delirious. The curse I used to have started to affect my brain, a few times I didn't even know what the hell my name was. Still think its funny?"

Hearing that sobered Dean up quickly, "No, I don't." He admitted. When he had first met her she had the curse, but he had never seen her badly affected by it. He heard a few stories from Bobby, much fewer from her, to know that wasn't always the case. "Why were you out here alone if you were sick?" he asked as they continued through the field.

"Who else would I be with?" Lady asked.

"Bobby? Freddie?" Dean suggested.

"I didn't have Freddie then. And I don't hunt with Bobby much." Lady said.

"Why not?" Dean asked.

Lady was quiet as she fought with thick corn stalks to make her way through, and Dean stayed close behind her.

"Lady?" Dean said.

"What?" she asked.

"Why didn't you partner up with Bobby full-time?" Dean asked.

"I work better on my own," Lady answered.

"That's not true. We have a pretty good team going," Dean argued.

"It's hard to explain," Lady muttered. "Doesn't matter."

Dean narrowly avoided being smacked in the face by an ear of corn. "Matters to me," he said.

"Aren't you supposed to be finding your imagination to get us out of here?" she snapped.

Dean frowned but went quiet. They walked through what felt like half a mile through the corn field before a house appeared. The corn seemed to be endless in all directions, and Dean figured if Lady had been lost in the field it probably had seemed endless in her mind. But the house gave them something new.

Cautiously they opened the door, and Lady's face fell as they were back in the nicely furnished house they had started in. "See? Always back to this place," Lady muttered.

Dean closed the door, and opened it again to see that the corn field remained. At least for now. "Why?"

Lady shrugged, "I lived here half my life. I grew up here."

Dean looked at it more closely. He had been in Lady's childhood home in Louisiana, however it was a moldy mess after hurricane Katrina. But now that she had said it he recognized the layout of the first floor, the position of the staircase. Dean didn't have that experience of growing up in one place, but it made sense that this house would always feel like home to Lady.

"I really don't like that you are wandering around in here, Dean," Lady said abruptly as he pulled her toward the staircase. "So far nothing has happened, but I got to explore a bit already and I'm not comfortable with this."

Dean looked at her with wide eyes, "I'm not considering this a vacation, babe." He studied her face and added, "Lady, whatever happens in here I know it isn't real and you have no control over it. And to be honest, other than the mutilated body I haven't really seen anything that shocking so far."

"Let's hope it stays boring," Lady muttered.

They looked at the four doors on the hall. One he assumed was Winifred's bedroom. One must have been a bathroom, and another he guessed a spare room. And the one with a colorful sign with the letters 'BERNIE' must have been hers. "This is a lot of house for a single-mother," he said.

Lady frowned, "Louis paid for it."

Dean nodded, he had almost forgotten about the man who had been fooled into believing he was Lady's father, and blackmailed into providing for her and her mother for years. And again, he had to be impressed by Winifred just for pulling it off. Not that he agreed with it, but the woman had found a way to make sure her and her daughter were living comfortably.

"Where are we going?" Dean asked as Lady looked at the doors.

Lady stepped up to the room that said 'BERNIE' and pushed it open. It didn't open up into her actual bedroom, this time it was a dark hallway with several more doors. Lady turned her head to him and gave him a look that asked, 'You up for this?' and he answered with a silent nod.

A few steps down the hallway Lady flinched, and the next instant the door behind them slammed shut. "Where are we?" Dean asked.

"Not sure," Lady said. "But it looked a lot nicer than the other doors."

Dean nodded, of course Lady had used her future-sight to see what was behind the other doors. So far he had to admit this one wasn't scary like the forest, but it didn't look all that friendly. The floors were shiny linoleum, above them on the ceiling were florescent lights that were off. The only light came from a small window at the end of the hallway.

"This looks like a school," Dean commented.

Lady froze in her steps and it wasn't until his hand jerked backward that he realized it. Lady looked around with wide eyes, "Crap, you are right. This is my elementary school. Oh shit."

Dean was relieved to hear that. Elementary school was harmless. However at Lady's realization details started to appear before his eyes. The fluorescent lights turned on, lockers lined the walls, and a low hum of voices in other rooms was heard.

"Okay, let's get out of here," Lady said, pulling him toward a door. She reached toward the handle but clenched her hand into a fist, "Locked," she said bitterly.

Dean frowned at a sign hanging on the door. It was on green construction paper, and as he tried to read it the letters and words shifted. "What the hell language is that?" he asked.

Lady let out a huff, "That's English."

"No it isn't," he argued.

"That's what it looks like when you have dyslexia," she snapped before pulling him toward another door.

"Oh..." was all he could say as he let himself be dragged. He thought dyslexia made letters appear backwards, but what he had seen on that sign was completely unrecognizable. "You ever try glasses or something?"

Lady angrily tried to pull her hand from his grip, but he held on tighter. With how easily things changed and shifted it would be too easy to lose her, he wasn't letting her go. "Sorry, we'll shove that back in the box of things that get your panties in a bunch and forget about it," he said. He never understood how Lady could be sensitive about the learning disorder, especially since she was confident to the point of arrogance with everything else.

"Good," she snapped, giving up in breaking his hold and pulling him past several other doors that were all locked until only one remained. She glared at it, "This is the only way out."

"Is it safe?" he asked.

Lady grimaced, "Nothing that will kill us," was her answer.

That was good enough for Dean, and he took the step forward to open the door. They stepped into a brightly decorated classroom. If he had to guess they were in the first or second grade by the appearance of the children sitting in their desks. But he had to stop in surprise at the teacher.

The teacher was a nun.

"I thought this was a school," he said softly to Lady as the eyes of the children and the nun went to him.

"It is," Lady said just as quietly, shifting on her feet uncomfortably as if she was getting ready to run for it.

"You went to Catholic school?" Dean asked in surprise.

"Don't be surprised, you see how well I rock plaid skirts," she said lightly. "I only went here a couple of years before I was transferred to a public school."

"Miss LaCroix," the nun said haughtily.

"God, I hate her," Lady mumbled, holding Dean's hand tightly.

"Please take your seat," the nun said.

"That's okay, we're just passing through," Dean said, seeing a door which appeared to open into a closet. But he was willing to bet it would get them somewhere else. He pulled Lady to the back of the room and tried the door handle. It was locked and wouldn't budge.

"Miss LaCroix, I won't ask you again. Take your seat," the nun said.

Lady and Dean both flinched as the nun smacked a yard stick against the wall, making a sharp cracking sound.

Without a word Lady sat obediently in a desk, some old innocent fear of her teacher showing in her face. Dean sat in the empty desk next to her, grimacing at the tight fit. "Could be worse...you could be naked," he gave her a weak smile.

"Miss LaCroix, read the sentence on the board," the nun ordered.

Lady paled as she stared ahead. Dean looked at the chalkboard, he couldn't understand the dyslexic English and had no freaking idea how Lady managed to read it. And if this memory was from when she was six or seven years old that was like asking a midget to dunk a basketball. Impossible, no way.

"Miss LaCroix, read this," the nun ordered, slapping her yardstick against the chalkboard to make another sharp cracking sound.

"Uh..." Lady shifted nervously. "The..." she licked her lips and squinted, but Dean knew that wouldn't help. She was just stalling for time. "Quiet..."

The classroom began laughing, and Lady's eyes darted across the room glaring at the other students. Trying to redeem herself she blinked a few times and corrected with saying, "Queen...?" Her voice was high and had a bit of panic to it.

The laughter increased and in the far corner one young girl said, "Retard," and it became a chant for the students.

Dean was completely stunned. He watched as Lady sat, frozen in humiliation so extreme her face and ears were completely red. Her eyes were at her desk, and he could actually picture her at seven years old sitting in that desk doing the same thing. This wasn't right.

The nun silenced the class by cracking the yardstick against the wall again. With a stiff walk the nun walked down the aisle toward Lady, holding up that yardstick in a threatening way. "Someone hasn't been doing their homework," she said.

Dean jerked as the yardstick went flying down toward Lady's desk to her hands. Before it struck Lady brought her hands back, and before the nun could lift it she grabbed it and pulled. The nun didn't let go and Dean had to take a moment to process the fact he was watching his girlfriend in a tug-of-war with a nun over a yardstick.

He could almost see a hint of amusement in Lady's eyes a moment before she released the yardstick, making the nun fall backwards and stumble against an adjacent desk before she caught her balance. Lady let out a chuckle, while the rest of the class gasped in shock. Lady's chuckle died quickly as the nun reached forward, grabbing her by the ear and pulling her out of the desk.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" Lady complained as she was dragged by her ear, her feet shuffling while she stretched her neck in an attempt to lessen the strain on her ear.

Dean had to wiggle and pull to get out of the desk, and once he was free he chased after Lady and the nun out of the room and back down the hallway. He reached the nun and grabbed her wrist, making her release her hold on Lady and shoved her away. The only thing he wanted to do was get out of this memory and into something else. Give him witches or vampires, anything but a classroom of cruel kids and watching Lady's self-esteem and confidence get crushed into non-existence.

Lady pulled away from him when he reached for her, "Leave me alone, don't touch me," Lady snarled, her shoulders pulled inward as if to protect herself.

Dean kept a short distance from her, "Babe, this is ancient history, it doesn't even matter, it's nothing..."

Lady glared at him, and he noticed her in full-defense mode and probably ten seconds from a complete outburst. He tried his best to keep his face even, wishing like hell he had Sam as back-up. He didn't know what to say to her to make up for how she was treated as a kid. He hadn't understood what it was like for her. He felt bad for her, he did, but he had to stay focused on getting them out of there and her to wake up. "Please, babe, can we just move on?"

Lady raised her hand as if to hit him when he reached for her again, "That's it, I want you out of here," she said in a demanding tone.

"Lady, you don't have to be embarrassed with me," he told her. "This is me, I've seen you do a lot worse than fail at reading a sentence."

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Lady screeched so loud his whole body tensed.

Dean stayed still as her screaming words echoed across the hard surfaces of the hallway, and flinched as the window at the end of the hallway loudly cracked. Lady's eyes went wide and her looked around as cracks appeared in the walls and floors. It sounded like cracking ice.

Lady's face went from bright red and angry to pale white and afraid instantly. And in the distance Dean heard the chirping of birds. "Let's go," Dean said, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her into a run. The floor beneath them was cracking and shuddering as if in an earthquake. Dean got Lady in front of him as the sound of birds, their mixed songs and flapping of wings, grew louder at their backs. Lady panted out a warning that Dean didn't understand, and the next instant the floor tilted up from under them.

Dean started to fall backward and released Lady so he didn't take her down with him. Dust and debris flew upward, his senses overloaded at the sounds and wild activity, he barely noticed that the flock of birds had reached them. Lady let out a terrified scream as they circled around her. Dean scrambled into action, trying to find her in the chaos and through the birds.

"NO! NO!" Lady shrieked.

Dean threw himself forward as he saw Lady being dragged. His fingers barely grazed hers and she was pulled from his reach. A door had appeared where there was once a window, and it swung open for the birds.

Dean scrambled to his feet, running after them. He watched the birds fly out the open door and Lady be dragged out. He was only a few feet behind them and the door slammed shut just as he reached it. He grabbed the handle and pulled it open to continue the chase.

The door opened for him, but it was a plain and empty room. The chirping of the birds were gone, Lady's screams were gone. He ran a hand through his hair in a nervous motion and though he doubted he'd hear a reply he called, "Lady!"

His voice echoed back to him, and when it faded there was only silence.

**A/N** - _Hope everyone is having a good labor day weekend. I do apologize that this is coming a bit late, and that we're ending on another cliff hanger. I hope to finish editing and get the conclusion up tomorrow._


	116. Dreams Part 2, March 2008

Sam watched as Missouri suddenly looked eager and quickly said, "Lady, girl can you hear me? Lady, please, you need to calm down and listen to my voice…"

Sam reached forward and put a heavy hand on Lady's shoulder as she thrashed violently. "What's wrong? What's going on?" he asked Missouri.

"I heard her…for just a few moments," Missouri frowned and looked down. "Something happened in there."

"Anything about Dean?" Sam asked, wondering if his brother had managed any progress, and worried about him at the same time. Bobby was still a day's drive away from reaching South Dakota.

Missouri shook her head, "Not that I saw. But this isn't good, Sam. She's really stuck in there."

XXXXX

Dean grimaced at the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He turned from the empty room and looked down the hallway. It was now dim and bare again. As long as he was in this dream then Lady was still there somewhere, and he had to find her. He had managed to find her once before

Moving fast, determined to find and rescue Lady from her own internal torment, Dean ran down the hall checking all doors until he came across one that wasn't locked. He walked through the door and stepped into the crazy fun-house type place he had wakened up in. Even knowing there was something deadly dangerous in there he kept moving forward. His eyes shifted cautiously as he tried to keep his footsteps quiet.

Testing the first door he came across it opened into what appeared to be a medieval torture chamber that got converted to a dentist's office. He glanced around, seeing no other exit he closed the door and moved on.

The next door opened into the nicely furnished childhood home. In a way he felt like he had gone in a circle, however this was unlike any circle he'd ever walked in. But it was something. He had every intention of running up the stairs and retracing his steps in an attempt to find Lady again, but the door slammed loudly behind him making his heart jump and stop in caution. He turned to look at it there was nothing but a wall behind him. The wall had hanging photos, a much-younger Lady in her awkward pre-teen years with her mother Winifred.

Dean took a moment to look over the house, while it was obviously the same house it looked different. Pictures on the walls, shelves with little ceramic knick-knacks, small details he was sure weren't there before. And he flinched a bit as music started playing from a old record player that he was sure wasn't there just a moment ago.

Dean frowned at the upbeat Motown song that began pouring out of the scratchy speaker. "Bernadette! People are searchin' for the kind of love that we possess. Some go on searchin' their whole life through, and never find the love I've found in you. And when I speak of you I see envy in other men's eyes, and I'm well aware of what's on their minds. They pretend to be my friend, when all the time..."

A chorus of other band members softly sang in the background , "Sweet Bernadette."

"They pretend to be my friend, when all the time they long to persuade you from my side. They'd give the world and all they own for just one moment we have known. Bernadette, they want you because of the pride that gives. But Bernadette, I want you because I need you to live."

There was a loud squeal and the record player began to smoke before the song faded into static. To get rid of the sound Dean lifted the needle of the record player. He turned around, planning to walk up the steps like he and Lady had done before, but the house had changed again. It was darker, some of those personal details like photos and ceramics had vanished. It was still nicely furnished…but it looked bare now.

Dean climbed the steps two at a time and reached the door that said 'BERNIE' on it. He swung the door open, hoping to find anything but what he saw before him.

A little girl's bedroom.

It wasn't right, in so many ways. It was hard to imagine Lady ever playing with a Barbie Dream House. A pink room with a few stuffed animals on the bed. Everything was cutely decorated, obviously spoiled with toys because they were all over the damn place. It was wrong that a girl who probably spent afternoons playing dress-up with her mother grew into a hunter. Something innocent turning into someone with violent tendencies.

Dean turned to leave the room, it was worse to look at than the mutilated body. Instead of stepping into the hallway of the house he stepped back into the strange multicolored place. He let out a low curse and went on high-alert again. Strange shaped shadows shifted eerily, soft scurrying sounds were within the walls. Wanting to get out of it as quickly as possible he went a few feet down to another door and opened it.

Standing down a long brightly lit hallway was a man in doctor's scrubs. He was holding a comically large syringe. "Time for medicine," he said in a raspy voice that gave Dean the creeps. Dean slammed the door shut on the creepy doctor, with Lady's hysterical fear of needles she wouldn't be there.

He went to the next door and stepped through. There was old hay on the ground, high ceilings, a barn. Dean searched his own memory of old abandoned barns such as this one, and his memory immediately went the ritual site that Garrett had taken Lady to. That had been one of the worst nights of his life. Arriving two minutes too late, barely in time to watch Lady be consumed by the power of the Goddess and turned into something monstrous and scarily powerful.

He tensed at a sudden movement at the far end of the barn, and relaxed when he saw Lady running toward him. And tensed again as he saw the unnatural movement of a woman moved swiftly behind her.

"I want them back, lunch!" the woman hissed through long vampire fangs.

"Shit," Dean uttered, reaching back to the door he had just come out of. He pulled it open as Lady neared him, both of them going through the open door and slamming it shut just as the vampire slammed into it.

Lady was panting for breath, every few moments a squeaky whimper came out. Dean leaned against the door and made sure it was locked. He waited, if a vampire wanted to break down the door they wouldn't have trouble. However after a few moments the pounding against the door stopped.

"Lady?" Dean looked at her. She had been a bit scuffed when he last saw her, but now her clothes were bloody and torn, several scratches and cuts from the birds covered her.

She looked up at him, still trying to catch her breath, "I'm…really…out…of…shape," she panted.

Dean couldn't help it, he let out a relieved chuckle and leaned against the wall by her. "You okay?" he asked.

She looked at him with disbelief.

"Okay, that was a stupid question," he admitted and pulled her toward him. "How'd you get away from the birds?"

Lady shuddered a bit and he felt her fingers tighten around his shirt. "They dropped me in the spirit realm. God, it was worse than I remembered it. A house just appeared there and I ran inside, then through half a dozen other crap places until I ended up being chased by vampires." She sucked in a shaky breath, "I'm sorry, this whole thing is really screwing with my head, I feel like I'm about to lose it."

"Yeah, I can tell," he said. He put his hand on the side of her neck and made her lift her chin, holding her like that until her eyes raised to meet his. "We'll find a way out, and get you to wake up." He pulled her close. She was obviously scared, and he had to hide his own fear. Holding her briefly he promised her, "I'm going to be with every step of the way, we're going to make it. No matter what, I have your back."

When he let her out of the hug she appeared more focused and ready. He took her hand again and looked around the strange colorful creepy fun-house like room. "Got a suggestion?" he asked her, looking at several weirdly shaped doors. "Might want to pick quickly, there is something big hanging around here."

"Let's see," Lady muttered, leading the way.

She passed several doors before opening one. Behind the door was a bar. It was more of a lounge. Nice tables with flowers set in the center, the chairs were upside down on the tables which made Dean assume it was after closing or before opening. A few comfy chairs and sofas in dim corners. The only people were on the stage, checking instruments and equipment. A sign on the wall behind the stage had a picture of a blue bird, identical to the one tattooed on Lady's ribs.

Dean immediately knew why Lady had chosen the door, this was where her mother worked. Singing and playing keyboard for a band. He didn't blame her for wanting to see her mother.

"Bernie!" A large man spotted her and immediately rushed to Lady. Dean barely recognized the man as Hank Legend. He had met the man last summer when he found out about Lady's past. Of course in Lady's dream he looked about fifteen years younger. "We've missed you."

"Get over here, Little Lady, best seat in the house," a woman said while setting a chair on the floor.

Lady moved slowly, her eyes shifting across the room warily. "Something wrong?" Dean asked.

"I don't know," she muttered. "I think we should keep moving."

"Bernie-Bear," another woman said from behind them.

Dean turned and was face-to-face with Winifred LaCroix. He still believed Lady and her mother shared a scary resemblance, it had completely fooled him once. Seeing them side-by-side he noticed subtle differences. Lady's nose was a bit smaller, her height a bit shorter, her curves a little less curvy, but the women could pass for sisters easily, maybe even twins.

"Hey, Mama," Lady said in a soft voice.

"Get over here, cuddle-monkey," Winifred said, pulling Lady into a hug.

"Say anything and die," Lady warned, glaring over her mother's should at Dean.

"What'dya say, babe?" Winifred pulled back to look at her daughter.

"Nothing, mama," Lady said softly.

"Sit that cute butt down while we rehearse," Winifred said, giving Lady a nudge toward the chair.

Dean followed Lady to the chairs and unable to help himself he snickered, "Cuddle-monkey." Which was quickly followed by, "Ow!" when she pinched his arm with her sharp nails.

Lady might have been a bit embarrassed at the terms of endearment her mother used, but she seemed more interested in experiencing this rare sort of dream. Dean avoided expressing curiosity about her past, even after it had been unearthed she had kept a tight lid on it, but that curiosity had never been completely satisfied.

Lady watched the stage, frowning deeply. "No, we need to keep going," she said, but didn't act on it. She stayed rooted in her place, watching the stage. The other members of the band were doing last tune-ups of their instruments, Winifred was taking a drink of water.

Without warning Winifred spit the water she had in her mouth.

"Freddie? What's wrong?" Hank asked, looking concerned.

"It's poison!" Winifred shrieked. Instantly changing from the confident woman he had seen on stage to a terrified lunatic. "Poison! Who is trying to kill me?"

"This isn't right," Lady muttered, looking more confused than concerned as her mother freaked out. "This didn't happen at the same time."

"These are still dreams, memories are just mixing together," Dean suggested. "Come on, you don't have to watch this."

Winifred turned accusingly at Lady, "It was you, wasn't it? You're trying to kill me!"

He had to pull Lady away from the scene, his arm around her tense shoulders. Lady's own head was working against her, tormenting her and wearing her down closer to her breaking point. He knew Lady could handle a quite a bit, but everyone had a limit. And he had no idea how to stop it, how to help her, get her to wake up, nothing.

With a sigh they went through the door and Dean closed it behind them to drown out Winifred's psychotic breakdown. Lady's shoulders slumped in defeat as they were back in her childhood home. "Sorry, that shouldn't have ended like that," Dean said tensely.

"Not a big deal," Lady muttered.

"Not a big deal? Your mother accused you of trying to kill her. I can't believe you put up with that," Dean muttered. He knew Winifred had serious mental issues that had scarred several parts of Lady's childhood, but he didn't understand why she dealt with it.

Lady looked at him with wide eyes, "She was my mother."

Dean chose his next words carefully, "I know. But...you should have been treated better. That right there wasn't right."

Lady looked away, "Sometimes you just have to deal with being treated poorly, and accept the apology afterward and move on."

Dean's lips parted in surprise at her easy dismissal. Lady didn't back down from things easily, that didn't sound normal for her. But at the same time hadn't she done the same thing to him? He admittedly was a jackass sometimes. His most recent display the previous week was far from his proudest moment. Hearing the Crocotta mimic his father's voice tell him not to trust her had sent him in a paranoid frenzy that made him say and do some crazy things. But she had dismissed it quickly, to his relief, and hadn't brought it up again.

He swallowed hard, "It still isn't right. You don't have to put up with it." And he knew she didn't have to put up with him. He was no prize catch. In a month he wouldn't even be around any more. Lady had proven a few times that she could vanish without a trace, easily be rid of him if she ever wanted to. But the only time she had done that was when he had told her to. He couldn't even count the times he'd done wrong by her, and if anyone else had done or said some of the things he had to Lady...well, he would have knocked the teeth right out of their skull.

"It's just what you do in order to stay with the people you care about," Lady said shortly.

"Yeah...I suppose," Dean muttered. That much he understood. His father hadn't been nominated for Father of the Year without reason. But still, Dean would have rather been treated as the good soldier than be without his Dad. John Winchester had some serious issues. Obsessed with killing evil and the demon that killed Dean's mother he hadn't been much of a father to Dean while he grew up. But even knowing his father's faults Dean still strongly wished he had his father's guidance right then. He had been stuck in Lady's head for what felt like hours, and they were no closer to getting Lady to wake up. Everything they did just sent them back to her childhood home or the strange colorful place, it was frustrating. His father would know a way out of this, he'd find the solution and fix everything.

Lady turned her head sharply, and Dean tightened his hold on her hand as he followed her gaze. His lips parted in surprise as he saw his father casually leaning against the wall and looking at them. "Dad," he gasped.

"Dean," John replied with a small nod.

Lady looked at Dean with wide eyes, "You finally learn how to use the dream root and this is what you do with it?"

"I...I don't know how I did it," he said quickly. He looked at his father. He knew it was a dream, that his father wasn't really there, but with hope he said, "Dad, we need help. We are stuck here and we can't get out."

John nodded, "Yeah, great work with that one, boy."

"We didn't know this would happen," Dean said.

"Should have expected it to happen, Dean," John said in disapproval. "Lady's crazy as hell, her mind isn't stable. No one should be playing around with it, hypnosis or otherwise. You are lucky you haven't gotten yourself killed so far."

"Crazy as hell is a bit of an exaggeration," Lady frowned. "Dean, let's just go through another door. Keep moving, keep trying, like you said." Lady squeezed his hand and gave him a pleading look.

"Maybe he can tell us something," Dean told her.

"Dean, he's not really here. If we don't know, he doesn't know," Lady said.

"I know plenty," John said, taking a step toward her.

Lady looked at John with wide eyes and shifted uncomfortably on her feet. "John, I'm sorry, you don't understand..."

"I understand plenty, too," John said with a frown.

Dean suddenly agreed with Lady's suggestion to just go through another door. The dream version of John was beginning to seem less and less like his father.

"Dean, you need to get out of here. Let her go, and you'll wake up," John said in a gruff order.

"I can't, not without her," Dean said, tightening his hold on Lady's hand as her grip slackened.

"She's a witch, and a liar, and a thief. She's nothing good, Dean. Son, listen to me and let her go," John said. He glared darkly at Lady, "Let him go."

"Let's go," Dean said, his hand gripping hers so tight his knuckles were white. He pulled her along to the closest door.

"No, Dean, wait...!" Lady protested.

"I'm not listening to that crap, we're going," Dean said, throwing open the door and stepping through. He reached back and slammed it shut behind him. "That wasn't right, he wouldn't have said that," he said in distress.

"Sounded right to me," Lady muttered. "Dean, you're hurting me."

"Sorry," he muttered and relaxed his fingers as much as he dared. "Dad wouldn't have said that crap. He would have sat down, figured out a plan and executed it. He never would have said leave someone behind."

"Dean!" Lady snapped.

Dean turned his focus to her. "What?"

"Look where we are," she said.

Dean took a look at their surroundings. They were outdoors, standing outside a nice suburban home. They were in a fenced in backyard. Nicely manicured lawn. "Where are we?" he asked.

"I have no idea," Lady admitted. She looked up at the cloudless sky and the stars, then around the area. "I don't recognize this. I...hm..."

"What?" Dean asked.

Lady shook her head, "I don't know. Let's try to go inside, see what we find."

Inside the house was mostly bare. Door frames had no doors, windows had no panes of glass, photos on the walls were blurry.

"This isn't a memory," Lady said, sounding excited. "I think this is something coming in the future. Distant future, that's why all these details are unclear or missing."

"How far into the future?" Dean asked.

Lady shrugged, "I don't know."

"Boring vision," Dean muttered.

Lady sucked in a gasp and turned to look at the door they had just gone through. The next instant he heard a distant howl.

"What was that?" Dean asked urgently.

"I...I..." Lady stammered. "I think that's a hellhound."

Dean balked. A hellhound? Why the hell would she have a hellhound in her head? But it quickly made sense to him, in a month hellhounds were going to come after him. He had avoided thinking about it, but he thought right then what would happen if he wasn't alone when the hellhounds came to pull his soul into hell. And here he got to find out through Lady's prophetic dream. But he didn't plan on sticking around that long.

His eyes went to the closest door, their only hope was that Lady's erratic mind let them step into another dream where they didn't have a hellhound chasing them.

"Come on," he said, pulling her the first few steps.

Lady let out a short whine as the door behind them crashed inward. Dean, unable to help himself, glanced over his shoulder. Hellhounds were invisible, but he saw claw marks appearing on the ground and could hear it's panting of breath and menacing growl.

"Dean!" Lady shouted a warning.

While running to the door and looking over his shoulder Dean didn't notice a rug on the floor. He lost his footing and struggled with his balance. Lady tried to keep him upright and running, but they both ending up falling.

"Run!" Dean shouted at her while she tried to get him back on his feet.

Lady paused for a moment, her hands trembling. She grabbed his pistol out of the back of his pants and aimed at nothing, emptying the clip. He heard the shots hit the beast. Barley out of the corner of his eye he saw the air shimmering in the outline of the massive beast. It was so close, almost upon them.

It gave him the second he needed to get onto his feet. He wrapped an arm around Lady's waist and pulled her behind him, racing to a door he prayed would put them into somewhere else, anywhere else. Without hesitating he pushed the door open and fell forward as Lady and the hellhound's weight crashed on him. For a moment the wind was knocked out of him and he was pinned, unable to do anything. But he felt a warm wet spray and heard Lady scream out painfully.

Dean saw her jeans tearing and blood gushing out below her knee, heard the snapping of bone as an invisible beast tore into her. Kicking out with his boot he felt it connect with the thing and barely managed to shut and latch the door against the beast. The door knocked and shuddered a few times, but the growling faded.

"Lady..." Dean breathed and looked at her laying bloody on the ground. Her right leg, from the knee down, was mangled and bloody. He wasn't even sure if she had a foot left. He pulled off his button-down shirt and ripped it in half, getting to work tying tourniquets around her wounds. They were back in the childhood home, but this time all the framed pictures had broken glass, the cute ceramics were broken on their shelves. "You're going to be fine, remember this isn't real, you are fine," he said as her face grew pale. He could say that all he wanted, but he was already scared that she wasn't going to wake up. "What the hell were you thinking?" he snarled.

"You can't go to hell, Dean," Lady said, her voice cracking as she fought tears. "I can't take it if you die."

Dean froze up as the tears began spilling down Lady's cheeks. Lady had always managed to keep herself together. Maybe shed a few tears here and there, but she was always quick to reign them in and retain control. He watched as her control broke down completely and for a few uncomfortable moments he didn't know what the hell to do. But without making a conscience effort he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her close. The leaking tears turned into full blown sobs on his shoulder.

"I can't keep losing people I love, it hurts so bad. I don't have anything left, all I have is you," Lady cried, clinging to him tightly.

Dean's jaw clenched down and he tightened his hold on Lady.

"I'm so scared because I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't want to be alone, and I don't want to be with anyone but you," Lady confessed. "And I shouldn't be. John said to stay away from you and I didn't. And if you knew that this wouldn't have happened."

"That's not true," Dean muttered, tensing as he heard glass of the windows and the plaster of the walls cracking.

"Yes it is," Lady cried.

XXXXX

"Missouri?" Sam glanced up at the psychic for a moment before looking back down at Lady. Tears were leaking from her closed eyes. Not just a few, but a river was running down her face.

Missouri leaned toward Lady, "Something is shifting, I can...I feel her closer. Lady? Lady, you need to hear me, to listen to me."

XXXXX

Dean was trying to think of what to say, if there was even anything to say. That he was sorry? He was, more than anything. That he felt the same, which was why he had risked taking the dream root to help her through this. Before he could even process his thoughts a bright light glowed through the cracks of a door that seemed to be a hundred feet away.

"Lady, you need to hear me, to listen to me," Missouri's voice was faint and distant.

Lady sniffed and shuddered.

"That's our ticket home," Dean said, gently removing her arms from him. She kept her head down, wiping at her face in embarrassment. Her chest trembled as if she might burst into fresh tears at any moment. "We need to get to that door," he said. Lady nodded, but didn't speak. For a moment she tried to put weight on her injured leg, but Dean got under her arm so she could use him as a crutch. His eyes watched the floor as cracks appeared. He wasn't sure if Lady had noticed them or not, all he knew was that soon they'd be out of this nightmare.

Lady was hopping to the door and paused before reaching for the door handle. She opened the door slowly and bright sunlight nearly blinded them.

"That's it, Lady, just a bit closer," Missouri's voice sounded stronger.

Lady's head turned, her eyes were wet and wide. The next instant Dean heard the sounds of birds. Chirping and cawing, thousands of wings flapping and sending the hairs on his arm to stand upright.

"Go," Dean urged Lady as the door behind them swung open to let the birds inside. He made sure she had the door to lean on as he let her go.

"Dean, no...!" Lady said hoarsely as he closed the door, separating them. "Dean!" she shouted through the door.

Dean stood at the door, guarding it as the birds crashed into him. He never thought birds to be all that frightening, but their combined weight nearly crushed him. If that wasn't enough they worked together, some tearing at him with talons and beaks, others pulling him. Unable to hold it in he screamed in pain as the birds were effectively working together to kill him

XXXXX

"One...two...three," Missouri finished.

Lady's eyes opened and she threw herself out of the chair. She stumbled as cramps clutched her legs, but Sam was right there. "Lady? Calm down, give yourself a minute," he instructed.

"Dean?" Lady looked around as her limbs began to tremble.

"He's at Bobby's, he had to go there for the dream root. Was he in there with you?" Sam asked.

Lady nodded, "Did he get out?"

"Just sit down, I'll call him," Sam said calmly.

Lady didn't sit, she fell back into the chair. Sam had his cell phone to his ear while Missouri sat next to her. "Give yourself a few minutes," Missouri said gently. "Everything is going to be okay, you will be fine."

Lady barely heard her, she was listening to Sam. "Dean? You okay?" There was a short pause before Sam quickly said, "She's awake, a little out of it though. Missouri is helping her." Sam listened for a moment and said, "Sure. See you in a few hours."

Sam sat on Lady's other side, "Dean's fine. He'll be back on the road soon."

"Get me out of here," Lady said hoarsely.

Sam and Missouri exchanged a look. Missouri spoke, "Honey, I think you need a few minutes to calm down. You were out for a long time, you need some time to rest."

"I don't want to be here," Lady said through her teeth.

Missouri looked like she wanted to argue but instead said, "Sam, maybe you should take her back to your motel. I'll drive you."

Lady was trembling within Sam's giant sweatshirt. She was experiencing phantom pains in her leg and all over. All the while she was paranoid that this was just a trick in her head, she wasn't sure if she believed she was really awake or not.

"Any idea why that happened?" Sam asked her once they were alone in the motel.

Lady liked Missouri, but they weren't necessarily close. She had stayed tight-lipped with a lockdown on her thoughts the whole time she was near the older psychic. Now that she and Sam were alone she tried to relax and stop from trembling. "Not really, no," she admitted. "I've never heard of that happening before. Well…other than the guy using dream root to kill, at least."

"So what happened? Were you able to find a way to block out the Goddess's memories?" Sam asked with gentle curiosity. It had been painful watching Lady for over fourteen hours, unable to do anything but wait.

Lady shook her head, "No. And I'm sure as hell not trying to do that again. But…pretty sure I got to witness something prophetic."

"Yeah? What?"

"Dean's last day," she answered, looking at her trembling hands. The phantom pains across her body were fading and tingling now. "Whatever we're doing to try and save him it isn't working."

Sam was quiet as she told him a few things that had happened, and respectfully didn't ask for more details than she wanted to give.

After being awake for a few hours Lady was still had tremors in her limbs, and she noticed fatigue growing on Sam. She checked the time, "How far out is Dean?"

"I'll call," he offered tiredly and pulled out his cell phone. He talked to Dean for a few moments before offering the phone to Lady.

"Yeah?" she said, having trouble holding the phone steady.

"Hey," Dean said on the other line. There were a few moments of silence before he said, "Well, crazy trip, right?"

"Yeah," she said flatly.

"I'm not even an hour outside of Lawrence," Dean said. "When I get there we'll head back to Bobby's. I talked to him, he should be there tomorrow."

"Yeah, okay," she said numbly, hanging up the phone and throwing it back to Sam.

She was certain what would happen when Dean arrived. There would be awkward silence, short questions with yes or no answers. And they'd go back to Bobby's, and she'd be left there. She didn't see any other possibility. Dean had seen her at her absolute worst. Her pride shattered, humiliated, she even broke down sobbing. He'd seen her weak and hideous. There was no reason he would want her again, or even look at her the same again.

In an effort to keep her trembling hands occupied she went through her bag, packing and unpacking, just wasting time until the familiar growl of the Impala's engine pulled up to the motel. Sam stepped out of the motel to greet his brother, and a few moments later Dean walked through the door.

Lady zipped up her bag, packed and ready to leave, before turning to face him. She had expected a look of disgust at the worst, at best for him to not look at her at all. But the look on his face was worry. "You okay?" he asked, taking a few steps toward her.

She was so sick of hearing that question, but she nodded. "Yeah, still working through the side effects," she muttered, trying to hide her trembling hands.

Dean's worry was replaced with relief, "I feel like I had ten espressos, I'm shaking," he let out a short laugh as he reached her. His arms circled her waist, resting comfortably on her hips. She could feel a light tremble in his limbs against her body.

Lady grew tense, and prepared herself to make it easy for him. "Your father hated me. If he knew we were together he'd tell you to cut your losses and get rid of me. It's true."

Dean looked at her seriously, "Maybe he would say that, but he's not around. Even if he was, wouldn't change the fact that I love your crazy ass."

Lady searched his face for a moment before wrapping her arms around his head, her muscles untensed and the trembling intensified. With her face pressed against his neck she replied, "I love your stupid ass."

XXXXX

Lady was relieved when the trembling and tingling left her limbs an hour later, but didn't get a chance to relax.

"Babe, I'm sorry this is happening," Dean said. "The deal...when I'm gone...just...I'm sorry."

Lady didn't want to talk about it, she was happier pretending it was a bad dream. However she couldn't understand why the hell he was apologizing to her, she wasn't the one going to hell in a month.

"I keep thinking about how I felt when you died, it hurt so bad. I don't like that I'm doing it to you," Dean continued. "Or to Sam. But you two...you'll be okay. You really will."

"You don't know that," Lady said tensely.

"I know you," Dean said. "You are a survivor. And a fighter. You are at your best when everything else around you is at its worst. You lean on Bobby or the Mason's when you need to, you are going to make it."

Lady tried to relax muscles as she hugged herself to Dean. She knew no one could actually die of a heartbreak, which she was still leading toward. She knew she'd survive, her life would continue. It didn't mean she wanted it to, though. She wasn't looking forward to the pain.

Feeling uncharacteristically open, Dean said, "My dad didn't hate you. To be honest I think he actually liked you a bit."

"Why would you say that?" Lady asked.

Dean shifted the arm she was resting her head on and with his free hand smoothed her hair down so it'd stop tickling his face. "Remember Colorado, about two years ago? He had sent you there to talk to Elkins?"

"Yeah, I remember," Lady said tensely. She remembered being treated like a grocery store for a week by a dozen vampires, and she did not like remembering it.

"He started driving to Colorado a day before they found Elkins' body because he hadn't heard from you," Dean told her.

Lady lifted her head, "That makes no sense. He was across the country in the middle of something while I was there."

Dean nodded, "He dropped it when you didn't check in with him." He couldn't help but smile at the disbelief on her face. "And when he pulled you out of that nest, and knew you were okay, he didn't even hesitate to put you to work." Dean started to grin, "And I remember being pretty damn impressed. Dad never worked well with others, but he was working with you. I didn't know you that well then, but after that I couldn't get over you. Here was this chick who was smoking hot, could shoot straight, throw knives and you even put up with my father. He didn't hate you. If he had he never would have worked with you, or had you help him." Dean's face grew solemn and serious, "In fact, the more Dad acted like he didn't like someone, the more he probably cared about them."

Lady let the information settle in as she rested her head back down on his arm. "So you think I'm smoking hot?"

Dean chuckled and pressed his lips against her forehead. "You have your good days." His laughter died quickly as he remembered what he had gone through, and what he had seen. He only had a month, he wasn't sure if he needed to spend that time trying to avoid his fate, or preparing Lady and Sam for it. He didn't know how to do either.

**A/N** - _These dream chapters were not easy to write. I was tempted to ask someone to help me proofread just because things got rather confusing in a few spots. I hope it's all coherent and you enjoyed the conclusion._


	117. Time is on my Side, April 2008

Bela Talbot stood in the middle of a crossroads, waiting for the demon to appear.

"Hello, love," a man said.

Bela turned and looked at him with caution. He was average height and build, dark hair and a snarky tone to his voice. "Crowley," she said, holding up the Colt. "I got it."

"I see that," he said, looking hungrily at the gun. "Well, hand it over."

Bela swallowed hard and did as she was asked. "That's it, right? You have the Colt, I keep my soul. I won't die."

Crowley looked over the Colt and once he was satisfied it was the real one he put it in his pocket. "Oh, so sorry, this Colt doesn't quite cover the costs of the deal," he said, giving her a fake apologetic look. "Bugger, that."

Bela's face fell, "I had a deal with Lilith. I got you the Colt, I keep my soul!"

"A deal? Did you seal that deal? Don't recall that you did," Crowley said, walking in a slow circle around her. "Ah, not going to cry, are you sweetheart?"

Bela looked at him angrily, "We had a deal," was all she could say.

"Ah, you are right. But afraid the boss wants something a little extra," Crowley said. "I'll give you one more chance."

"What do you want?" Bela asked.

"Kill Sam Winchester," Crowley answered.

Bela blinked in shock, "I practically handed him to you in Colorado. Your people should have finished the job then."

"Yes, I agree. However since he weaseled his way out of another gruesome death he's made Lilith rather anxious. She wants him dead, and she'll award whoever does so handsomely."

Bela nodded, "I'll do it. But I need more time..."

"Don't think so, darling," Crowley answered. "Tick tock, your time is running out. Ta ta, love."

Bela's shoulders shuddered as Crowley left, her time was certainly running out. She needed to work quickly if she wanted to save herself.

**April 14, 2008**

Sam opened his eyes and stayed still. He was quickly aware that something had woken him up, and he was trying to determine if it was a threat or not. He heard soft murmurs of voices just a few feet behind him...Dean and Lady speaking quietly while he slept.

They had gotten into Erie, Pennsylvania late the night before. They went to the first motel they came across, and the credit card Dean had would only afford one double room. At least by the time they reached the motel they were all so tired that they aimed for the beds to sleep, instead of the tug-of-war battle for privacy which usually happened when the three of them shared one motel room.

"Sleep okay?" Dean said in a soft voice to Lady.

"Mmhm," Lady replied just as quietly, making Sam realize they thought he was still asleep and were trying to not wake him up. "You?"

"Yeah," Dean said, and Sam heard the soft smacking sound of a kiss. "Crazy bitch."

"Stupid ass," Lady said and added a soft chuckle before another sound of a kiss.

Sam really wished he could go back to sleep to avoid this accidental eavesdrop. Most of the time he was spared any obnoxiously sweet moments between his brother and Lady, however since the hypnosis-gone-wrong those moments were happening a lot. And he got it. Lady had a fairly close call, for several hours her mind was in serious strain. Sam hadn't been given any real details of what she saw during that time. Combine Lady's recent survival and Dean's impending death the couple were being...well, like a real couple.

Not that they weren't before, but those two had to do everything ass-backwards. Their relationship started out as bickering friends with sporadic meetings for sex, now it was ending like the two were teenagers in puppy love. In a way it was sweet, but that wasn't a word he easily attached to either Dean or Lady. Lady could fake sweet very well, but he had seen her shoot witches and vampires between the eyes without flinching so she couldn't fake it for him.

But he was glad. Not just because while those two were on their newest ecstasy trip it kept them from arguing with each other, but because Dean was distracted and in a good mood. Which mean that Sam could work on his newest plan to save his brother's soul. Dean and Lady both thought they were looking into a zombie. Sam knew Lady was aching to cry 'witch' though she had managed to keep those thoughts quiet, but had been caught making sure her witch-hunting gear was still in good order.

"Mm, I love you," Dean murmured quietly, and did something that made Lady giggle.

"Okay, I'm up," Sam said aloud, sitting up. "You guys take the room for the morning, I'll be back in a few hours."

"You sure, Sam?" Lady asked. "It's early, we can just hang out here for a while."

"I'm sure," Sam said shortly. Giving them privacy was a nice thing to do, and he'd even bring back coffee when he returned. But while they enjoyed their time alone he could get some quick work done without them hovering around.

Dean rubbed a hand over Lady's back when the door closed, "How long is a few hours?"

"Anything between two and four," Lady decided. "I'm sure he'll be back early so we can go to the morgue to check out the body."

The past two weeks they had been spending a lot of quality time helping Sam research, trying to find a way to save Dean's soul. First they worked at Bobby's house, then they even tried trapping a demon and getting it to tell them which of the sulfuric bastards held Dean's contract. But it wouldn't talk. They were now in Erie to investigate a zombie.

Sam had found a newspaper report about a man who walked into the emergency room and dropped dead, his liver had been ripped out. Bloody fingerprints on the body were from a man who died nearly thirty years ago, which had them all believing zombie. Their first order of business was to check out the body and see if they could find any thing to help them out with the job.

Dean suddenly frowned, "Wait, we? You are coming?"

"Oh yeah," Lady said. The moment the brothers had mentioned zombie she thought of voodoo and necromancy. She had to bite her tongue to keep from saying 'witchcraft' and squealing like a little kid in a toy store, but she was really into this job. It was a change to the recent demon-hunting and soul-saving hopeless jobs they had been working, and while she'd rather Dean found a way to save himself there was no harm in destroying a witch while waiting for a new lead on demons. "I'm all over this like..." Lady gave Dean a nudge so he was on his back and she rolled on top of him, "like this," she said with a grin.

Lady was getting used to the new level of intimacy she was sharing with Dean. Sex had never been a big deal in her mind, she was very much a slam-bam-thank-you-ma'am type of lay. But having Dean inside her head, seeing her most hidden fears and humiliations and worst pieces...well it scared the crap out of her. But the whole time he had been fighting on her side, keeping her moving and focused, every step of the way he had her back. It was a level of trust she didn't know even existed. She thought she had a lot invested in Dean before, but it was different now. No other person alive understood her like he did. He pretty much had her figured out before, but now he had a whole new view on who she was.

And he hadn't ran. He hadn't left her behind, or dropped her off. He didn't act like nothing had happened, which was impossible. But things quickly returned to normal between them. In fact better than normal.

When May came she wasn't letting hellhounds take him without a fight. She'd do everything in her power to keep him from dying, she wasn't going to lose him.

XXXXX

Sam returned a few hours later, after a breakfast the trio got ready to leave.

"Why'd a zombie take a liver?" Dean asked curiously as he buttoned up his shirt.

"It's not the movies, Dean, they don't eat brains," Sam said.

"For being so important brain doesn't taste all that good," Lady said. "Liver, on the other hand...not bad. Kidney's would be a close second." Lady turned from the mirror where she had been fixing her hair and smiled at the two sets of staring eyes. "What?"

Dean shook his head, "The things you'll put in your mouth," he muttered. "Just say it wasn't human, lie if you have to."

"Pft, human doesn't taste good period," Lady said, and chuckled happily. "Calf liver, sheep kidneys. Once a cow tongue, and once chicken feet."

"That's just gross," Sam muttered.

"Crazy thing, not even talking for witchcraft, that was just cuisine," Lady said. She grinned uncontrollably as they both continued to look at her with disbelief. "You guys never try cultural foods?"

"Besides Chinese? No," Dean said.

Lady was surprised. They traveled the four corners of America and had never thought to try out local heritage restaurants for something different? However Sam and Dean were both creatures of habit. Same kind of motels, restaurants, bars, etc. They stuck with what they knew worked. She would have to try to get them up to North Dakota one time when Greta made lutefisk, that would be worth a good laugh.

Dean pulled on his suit jacket and took a few steps toward the door, "We ready?"

"Yeah," Sam said, patting his pockets to make sure he had everything.

"Yuppers," Lady said happily, taking a few skipping steps to Dean. She gave his tie a quick tug while smiling up at him.

"No, you aren't putting that filthy mouth of yours on me," he said in a joking tone.

"You better let me or there is one piece of meat that I'm never putting my mouth on again," she joked back.

"Oh, god, I need to bleach my brain now," Sam made a face and opened the door.

Dean chuckled and let Lady pull him down for a brief kiss before they had to leave. As they stepped out of the motel they got into the right frame of mind for their job. Sam and Dean were going in as detectives, Lady would be a police consultant. She rode in the backseat of the Impala, nibbling on a hangnail as the brothers talked a brief strategy in preparation for the interview with the coroner.

Lady tried to keep her excitement below noticeable levels as they reached the morgue. They were introduced to the coroner who had examined the body and she was quiet as the brothers started asking normal questions...well, normal for them, at least.

"Now, where the liver was ripped out, did you happen to notice any teeth marks?" Dean asked, looking at the doctor seriously while studying his face.

The coroner looked at them with disbelief, "Can I see your badges again?"

Without hesitation Dean and Sam did that, and Lady held up the small laminated badge Dean had made for her. She smiled sweetly at the coroner who looked displeased.

"Fine, so your cops, and morons," the coroner said. "The liver was not ripped out."

Lady moved to her tip-toes as the coroner moved to open a drawer and slid out a body. He moved a plain white sheet to show the dead man's stomach and reveal a rather clean looking cut. "It was removed. Surgically. By someone who knew their way around a scalpel. Didn't you read my report?"

"Of course we did," Dean lied.

"Obviously we didn't," Lady frowned.

"You done?" the coroner asked.

"Yeah," Sam said.

"Please go away," the coroner said.

"Yeah, just what I was thinking," Lady said.

Walking out of the morgue Lady frowned as she thought about what else could be going on.

"So that kind of punches a hole in our zombie theory, that scalpel thing?" Sam said, sounding upbeat.

"Yeah, zombie with skills. Dr Quinn, medicine zombie," Dean said and added a bitter chuckle that Sam joined in on.

"Maybe we're on the wrong track Dean, looking for hacked up corpses. We should look for survivors. This isn't zombie lunch. This is organ theft," Sam said.

"Then that doesn't sound like our sort of job," Lady said.

Sam looked at her with wide eyes, "What? It can be."

"Selling organs on the black market isn't supernatural," Lady said. "I mean, it's gross and not very clean. But not our type of thing."

Sam let out a rough laugh, "You getting rusty, Lady? Don't black witches take organs and use them all the time? This totally could be our type of job."

"Witches do use organs, however a liver isn't all that great to use. And besides, a witch isn't going to let a guy go after cutting him open. They are going to either sacrifice him, or kill him and get as much use as they can out of them. As disgusting as they are, they aren't very wasteful," Lady said, smiling happily that she got to share some information.

"It's still worth looking into, right?" Sam said, turning to get his brother on his side.

"While we're here, why not?" Dean shrugged.

Lady was more interested in returning to what she had been working on before they arrived in Erie and had Dean drop her off at the motel. While she went back to reading one of the books Sam was hoping had an answer to save Dean she was kept in the loop. As if bragging Sam called to tell her that they found a guy who had a kidney stolen.

In the afternoon the brothers returned to continue with research. Sam did the research while Dean went out to get lunch.

Dean sat across from Sam at the table while looking through the fast food bag. "Ranch? Where is my ranch? Dean? Did you forget the ranch?" Lady asked urgently.

"Jesus, Lady, take a sedative," Sam muttered.

"Mm, ranch," Lady said happily as Dean pulled out a few packets. She took them and settled on the edge of the bed to eat.

"So, I got a theory," Sam said, not even looking at the food Dean set in front of him. "I talked to the guy's doctor, turns out his incisions were sewn up with silk."

Dean chewed through his first bite of burger and said, "That's weird."

"Nowadays it is, but silk used to be the suture of choice back in the early 19th century. It was really problematic. Patients would get massive infections. The death rate was insane," Sam said in an educational tone. "Doctors, they had to do whatever they could to keep infections from spreading. One way was maggots."

Dean forcefully swallowed, "Dude, we're eating."

"I'm good. Continue," Lady said, licking some ranch off of her finger before taking a large bite of her burger. She was already looking at Sam's lunch, wondering how hungry he really was.

"It actually kinda worked because maggots they eat bad tissue and they leave good tissue. And get this, when they found our guy, his body cavity was stuffed full of maggots," Sam fought a smile at the look on Dean's face.

"Dude!" Dean set his burger down. "Okay, let me get this straight. People are getting ganked. Some, uh, Antiques Roadshow surgery, some uh, some organ theft. Why is this all sounding familiar?"

"Because you heard it before. When you were a kid. From Dad," Sam said with a grin, offering Dean their father's journal. "Doc Benton. Real-life doctor. Lived in New Hampshire."

Lady swallowed, "So this still isn't our type of thing. A rogue doctor isn't something we deal with, we should just give him up to the real cops."

"No, see, this is our type of job," Dean muttered. "Our dad hunted Doc Benton."

Sam looked at her, his face looked happier than she had seen him in weeks. "He was obsessed with alchemy. Especially how to live forever. Some of the first records we have of him start in 1816."

"Oh," Lady said shortly. "Never mind, I see why this is something we handle."

Dean turned, "Yeah. Every few years or so people turn up dead, or missing an organ or a hand, some other kind of part. Whatever he did worked, he kept on living long after he should have died. Parts would wear out, he'd replace them."

"When our dad hunted him he cut out Benton's heart," Sam added. "Sounds like he plugged in a new one."

"So we know the who, and the why," Lady said. "Which is more than we ever usually get. Are we lucky enough to know where to find this guy?"

"Actually," Sam tapped a few keys on his laptop. "We might be. Benton is picky about where he sets up his lab. He likes dense forest with access to a river or stream or some kind of fresh water."

"Why?" Lady asked.

"Because that's where he likes to dump the bile, and intestines, and fecal matter," Sam said, unable to fight the laughter as Dean looked with disgust at his half-eaten burger. "Lose your appetite yet?"

Dean thought about it a few moments and then shook his head, picking up his burger and taking a hungry bite.

Sam worked into the evening looking for possible locations to search for Benton on his laptop while Lady worked on learning alchemy.

"That is impossible," Lady muttered after listening to Dean read his father's journal entry on Doc Benton.

"Real immortality, sure sounds impossible," Dean agreed.

"No, immortality isn't all that complicated," Lady said. "Not easy to do, but not complicated. I just don't see how this can't be witchcraft."

"Any ideas on how to kill someone who is immortal?" Dean asked.

Lady frowned. She had once blown the brains out of an immortal warlock's head, just to have him vanish on her and later abduct and kill her. "No, not really."

"Guys, I may have a lead," Sam said.

Lady and Dean both crossed the room to look over Sam's shoulders. He had an aerial map on the screen of his laptop, "There are old hunting cabins along this river. They've been abandoned for years," he said, pointing at the screen.

"Then what the hell are we waiting for," Dean said, eager to get the job done.

Lady gave Sam a brief squeeze, "Nice work," she said before grabbing her bag to change into better clothes.

As they were getting ready Dean's phone rang and Lady looked up as Dean answered it. "Bobby?"

"Dean, I think I got a beat on Bela," Bobby sad.

"I'm listening," Dean said, nearly breathless. It had been months since they'd been anything close to Bela.

"Rufus Turner, a hunter. Or at least he used to be. He's mostly a hermit, but does a little selling on the side. Anyway, I put the word out on Bela months ago. He just called, said a woman got in touch, wanted to buy some things."

"And he thinks it's Bela?" Dean asked, glancing at both Sam and Lady who were staring at him with wide eyes.

"British accent, went by the name Mena Chandler," Bobby answered.

"She's used that before. Well that's kind of a sloppy move isn't it, getting in contact with one of your old friends?" Dean asked hesitantly.

"Friend? Haven't laid eyes on him in 15 years. And he's not the Christmas-card type. I doubt she knows I know him. He's in Canaan Vermont."

"Thanks Bobby, we're on our way," Dean said.

"One other thing. Take a bottle of Johnny Walker blue," Bobby advised.

"Okay," Dean said, slightly confused as he hung up his phone. Unable to help it a smile touched his lips, "We're going after Bela."

"What? Whoa! Hold on a second," Sam protested.

"Get your stuff, clock's ticking," Dean said, shoving things into his bag.

Lady went into the bathroom, haphazardly throwing things into her bag in a hurry to get going.

"Look, I think we should stay here and finish the case," Sam argued.

Lady came out of the bathroom, "Say what?"

"There's no way she still has the Colt. That was months ago. She probably sold it the second she got it," Sam said.

"Well then I'll kill her. Win-win," Dean said, zipping up his bag. "We're going."

Sam's jaw flexed and after a staring match with his brother he said, "No."

"Why the hell not?" Dean asked.

"Dean this, this here, now. This is what's gonna save you," Sam said urgently. "Immortality. Look Benton can't die. We find out how he did it, we can do it to you." Lady and Dean both stared at Sam with disbelief on their faces. Sam quickly added, "You have to die before you go to hell, right? So if you can never die..."

Dean unfroze and flipped out "Wait, wait, wait, wait a second. Did, did you know this was Doc Benton from the jump?"

"No," Sam said quickly. And then admitted, "I was hoping..."

"So the whole zombie thing, it was lying to us?" Lady said, a bit miffed that Sam had lied to her...and that she hadn't caught it. What the hell was wrong with her lately?

"Lady, you've been researching this with me. I'm right, aren't I?" Sam looked at her for support.

Lady frowned, and nodded. Sam's theory was correct, if they could keep Dean alive his soul would not be able to leave his body.

"See? I was just trying to help," Sam said quietly.

"You're not helping. You forget that if I welch on this deal, you die. Guess what, living forever is welching," Dean barked.

"Fine, then whatever the magic pill is, I'll take it too," Sam said in an even voice.

"No. We do just like Bobby's been saying. We kill the demon that holds the contract, and this whole damn thing wipes clean. That's our best shot," Dean told him.

"Even if you had the Colt, Dean, who you gonna shoot? We have no idea who holds the ticket," Sam reminded him.

"Well, I'll shoot the hellhounds then before they slash me up. Now, you coming or not?" Dean bargained with his brother.

"Look man, we're trying to do the same thing here. I'm staying," Sam said.

Lady kept her lips closed, seeing there was no way to convince either brother to change their minds. There was no question in her mind which one was right, and the only reason Dean didn't win the fight was because Sam was desperate and stubborn, beyond listening. Lady shouldered her heavy bag and gave Sam a sad good-bye wave as she followed Dean out the door.

For the first hour of driving the silence continued until Dean's inner thoughts spilled out of his mouth with an angry snarl, "I can't fucking believe him. Can you fucking believe what he's thinking?"

"He'll do whatever he can to keep you alive," Lady answered numbly. She'd been rather absorbed in her own thoughts of what Sam's newest plan had been.

"This is what will keep me alive. Find Bela, the Colt," Dean said, drumming his thumbs anxiously on the steering wheel until he decided he needed music to drown out any further conversation or thoughts

**April 15, 2008**

They pulled up to Rufus Turner's house in the early morning after a long drive. Lady slipped her arm around his as they walked up to the front door. Lady's eyes scanned the house and neighborhood suspiciously.

"We clear?" Dean asked in a low voice.

Lady and Dean had both agreed that the pieces of Bela surfacing after so long didn't fit, but neither of them could put their finger on what it was. However neither of them felt bad enough about the situation to ignore the lead. They just had to be watchful of stepping into another trap like the one in Colorado. "So far," Lady said as they went up the steps to Rufus's house.

Dean looked over the security system. A camera overlooking the front door, probably more surveillance cameras across the property, a speaker-system to avoid having to open the door. He pressed the call button on the speaker.

"What?" A voice barked through the speaker.

"Hi, Rufus?" Dean replied back.

"Even if I am the question is still the same. What?" Rufus barked again.

"I'm Dean Winchester, this is my girlfriend Lady, we're friends of Bobby Singer's," Dean answered.

"So?"

"You called him last night," Dean said.

"So?"

Dean looked at Lady and grimaced slightly. Rufus was being difficult.

"You told Bobby about a British chick making contact with you," Dean said.

"Yeah, and so?" Rufus said.

"Okay, pal, we just want to know where the bitch is, do you know that?" Lady barked impatiently.

"Yeah," Rufus answered.

"Great, will you tell us?" Dean asked.

"No," Rufus said.

"Of course not," Dean muttered. He ran a hand through his hair, "Look, Rufus, man..."

Lady grabbed Dean's arm and had him take a step back a moment before the door opened. Rufus Turner leaned against the door frame while holding a bowl of cereal. He was average height and nicely built, mid to late fifties, dark brown skin with dark curly hair with silver streaks. "I'm gonna tell you folks a little story. See once upon a time, Bobby called me, asked me to call him if I got a whiff of this Bela Talbot. I got a whiff, I called. The end."

"Okay, if, you could just tell me where she is, that'd be great," Dean said, watching Rufus cautiously. Obviously the old man was paranoid, but Dean wasn't sure if he was also dangerous.

"Dean Winchester and his girlfriend Lady, right?" Rufus asked.

"Yeah," Dean said.

"Do I look like I'm here to help you?" Rufus asked.

"I'm going to say no," Dean said with a cheeky smile. "Lady, does he look like he wants to help us?"

"No," Lady agreed while pulling the bottle of scotch they had picked up out of her bag. Rufus turned and his eyes widened as he read the label, and he even smirked. It hadn't been cheap, especially considering their current lack of money, but it looked like it was an effective bargaining tool with the old retired hunter. Which was good, because if he didn't accept the bottle of scotch then she would have broken it over his head.

Rufus took the gift and invited them into his house. "Have a seat," he offered as he pulled down some glasses. Lady's eyes shifted slightly, taking in their surroundings, while Rufus poured them all a glass.

"Mm," Rufus said, sitting down and taking his first sip. "You know, I don't even bother drinking unless it's this stuff. Nectar of the God's I'm telling you."

Lady had the knowledge to debunk Rufus's statement, but kept quiet.

"It's a nice change," Dean said, apparently enjoying his first drink. "Most of my whiskey comes from a plastic jug."

Lady looked sharply at Dean when he nudged her ankle with his toe. He glanced at her then at the untouched glass in front of her. Lady looked at him with a glare, she didn't want to drink from the glass. Maybe they had bought the scotch, but there were a ton of things Rufus could have put on or in the glass before he poured the drinks. No way in hell she was taking a sip.

"Something wrong with your drink, Lady?" Rufus asked.

Lady smiled sweetly at the old hunter, "I'm waiting to see if Dean passes out, changes color, croaks, chokes or anything unpleasant from drinking it."

Rufus chuckled, "Ah, you must be that Lady. Just Lady, right?"

She nodded, "Nice to see my reputation proceeds me." She turned and smiled happily at Dean, even a bit smugly.

Dean returned her smile and looked at Rufus," So, Bela was here because...?"

"She wanted to buy a couple of things. Which is gonna take me some time to round up," Rufus answered.

Dean held his excitement, "Where is she now?"

Rufus leaned forward, "Kid, can I ask you something?"

Lady bit the inside of her lip to keep from laughing. She'd never heard Dean be called 'kid' by anyone, and she sort of liked it. Enough time had passed that she trusted the drink wasn't poisoned so she took a small sip of the alcohol. She still preferred rum, but it wasn't that bad.

"Ask away," Dean said.

Lady turned and looked sharply at Rufus.

"You got 3 weeks left. Why you wasting your time chasing after that skinny, stuck-up English girl? You already got this one, can you handle a second one?" Rufus looked at him seriously.

Dean let out an uncomfortable laugh and looked at his drink, "How'd you know about that?"

"Because I know things. I know a lot of things about a lot of people," Rufus said. Seriously, maybe even a bit regretfully, he added, "And I know ain't no pea-shooter gonna save you."

"What makes you so sure?" Dean asked.

"Cause that's the job, kid. Even if you managed to scrape out of this one, there's just gonna be something else down the road. Folks like us, there ain't no happy ending. We all got it coming."

Dean let out another uncomfortable laugh, "Well, ain't you a bucket of sunshine?"

"I'm what you've got to look forward to if you survive. Which you won't," Rufus said, tipping his glass and taking a long sip.

"Listen, crusty, just tell us where the bitch is," Lady snapped impatiently.

Rufus turned and looked at her, "Hotel Canaan. Room thirty-nine. But you two better watch your back."

"We can handle Bela," Dean said, lifting his glass to finish it.

"Oh, don't be so sure about that. There are things that you don't know about her," Rufus said.

"And you do? Just because you know a few details about obscure people like us?" Lady arched an eyebrow.

"Yep," Rufus said, sounding amused at Lady's impatience.

"Let me guess, you lifted her fingerprint?" Dean asked. Rufus nodded. "And that got you jack," Dean said with a smile.

"Yep," Rufus chuckled. "She burned 'em off. Probably years ago."

"So you're right where we are," Dean said.

"Nope," Rufus took another drink of his scotch and chuckled again. "You do her ear?"

Dean and Lady exchanged a confused look. "Sorry?" Dean asked.

"You do her ear?" Rufus asked again.

Dean made a face and shrugged, "Hey man, I'll try anything once, but I don't know, that sounds uncomfortable."

"Ears are as unique to humans as fingerprints," Rufus said. "Course that don't fly in the courts over here, but in England? They're all over it. A friend of a friend, of a friend, faxed me 10 pages of confidential files within a day. All I had to send him was one clean shot off the security camera." Rufus finished his glass and reached for a file on his counter. He handed it over to Dean. "The so-called Bela Talbot."

Lady leaned over curiously as Dean opened the file. "Can we take this?" Dean asked.

Rufus nodded once.

Once outside and in the Impala Lady asked, "What's it say?"

Dean started the car and put it into gear. "Her real name is Abbey," Dean said.

"No shit? I could give a damn, what else?" Lady asked.

Dean let out a breath and shook her head, "Last summer Bela worked a case with us, a haunting. The ghost was targeting people who shed their own family's blood. That ghost targeted Bela. Me and Sam, being idiots, actually saved her. Anyway, Bela has no family. Other than her parents who died ten years ago in a bad car wreck. Police suspected a slashed brake line, but no one could tell. She inherited millions of dollars, never seen again."

"Sick bitch," Lady muttered. "How do we handle taking care of her?"

Dean opened and closed his mouth a few times in a frown. Lady had done what she could to keep them off of Bela's spirit board radar, but he didn't wholly trust Rufus not to tip Bela off. "We need to go in fast. But smart." Dean drummed his thumbs on the steering wheel in thought. "I got it."

Dean's plan took a few hours to prepare. Bela knew his car, so he parked it and borrowed a plain Ford Taurus. Lady staked out the hotel and integrated herself in with a few maids to get information about the British bitch in room thirty-nine, along with one of their key cards so they could gain entrance.

Inside Bela's hotel room Lady was a bit disappointed. It wasn't nearly as elegant as she had hoped, and Bela's shoes were a size nine so she couldn't even steal them.

They waited in the dark until Bela arrived. Dean pinned Bela against the wall while Lady locked the door and turned on the lights.

"Where's the Colt?" Dean asked.

Bela sucked in a gasp and looked at them with surprise, but quickly reigned it in. "It's long gone. Across the world by now."

"You're lying," Dean said, and grabbed her tightly.

"What the hell are you..." Bela struggled briefly.

Dean pulled out the gun from her pocket, "Don't flatter yourself," he said, handing the pistol to Lady. She looked it over, well at least she got one nice thing out of this.

"Don't move," Lady said as she began to go through drawers.

"I told you, I don't have it," Bela repeated.

"Oh yeah, I'm definitely gonna take your word for it," Dean said, backing up so he could look through a suitcase.

Lady turned and leveled the pistol with Bela's head, "I don't want to get in trouble for killing you before we find the gun. Don't. Move," Lady said threateningly.

"It's gone. Get on a plane if you must. Track down the buyer. You might catch up to him eventually," Bela said.

Dean and Lady exchanged a defeated look. As they expected the Colt was long gone, all that was left was Bela. Lady lowered her pistol as Dean stepped toward Bela.

"Are you going to kill me?" Bela asked him.

"Oh yeah," Dean growled.

Bela searched his face, "You're not the cold-blooded type," she taunted, leaning toward him.

Dean angrily slammed her back against the door, "You're right, I'm not like you. I couldn't imagine killing my own parents."

"How did you..." Bela gasped, surprised he knew her past.

"Doesn't matter," Dean said.

"They were lovely people, and I killed them. And I got rich. I can't be bothered to give a damn. Just like I don't care what happens to you," Bela said lightly.

Dean leaned back and leveled the pistol with her head, his face twisted into a grimace. Bela looked at him fearfully before closing her eyes in preparation for her death.

Lady looked down. She was eager to get this over with. For so many reasons Bela made her sick, but she was still human. She waited for the gunshot and following splat, then she'd help Dean clean up and escape. It wasn't going to fix their situation, but at least Bela couldn't screw over anyone else in the future.

"You aren't worth it," Dean said suddenly. "Let's go, Lady."

Lady looked at Dean with wide eyes. "I know we're low on cash but we aren't short on bullets," Lady argued.

Dean gave her a hard stare, "Let's. Go."

Lady ground her teeth. He was doing one of those looks where he was trying to communicate with her, but she didn't understand it. She let out a huff of breath and nodded. "But I'm keeping the gun."

Dean roughly pulled Bela away from the door and pushed her back so they could exit.

Lady was watching their back as they went back to their borrowed car, and glared furiously at Dean the whole way to where they had hidden the Impala.

"What the fuck, Dean!" she finally blew up once they were on the highway and knew they were in the clear. "You have gotten a hard-on imagining killing her, and we just leave?"

"I figured something out," he said. "And I did not, you were doing that thing to my ear."

"You know she's going to come back and fuck us over again, probably kill us before you can change your mind," Lady snapped.

Dean nodded, "Yeah, pretty sure she'll try to kill us tonight." He smirked a bit, "Her parents died ten years ago today. And you didn't notice but in her hotel room she had Devil's Shoestring on the door."

Lady frowned, even before she had taken up researching demons she knew that devil's shoestring was used to keep hellhounds at bay. "You think she made a deal with a demon?"

Dean nodded, "And I'm willing to bet she's been trying just as hard as I have been to get out of it. Stealing the Colt. And I'm wondering if that hoard of demons in Colorado were just a coincidence or if she didn't tip them off to where we were. So I'm willing to bet she still wants us dead. And tonight she picked my pocket."

"Why are you smiling?" Lady frowned at him.

"All she got was a motel receipt," Dean said.

"That means she knows where we are staying in Erie," Lady argued.

"Sure, but she doesn't know we know she knows," Dean smiled a bit.

Lady found it hard to resist his smile, "You are going to let her break into an empty motel room?"

"I'm sure as hell not going to be there when she comes to kill us," Dean said.

Lady sat back in her seat, "Wow, Dean, you are a vengeful son of a bitch." She looked across the seat to him and smiled, "That's really hot."

They were a few hours outside of Erie when Dean called to check in on Sam and have him get the first stage of the plan to fool Bela out of the way. "Dean? Did you get the Colt?" Sam answered the phone.

Dean sighed, "What do you think?"

"Sorry," Sam said. He could have just as easily said 'I told you so' but he didn't. Sam wasn't like that. "Listen, we might still have a chance. Dean I found Benton's cabin."

Dean tensed, "You okay? Was he there?"

"Yeah," Sam answered.

"Did you kill him?" Dean demanded to know.

"No," Sam answered.

"What do you mean you didn't?" Dean barked angrily.

"Dean, please, just listen for a second," Sam pleaded. "I found his lab book and it has the formula."

Dean was quiet for a moment before asking quietly, "What, the live forever formula?"

"Yeah," Sam chuckled happily.

"Let me guess, you got to drink blood out of a baby's skull?" Dean asked.

Lady opened her mouth to tell him that was a good way to promote hair growth and create thunderstorms, but closed her mouth quickly, deciding to wait until after he was done talking to his brother.

"No, that's the thing, it's not black magic. There's no blood sacrifice or anything. It's just science Dean," Sam said. "Very, very extremely weird science."

"Wait, what are you saying?" Dean asked.

"Dean, I think it may be doable. Between me and Lady, I think we can figure this out. I mean, I know we've hit a lot of walls, but I think this formula, I think it might be it," Sam listened to silence for a moment before adding, "This could save you."

Lady looked at Dean with wide eyes, only getting his half of the conversation. He looked like he was considering Sam's words, and he looked like he might be sick just by considering it. "Okay, so this formula..."

"Well, look, we're not in the clear yet," Sam was quick to say. "There are still things I don't get. But this is exactly the type of thing Lady is good at. It's not witchcraft, but she just understands these things. Let's have her look at it and..."

Sam was abruptly cut off and Dean heard a struggle through the phone. "Sam?" He said loudly. "Sammy?"

Dean closed his phone and pressed harder on the gas. "What happened?" Lady asked.

"I don't know, one minute we were talking, the next I heard him fighting. Then the call cut off," Dean said, worry crossing his face.

"You think Bela got ahead of us?" Lady asked.

Bela could certainly afford a plane ticket, but Dean doubted Bela could manage to get past Sam. "No, I think it's worse. I think Doc Benton followed him. Sam was at his cabin, stole his journal, probably really pissed him off."

Lady called Bobby to have him watch the GPS in Sam's cell phone.

"Dean, dealing with an immortal...I mean, it isn't like a vampire. I don't even know what this guy is like," Lady said.

Dean searched his memory, "Poison, we need to poison him. Once we do that we'll figure it out. That's what my dad did."

Lady nodded, "Okay. I have lots of poison. We can do that." Lady tapped her foot anxiously. "Sam was saying something about the formula to you."

Dean ground his teeth, "He found it. He thinks it could work, but thought you might make more sense of it than he did."

"Okay," she said softly. Alchemy was new to her, but she was just as desperate as Sam to find some answer. She turned her phone over in her hands, waiting for Bobby to return her call.

"I don't know what to do," Dean said abruptly.

"We find Sam. Save him. Get rid of Benton. Not all that easy, not complicated though," Lady said quietly.

"That's not what I meant," Dean said. "What if this is the only way to save me? Am I supposed to do it?"

"That's up to you," Lady said. "I don't know alchemy, Dean, I don't know the good or the bad. Or anything."

Dean gripped the steering wheel anxiously as he drove as fast as his car would go. "I shouldn't have left him. We got nothing, no where..."

"Finding Bela was important. Either way you would have been wondering 'what if' so don't start now," Lady said. She slid across the seat to press against him, offering a comforting hug.

They reached Erie when Bobby called back to give them the GPS coordinates of Sam's phone. Lady bounced in her seat, "His phone just stopped moving. Wherever he is he hasn't been there long."

Dean remembered the map Sam had shown him just the night before and started off in the right direction. It was after sundown when they got into the woods and it took half an hour of driving and twenty minutes of hiking for them to find a remote cabin with dim lights inside.

Lady checked her knife that was coated in poison, careful not to cut herself. It probably wouldn't kill Benton, but a small nick would definitely kill her.

Lady grimaced as she heard the future-sound of Sam yelling, and as she feared Dean surged ahead of her. Before she could even try and stop him bullets were being shot.

Lady followed Dean down narrow steps in time to watch a man throw him backwards. She had to pause in shock for a moment. Knowing Doc Benton was immortal, and had been a few centuries, she had expected him to look like a normal person. He looked far from normal. The skin of his face was stitched together, slightly different tones made it apparent they came from different people. There were similar scars on his hands, and she was sure the rest of his body, where he had replaced pieces and put them back together like puzzle pieces.

She got over her shock and threw her knife across the room at him. It stuck deep in his chest, and he looked up at her with one milky eye, his other was sunken and empty. "A knife? What part of immortality do you not understand? Pity about the heart though. It was a brand-new one."

"Good, should be pumping nice and strong. Sending poison throughout your whole body," Dean grimaced as he pulled himself back up.

Doc Benton swayed for a few moments before falling over.

Dean hurried to Sam's side. Sam was strapped to a table, his eyes taped open. "You okay, Sammy?" Dean asked as he began to release him.

Lady knelt beside Doc Benton, unsure how much poison something like him needed she used a dropper to keep putting poison onto his open wound so he'd stay out.

"I'm fine," Sam breathed, relieved to blink again.

Dean and Sam picked up Benton and strapped him to the table Sam had been on. Lady was surprised, after giving him so much poison to kill a room of people he woke up after only ten minutes.

"Hiya, Doc," Dean said with a cheeky grin.

"Please..." Benton groaned, still under the effects of the poison.

"Please what? You've been killing poor bastards for over 150 years and now you've got a request? Shut up." Dean rolled his eyes at the freak.

"You don't understand, I can help you. I know what you need," Benton muttered sluggishly.

"Might have to cut him up into little bits. You know this immortality thing is a bitch," Lady said. "Itty bitty pieces."

"I can read the formula for you. You know, immortality, forever young, never dying," Benton breathed, starting to become more coherent.

Lady went still, her face growing grim.

"Dean," Sam said, and nodded for them to move away from Benton.

"Sam," Dean growled in reply, but followed his brother.

"Dean, we're talking hell in 3 weeks, or needing a new pancreas in like, half a century," Sam said, pleading with his brother.

Lady looked at the floor. Chances of the three of them figuring out Benton's formula on their own within three weeks was unlikely. Benton would trade that information for his life.

"Yeah, well you can't exactly get those at a Kwik-E-Mart," Dean said uncomfortably.

"It's not perfect, but it buys us more time to think of something better. We just need time Dean. I mean please, just, just think about it," Sam pleaded.

Lady glanced at Dean who was struggling with the option. For a moment she was afraid of his answer. He was in a desperate situation, he had just recently got a glimpse of his own death, he knew what was coming and he wanted nothing more than to avoid it. Lady wanted him to live more than anything, but one of the things she admired about Dean was how he valued human life. He had opted not to kill Bela, though it would have been very easy and satisfying. If he decided to use Benton's formula eventually, one day, he'd have to take someone's life to continue living.

But Dean did not disappoint. After he thought about it he simply said, "No."

"Dean, don't you want to live?" Sam asked.

"What he is isn't living. Look, this is simple," Dean said.

"Simple?" Sam looked at his brother with disbelief.

"To me it is okay. Black or white, human, not human," Dean said forcefully. He walked back to the table that Benton was strapped to. Benton looked completely aware and focused now. "You see what the doc is...he's a freaking monster. I can't do it. I would rather go to hell."

Lady smiled sadly. Damn it, his righteousness was such a turn on.

"You don't understand, I can help you," Benton rasped.

"Dean..." Sam looked like he wanted to argue.

Dean looked between Lady and Sam, "Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me I am wrong," he dared them.

Lady shook her head and prepared the poison to knock Benton out again. The immortal man mumbled incoherently before being once again knocked unconscious.

Lady kept Benton unconscious as Sam and Dean dragged an old fridge outside. There was already a hole buried outside the cabin, probably so Benton could bury some of his bodies later. They chained Benton inside the fridge and dropped it in the grave.

"Lady, please, just look at this," Sam said urgently when Dean went to find shovels to replace the dirt.

Lady looked at Benton's journal. She took it in her hands, "Sam, it's not natural. It's unnatural in so many ways." She nodded toward the chained up coffin, "You want something like that for a brother?"

Sam looked at her sadly. She knew he didn't, but he was desperate to save Dean. They all were. She dropped the book into the grave, it should rot along with Benton. She put an arm around Sam's waist and gave him a squeeze, "You need to stop getting into these damsel situations, Sam. With your long flowing hair and pretty brown eyes people are already talking."

Sam let out a rough breath, not really amused at her bad tease but giving it some acknowledgment.

Dean returned with two shovels and the brothers began filling the hole. Halfway through filling the grave with dirt Benton began screaming as he realized what they were doing. But once they were done his screams were completely muffled.

They were back in Erie shortly before eleven at night, and didn't have any time to rest. They packed their things, made the beds, and hightailed it out of there. They managed to get Sam in on the details of their meeting with Bela while they were on the road.

Dean kept an eye on the time while he drove and as it neared midnight he called the motel room. Lady was exhausted, they all were, but stayed awake to see if Dean's theory of Bela was correct.

Dean, very confident he was right, put his phone on speaker. After two rings it picked up, but there was just silence. Smugly he said, "Hiya, Bela. Here's a fun fact that you may not know, I felt your hand in my pocket when you swiped that motel receipt." Dean chuckled as they heard her soft breath on the other line.

"You don't understand," Bela said in a soft voice.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I understand perfectly. Cause you see, I noticed something interesting in your hotel room. Something tucked above the door. An herb. Devil's shoestring. There's only one use for that, holding hellhounds at bay. Turns out your parents died 10 years ago today. You didn't kill them. A demon did your dirty work. You made a deal, didn't you Bela? And it's come due. Is that why you stole the Colt, huh? Try to wiggle out of your deal? Our gun for your soul?"

"Yes," Bela said, and sniffed loudly.

Dean smiled knowingly, "But stealing the Colt wasn't quite enough, I'm guessing."

"They changed the deal. They wanted me to kill Sam," Bela admitted.

"Really? Wow. Demons untrustworthy. Ha. Shocker. That's kind of a tight deadline too. Let's see, what time is it? Oh, look at that, almost midnight," Dean smiled as the clock showed two minutes to midnight.

Bela sobbed on the other end of the phone, "Dean listen, I need help."

"Sweetheart, we are weeks past help," Dean said coldly.

"I know I don't deserve it," Bela sobbed.

"You know what, you're right, you don't. But you know what the bitch of the bunch is? If you would have just come to us sooner and asked for help, we probably could have taken the Colt and saved you," Dean said, his voice losing some of the hard edge. Bela was going to die, she was going to be mauled by hellhounds and pulled to hell. He didn't like leaving someone to that fate, even if they deserved it.

"I know, and saved yourself. I know about your deal Dean," Bela said, sniffing loudly and regaining some composure.

"And who told you that?" Dean asked bitterly.

"The demon that holds it. She holds mine too. She says she holds every deal," Bela admitted. "Her name's Lilith."

"Lilith? Why should I believe you?" Dean asked in a low voice.

"You shouldn't, but it's the truth. Maybe you can kill the bitch," Bela said.

Dean was quiet for several moments before saying, "I'll see you in hell, Bela." He hung up the phone as the clock turned to midnight.

The car was silent for several miles. "Lilith is the one who holds your contract." Sam repeated Bela's information. He let out a rough laugh, "This is what we've been searching for, Dean. Now that we know what demon, we are closer to saving you."

"Don't get too excited, Sammy," Dean muttered.

"No, he's right," Lady said. "We just got this narrowed down by hundreds, maybe thousands of demons." She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Dean's neck from behind. They were going to save him, she had a good feeling about it.


	118. Counting Down, April 2008

**April 20, 2008**

_ Lady was running, as fast as she could but it felt like she was running through jell-o. Her limbs weren't cooperating, her feet sliding and dragging. The sound of howling hellhounds behind her sent the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She wasn't running from them, though. There was something there...something important she needed to see. If she could just find it before..._

Lady sucked in a gasp of breath as she woke up with a jolt. For a moment she looked around fearfully, not sure which was the dream. Running from hellhounds in a stranger's house or the plain four walls of the motel. Her heart was pounding in her ears and her limbs were quivering as if they were about to give out on her.

Dean's hand moved under the sheets and found her stomach. Sleepily he asked, "Everything okay?"

Lady fought a shiver as the cold sweat across her body sucked away the heat from her. She barely shifted to move closer to him when he pulled her across the bed effortlessly. With an easy movement of his arm he had the blankets unwound from her body and warmly covering the both of them. It was rather impressive in Lady's mind. Dean had learned to read her rather effectively. Lady may be the psychic but Dean could probably predict her better than she could predict herself.

"I had the prophetic dream again," Lady muttered. "There is something there, I just can never find it before I wake up."

Dean shifted to press his chest against hers and put his hand across her back. Her heart was jack-hammering away like she had just ran a mile, but all she had done was kick in her sleep for a few minutes. His own heart started pounding harder just at the memory of experiencing that dream with Lady weeks ago. "Babe, we're doing everything we can...but..."

"I've never dreamed of you," Lady said bluntly. "You've never been in this dream. We're going to figure it out."

Dean was quiet a moment before saying, "I appreciate the optimism but maybe it's time to be realistic."

"You've been in my head, I think you know I am pretty far from a realist," Lady said flatly.

Unable to help it Dean's lips curled in a smile, but it wasn't a happy smile. To be honest he was rather miserable lately. There was no more denying his future. He was scared, sad, depressed, angry, a whole swirl of everything had settled into the pit of his stomach making him feel so low he was almost ready for the damn hellhounds.

"Lady, I'm serious," Dean said.

Lady looked into his eyes, her face so close to his their noses were almost touching. "I was being serious, too," she said lightly. "We'll find a way, we aren't giving up and you can't either."

"I'm not," Dean said. As sick as his fear was making him he wouldn't give up. If it weren't for Sam and Lady he would have given up months ago, but as long as those two needed him he was going to do what he could. "If I ask you to do something, will you?"

"Of course," Lady said.

"When it's time...don't be there," Dean said. "I saw what you are going to do, and I'm not going to let that happen."

Lady was quiet as she remembered the horrific first time she had the prophetic dream of Dean's last day. The hellhound chasing them, grabbing her by the leg and tearing her apart. Teeth and claws as sharp as razors, tearing and crushing. She had felt it, but it had been numbed in the dream. But she had an idea of how painful it would be. "Dean, it will take more than the threat of losing a leg for me to back out."

"What are you going to do with all your shoes if you lose a foot?" he asked flatly.

Lady's eyes widened and her jaw clamped down until she couldn't take it any longer. She burst out in a fit of giggles and pressed her face into his neck. Dean's arms tightened around her and for a moment she thought he was laughing, too, until she felt a few wet drops on the side of her face from his eyes. It sobered her laughter immediately.

"I can't take it if something happens to you," Dean said emotionally. "God, every time I close my eyes I keep seeing that thing tear into you and I can't...it can't happen like that. If we can't find a way out for me...I mean that's just it. Just let it end with me."

For a long time Lady didn't know how to speak, for a moment she couldn't even think. As crazy as their lives were Dean was steady as a big strong stubborn rock. A rock that was fun to chisel at and climb on. That was definitely one part of him, but not all of him. Sometimes he hid his weaknesses so well she forgot they were there. She couldn't fathom the amount of pressure he was now feeling with his time coming up so close.

"We're finding a way out," she promised him quietly, wrapping her arm around his back tightly. "We've managed to get out of crazier situations, this is no different. We will find a way."

She hoped that she was right.

Lady didn't go back to sleep, there wasn't much point since dawn arrived soon enough. Dean didn't go back to sleep but had the appearance of someone who didn't want to drag their ass out of bed and do anything. She quickly understood it would take quite a bit of persuasion to lift his mood, but before she could get him up she would need a hot shower and coffee. She left him in bed watching the morning news and went into the bathroom.

When she exited the steamy bathroom less than half an hour later he was gone.

Lady frowned. Dean may have gotten the sudden urge to go out and get breakfast, not his normal routine but if he wasn't patient enough to wait for Lady he often went out to get something. Of course the stop in Indiana was just a pit stop for them to recharge the batteries and get a decent night sleep while on their way to Bobby's, maybe he wanted to get on the road to reach South Dakota before dark and was nudging Sam awake.

She glanced out the window and saw the Impala was gone. There were a few choices for breakfast, Dean would take the closest one to get coffee to go and whatever he knew her and Sam would eat. Usually no more than twenty minutes. Twenty minutes after her shower she was dressed and watching out the window, he hadn't returned. She tried calling his cell phone, it went to voice mail.

"Lady!" Sam began pounding on the motel door.

Lady let him in, "Yeah?"

"Dean ditched us," Sam huffed, still buttoning up his shirt.

"No, I'm sure he'll be back," Lady muttered. Not positive herself. In fact she had been worried into feeling nauseous until Sam barged in, now she had to work on keeping him calm.

Sam paced a few times, anxious without knowing where Dean was. Lady tried to assure him that Dean was just taking a breather from them, that he needed a few hours to himself, but nothing got through. The day was nearly upon them they didn't have time for Dean to go for a joyride. Stopping in Indiana had already wasted a lot of time.

"I'm going after him," Sam said in a strange voice, his shoulders straightening.

"He could be anywhere," Lady said, surprised as Sam went to leave. "Well, hold on, I'll come with."

"No, no...no, Lady, I, uh...just hang out here in case he comes back. I mean you are probably right, he'll come back. Stay," Sam said firmly.

"Oh..." Lady frowned as Sam walked out and slammed the door, "Kay..." she finished. "Stupid Winchesters," she uttered as she pulled her damp hair back to tie behind her head. "No way in hell I'm just hanging out here. Not a fucking doormat. Nothing fucking good on TV on Sunday as it is," she grumbled as she looked for clean socks

XXXXX

Dean drove around Cicero, Indiana for a good hour before deciding to stop at Lisa Braedon's house. Years ago he had spent a weekend with her, but a little less than a year ago he had gone back to visit her and rescued her and her son Ben from changelings. Originally he just wanted to check in, see if she was still at the same house, that the changelings didn't come back, that nothing had come back to haunt the town, Lisa, or Ben, or anyone. But he ended up at Lisa's front door, was warmly greeted with a hug and invited inside before he really understood what he was doing.

"Can't really stay long," Dean said as Lisa led him to the kitchen.

She looked at him hopefully and asked, "Do you have enough time for a cup of coffee?"

"Yeah, I suppose," Dean nodded, and returned the wide smile she gave him. "Where's Ben?"

"In his room, playing video games," Lisa answered as she got to work making coffee. She let out a bit of a nervous laugh and kept her back to him as she asked, "How long are you in town?"

"Not long," Dean answered. "Just passing through, really."

Lisa turned and smiled prettily as she set a cup of coffee in front of him, "You know, I still don't feel like I got to thank you properly. I'd love to make you dinner. Your brother, too."

"I, uh...that's nice but uh, no just no time," Dean said. "I really just wanted to..."

Dean's words cut off as a bird began chirping violently outside the window.

Lisa let out a sigh, "Sorry. Birds are nesting in that tree, every now and then they go crazy if a squirrel is too close." Lisa cross the kitchen quickly and slammed the window shut to drown out the noise. "Weird, I don't remember having this window open."

Dean shifted uncomfortably as the tweeting became muted. He could still see the robin flapping it's wings in a warning while it's tiny beak opened wide to screech. Ever since witnessing Lady's phobia of birds he hadn't liked the feathery bastards much himself. And he looked down at his hands as he thought about his girlfriend. He had left while she was in the shower. She'd called a few times already, so had Sam. He wasn't doing anything wrong, but he suddenly felt guilty as sin for sitting at Lisa's table. "Listen, I just needed to check on you and Ben, make sure you were doing okay. I really should leave."

"Are you sure?" Lisa asked, looking like she didn't want him to leave.

Before Dean could confirm there was a thundering sound of someone running down the steps. Shortly after Ben appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, "Dean!"

Dean let out a short laugh at the kids excitement and grinned, "Hey, Ben. How you doin'?"

Ben went into an excited talk, about his school, games, a girl, a new CD, a movie he wanted to see.

It was the first time he had been able to steer his thinking away from his impending death in weeks. He would have stayed longer, but every time his phone vibrated in his pocket he was reminded that he had people waiting for him, people spending a lot of time and energy into saving his ass.

Lisa walked him to the door and gave him a farewell hug that lingered longer than necessary. He felt soft lips brush against his cheek. Ah, so many reasons he liked Lisa. But he just gave her a smile and a final, "Take care of yourself...and Ben," before turning to walk back to his car.

His shoulders tensed as he saw a familiar shape sitting in the passenger seat. He groaned a curse but got into the driver's side. Sam was sitting patiently and staring straight ahead.

"You followed me?" Dean asked accusingly, starting up the car and beginning to drive.

"No, I didn't follow you. I tracked you down I mean, once I thought about it, it wasn't that hard to figure out where you may have gone. I mean, you are the one who wanted to stop in Indiana late at night. You vanish when Lady is occupied. Don't tell anyone where you were going. Or that you were going," Sam shook his head. "I can't believe you. You know, I should say I'm here because I was worried about you or something. But honestly? Finding out what you've been doing, I don't even know," Sam turned to look at his brother.

"I just came to check in on Lisa, we just talked," Dean said.

"I know, I saw," Sam said.

"What's with the look, then?" Dean snapped.

"You can't talk to me?" Sam questioned. "Or Lady?"

"I wanted someone different to talk to," Dean said dismissively.

"Fine, okay. I wonder how your manic witch girlfriend will like that," Sam said.

"Will you not freaking call her a witch?" Dean snapped angrily.

Sam ignored him. "I understand why you wouldn't want Lady to know."

Dean looked in his mirrors, "Did she come with you?" It wasn't like he had really done anything to warrant a guilty feeling, but he wasn't sure what Lady would think about it. He was not looking for a fight or getting the cold shoulder from his girlfriend, he had enough crap to deal with that he couldn't take it on top of everything else. Her effort to be optimistic and happy was the only thing keeping him from putting a gun to his head and ending it a few weeks early.

"No, I told her to stay at the motel," Sam said. "I wasn't sure what I'd find when I got here."

Dean briefly glared at Sam, "I wouldn't cheat on Lady."

Sam frowned, "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry."

They reached the motel in the early afternoon. Dean's stomach dropped when he walked into the room and Lady wasn't there. Had she followed Sam? Had she seen something and taken it the wrong way? Did she run? Months ago she had seen a dream version of Lisa telling Dean that she loved him. She hadn't erupted in anger, but she hadn't been happy. Mostly she was confused and hurt. Out of the hundreds of dreams she stared in she dream-walked on the rare one where another woman was in there. Dean couldn't explain it, Lisa appealed to him in a few different ways. But he also couldn't explain why he felt the way he did about Lady. And he couldn't explain why he continuously did stupid things to piss her off, he really didn't mean to.

"Hey, babe," Lady said cheerily, walking in from behind.

Dean blinked a few times, surprised to see her. "What where you?"

"I was bored," Lady said, looking apologetic. Then angry, "You know what, no, I get to ask you that question because you are the douche that left and hasn't answered his phone all morning."

"Just for a drive to clear my head," Dean lied smoothly. "Sorry."

Lady smiled, "Its fine. I went out and got a few things."

Dean saw the bag she was carrying. It had what looked like cut up branches, leaves, berries and flowers. Things he didn't recognize at first glance, but if Lady thought they were valuable he'd put up with them in his car.

"We leaving soon?" Lady asked.

"Yeah," Dean answered. "I'm just going to take a shower before we leave."

"Okay, I want to mix a quick protection spell, then I'll get us packed up," Lady said with a bright smile. Dean returned the brief kiss she stretched up for before going into the bathroom.

Lady's smile vanished once Dean was behind a closed door. She grabbed the silver bowl she traveled with and dug through the bag of freshly acquired items. At the bottom carefully cushioned was a pair of robin's eggs.

When Dean exited the bathroom he smiled at the smell. "Did you ever go get breakfast?" he asked, suddenly hungry. Starving.

Lady smirked, "No, never made it that far. Here, take a whiff of this."

Dean obliged as she held the bowl under his chin. It was a woodsy smell, clean and sharp, with something sweet. Lady bit back a smile as she saw Dean visibly relax and be uplifted by the simple aromatherapy. Too bad it would only last a day at best. She'd be lucky if it lasted until they reached Bobby's.

"Smells really good," Dean said. "What's it do?"

"Just a good vibes thing," Lady said.

"Nice," Dean nodded as he grabbed some clean clothes.

Lady stuffed the mixture into a cloth and tied it up so she could take it with her until the smell faded. Then it would be useless and could be thrown away. "Dean?"

Dean zipped up his jeans and smiled at her, "Yeah?"

Getting Dean into a better mood wasn't as easy as it used to be. And she doubted she would manage to get him there again before things were done with. "Listen, not that you need any more motivation to figure this out, but you know when we do this, we save you, there isn't much keeping us in this life."

Dean looked at her in confusion.

"What I mean is, we save you, we get rid of your deal...we have so many connections between the two of us that we can retire. Hang up the guns. Get a permanent place of our own, just...no more driving twelve hours every damn day. No more putting our lives on the line. No more of this."

Dean's confusion melted away into surprise, "That's not really our style."

"First, I'm the only one of us that has any style," Lady said firmly. "Secondly, why not? You said once that it was something you wanted." She didn't remind him of when he said it, she just wanted to make sure he knew if that was what he wanted she wanted to be the one he did it with.

Dean nodded, "Yeah, but you don't."

"I'm a woman I'm allowed to change my mind," she snapped, getting a bit frustrated that he wasn't taking her offer how she wanted him to. "Dean, I don't know how good at a stationery life I could be, but for you I'd try. And I'm usually pretty good at the things I try."

"Yeah, you are," he muttered as he looked her over. He smiled a bit, she could picture him imagining it in his head. "Let's work on saving me, first."

Lady nodded quickly. She'd do what she had to do in the future. It wouldn't be a clean break, she knew that much. There would be months, maybe years, of both of them transitioning into a different kind of lifestyle. If either of them ever could do that. But she'd try it. Get a house, call it home. Hell, if he demanded it maybe even a kid of their own. Anything and everything. If Dean wanted some domestic life, well, she'd find an apron and bake him a damn cake, and change her name to Betty Crocker.

**April 26, 2008**

Lady had been working her ass off. All of them had been working every waking hour of the day since they reached Bobby's. Reading books, calling all around the world, searching the internet. All of them doing whatever they could think of, even when they knew there was very little of nothing out there to be found.

Lady was focusing on finding a way to discover a powerful demon. She'd already tried a few tracking spells, but of course they had backfired. Lilith had to know the brothers traveled with a witch and had protected herself appropriately. But that didn't mean everything.

Lady and Maxine debated over the phone for hours. The conversation sounded like a fight, but each time one of them got louder they got more productive. Mixing the unique and scarcely known Native American magic with Lady's broader knowledge created a new spells that no one had ever seen before, which meant not even a demon would know how to hide from one.

When the breakthrough finally came Lady let out a squeal of excitement and began jumping on her bed.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" Lady's voice cried as the bed springs complained and the bed thumped against the wall.

Dean looked up and glanced between Sam and Bobby who were with him in the living room. "Well it's obviously not me poking her right now." Dean looked at the wall for a moment and frowned, "Wow, she's really loud."

Sam got up from the table, rushing down the hallway to see what Lady had discovered.

The bedroom door was open so Lady's happy chant was easy to hear. Sam reached the doorway first to see her jumping on the bed, and took a few steps in. "Lady, what is it?"

"Yes!" Lady gave one last cheer while she jumped off the bed.

"Shit," Sam barely hissed the instant he realized she was jumping right on top of him. He barely braced himself to catch her and stumbled back against the wall with her momentum. Her arms and legs were wrapped around his body and before he could suck back the breath that was knocked out of him her mouth was on his in a happy kiss that ended in a big smacking sound. "Ugh! Lady, don't!"

"No tongue?" She laughed at him. She kissed his cheek loudly. "You can put me down now, Sam."

"Sure," Sam released his hold on her thighs.

Dean and Bobby were at the doorway, and Lady wasted no time in wrapping her arms around Dean's neck to give him a tight squeeze. His mood had been rather gloom and doom since they reached Bobby's and each day turned up nothing new or promising dragged his mood down further. She finally had some good news. "Maxine and I are putting together a tracking spell. I'm going to North Dakota. I need to test it, but I have a good feeling we can use it to find Lilith."

"You are sure?" Dean asked.

"You forget who you were talkin' to?" Lady gave him a devilish grin. "You guys stay here, keep doing what you are doing in case this backfires. I'll be back as soon as I can." Lady dragged her fingernails through Dean's hair, her eyes bright and excited. She locked her mouth onto his, wishing he would join in with her excitement but settled for what she got with the confidence that she'd get to keep him around for many years to come.

**May 1, 2008**

It had been a busy and hectic few days in North Dakota, but in the early morning hours Maxine and Lady had managed to successfully create a spell. Right then it was brewing, so Lady was sitting on the scarred cliff top that over a year ago she had split in half while holding the power of the goddess. She took slow breaths of the cool pre-dawn air as she slipped into a meditative stance. Her original plan had been to rest, recharge a bit because she had to drive back to Bobby's. She thought about her prophetic dream, trying to focus on it. She still believed something important was there, something she wasn't seeing. She had seen the house Dean had been in when hell hounds came for him, she wasn't sure if that would still be in the same place. She looked for details, to make the vision come to her, to see through what was missing.

Lady sucked in a breath as she felt herself slipping into a deep meditation. Not unlike hypnosis, and it startled her. She made sure she was aware of her surroundings. The wet ground below her, the smell of fishy lake water, the sound of the water lapping at the rocks below her. Once sure she had control she let it happen. She was back in the prophetic dream and it wasn't as clear as it used to be. That wasn't bad, in fact she saw that as a good sign. That something they had seen, or done, since the dream-vision was first viewed had altered their future.

Lady shuddered as her vision shifted out of control. She took deep breaths as she reigned in control so she could push herself out of the meditation. But before she could she stopped at what she was being shown. It was similar to her visions, it consumed all of her focus and attention. But unlike her other visions no one was dying. It was very clear. Dean and Sam were sitting in some no-name motel, Sam at the table and Dean on the edge of a bed. She was there, too. She couldn't see herself but she knew that she was somewhere in the motel with the brothers. Quickly she took in any and all details she could see. Dull red wall paper. Paisley printed blankets. Dirty vertical blinds pulled back to show outside. She part of a 'No Vacancy' sign, but not the name of the motel. And across the parking lot a line of trees with empty branches. It meant it was autumn in that vision.

"Lady! Snap out of it!" Maxine shook her roughly, ending her episode.

Lady took a few pants of breath and blinked her eyes furiously. The vision was still vivid in the back of her head. Not a nuisance like her other visions, just there. Not taking her focus, but it was like a warm memory. A smile spread across her face. Dean was still going to be alive when autumn came.

"Are you insane?" Maxine asked her.

Lady looked up at Maxine seriously, but was unable to remove her happy smile. "Why do you ask me that?"

"Meditating? Lady...after that hypnosis went nuclear it's not safe for you to bury yourself in your own thoughts, okay? And remember, your own thoughts also mix with the Goddess's thoughts, it's dangerous. I doubt Dean has the time right now to dream-walk into your head to pull you out again," Maxine said angrily.

Lady just smiled, Maxine was angry because she cared. Nothing could ruin her good mood, not after that vision.

"How'd it come out?" Lady asked, noticing Maxine was holding a ceramic bottle.

Maxine held up the bottle, "This is highly flammable, toxic, dangerous, and the nastiest thing I have ever helped you make."

"Including that time we..."

"Including that," Maxine interrupted her. "But it will work. Go get the bitch."

Lady got to her feet. "Without a minute to spare."

XXXXX

Dean got up and walked stiffly to Bobby's kitchen. He made a face when he saw the coffee pot was empty and internally debated on whether or not to refill it. He hadn't gone to bed, he couldn't sleep with the twisting concern in his stomach and buzzing in his head. He needed caffeine to focus, to stay sharp, any edge he could get. Bobby had managed to pass out in the recliner, but Sam was still tirelessly working. With a tired sigh he started a new pot of coffee, he'd stay awake until Lady made it back to Bobby's later in the day.

While the coffee brewed he went to the bathroom. He splashed cold water on his face and tried to rinse the sour taste that had been in his mouth for days. He had a day and a half to live…god he didn't want to die. It was all he could think about and it was making his skin crawl.

Deciding that the cold water on his face wasn't enough to sharpen his focus he thought a cold shower was needed. He went into the bedroom he shared with Lady to grab some clean clothes, but paused when he noticed his bag was half empty. His focus snapped into place as he pulled out his clothes, looking for what was missing.

"Hey, everything okay?" Sam asked, appearing at the doorway.

"Some of my clothes are gone," Dean muttered, trying to remember through the fog of fatigue in his brain what happened to them.

"Oh, yeah, I did a load of laundry." Sam said.

"You what?" Dean snapped, taking angry steps forward to push his way past Sam and down the hall.

"I cleaned out your pockets," Sam said when Dean was halfway down the hall.

Dean froze immediately and turned. Sam was holding up a small box between two fingers. "Give that back."

Sam held his hand out, offering it to Dean. "Can we talk about this?"

"No," Dean barked, grabbing back the box and stomping away, going out the front door and into the cold spring morning to lean against his car.

He looked at the small box, turning it over in his hands to make sure it was unmarked but not wanting to open it to see the contents. And he tensed as Sam followed him out after a few minutes, but didn't walk away.

Sam leaned against the car next to his brother, "You serious?"

"I don't know," Dean muttered. "I saw it in a pawn shop when I was offloading some junk last week. And I just…I don't freaking know, man."

Sam nodded slowly. "Can I see it?"

Dean handed over the box for Sam to examine. Sam had already looked at it before, but again he checked out the small black velvet box before carefully opening it. Inside, nestled in black crushed velvet pillows smaller than his pinker finger, was a silver engagement ring with a few small diamonds and rubies sparkling on the band. When he had found the ring in Dean's jeans pocket earlier that morning he hadn't known what to think. But more and more Sam saw it as a good thing. His brother had, at least temporarily, had enough hope that he'd be alive long enough to give Lady the ring.

"Lady and I have been together a long time," Dean said. "And I don't want that to change. I don't plan on it changing. Her and me…" Dean shrugged, he had no other words to explain it.

"When are you going to give it to her?" Sam asked.

Dean took the box back and shoved it into his pocket, "Sam, I don't think I'm going to be alive after tomorrow. I can't…I'm just not going to do that to her."

"Yeah, you are right. Save for the celebration after we save your ass," Sam said.

Dean closed his eyes, he hoped he got that chance. He and Sam went back into Bobby's house. Dean took his shower and went back to work until he fell asleep on a stack of books. He jerked awake in the early evening when a truck pulled into the lot.

He stood up and glanced out the window in time to see the truck come to a jerky stop and Lady jump out. She ran to the front door and burst through it before he could take a few steps toward it. She made a beeline for him, jumping into his arms, kissing him forcefully after not seeing him for days. "Mmm, I missed you," she said, holding him tightly.

He smiled and kissed her again, he had certainly missed her. As a distraction, a warm body to hold, and from what she had said she had what they needed to save his life. A way to find Lilith.

"Lady," Sam was right behind her. "You got it?"

"I sure do," she said with a wide grin. "Give me half an hour and we can find Lilith."

Bobby cleared off a table and let Lady set up the strange instrument she brought back from North Dakota. "Mason had to build it. He does good work under pressure," she commented as she set up the strange pendulum and the legs to hold it upright and suspended.

"This looks a bit like that witch's compass," Sam muttered.

"That's right," Lady said.

"But don't we need blood to work those?" Dean asked. The pendulum was about a foot and a half tall, several times larger than the one they had seen before.

"This is something new Maxine and I came up with," Lady said. "Trust me. Maxine and I tested it on each other, this works. Lilith won't know we are tracking her, and this will bypass any protection she has."

Once the instrument was set up a map of the United States was placed under it. Lady took time adjusting the legs. A demon could be anywhere in the world, or underworld. Their only shot was if it was above ground and masquerading in some poor bastards skin. Lady only had so many chances to do the spell, but if they demon was outside of the states they didn't have a chance at all.

Lady poured the toxic liquid she had made in North Dakota into the bowl at the top of the pendulum and began saying the spell while giving the pendulum a nudge for some momentum. She focused her thoughts into the spell, urging for the pendulum to lead her to the powerful demon Lilith.

They all held their breath when Lady finished the spell and the pendulum stopped on the map. "Indiana," Bobby announced.

"Get me a map of Indiana," Lady ordered.

After half an hour Lady had their location, not just a town but a street address to go to.

"You are sure this thing is that accurate," Sam asked, his eyes wide as he watched the pendulum.

"I wish people wouldn't ask me if I was sure or not," Lady huffed. "Yes. That's where the demon is."

"Okay, let's go," Sam said.

"Whoa! Whoa, hold on," Dean said quickly.

Lady looked at him with wide eyes, "Dean, this is the bitch holding your contract we need to go. She can move at any time."

Dean cleared his throat, "Yeah, I know, okay? But, come on, first of all we don't even know if Lilith holds my deal. We're going off of Bela's intel and when that bitch breathes the air comes out crooked. Second, even if we could get to Lilith we have no way to gank her. And third, isn't this the same Lilith that wants Sam's giant head on a pike? Should I continue?"

"Ain't you Mr. Sunshine this evening," Bobby grumbled.

"What else are we supposed to do, Dean?" Sam asked urgently.

Dean looked at the pendulum pointing to New Harmony, Indiana. "Just 'cause I gotta die doesn't mean you have to, okay? Either we go in smart or we don't go in at all."

Lady nodded, "Fair enough. We need a solid plan before we try and rush uber-demon."

"If that's the case I have the answer," Sam said. "A surefire way to confirm it's Lilith and a way to get us a bona fide demon-killing knife."

"You aren't summoning Ruby," Dean gave him a hard stare. "She's the Miss Universe of lying skanks. She told you she could save me, a lie. She seems to know everything about Lilith but forgot to mention Lilith owns my soul!"

Sam nodded, "Yeah, she's a liar. But she's still got that knife."

"For all we know, she works for Lilith!" Dean argued.

"Then give me another option, Dean. I mean, tell me what else can we do?" Sam challenged him.

"Sam's right," Bobby said.

"No!" Dean shouted. "Damn it," he growled, and looked angry enough to hit something. He took a moment to reign in his flaring temper and more calmly repeated, "No. We are not going to make the same mistakes all over again. If you want to save me, find something else."

Dean shook his head and without looking at them left the room.

"Where are you going, Bobby?" Sam asked as Bobby pulled on a jacket.

"I guess to find something else," he said.

Lady and Sam waited for Bobby to leave the house before looking at each other. Sam broke the silence, "We need something to kill Lilith, that knife is the only thing we have a chance at getting."

Lady nodded in agreement, "Yeah, but summoning Ruby is a very stupid idea. No way to convince Dean to do it."

"I know, he's looking down the barrel of this right now and he's still so damn stubborn," Sam said painfully. "Lady, you have to keep him distracted the rest of the night."

Lady let out a sigh, and nodded. Time was not on their side, if she had to play double-agent between the brothers to save Dean's soul so be it.

She found Dean outside sitting in his car, engine running and a tape playing loudly. She got into the passenger side and slid across the seat to be next to him. After a few moments he hadn't moved so she pressed her chin into his shoulder, and then slowly he tilted his head to rest against hers.

"I'm not getting out of this," Dean said miserably.

"Yes, you will," Lady said. "Like you said, we just need to go in smart, and that's what we'll do."

"We have no way to kill Lilith," Dean said.

"Then maybe you should first work out a plan to get what we need to kill Lilith," Lady said.

"We ask Ruby for help she'll want something from Sam in return. No more damn demon deals," Dean said.

"I agree," Lady said. "We should just steal the knife."

Dean was still for several moments and then nodded, "Screw over the demon before she can screw us over." He pressed his face into her hair, "I think I got a plan."

**May 2, 2008**

Lady felt her stomach squirm as the clock struck midnight, twenty-four hours to go. Bobby was in the house tracking down leads. Sam was out getting what he needed to summon Ruby. Summoning a demon wasn't easy, doing it safely was even harder. But Lady made sure he had the right information, and was getting what he needed from the right places. Otherwise he believed she was keeping Dean occupied.

Dean stayed occupied, making devil's traps in the garage where Sam would be doing the summoning ritual. He drew them in black charcoal, they were nearly invisible in the poorly lit garage. Once traps were set for Ruby they went back into Bobby's house.

"You should get some sleep," Lady said.

"You should talk," he muttered, seeing the dark circles under her eyes and chuckling as she fought a yawn.

Lady let him pull her to the bedroom, doubting either of them would actually get some sleep. Lady knew somehow Dean was going to survive, but she didn't know exactly how. She was so very tempted to tell him of her vision, seeing him alive and well months into the future, but it had to wait. If she told him he may put his guard down, ruining the vision and causing his own death. He had less than twenty-four hours to wait, they were all going to survive to see another day, she'd wait to tell him 'I told you so' until after midnight.

"This is my last day," Dean muttered as they settled into the bed.

"No, it isn't," Lady said, using the same optimistic tone she'd been using for weeks. "We're going to do this, we're going to save you."

"I know you are all going to try real hard," Dean said. His knuckles moved across her cheekbone and his fingers slipped into her hair. "Lady, if I make it…" It was hard to have hope, he was so scared. Making plans for the future was a way of showing hope, that he believed he'd make it. Something deep in his gut told him he wasn't going to. "No matter what happens, I just think that…"

Lady watched as he struggled and couldn't help but smile. "I love you, too."

Dean smirked, "Yeah, in so many words that's what I was getting at." He pulled her closer and kissed her, soft and slow to hold onto the sensations. He loved her. He had been thinking a lot lately just why the hell he did, and he didn't have one solid answer for that. He loved her wit, the way she looked when she got pissed off and how she could switch from angry to perky in a snap of a finger, they way she looked in a pair of jeans, how she knew how to push his buttons and knew when to step away, her stupid bravery, her crazy stunts, how she twirled a knife. All these things and more he hadn't thought about yet, they all got to him one way or another. Not always in a good way, but in the end the result was always the same. He loved her. And the best thing was he knew she loved him right back. If he made it out of the deal alive, he was going to marry her. Step away from the dangerous life, get out of it and stay out of it. But in case he didn't make it out alive and this was his last night he decided he needed to make it count within the few hours they had alone.


	119. No Rest For The Wicked, May 2008

**May 2, 2008**

Lady peeked out the window to the garage, her hand on Ebony's head scratching lightly. In that garage were two men she'd kill for, when she didn't want to beat them over the heads, and she sort of wanted to beat one of them over the head. Dean trusted Lady with his life, she knew he did. However that sometimes backfired on her in possibly dangerous situations, which was why he told her to sit back and wait while he went to trap Ruby and steal her knife. And she was wondering when she started obeying his orders.

"Kid, help me out, will ya?" Bobby asked gruffly.

With a sigh Lady went back to working on the arsenal. Ivory was purring happily while stretched out on Bobby's lap. It was obvious that the cat was a hindrance to Bobby's movements, but Bobby seemed more interested in not disturbing the cat while working. Unable to help herself Lady snorted a laugh.

Bobby looked up at her, "What the hell is so funny?"

"I just realized a new use for the term pussy-whipped," Lady snickered.

Bobby gave Ivory a few rough scratches before nudging him off. Bobby hadn't been too fond of the cats a year ago, but he'd been living with them the past several months. Ebony and Ivory had grown on him. For cats they didn't shed too horribly, they dealt with the mice in his garages and basement, and when they went to the bathroom outside they buried it. They were good pets.

Lady and Bobby both went quiet when the door opened, Dean and Sam both entered the house. Dean had a bloody lip and a scrape above his eye, Sam was walking a bit stiffly. But Dean held up the knife to show they had been successful getting the knife from Ruby.

"We left her trapped in the garage," Dean answered before anyone could ask.

Lady nodded to him. Once Lilith was taken care of Ruby was next on the list. Her and any other demon stupid enough to show up on their radar.

"I'm going to check Lilith's location, make sure she hasn't moved," Lady said.

"I'll secure the garage, can't have anyone show up and free the bitch," Bobby uttered.

Lady went into the other room, listening to Sam and Dean softly talking in the next room. She couldn't pay attention to what they were saying as she used the spell to find Lilith, and she relaxed considerably when she saw Lilith hadn't moved.

"Lady," Dean said softly behind her.

"We're good to go, she's still in New Harmony," Lady said, turning to face him. "Sam pissed at me?" Sam had originally asked Lady to run interference with Dean, but instead she went right to Dean to work out a plan to go against him.

Dean shrugged, "He'll get over it."

Lady couldn't help the smile pulling at her lips as he got closer to her. She wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around his head and whisper right in his ear that everything was going to be okay. But she held it back, fearful if she told him about her vision that showed a future with him in it something would happen to destroy it. That warm vision was still bright and active in the back of her head, she couldn't help but be giddy.

"So, while Sam is getting ready why don't we fillet Ruby and get it over with?" Lady asked quietly.

Dean frowned and shook his head, "Not yet, she's running her mouth about something. We don't have time to figure out what, but tomorrow I think it's worth sticking this knife in some non-vital parts to make her talk."

Lady narrowed her eyes, "What was she saying?"

Dean was quiet for a moment, trying to determine where his brother was by the sounds of the house. Deciding Sam in the other room couldn't hear he said, "His psychic crap, she wants to wake it back up."

Lady shook her head, "He's hasn't had any visions since Yellow-eyes died."

"I know. But Ruby said it's still there somewhere," Dean muttered.

Lady studied him with concern. Gently she put her hand on the side of his face. She looked at the rough red skin, slightly swollen and painful. "She's a demon. Everything she says is a lie. Even when it's mixed with truths." Lady looked hard into his eyes, and saw he wasn't going to change his mind. She didn't need to educate Dean on demons, he knew more than she did. But if Ruby had information regarding Sam's freaky psychic abilities Dean wanted to hear it, if only to make sure they didn't come back. Lady nodded once, accepting that Ruby was going to be a task for the next day. "Okay, I get it."

"Thanks," Dean breathed. "At least Ruby confirmed that Lilith holds my deal, and apparently she's on vacation in Indiana. Not sure what that means, but she won't be expecting an attack."

"When are we leaving?" Lady asked.

Dean's hazel eyes were dark and nearly brown in the dim room, but even the dark couldn't hide the worry lines. "You aren't coming."

"Like hell I'm not," Lady said.

"Please, don't..." Dean began to plead.

"You need me," Lady said flatly. "We're cutting this real close, Dean."

"Believe me, I know," Dean said. "But it doesn't change, I'd..."

"Stop being a chauvinistic righteous dick," Lady said. "Normally I think it's cute that you think you can get your way, and normally I just let it happen because it's easier for me, but not today." She bit back her smile as she saw there would be little resistance from him. His muscles unwound as he rested his head against hers and held her gently in his arms. He didn't have the strength or energy to put up a fight. Not after several days of poor sleep, a fight with a demon, and an argument with his brother. Whatever steam he had left he needed to save it for Lilith.

"You just..." he said quietly.

"This is going to work," Lady said firmly, wishing he'd hear the real sincerity in her words but knowing he thought it was weak optimism. "You'll see, tomorrow we're sleeping in late. Binging on junk food, sex, and whipped cream before and after torturing and killing a demon. It'll be fun."

Dean held onto that for a few minutes, letting himself experience the tiniest of smirks. There had been a few nights, sometimes whole weekends, doing something like that so imagining it was as easy as falling into a memory. He closed his eyes and held Lady closer, his face in the crook of her neck as he took a slow breath. He could see it in his head clearly. A motel bed stripped of blankets, clothes forgotten on the floor, the two of them going at it with desperate need and love for each other.

"I love you, too," Lady murmured, not letting him say it himself out loud. She knew the only reason he wanted to say it was because he felt like he had to in case he died, but he wasn't going to die. Not today, at least. After they finished Lilith she could cover him in bubble wrap and take him to the safety of North Dakota. They'd get a house set up in the country near the Mason's. She could blackmail Louis, the man who falsely believed she was his illegitimate daughter, into getting the two of them false identities. But in North Dakota they'd have little use for them. Dean could work in Charlie's garage, or just take up professional beer drinking. Lady would work at the Casino, or work on interfering with the creation of a beer gut on her partner. Maybe Sam would retire with them, move to North Dakota and have something serious with Erin. Or maybe...

Suddenly Lady couldn't avoid a large grin stretching across her face. She realized what she was doing, she was thinking about her future. For years she never thought she had a future, but here it was. She was planning a future, thinking of possibilities of her and Dean. They weren't just random thoughts, they were serious. Not well thought out, she wasn't very good at the future-planning thing, but they were based off of a real desire to have some safety and security with Dean.

She couldn't wait to share her ideas with him after they saved his soul. Excitement overtook her and before she knew it her arms were wrapped around his head and holding him there for a needful kiss while her legs crawled up his.

"Uh...guys, we're running short on time," Sam said gently from the doorway.

Lady heard him just fine, and Dean tried to end the kiss but she needed just a few more moments in order to share her excitement and glee with Dean, while not revealing anything. When she let the kiss end Dean's eyes were wide, looking at her with a beautiful mix of surprise, confusion, lust and that excitement she wanted to give him. She gave him one much softer and shorter kiss and a flashy smile, "Promise me you won't get fat."

Confusion became the dominant feature on his face, "Huh?" Dean blinked a few times.

"Guys, we need to hit the road," Sam said, letting more urgency show through his tone.

"Yeah, right," Dean said, nodding as he tried to get his weird girlfriend's actions to the back of his head.

Lady smiled up at Sam. He was trying to stay hopeful for Dean's sake, and he painfully returned Lady's smile. In her own way of sharing her excitement she grabbed a handful of Sam's rear as she walked past him, "You guys want to skip now, or later? I feel skippy today," she said loudly, and giggled lightly as she skipped out the front door and toward the Impala until she saw Bobby leaning against his truck and frowning at her. It was the truck she had taken to North Dakota and immediately she thought his frown was because of something she may have done. Her mind quickly began to wander to if she had left less than a quarter tank of gas, pulled the emergency brake, dented it...something that Bobby would have decided to give her one of those looks. Before she could think of anything Bobby's eyes went to Dean and Sam who were following behind her.

"Goin' somewhere?" he asked roughly, looking at the keys in Dean's hand.

Dean nodded, "Starting the trip to Indiana."

"Not without me, you ain't," Bobby said.

Dean looked down, "Bobby, I don't even like that Lady is coming along. This is about me and Sam. It isn't your fight."

"Like hell it isn't," Bobby argued. "Family don't end in blood, boy."

Dean nodded quickly. He hadn't meant to make it sound like he didn't consider Bobby part of his dysfunctional family. "I know, sorry. It's just..."

"You idjits need me," Bobby said, staring fiercely at Dean. "You're playing wounded. Tell me, how many hallucinations have you had so far?"

Lady arched a curious eyebrow. "Hallucinations?" She turned to look at Dean, her grinning face completely gone and replaced with surprise and worry. Dean's eyes were wide, surprised at what Bobby had said, but not denying it.

"How'd you know?" Dean asked roughly.

"Because that's what happens when you've got hellhounds on your butt. And because I'm smart," Bobby said.

Sam was looking at Dean with the same concern, "You are hallucinating?"

Dean shifted his eyes to Sam, appearing slightly embarrassed, but didn't say anything.

"Don't worry, babe, I see things all the time," Lady assured him. That type of assurance didn't seem to make Dean feel any better at all.

"Kid, ride with me I might need to doze a bit," Bobby said in an order.

"'Kay," Lady obeyed easily and walked to Bobby's truck. She got behind the wheel and started it up.

XXXXX

Lady was driving along the highway as the sun set. They had just gotten into Indiana, but still had a few hours until they reached New Harmony. Bobby was sitting as comfortably as he could and was resting his eyes, he couldn't actually sleep with Lady behind the wheel. However Lady was behaving herself. The Impala was a few car lengths behind her, her and Dean had taken turns passing each other for fun and so far he hadn't felt the need to pull in front of her again.

Lady's foot left the accelerator and her hand went to her cell phone as her future-sight warned her that they were about to have a cop car on them. The future-sight wasn't far enough into the future to prevent the cop from spotting them, but she wanted to get a call out to warn Dean.

Her phone was dialing his number when the cop lights flashed in the darkness far behind her. She was slowing to pull over, so was the Impala behind her. "A little late warning, Lady," Dean answered his phone in a bark.

"Sorry. I can get rid of him just..." Lady began to offer. All she had to do was get the cop to chase her so Dean and Sam could continue their trip to Indiana.

"No, NO!" Dean said firmly, quickly understanding what she was suggesting "My taillight is out, it's just a ticket. Get back on the road, Lady."

"Lady, we can't sit on the shoulder," Bobby had woken and was watching out the rear window tensely as a uniformed officer strutted up to the Impala.

"We just need...Dean...what...fuck!" Lady screeched as she tried to keep things straight in her mind. To her right Bobby was about to jump or was jumping from the car swearing, from the phone Sam was shouting at Dean, behind her she was watching Dean jab a knife into the policeman's chest. So much happened in just a few seconds that she was out of the truck and halfway to the Impala before her head caught up. "What the fuck?" Lady screeched at the dead body. She knew they were in a hurry but killing a cop wasn't going to save them time.

"Dean just killed a demon," Sam answered. He looked at his brother with wide disbelieving eyes, "How did you know the cop was a demon?"

Dean looked as stunned as the rest of them, "I just did. I saw his real face...his face under that face," Dean muttered. "God, it was awful."

Lady looked anxiously down the road each way, "We can't hang out here with a dead cop."

"No, we can't," Sam said. "We can't leave it here, either."

Lady fidgeted, not liking the situation. They were going to lose valuable time. However the Winchesters wouldn't risk police coming after them if they could avoid it, whether they had five hours or fifty years left to live. She did what she could to help by getting behind the wheel of the police car and drove it to the nearest group of trees a mile away, the dead body in the backseat. Once the car was off the road everyone pitched in to cover it with branches to prevent other motorists from seeing it

"So, you are seeing demons?" Lady tried to sound conversational, but she was too curious to manage that.

"I don't know, okay," Dean answered tensely, not enjoying what was happening to him.

"It's not unheard of," Bobby said, sounding matter-of-fact and unimpressed.

"How is this not crazy?" Dean asked ,demanding to know. Sure, his brother was once psychic and his girlfriend was kooky as hell, but he wasn't. Never had been, never would be, and shouldn't be.

"Well you've got just over five hours to go. You're piercing the veil, Dean. You're glimpsing the B side," Bobby answered. Dean looked confused so Bobby continued, "You're almost hell's bitch. So, you can see hell's other bitches."

Dean's eyes widened in surprise, then slowly he worked on smoothing out his features.

"Well, actually it could come in pretty handy," Sam said. Lady smiled at him, rather proud he had found something optimistic to say.

"Oh, well, I'm glad my doomed soul is good for something," Dean muttered bitterly.

"Damn right it is. Lilith's probably got demons stashed all over town. We can't let them sound the alarm. She knows we're here, we're dead before we're started," Bobby said.

"Well, this is a terrific plan. I'm excited to be apart of it. Can we go, please?" Dean asked sharply. He gave the poorly hidden police car one last look before turning to walk back to the vehicles. The cop car would probably be found the next day, but by then they'd be gone.

For the rest of the drive Lady was in the passenger seat. Lady nibbled on her thumbnail as she watched the darkness outside the car and had to make an effort not to bounce in her seat.

"How much damn sugar did you eat today?" Bobby said suddenly.

"Mm, less than usual," Lady said. "We're about to face off with Lilith. She wants Sam dead, is leading the demon army you guys let out last year, and owns my boyfriend's soul. Sort of hyper, anxious, excited. Want to sing showtunes with me?"

Bobby shook his head, "No, something is going on in your head. What is it?"

Lady sobered quickly. She closed her eyes and smiled slightly at the pleasant vision in the back of her mind. Nothing was happening, just her and the Winchesters in a motel room...but it was wonderfully happy because it told her they'd all be alive months from now. Keeping it to herself she told Bobby the same thing she had been telling Dean, "We're going to do this, and save him."

Bobby let out a breath, "I sure as hell hope so."

Once they neared New Harmony they stopped on the side of the highway so Lady could once again perform the tracking spell. Satisfied that Lilith still had not moved they continued, driving as far as they dared before going the rest of the way on foot.

Lilith was currently in a very nice residential neighborhood. Nice enough to say 'Hey, we have plenty of money and a big house' but not nice enough to be a secured and gated community. Lady suddenly desired a wrought iron fence to go around her own house and added it to her mental future-planning.

"It's the little girl. Her face is awful," Dean said, his head over a tall wooden fence to look into a house. "The other people in there are human, they look terrified."

Lady looked up at Dean, who was standing on Sam's back in order to see over the fence. Sam winced as Dean jumped off, then slowly stood up himself. "Okay, let's go," Lady said quietly.

Lady paused before taking a step, her eyes wide as she looked at Dean. Her future-sight had warned her any movement would have resulted in a quick grab and yank of her arm. She arched a questioning eyebrow Dean.

"See the real go-getter mailman?" Dean said quietly, nodding the direction to the street where the top of a mail truck could be seen. It was nearly eleven at night, they barely had an hour. "And Mr. Rogers over there," Dean pointed to a house across the way, a man was sitting in a recliner positioned at the window.

"Demons?" Bobby asked.

"Yes," Dean said.

"Fine, we ninja past those guys, sneak in," Sam said.

"Then what? Give a Columbia necktie to a ten year old girl, come on!" Dean hissed.

"Get me close enough, knife through the heart or skull," Lady offered. "Twenty feet, I can throw that knife and hit her without a problem."

Dean looked at her with disbelief for a few moments before Sam said, "This isn't just about saving you, Dean. This is about saving everybody."

Bobby nodded, "She's gotta be stopped, son."

Dean grimaced as he thought about the small girl. Blonde hair, probably bright blue eyes, that was currently possessed by the demon that held his contract. "Damn it," he uttered, knowing they were right. It was horrible, it would be something that would no doubt haunt his nightmares the rest of his life. But it was either that poor girl, or who knew how many other innocent people including himself.

Without wasting anymore time they split up. Sam and Dean left to make a path to the house Lilith was in, cutting down any demons that would spot them and blow the whistle on their presence. Bobby and Lady went another direction, hoping to trap Lilith within the house and other demons outside the house by getting the sprinkler system spurting out holy water.

She knew the only reason she was watching Bobby's back was because Dean was afraid of the prophetic dream of her being chewed up by a hellhound may come true, and if it had to come true she would have let it. Instead of getting into a fight that they didn't have time for she covered Bobby. Lady let out a shaky breath as Bobby broke into a shed. Bobby seemed to know what he was doing as he opened a pipe, so Lady stood back and played watchdog after encircling them in salt. She switched between watching the time and watching out the small window that was in the shed. Minutes ticked by. At first the brothers seemed to have managed to get up to the house quietly, but something she wasn't able to see happened and a whole neighborhood of demons were running up to the house just as Bobby got the sprinklers running. Lady focused on that happy vision playing in the back of her head to calm her racing heart, they only had ten minutes.

XXXXX

Sam and Dean had been making good progress, taking out demons that would have seen them, until Ruby showed up. They didn't know how she got out of Bobby's supposedly demon proof garage, but there she was. After a very brief argument other demons were tipped off, and the race was on to reach the house Lilith was in. The demons, dozens, were closing in when the sprinklers came on. Dean and Sam both breathed praises to Bobby and Lady for having their backs. Maybe their element of surprise was gone, but at least they only had one demon child and then Ruby the skank demon to deal with.

However once inside the house they discovered Lilith was no longer possessing the little girl, and Dean's stomach sunk as he realized he was done for.

Sam went through the same gut wrenching realization, but quickly swallowed it down when he looked at Ruby and asked her for help, "What do I have to do to save him?" Dean grabbed Sam's shoulder but Sam shook loosed and turned to him. "Don't Dean! I'm not gonna let you go to hell!"

"Yes, you are!" Dean shouted back at him. Sam blinked a few times, surprised at Dean's outburst. Dean let out a breath, he had been preparing for this day. He didn't like it, he hated it more than anything, but he couldn't escape it. All they ever had was a long shot, but their luck had finally run out. He was a dead man. " Yes, you are," Dean said more calmly. "I'm sorry. I mean this is all my fault, I know that. But what you're doing, it's not gonna save me. It's only gonna kill you."

Sam swallowed hard and fought to keep his eyes open against the hot tears that were building up, "Then what am I supposed to do?"

"Keep fighting. Take care of my wheels. Watch Lady's back. Sam, remember what dad taught you...okay? And remember what I taught you." Dean closed his eyes at his own hot tears, and his heart stuttered when a clock chimed midnight.

There was a nearby snarl of a hellhound, and Dean was able to actually see the beast. It was unlike any dog he had ever seen. The size of a grizzly bear, he didn't know how the hell it fit into the house. Even accepting he was going to die he couldn't stand by, the very sight of it triggered a primal flight response. And he ran, with Sam and Ruby on his heels, into the next room. They got the door shut and lined the doorway with goofer dust.

Ruby offered to fight the hellhound off, to buy him more time, if they would give her back her mystical demon-killing knife. But then he realized that the disgusting demonic face under the pretty blonde possessed human was actually the same one that had been in the little girl. He warned Sam immediately that Ruby was actually possessed by Lilith, but as soon as Lilith knew she had been made she pinned him to a table and Sam to the wall.

Sam watched helplessly as Lilith sicked a hellhound on Dean. He watched his brother be torn to shreds by an invisible beast, bleeding out in less than a minute. He looked at Lilith, having given up and accepting his own death was about to happen. But when she attached with some sort of bright flash of hot light it didn't affect him. Lilith was surprised, and in a hurry escaped her body in a cloud of sulfuric smoke to run.

XXXXX

Lady and Bobby shifted anxiously on their feet as the ground vibrated. In the darkness they saw the stars become blotted out due to demon smoke in the air, and even saw many of the demons that surrounded the house erupted from their possessed hosts bodies to follow.

"Kid! Wait!" Bobby grabbed her arm, not letting her leave the safety of the shed.

"They are gone. They left. Lilith is dead," Lady said. It was five minutes after midnight, Dean owned his soul again, and she was looking forward to seeing him in probably the best mood he'd ever been in.

Bobby was unable to convince Lady to hold back for even a few seconds, so he went with her. Outside of the house there were dozens of humans, all in various states. Some as dead as a doornail, others already waking up in hysterics. As eager as Lady was to make sure the boys were okay he left them and followed her.

Lady's eyes were wide as she walked through the house. It was the same from her prophetic dream. All the little details that she hadn't been able to see before were now there. A grandfather clock in the dining room, a dead body slumped over the table, the smell of sulfur. Her mood was still high as she neared the partially opened door that she had always been drawn to but could never stay in the dream long enough to reach. However her face slowly fell as she neared it. Her future-sight was warning her she wasn't going to like what she was about to see, but still she couldn't stop herself.

She pushed open the door a bit more. Blood covered the floor, the pool had grown very large very quickly. It was still warm and fresh, the smell of it was thick in the air and mixing with sulfur. Sam was on his knees in the blood, and in his arms was Dean's body.

Lady froze, staring in disbelief. It was a dream, she was in a dream, she knew it. She knew it because her vision was still playing in the back of her head, which meant Dean had to be alive and safe. She was in a dream, a bad nightmare, and any second Dean would get sick of her kicking him and wake her up.

Bobby looked at Lady with wide eyes before turning his own to the scene. "Oh, no," he uttered painfully, stepping forward. He put his hand to his mouth, his face grimacing in pain at the loss. Sam was choking out sobs as he cradled Dean's body, his lifeless eyes staring into nothing. Bobby knelt beside them and with a gentle hand closed Dean's eyelids. The action caused Sam to let out another painful sob.

Lady lost the will to stand after a few minutes, her knees buckling until she fell at the doorway. 'Wake up, Lady. Wake the fuck up,' she said in her own head as her vision began to blur with tears.

Bobby retrieved a sheet and helped Sam wrap Dean's body. With Dean's body covered Sam reigned in some of his grief, until he saw Lady. She was sitting on the floor, her arms wrapped around her knees to make herself as small as possible, her eye wide with a river of tears flowing down. And he lost it again. Slumping onto the floor next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and squeezing her against him.

When Sam pressed her face into her chest was when Lady came to realize she wasn't in a nightmare. Sam's giant tears were rolling into her hair while hers soaked into his shirt. And soon she felt Bobby on her other side. She sucked in shuddering breaths when she could, but soon all she could hear were her own sobs and occasional scream of pain and grief that escaped her throat.

XXXXX

"We need to cremate the body," Bobby said gently. "It's what he would have wanted."

Lady hadn't managed to speak a word. Though the tears were all dried up occasionally a sob still hiccupped out of her, anything else just came out as a squeak. Of course Dean would have wanted to be burned to ash, it was hunter tradition. A nice funeral pyre, maybe a few beers, throw some salt on their for luck, good ol' party.

"No, we can't," Sam said.

Lady looked up at him with red swollen eyes.

"He's going to need his body," Sam elaborated. His own eyes red and swollen, but he was strong enough to speak without squeaking.

Sam's eyes met Lady's, and that strange wordless communication happened between them. His look asked her, 'Are you with me?' and she nodded once before choking on a new series of sobs.

**A/N -** _Thank you to EVERYONE who has ever read, reviewed, peeked at the story, all that. Sorry there was a bit of a wait for this chapter, things just got out of hand last week. I need to take a break from posting. I'll still be writing, as much as I ever do, but I want a few weeks to see where season 7 is going on Supernatural. And also get reacquainted with some Season 4 stuff. Hope you had a great weekend, and a good week. And I can't wait to share the next chapter with you guys in a few weeks. Thanks again!_


	120. Blue Moon, May 2008

**May 20, 2008**

_Lady stumbled down the hallway, snarling furiously as her feet refused to cooperate. She reached a door and tried to read or see the numbers, but they shifted and danced across the cheap wooden door so she couldn't clearly see what room she was entering. She quickly decided it didn't matter and pushed the door open. The motel room had two queen sized beds, both with ugly paisley printed comforters. Sitting on the edge of one bed was Dean. "How do I get you back?" she demanded to know from him. She held onto the dream, determined not to wake up until she got an answer. Slowly Dean stood up, and as he took a step toward her she felt a pain of grief in her chest. "No...just..."_

Lady woke up with a choking sob, "Just...damn it two more minutes," she buried her face in her pillow. With a great deal of effort and a few punches to the dirty jacket she was using as a pillow she reigned in her emotions so she could pull herself upright.

Her muscles were stiff and sore, the previous night her and Sam had dug up two graves. Then she had spent most of the morning gathering needed things until she could no longer keep her eyes open. Now the sunlight filtering in through dirty windows told her dusk was quickly approaching, she only had a few hours. Ignoring sore and stiff muscles she began getting ready.

Lady looked around the dark cabin. It was just four walls with two cots. A large metal bathtub was against a wall however Lady thought that the tub was better suited for watering horses than bathing in. Neither her nor Sam had used it. A few times they had rented a motel room in town when their hygiene became more of a serious health issue than social hazard. But they had both been too busy to care whether or not their body odor was becoming toxic.

After shaking the last of the sleep from her head and wiping it from her eyes she checked to make sure she had everything. After double-checking her bag the sun was below the horizon and she was running shorter on time. Leaving the cabin it was only a half dozen steps before there were thick trees. She'd walked the route several times the past few weeks that she almost didn't need her flashlight to navigate her way through the thickly growing trees. If the leaves high above her didn't completely blot out the moon she may have been able to skip her flashlight. Higher than the trees a full moon was glowing brightly, not hidden by clouds or dimmed by city lights. It's brilliance and size was beautiful that evening. And at the same time terrifying.

It wasn't every month someone got to look up at the blue moon.

The blue moon was a unique moon. Typically there was one full moon a month, every twenty-nine days or so. When breaking down a calendar year into the four seasons each season typically had three full moons. But since most months had more days than a moon cycle every few years those extra days meant that there would be four full moons within a three-month season. The blue moon was the third full moon in the season that had four. It was important in witchcraft, the moon was rarer and certain types of witchcraft responded better under the blue moon. When it came to the magical power within the ley lines it responded very well to the blue moon. Which was good because Lady was going to need every advantage she could get.

When Lady had been preparing to defeat Garrett she had studied necromancy, as much as she could stomach. The whole time she'd studied she never thought she'd be able to put it to practical use, but this wasn't even the first time since that she'd found necromancy to suit her needs. From speaking with the dead, to summoning or binding spirits...to trying to call one out of hell. It was a very wide branch of magic, but rather nasty at the same time.

For years Lady had prided herself on finding ways to use magic not always safely, but at least in a clean way. No one died for her spells or rituals, occasionally a rodent or small animal was needed but no humans. And if it required blood she always used her own, even if the amount nearly killed her. She had learned ways to turn black magic white or gray, she overcame the temptation to take the easy road that frequently ended with a witch getting killed...she knew because she very often was the one who killed those witches.

Necromancy could be found in most cultures. From old English to older Native American and all the way back to ancient middle east. It was a very old and once very popular type of magic. It had fallen out of favor due to it's difficulty and reliability. To be fair it wasn't the magic's fault in most cases, either it was a spirit that was no longer accessible or just a very bad witch. In the case of Max and Garrett, both very accomplished necromancers, they bound their spirits before the person died so they could be easily summoned after death.

Lady was finding out she was not an accomplished necromancer. She couldn't have bound Dean's spirit before he died, it was already bound in demon magic and that bind was impossible to break. Even if it hadn't been she wasn't sure she could have pulled it off. Now that Dean's spirit had left his body the only thing she could do was try to summon it to her. But even if she could pull Dean's soul out of hell and shove it back into his body, he'd still be dead. Changing a body from dead meat into something living, well...

Lady knew necromancy well enough to know that recovering Dean's soul was going to be the hardest piece of magic she would ever do, and even she lacked full confidence that she could do it. But bringing the dead back to life, that couldn't be done. Not in any way she could do. If they had taken measures before he died maybe, but that magic would have been too dark for her.

Lady reached a small clearing and looked up at the break in the tree tops to see the blue moon. Below her at her feet was a fresh mound of dirt. Not far below that dirt was a plain pine box, and inside that box was Dean's body. Sam had kept the body wrapped up and above ground for days until he couldn't take it anymore. Deciding not to watch his brother rot, to let him keep some dignity, Sam built the box himself and put him in the ground. The grave was shallow in case they needed to get access to the body again, and Sam was hopeful they would. Hopeful that they could bring him back.

Sam was already waiting for her at the clearing, his dark brown eyes staring at the poorly constructed wooden cross that marked Dean's grave. The past few weeks had been hard. After the initial shock of Dean's death lifted it quickly became replaced by a numbness. Since then it had been a jumbled blur of desperate and insane work. This wasn't going to be the first ritual, or their first attempt to get Dean back. Sam had gone to a crossroads demon, who had refused to deal with him. They had summoned demons, tried to open the hell gate in Wyoming, researched necromancy, everything they thought of. And Lady's ritual was their best chance, maybe their last chance.

"Whenever you are ready," Sam said roughly.

Lady took a slow breath, mentally preparing herself for the ritual. "This is pretty serious magic," Lady said quietly, her own voice sounding strange.

Lady's abdomen clenched as she felt sick. Not just sick but thoroughly disgusted with herself. Above her was the blue moon. She knew that while her and Sam were performing some magic so close to black she didn't know why she bothered trying to defend it as anything else, that others were keeping their eyes and ears open for possible witches that may take advantage to the ley lines free source of power. Just like Lady was about to do.

The blue moon had a few benefits due to its rarity. The power within the ley lines was more responsive, more willing to pay out with sacrifices and the right spell. But it was also more volatile, the dangers and risks were higher. And since all the power Donovan had from the Goddess was coursing through the ley lines Lady wasn't sure how the ley lines would react once she started the ritual.

Lady glanced over her shoulder at Sam, "You should be farther back." She held her hand out for a piece of rope, and Sam hesitated before offering it to her.

"Can you handle it?"

"It's just a goat," Lady muttered, giving the rope a tug so a black goat took a few steps toward her. "Stand back, give me room."

Spells like this she had only ever done in her head. Never with the intention of using them, just sorting through the pieces to understand how it worked. It was something to busy her mind for a while or keep herself sharp. By herself, no help. Sam, even though he was smart as hell, didn't have enough time to learn the ritual to help her. Maxine and Bobby wouldn't approve of the ritual. They were on their own.

Lady sucked in a nervous breath and made the final mental preparations and made sure they had everything they needed. Around her a wide circle had been cut into the ground, and salt poured into it. The ritual didn't call for it however a circle of salt was purifying and if the ritual went awry it would keep most things that may be accidentally summoned within the circle. Lady was trying to summon Dean's spirit out of hell, other things might slip through if she wasn't strong enough to focus the spell.

The first part of the ritual was tapping into the power of the ley lines. It had taken her and Sam hours to find an intersection of ley lines to bury Dean on, and she was right on his grave now. The three torches within the circle with her flickered orange flame, but as she tested the power they quickly changed to blue with the magic. The ley line was responsive and answered her, but it made her uneasy. The feel of raw magic wasn't pleasant. It heated her blood, set her teeth on edge and she swore it made her fingernails smolder.

Lady gave herself a few moments, determined not to rush the ritual no matter how many times Sam let out an impatient breath. She nudged a silver bowl into position and let the goat take a bite of some grass. Not much of a final meal, but she let it swallow as she positioned it over the bowl. As an offering to the power of the Goddess within the ley lines she stabbed the goat in the neck. It took all her strength to keep the goat from going wild as it's life poured out of the wound. She collected all the blood she could until the goat went limp, and then she let it go still at her feet. Then she drizzled the blood in a few symbols over the ground, and then covered her hands and arms in the blood.

The last part of the spell was focusing and containing the given power. Depending on how well received her offering was she could get barely an answer, or more than she could handle. The ley lines were far from stable since Donovan was killed by Loki, only and idiot would be attempting to use them so soon after his death.

Well, she was a middle-school drop-out so maybe she was an idiot. But she was also desperate. This was the last thing she knew to do to bring Dean back, even just his soul.

She felt the responding power and quickly began the spell for retrieving Dean's spirit. On the ground was a piece of his hair, fingernail clippings, and dried blood. Pieces of his body that would have lingering pieces of his spirit to guide the magic. One by one the pieces of him were burned by blue fire, the magic getting his scent and taste before going on the hunt. And there was a lot of the magic pouring out of the ley lines to aide her.

Lady kept her focus and signaled to Sam to stay quiet and back as she kept repeating the magic's instructions in rapid-fire Latin. The heat of it was raising her own temperature to where she felt dried out and light-headed, but she knew what happened if a ritual as big as hers backfired. She had survived that backlash once when she was just sixteen and got away with just her brain being rewired, she wasn't confident she'd be so lucky again. The magic she was using knew her too well, she once commanded it all, once lived within it, and it seemed to remember that. Without another witch to contain the power she wasn't sure where it would go, but she had a few bad ideas.

Directing the magic was taking almost all of her focus, but as the magic did it's search for Dean's soul part of her went with it. She grimaced as she felt something else, the taste of sulfur at the back of her throat told her it had to be demonic magic, was interfering with her spell. That had been a possibility, and what it came down to was a battle of strength. Whose magic was stronger? Demon or Pagan? With the raw magic listening to her so easily it wasn't long before the power broke its way past the demonic magic and into hell.

But just moments later the magic was thrown out violently. Not just out, but right back at her. That had been a possibility as well, some demons were damn good witches and a hell of a lot older than she was. Unfortunately she didn't have a backup plan if a demon managed to not only block her spell but throw it back in her face.

The blue fire of the torches escalated high into the night sky, making the moon and stars invisible in their brilliance. Lady dropped to her hands and knees, uttering in swift Latin to redirect the magic, but there was too much. The heat was too much, how much longer until her flesh just gave up and turned to ash?

"BACK UP! GIVE ME ROOM! GIVE ME ROOM!" Lady shouted in command to keep Sam at bay. She was pretty sure she was toast, literally toast, at that moment.

No thinking was involved, Lady just responded as the spell viciously attacked her. Years of practicing witchcraft theory, preventing curses and chasing witches, drills that Bobby put her through and things she only worked through in her head, everything she had ever learned for a 'just in case' scenario was put into action. She held onto what magic hadn't turned against her and tried to use it to protect herself, or dispel the other magic. Meanwhile the blood on her hands and arms, though dried and from the heat, was being used to shut down the spell she had started. She had to, no matter what the cost, shut down that spell before it could get any farther out of control. The way it was she was the only one alive any longer knew how to do so...she suddenly had a small regret for being so thorough at killing off the entire coven.

Sam shifted anxiously on his feet, watching Lady with wide eyes. The earth within the circle shivered, what little grass that was within it shriveled and blackened. The spell had gone wrong, that much was very obvious. She was shouting in hoarse Latin, most of which he recognized but a few were either poorly pronounced or completely wrong. "Lady!"

Lady let out a final shriek and collapsed to the ground. The same instant the blue flame of the torches flickered and died. Sam looked around cautiously, and his stomach flipped-flopped when he caught sight of spinning clouds below the full moon.

"Lady!" He called once more. She was laying beside the dead goat, both of them still and both smoldering. He stepped into the circle and leaned back at the intense heat that was still there. Grimacing he pushed his way through it so he could kneel beside her. "Lady...oh god, no..." Sam said emotionally. He couldn't bear it if Lady perished now, he'd snap altogether.

Lady let out a high whine a pain that sent Sam into motion. "Ugh, what's that smell?" she complained as Sam helped her to her feet.

"Burned goat," he answered. "I'm taking you..."

"You try to take me to a hospital I'll fucking run," Lady threatened. "I'm okay, just a bit burned."

Lady was trembling in pain as Sam pulled her outside of the circle and set her in cool grass. She looked up at the sky. Just an hour ago it had been still and cloudless, but the power of the spell had formed a thick blanket of clouds and stirred the wind. Once she was sure she had successfully shut down the ritual she let Sam help her back to the cabin.

Once back at the cabin Sam looked over her by the dim light of the lanterns. She looked like she had gotten a bad sunburn, and he trusted that Lady had enough knowledge to treat that. He began to relax now that he knew Lady wasn't going to die, but when he did he realized that they had failed. "So that's it, huh?" he asked softly.

Lady was trying to keep from trembling. Her skin was so cooked and tight she was afraid any movement would split her skin like an overcooked ham. Every inch of her stung and burned, she wanted nothing more than to fall into a tub of aloe and witch-hazel to soothe her skin. But she had to settle for a handful of narcotics and keeping as still as possible. "No, there has to be something else," Lady said roughly. She closed her eyes to focus on the vision in the back of her head. Some motel, autumn colored leaves outside the window, the three of them inside the room...Dean was alive. Somehow he was alive. She just had to figure out how to get him there so they could be together again. "Don't give up, Sam. We're going to find a way," she promised him.

The next day they had no choice but to leave the cabin, Lady needed supplies to tend to her wounds. They both needed to eat, and were both far overdue for a shower. Sam drove them into town and got a motel room for the day. Lady went inside while he left to get supplies. While he was gone she soaked in an icy cold bath to numb her nerves the best she could. When Sam returned with everything she asked for she was as numb as she could get.

From the bathtub to a bed, with only a towel draped over her privates, she applied some topical aids to her burns. She tried hard to ignore the pain, to focus it elsewhere.

"Is it bad?" Sam asked with concern.

"I'll live," Lady said. She looked at him, mirroring his concern. Maybe she had nearly been turned into black bones the night before, but Sam wasn't doing so well himself. She couldn't remember the last time he had slept, and hadn't seen him eat in at least a week. "You believe me when I say we're going to bring him back, don't you?"

Sam looked away from her eyes, "There is nothing that can do that, you and I both know it. You nearly killed yourself trying, Lady, it...it's over."

"No, it isn't," she said. "Sam, look at me."

It took a few moments but Sam lifted his head. Tear-filled brown eyes looked at her.

"Sam, I've seen my future," Lady said firmly. She had told no one of her vision, but she needed to tell Sam right then. She needed to give him back some hope, she was sure she'd need his help and was afraid if he lost hope she might lose him completely. "I have a vision playing in my head. And in it Dean is alive. Not a spirit, but real and alive. All three of us together."

A few tears fell from Sam's eyes and he looked at her painfully, "How can you be sure?"

"Because I know, I just do," she said. "We're going to..." Lady's words cut off and her eyes glared at the door.

Immediately Sam changed. One second he was sharing a defeated moment with Lady, he was vulnerable with his guard down. But the slight change in her created a complete change in him. He turned a steel gaze to the motel door, his gun was in his hand, he was alert and ready for anything.

"Shit," Lady hissed.

The next moment someone pounded on the door, "Open up, ya idjits," Bobby hollered.

"How'd he find us?" Lady asked, painfully trying to move.

Sam's shoulders were tense as he took slow steps toward the door, "Guess we'll ask him," he said.

Bobby's face broke out into relief when Sam opened the door. It had been so damn long since he'd heard a whisper from the boy that he had feared the worst. However his face went into worry upon seeing Lady raw-red and only covered with a towel. "Jesus Christ, what the hell is wrong with you two?" Bobby barked, pushing past Sam and going to Lady. "What the hell happened?"

"Long story," Lady answered. "At least I didn't lose my eyebrows."

Bobby gave her a long look and deciding she would survive let relief overcome him again. He turned back to Sam, "Can't call? Write? I've been waiting for smoke signals. Anything to know that you two are still breathing. Don't you have any common courtesy?"

"We've been busy," Sam said shortly.

"Yeah, me too," Bobby said. He reached into his vest and pulled out a folded newspaper, "Read the news lately?"

"No," Sam said, not moving to take the paper Bobby was offering him.

Before Bobby could look at her Lady said, "I can't even read."

"Only reason I'm here is because funnel clouds were reported outside of town last night," Bobby said.

"It's May, not uncommon," Sam said in a low voice, trying to cover for Lady's use of magic.

"Yeah. But along with grave robbing and livestock theft those dots get connected, and guess what I have?" Bobby gave Lady and Sam hard looks. "Two stupid hunters! That's what! What did you two do last night?"

"Nothing," Lady said.

Bobby glared at her and tilted his head slightly.

Lady glared right back. Bobby may be thinking he could guilt her into saying what she did, but she had no guilt or shame. She was lobster-red, naked with a towel over her after spending an hour rubbing aloe and witch-hazel all over herself. She had no shame.

"Bobby, we tried a spell," Sam buckled

"Ya think?" Bobby snapped. "And it didn't work, did it?"

Sam looked away from the angry glare and fell silent.

"No! It didn't work!" Bobby answered for him. Bobby turned his glare back to Lady, "You went in half-cocked and got half-cooked!"

"I was fully cocked," Lady said defensively. Maybe the spell had been a bit rushed in preparation but she had been flawless in the execution. It wasn't her fault that raw demonic magic was more powerful than her.

"Full of something," Bobby said roughly, his voice softening. "I know this ain't easy on either of you, but...but look at this." Bobby gave the two of them a pleading look. "Come on home with me, at least for a few days. Let Lady get healed up. Let me help you." Bobby wished he knew how to help them. Not to resurrect Dean, which he believed was impossible. But to help them with the grief that had them doing these crazy things.

"Okay..." Sam began.

"No, Sam..." Lady began to argue with him.

"Take Lady," Sam said anyway. He looked at her, "Bobby can help you more than I can right now. That's just how it is."

"What about you?" Lady asked.

"I won't be far behind," Sam told her. "Get some clothes on. I'll get your stuff in Bobby's car."

Lady nodded. This wasn't them giving up, it was just a temporary retreat and regroup.

Bobby and Sam faced each other outside. "You got to stop, Sam," Bobby said.

Sam shook his head, "No. Not until Dean is breathing again."

"At the cost of what? Your soul? Your lives!" Bobby snapped.

Sam looked at him painfully, "If I have to."

"Lady, too?" Bobby barked angrily.

"No. That's why you are taking her home," Sam said quietly.

Bobby's face fell, "You are coming with, Sam."

Sam shook his head, "Not yet. This isn't over." Bobby looked more than ready to continue arguing but Sam quickly shut him down, "I can't take care of Lady right now, Bobby. She needs you, not me. Just...give me more time, a few weeks, and I'll come home. I will."

Bobby looked at him sadly. He was sure Sam was just saying that to appease him. He had the look of a man who had lost everything. Bobby looked from Sam to the Lady as she slowly stepped out of the motel room. She was wearing one of Dean's old T-shirts that went down to the middle of her thighs. He was sure most of her clothes were just too tight for her burned skin right then.

"Got you all packed up," Sam said.

Before getting into Bobby's car she pulled Sam into a hug, and even though it hurt like a son of a bitch she held him tightly. "I'll see you in a few days, we'll figure this out."

"Yeah, I'll be right behind you," Sam replied.

She gave him a smile, as wide as she could manage through her tight skin, believing him.

**A/N** - _Yay for an update. Anyone who's been reading for a while knows I usually update weekly, and these past few weeks have been a nice break for me. I was very easily distracted by season 7 starting, lol. BUt I'm getting back on track now. I'm going to work on getting more regular updates, but I have some changes happening that I might need some extra time again. As always thanks for reading and reviewing. OMG over 400 reviews just blows my mind. Thank you all so very very much._


	121. Bobby's House, June 2008

**June 2, 2008**

Bobby had taken what time he could to grieve for Dean. Losing friends wasn't something new for Bobby, as the years went by he barely had any left. But losing Dean was different, Dean had been like his own son. Dealing with the knowledge that the boy was no longer breathing hurt like hell, but Bobby had to focus on the living and what was going on with them. Dean was long gone, he couldn't fix that, all he could do was try his best to keep others from biting it as well.

Finding Sam and Lady, both of them hungry and exhausted, had made him nearly lose it. Dean had sold his soul for Sam, and had given his heart to Lady. If Dean knew what those two were doing he'd roll over in his grave. If Bobby could have his way he would have both Lady and Sam home and safe until they could think straight. But unfortunately the best he could manage was getting Lady home. It wasn't easy leaving without Sam, but Bobby didn't dare lose a chance where Lady was willing to come home with him.

It hadn't taken Lady very long to figure out that Sam wasn't coming to regroup. She was pissed, but she was more angry at herself for not realizing it sooner. It was all Bobby could do to keep her in place. Sam was up to something, they had no way to track him, they needed to wait for information to come in. And she needed to give herself a few days to heal, if only so she didn't really hurt herself when she caught up to Sam and kicked his ass.

"How are you on supplies?" Bobby asked roughly, just as an excuse to check on her.

Lady had one hand up the back of her shirt scratching herself. Slowly she pulled her hand out and looked at a large flake of dead skin that had peeled off, "I look like I have some horrible skin disease," she muttered miserably before dropping the impressively large flake into a jar.

Bobby didn't ask why she was saving the dead skin that came from her healing burns, he wasn't sure if he was ready to know why. And to be honest it was far from the grossest thing either of them had ever collected for possible future use. "Well, that's just lovely. Gonna answer my question?"

Lady paused in scratching herself to think. The burn was mostly gone, or at least it no longer hurt. All that was left to do was get rid of the dead skin. "Maple candy, tomato seeds, on second thought just get me a crap-load of tomatoes, and..."

Lady's mouth snapped shut and she looked at Bobby with wide eyes.

"Lady, it's over. Dean's gone, there ain't no bringing him back," Bobby said as gently as he could. "I'm so sorry, kid, but you got to stop." Stop with the séances, rituals, preparation for the next full moon. All of it, he couldn't watch her constant disappointment and depression.

"I know I seem crazy for trying, but there is still a way," Lady said, wishing Bobby could believe her. She knew how insane it sounded, how easy it was to explain her away her vision. But she knew what she was seeing, she knew she was going to get Dean back.

Bobby began to look angry, "Kid, there are plenty of ways. That's why I'm telling you that you have to stop now, before you go too far."

"I'm not..."

Bobby changed from cautiously gentle to furious, "Damn it, Lady! You know what you are inching toward? Step by step and don't you try to deny it. Maybe I wasn't there when your ritual failed but I know a thing or two about black magic after all these years."

"I know how far to go is safe," Lady said as calmly as she could.

"Stop kidding yourself," Bobby snapped. He turned his back on her and walked into the living room. He hollered to her, "You know how to bring Dean back. Stop dicking around. If you want him back so damn bad then just jump right to it."

Bobby returned with a book and dropped it on the table in front of her. Lady gave the book a hard and offended glare for several moments. It was one of the many texts Bobby had acquired over the years and allowed her to study. It was a book of satanic black magic. "I can't do that," she said stiffly, knowing very well what Bobby was trying to do. He was trying to snap her out of her grief and make her stop risking herself while trying to bring Dean back.

"You really have to go through the motions? Sacrifice some goats, chickens...how long until you switch to people..." Bobby's voice continued to growl at her.

Lady glared at him, "You keep shouting at me and I know who will be my first sacrifice."

Bobby went quiet and glared back at her. Unable to take it Lady got up from her chair and quickly left his house. The first thing she needed was just some breathing room, but as she walked through Bobby's lot to the highway she needed more time and more distance.

Lady knew dark magic, but never got into the black magic. She knew what the cost to bring the dead back to life was, others had to die. Not just one life, but many. And after the failed ritual she doubted her ability to even compete such complicated magic. But if time wound down would she go that far? She told herself she wouldn't, but for years she never thought she'd go so far as to do a ritual on the blue moon and she had done that. Just how far would she go for Dean?

As she drowned in her thoughts she went to the first bar she reached to drown the rest of herself.

Lady seated herself at the bar. Her eyes on the counter while her drink waited to be refilled in her hand. It was quiet in the bar, even for a Monday night. A few young construction workers at a table but otherwise she was alone.

"You want to start a tab, sweetheart," the bartender asked after her third shot.

Lady thought about it. There was no doubt if the bartender let her start a tab that she would drink until she couldn't walk. Right now she just wanted enough shots to numb the pain, that was why she was at a bar instead of a liquor store. Getting stupid drunk wasn't going to help her, though would make her pass out for several hours she'd be hurting when she woke up the next day. Even knowing the threat of a hangover it was tempting to drink her weight in Captain Morgan and Jack Daniels to get it over with.

Lady was winning her internal battle by focusing on her vision of Dean alive again, but before she could secure victory over her urge not to drink herself into a blackout one of the young construction workers was overheard saying, "That chick got shingles or something? That's sick."

Lady looked at the white patches of dead skin that was working its way to be scratched off. She knew those patches were all over her body, just a natural process of the skin healing after her horrible burn. Lately she hadn't given a damn how she looked, the most she had to do for Bobby was take a shower and even that was optional most days. But she used to care how she looked. She liked being cute and attractive, the attention she could get from the slightest wiggle or bat of an eyelash. Now that she thought about it this was the first time in a long time that she'd had to purchase herself more than two drinks at a bar before someone offered her a free one.

"I'm leaving after this one," she said in a strained voice. After one final shot she planned to go to the nearest liquor store and spent the rest of her time awake flaking away dead skin.

"So soon, cutie? But you just got here," the bartender said.

Lady moved her eyes to look up at him, and leaned back slowly as his sparkling blue eyes filled with black. Her eye twitched, "When you say it like that, yeah I'll hang around for a bit."

Maybe the several shots of liquor she already had were clouding her judgment. She was unequipped to take on a demon. But her temper wasn't yet quieted from her fight with Bobby, her heart sick from being without Dean, and her mood sour as hell because Sam had effectively ditched her. Under normal circumstances she would fight dirty until she could get the upper hand or run, but at that moment she just wanted to fight. She wanted the adrenaline rush that came with a rough brawl, from inflicting and receiving pain. She wanted the physical rush, a good fight could be better than sex. The only reason she was holding herself back was because that demon could snap her neck a second after getting his hands on her.

"So you are the little Lady, I thought you'd be taller," the demon said in a low voice and cruel smile. "I've heard a lot about you."

"All good things I hope," Lady said tensely.

"Tell me, lovely Lady, where is Sam?" The demon grinned to show teeth and still managed to look menacing.

"Ah, you must be one of Lilith's lackeys," Lady said, casually picking up her shot glass and holding it up for a refill. The demon obliged by tipping the bottle and giving her another shot of rum. "I don't know. The method he uses to hide from Lilith means he can hide from me, too."

"Mm, that's too bad," the demon said.

Lady took her shot and braced herself, "Why is that?"

"Because now you are useless," the demon said.

Lady leaned backward, allowing herself to fall to the floor from her stool, as the demon reached for her. Even after several shots she was quick to get back on her feet. She knew in her head she should be running, or diving behind the bar to grab the salt, or searching for a rosary to turn the sink full of water into holy water. But being in action numbed her mind better than the alcohol and she couldn't abandon the fight. Going fist-to-fist with a demon was far from the smartest thing she'd ever done, but she wasn't positive it was the dumbest either. It all depended if she survived it in the end.

There was a thunder of feet as the three construction workers abandoned their table in time for Lady to be thrown into it. One of the men, possibly the one who commented on her flaking skin, tried to step between the fight but was thrown across the room by a backhand from the demon.

Lady got back to her feet and faced the black-eyed demon. It walked toward her slowly, grinning madly. "I told Dean I'd come check in on you."

Lady ran forward and low, hitting the demon in it's center. Super-strong or not, it was hit at the right spot that they both went down to the floor. On top of the demon Lady lost her mind. She punched and dug at the face with her nails, pulled at the hair and screamed maniacally. All the while the demon laughed, all she was doing was harming the meat it was wearing. But she couldn't stop herself now.

Even when the demonic smoke poured out of the man she couldn't stop, not until someone grabbed her from behind and pulled her off.

"Stop it! It's gone! Stop it, now, kid. Damn it, kid!" It was Bobby, she hadn't even noticed if he had followed her or that he had showed up. How much had he seen?

Lady went limp as she panted for breath. Her arms trembled weakly as she wiped away a mix of blood and tears from her face. Bobby released her once he was sure she was done and checked the bartender for a pulse. "Hey, you, call 911," he ordered a dazed construction worker.

But there wasn't much need to make the call, Lady's future-sight told her sirens were already on their way.

"Kid, you okay?" Bobby asked quietly, kneeling beside her.

"Am I sitting in spilled beer or pee?" Lady asked weakly.

Bobby touched a wet spot on the floor and then smelled it, "That's beer."

"Then I'm slightly better than I thought I was," she said quietly. She blinked as she looked at her hands, the pain began to filter in through the adrenaline. It felt like both her middle fingers were broken, the skin of her knuckles was gone. If she thought she was unattractive before this didn't help.

When the demon mentioned Dean he could have been lying, that's what demon's did. But she couldn't convince herself of that. It only made her think of Dean's soul, his spirit his very essence, trapped forever in another dimension. And there was no way she'd ever see him again unless she went there herself. "I don't think I'm okay, Bobby," she said.

Bobby let out a huff of impatient breath, "Now you decide you aren't okay? Now? When we got cops and paramedics on the way, a dumb sucker beaten half to death and a couple of idiots as witnesses and now you decide you aren't okay? Right now I need you to suck it up, pay attention and help get us out of this mess. You hear me?"

Lady nodded once and let him help her to her feet just as the door opened with three police walking in.

"Nobody move," a female officer dressed in tan ordered. Her hand rested on her gun as she looked at the collateral damage the fight had caused. "Holy crap." She looked straight at Bobby, "Robert Singer?"

"Sheriff," Bobby said in a low and respectful voice, accompanied by a nod.

"What happened here?"

Lady looked around. Busted tables and chairs, jukebox, bartender with a busted face. Her eyes lit up with the perfect lie, "There was this lunatic, he ran out the back. The bartender here was trying to protect me." Lady hoped she looked the part of a damsel in distress that would have needed a rescue and she did her best to hide her bloody knuckles.

"Go," the Sheriff ordered the other two officers to go out the back while she radioed for an ambulance. She knelt next to the bartender as he started to come to. "Hey, sir? Can you hear me?"

"Ow...ow, what happened?" he moaned painfully.

"You've been beaten up, paramedics are on their way," she said. "You remember who did this to you?"

After a few tense moments the bartender replied, "No."

Lady stepped in, "Thank you so much..." she wished she had gotten the guys name. "You really stepped up to help a lady out. Good job, pal."

"I did?" he sounded like he was surprised and in pain.

"Thank you. If there is anything I can do to repay you..." Lady continued.

Bobby cleared his throat in a warning she was laying it on too thick. Lady stopped. It was obvious the Sheriff already suspected her and Bobby so she took several steps back.

After the sheriff took information and the bartender was on his way to the hospital Lady and Bobby were able to leave. Lady let out a breath of relief and then asked, "How does she know you? You and her hook up before?"

Bobby frowned at her, "No. Sheriff Mills and I have had a few run ins over the years."

"Oh," Lady said, and then chuckled. "So she has gotten you in handcuffs before. I never took you for the kinky type, Bobby."

Bobby looked at her with disbelief before shaking his head.

**June 20, 2008**

_ "Is this…no this is just a dream," Lady uttered as she looked at Dean. His leather jacket was tattered and mice spilled from the pockets. Rotten flesh dripped with pus and ooze as he shuffled closer to her._

_ "You gave up on me…" Zombie Dean rasped._

_ Lady shook her head, "I can't do what it would take to bring you back. You wouldn't want me to."_

_ Dean opened his mouth wide as he neared her, showing blackened teeth and a maggot covered tongue._

Lady jerked awake so hard she toppled right off her bed. There she laid on the floor taking in shuddering breaths as she tried to keep the scream that had built up in her throat from escaping. She didn't know how to pull Dean's soul out of hell. She had theories upon magical theories that might do it, but they were so far beyond what she was willing to do that she wasn't going to risk it. Dean wouldn't approve of coming back to life at the expense of human sacrifices or having someone sell their soul. Unless she could find a way to bring him back that left him and everyone else involved squeaky clean, she wouldn't do it. And coming to that decision was like saying she had given up. Yet her vision still played in the back of her head, tempting her and telling her she had time left.

Lady heard the scratching of cats claws on linoleum and the thumping of their footsteps. Because it was something to do other than think of her most recent nightmare she got up and walked through the dark house to see what the kittens were doing. Ebony and Ivory were no longer the kittens she had rescued a year prior. They were hard muscled and rather big tomcats that enjoyed hunting everything from mice to rabbits when they were outside, and lazy lap-loving cats while they were inside. Bobby spoiled the little bastards.

Ebony and Ivory had cornered a rather large mouse in the kitchen. Like good brothers and longtime partners in crime they shared the fun of batting it around and playing. Ebony turned his head to look at Lady, his tail twitched in excitement now that they had an audience.

Inching closer Lady saw that it wasn't a mouse, but a small brown rat. And she could hear anxious squeaking as Ivory increased the pressure of his clawed paw on its back. Already the rat was bloody and in pain. Ivory purred as its claws began to sink into the soft flesh and blood began to…

"YOU SICK BASTARDS!" Lady screeched before she even knew what she was saying. Startled both cats darted away from her as she scooped up the rat.

She huddled the rat against her stomach to keep it warm and safe while trying to slow the bleeding. Her foot swung out toward Ivory but before it could connect both cats darted through the kitchen and out the cat door installed for them. Lady turned on the kitchen light and put the rat on the table to examine.

The rat lay on its side, one black beady eye looking at her as it panted. One of its legs was just hanging there. As an act of mercy Lady grabbed a cotton ball and dipped it in chloroform to knock the rat out before quickly breaking its neck.

She went to the bathroom to wash her hands, and as she cleaned them of blood she looked at her own reflection. Her skin had healed. It was still dry and scaly in some spots due to the burns, but no longer flaking. From her fight with the demon a few of her fingers were still swollen and crooked, Bobby hadn't managed to set them completely straight. Her eyes had dark circles under them, she was sure those wouldn't go away for the rest of her life. She doubted she'd ever get a full nights sleep again, at least not until the vision in her head stopped.

Bobby was out working a job, leaving her alone at the house. He had asked her to come with, he didn't want to leave her alone, but he seemed relieved when she declined to hunt down another demon.

Lady looked down at the floor. Ebony and Ivory were brave enough to reenter the house after she shrieked at them and both were looking up at her. Ebony already had another vermin in its mouth and he set it on the floor next to her. Lady looked at it with surprise, immediately recognizing it as a bird and upon closer inspection as a whippoorwill. While her bird phobia had quieted for the most part she still loathed the sound of a whippoorwill's song.

Ebony purred and slithered between her ankles, Ivory quickly joined. And just as quickly Ebony began to fight with Ivory for trying to take the attention.

Lady looked back at the mirror, suddenly needing to find Sam. The past month phone calls went to deactivated phones or full voicemail boxes. A few other hunters in Bobby's network had called in sightings of him, but mostly Sam had been just as elusive as Bigfoot.

They still had a chance to save Dean, Lady believed in her vision that much. She didn't know how, she only knew how far she would not go. But right then she needed to find Sam and at the very least make sure he didn't go too far.

Lady hopped over the dead bird and into her room to pack. After getting some clean clothes in a bag she went back into the bathroom to grab basic toiletries. And as an afterthought she grabbed a jar of Vaseline…Sam would need it after she shoved her shoe up his ass for never coming back for her.

**A/N** - _Okay, sorry for the delay in posting. Lots of things going on and I had some difficulty deciding when, what, and where for the story. Hopefully chapter 122 won't take so long for me to write and post. Thank you for your patience, all of you who read and review. You rule!_


	122. Random Motel, August 2008

**August 1, 2008**

Sam parked the Impala in front of his motel room and killed the engine. He had a throbbing headache right behind his eyes and he could still taste blood in the back of his throat from a nosebleed. Slowly he got out of the car and cautiously looked around. After excising two demons he was tired, but on high alert. Birds were chirping vigorously with the rising sun. On a nearby street there was road construction being done, the smell of tar and oil hung in the air. Things looked like they had when he left the motel the previous night, but something felt strange.

He shouldered his bag and pulled out his pistol before opening the door. He began to open the door slowly at first, and then flung it open so he could step in, gun first.

The next instant the gun was ripped from his hand and someone had landed a hard blow to his solar plexus.

"That's no way to greet an old friend, is it?"

Sam grunted as he faced his ambusher. "Lady?"

"Aw, so you do still remember who I am," she said, turning on the lights and flashing him a brief smile before striking him across the face with an open palm. "DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU?"

Lady's shrieking voice hurt worse than her blows.

"I'm…"

"SHUT UP!" She snapped, grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled him away from the door. With a hard kick to the door it slammed shut. "Two months, Sam. Not a word. Not a whisper."

"I…"

"You're sorry!" she snarled at him. "No, Sam. Sorry is what you say when you forget to answer a text. This situation requires a hell of a lot more from you than just a verbal apology!" Lady grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pulled him until she could push him down on the bed.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked.

"You sit there. Shut up," she said in a near growl as she pulled out her phone.

Sam moaned a low curse as he listened to Lady's side of the phone call. "Ellen, I found him. Safe and sound. I'll pack him up and we'll be on the way to Bobby's soon." Lady let out a huff and wiped away the sweat that had built up on her forehead. With a beep she hung up the phone before pulling out the battery to completely power the phone off. Sam frowned, that was what they did to keep people from tracking their GPS making him wonder if Lady really intended to take him to Bobby's or not.

"You are working with Ellen to find me?" Sam asked.

"Ellen, Jo, and a dozen other hunters," Lady said stiffly. "Pack your stuff."

"I'm not…"

"I said pack your stuff," Lady said in a demanding voice.

Sam stood up, towering over her. "I'm not going to Bobby's. Throw a temper tantrum all you like, I'm not going."

Sam let out a low grunt as Lady punched him right in the diaphragm. His breath whooshed out of him and the next instant she had kicked the side of his knee so he fell back onto the bed.

"Oh, you are coming with me to Bobby's," she said, grabbing one of his bags and dropping it on the bed next to him. "Maybe I was like the annoying little sister in the backseat to you, but we're still friends and family and all that bullshit that means we need to stick together."

"I can't, Lady," Sam said, using the strongest voice he could muster as he worked on regaining his breath. "I'm tracking down Lilith."

"I know. How do you think I found you? I've been chasing every demonic omen that comes up in order to track your ass down. I'm all for ganking Lilith, in fact I think it's important that we do so. But there are some other things that need to be taken care of first."

Sam got a full breath and slowly stood up. "Like what?"

"I…" Lady cut off and looked sharply to the door.

Sam tensed as there was a brief knock. Before he could call out a warning a woman opened the door and took a few steps inside. The woman was about Lady's height, near five and a half feet tall. Petite with long black hair and large brown eyes. Lady tilted her head to glare at him while the new woman looked at him with wide eyes.

"I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?" the woman said, smiling weakly at Lady.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize Sam already had a room mate," Lady said stiffly, taking a step back. "Come on in."

"Maybe I shouldn't, it looks like you two were in the middle of something," the woman said. She turned around and tried to step back out.

"No, I said come in. Not like you can leave," Lady said. "Isn't that right, Ruby?"

Sam's mouth opened in shock as Lady flipped a corner of the rug over to reveal a devil's trap that Ruby had unintentionally stepped into. "How did you know?" Sam asked in surprise. Ruby was in a different host body, Lady hadn't seen her before.

"I've only been a few towns behind you, Sam," Lady said painfully. "I've been in your past motel rooms, buildings you squatted in, talked to people you spoke with. I put things together. The position of the devil's traps weren't at entrances, people said you were traveling with a petite dark-haired woman. But it was really hard to ignore the last town where a guy said you and a chick named Ruby saved him from a demon."

"Lady, I…"

"No," she said in a rough voice. "No, Sam, I am not listening to any explanation. This is why we need to leave right now. Because I have other hunters helping me, even some following me. If they find out what I have…if they believe you are working with a demon I can't save you."

"You know what, you can get off your high horse, Lady. It's not like you haven't delved into some dark things," Sam said in his own defense.

Lady bared her teeth, "Damn right I have. And I've had karma come back around and bite me in the ass for it. However even I know where to draw the line. And there is a pretty clear line when it comes to sharing a motel room with a demon, Sam! If you needed to get your dick wet so bad you should have gave me a call. I know how to take one for the team." Immediately Lady turned to Ruby, "Keep your demon-hole shut or so help me god I'll gut you."

Ruby kept quiet, her large brown eyes moving from Lady to Sam.

"Ruby saved my life. She's here to help me find and kill Lilith, that's all," Sam said.

Lady looked at him with disbelief, "For my own sanity I'll just say I believe you. All I want to do is get you home."

"No," Sam said, pleading with her now. "Lady, I have to find Lilith. That's all I have left, is getting revenge."

Lady shook her head, "That isn't it. Sam, I know you probably don't believe me, but we still have time to bring Dean back. I agree, killing Lilith is probably one of the keys to get him out of hell. But working with this black-eyed whore is not how we roll. Remember what you and Dean fought about his last day? His damn dying wish was to stab this bitch to death."

"Okay, if I can say something…" Ruby could no longer stay quiet.

"No, bitch, you can't," Lady said.

"Too bad," Ruby snapped. "Sam, she's obviously unstable. We're going on three months of Dean being dead and she's still holding out to having a zombie boyfriend. Psycho-psychic needs to refill her Prozac."

Lady looked at Sam, pleading with him, "I know something somewhere will bring Dean back. But I need your help, Sam. I can't do this alone. Help me with my vision."

"Lady, he's dead and gone. He isn't coming back. No matter what spell, ritual, whatever. Nothing we can do will bring him back," Sam argued.

Lady nodded, "I guess I know how crazy it sounds. I wish I could show you. But whether you believe me or not doesn't change that you have to come with me, and the sulfuric bitch has to die."

Sam watched as Lady pulled out a knife. He immediately recognized it as the demon-killing knife, and even though he saw it clearly he had to pat his side to be sure it was gone. Lady and her quick hands, he didn't know when she had lifted it off of him. But without thinking any further he took one long step forward, catching Lady's wrist as she went to deliver a fatal wound to Ruby. The next instant he squeezed Lady's forearm and twisted it, the blade dropped as Lady let out a cry of pain.

"You crazy bitch! She tried to kill me!" Ruby shrieked. "Let me out, Sam."

"Don't you dare…" Lady snarled, still held by Sam in a painful hold.

Sam broke the circle of the devil's trap with his foot. "Ruby, leave," he ordered.

The demon immediately slipped out of the motel room, letting Sam handle the homicidal psychic by himself.

Once Sam felt Lady wasn't a danger he released her. She looked at him with wide eyes, "How could you do that? How could you let her go?" she asked him in disbelief.

"She's been helping me…" Sam began.

"I haven't? That was your choice to leave me at Bobby's and…" Lady visibly reigned in her temper before looking back at him with pleading eyes. "Okay, Ruby lives another day. Just come home with me. Please, Sammy." She had always respected Sam's preference not to be called Sammy, however she hoped the nickname and term of endearment Dean always called him may help her break through to him.

For a moment Sam just stared back at her "I'm not the one losing it, Lady. You can't even tell the difference between a dream and a psychic vision. I'm going to do what I can to get revenge on Lilith. Just stay out of my way."

Lady grit her teeth as she fought to keep her temper in check, knowing further yelling at Sam wouldn't help. As calmly as she could she said, "No, I'm not leaving you. That stupid family thing, you are stuck with me, remember?"

Sam gave her a hard look, "We aren't family." Sam hadn't even finished saying it when Lady's face changed into surprise and hurt. And it didn't take him a second to regret it. "Lady, I'm so…"

Lady swallowed hard. "Do yourself and your demon a favor, get out of town before other hunters move in to see if anything got left behind. Or don't. I'm done trying to convince you…and I'm done trying to save you."

"Lady, I'm sorry…" Sam said as she walked away. Without looking back Lady raised her middle finger at him.

Sam looked at the cell phone she had left on the floor. He wasn't sure if she left it intentionally so he had a phone Bobby could trace, or if she had decided to go off the grid as well. He picked it up and stuffed it in his pocket, and then quickly began packing up his room to get out of town like Lady had suggested.

XXXXX

Maxine tossed and turned before restlessly getting out of bed. She sniffed twice, "Fire…smoke…" she muttered. She grabbed her shoes and hurried outside, searching for the source of the smell. The sky was just beginning to lightening with the upcoming dawn. It was still dark enough that any fire would glow bright, and light enough that any smoke would show against the blue sky.

There was neither.

Maxine was about to give up when she began to have a vision. Her visions were not clear and exact like Lady's, but came through clear enough. Fire and smoke, a tipped over candle, dry wood being swallowed up hungrily by the flames…and a body on the floor that couldn't have much time left.

Maxine stumbled back into her house, grunting in pain as her shoulder hit a doorway. She held onto pieces of the vision and tried to sort them out, and as the sun touched the horizon she grabbed her phone.

She let out a nervous breath when Lady's phone went straight to voicemail. "Lady, watch yourself…I think you are in danger. Please, be careful," Maxine left the message before quickly dialing a new number.

"Yeah?" Bobby answered his phone gruffly, he didn't even seem bothered by the early morning call.

"This is Maxine. I need to get in touch with Lady," Maxine said.

"Her phone went off shortly after Ellen got a call that she found Sam," Bobby informed her. "Looks like he convinced her to fall back off the grid with him."

"Maybe," Maxine muttered. "Bobby, I had a vision. It wasn't very clear, but I'm pretty sure it was Lady. We need to find her and warn her."

Bobby uttered a curse. "Okay, I'll start heading to where she was last and work on tracking her down. Again."

**A/N** - _Apologies for taking so long in updating (however once every 2 weeks__ still isn't that bad). This chapter is a little shorter than I originally wanted it to be. (It was supposed to end on a different cliff hanger). Thanks for sticking with me, I hope to have the next chapter up within a week.  
_


	123. Illinois, August 2008

**August 2, 2008**

Lady folded her legs underneath her as she sat on the ground. There was a poorly constructed cross to be used as a grave marker, and below her she knew there was a shallow grave, a pine box and a rotting body. After her confrontation with Sam she had made a non-stop trip to Illinois to see Dean. Or at least visit his grave since he was still in it.

"God, I feel like a douche right now," she muttered. She dug her fingers into the earth and closed her eyes. "I don't know what to do. You asked me to make sure Sam stays on the right track. You never asked me for anything and I know asking me to do that meant a lot...that's why it's really hard to admit I fucked up, Dean." Lady let out a shuddering breath and fought stinging tears. "I don't know what to do, or how to get him back. He won't listen to me. I can't get through to him."

Lady licked a few salty tears that had made it to her lips. "I can't tell when you come back, but I wish it was soon. Dean, I'm scared. I'm scared for Sam, that I'm losing it, that I won't see you again other than in my dreams. For the first time I'm actually rather happy I can dream again." Lady let out a rough laugh, "Sorry. You are dead and I'm still chatting your ear off. It's okay, though. I'm going to stay through the night but I'll be quiet after sundown. I just needed…sounds corny but I wanted to be close to you and meditate. Try and see the future, understand that vision. Maybe this time I can find out when, and even better how. I don't know…I just know I need this vision to come true already. I've invested way too much into your ass for you to be worm food."

Lady looked at the position of the sun and stood up. She made her way through trees to the small cabin. There was no electricity or indoor plumbing, but slowly she planned to make it habitable. No matter how long she had to wait, she was going to live there until it was time to dig Dean up. There was a well that she could get clean water from and she was looking for a gas-powered generator. But before she started looking at carpet and matching drapes she would need to get some cash.

She had cleaned the cabin the best she could, and on the dirt floor she scratched in a circle. Outside the circle were a few candles just for light, but on the circle she lit three blue candles. She let them burn for several minutes until each of them had burned pools of wax, then she set tiger-eye gemstones in the wax pools. Lady sat in the center of the circle and began breathing exercises to prepare for a deep meditation.

Focusing on the vision that still played in the back of her head Lady found it easy to immerse herself in a dream-like state within the vision. She had no control but worked on absorbing every detail she could. Dean was closing dirty vertical blinds, but before they shut completely she saw most of the motel sign. Super 8 Motel. That didn't narrow down where they were considering the Super 8 motel chain was found in nearly every town she'd been in. But it was a start. Dean let out a huff when the blinds wouldn't close the rest of the way and left it open partially so she could still see 'No Vacancy' on the sign.

"Take it easy, sit down," Sam said. Lady wasn't sure but it felt like he was talking to her.

Lady heard herself speak, "Now I understand everything. And why this made absolutely no sense."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"Never mind," she heard her own voice again. "It's just the room."

"Yeah, well, you know our style," Dean said.

Lady looked at him and couldn't help but smile. She'd missed his smart ass comments.

She looked for further clues as to where she was. It was obviously autumn outside the window, but it didn't say where. And she couldn't make herself ask Dean or Sam where they were. How Dean or any of them got there, or why they were there. She looked for any new details she didn't see before. Dull red wallpaper, a few corners curling up. Two beds. Dean was sitting on one bed and Lady was sitting at the table across from Sam. Sam and Dean were both looking at her expectantly and cautiously. "What is today's date?" Lady heard herself ask.

"November 6th," Sam answered.

Lady's mind began to work. November was another three months away. But from the looks Dean had been out of hell a little earlier than that. She tried to break through the vision, to get some control so she could find more important details or ask the important questions.

Meditating had always been an iffy practice for Lady, it often took her several tries and hours to get her mind in the place she wanted it to be. When she got into the deep meditative state where she could focus she didn't have a lot of practice over controlling what or how she saw things. As she tried to bully her vision into showing her what she wanted she lost it completely. However as her vision slipped from her she felt a familiar numbness that she hadn't felt in a long time. The feeling of a new vision coming.

"No…no I can't get another vision. The one with Dean hasn't happened yet," Lady said, trying to fight or run away from the sensation of the future creeping up on her.

As Lady tried in vain to keep from receiving the vision she began to hear faint voices far in the back of her mind. A bright white light began to obstruct her vision, starting at the corners of her eyes until it spread and was all she could see.

"Oh god," Lady gasped as she received the full vision.

XXXXX

Ruby was making incredible progress with Sam. Helping him discover and develop his psychic abilities. He wasn't always the best pupil, those quirky morals of his so often got in the way, but he had such promise. And for that reason she wouldn't stand back and let Lady derail all her hard work.

After Lady had left with her tail between her legs Sam had hurriedly packed up and began following her. All Ruby had to do was follow Sam, and after a few hours she figured out which direction the witch had gone. Sam couldn't be far behind, so Ruby wasted little time when she finally caught up to Lady. However when Ruby had found Lady there wasn't the fight that Ruby had been preparing for. Inside the cabin near Dean's grave Lady was laying on her side, rivers of blood had trickled from the corners of her eyes and ears.

"You faking?" Ruby nudged Lady with the toe of her boot.

Lady weakly opened her eyes. The blood vessels in her eyes had broken, turning the whites red with blood. Ruby looked into Lady's eyes, and started laughing.

"You completely fried your noggin, you stupid witch," Ruby chortled. "I can't decide whether to put you out of your misery, or let you slowly suffer like this."

Unable to help herself Ruby let out a longer squeal of laughter. When she had been alive she had been a rather good witch. Not morally good, far from it. She was a very strong black witch. After examining Lady and the items around the cabin Ruby understood that Lady had been trying to magnify psychic abilities. It was a short-term way to get a boost for some psychics. Now that Ruby was a demon she had some natural abilities, senses beyond a normal human being. With those senses Ruby got an idea of Lady's situation. Something, Ruby was unsure what exactly, had driven the witch over the edge. Finding out exactly what was possible, but Ruby didn't give two craps about Lady. All Ruby cared about was that the witch was officially out of the picture.

Before Ruby could celebrate very long she sensed Sam was nearby. "Hm, he was closer than I thought," Ruby said with a sigh. She knelt next to the unresponsive Lady, "Maybe you can be useful, witchy-poo."

XXXXX

After Lady had left Sam he had decided to follow her. At first he started following a false trail she had set up, and he had laughed at himself because it was Dean who had taught her how to do that. It was just a testament to how good of a teacher his brother had been and how good of a student Lady was that even Sam had been fooled at first. But after leaving the fake trail he made a beeline for the only place Lady could be going, Dean's grave.

The last time Sam had been there was when Lady had cooked herself. He parked behind the car Lady had been driving, took a few minutes to stretch, and then grabbed his flashlight to go find her in the woods. He wasn't sure how hot Lady's temper still was and he wanted to be on his guard for any cheap-shots from his petite friend. He'd take whatever abuse she thought he had due, and then they'd sweep the whole thing under the rug and get back to work. He'd take care of her, watch her back like Dean asked him to. His brother had been gone three months, it was time for all of them to move on, and it was apparent Lady needed his help with that.

While hiking through the woods Sam saw the dull glow from the cabin and it took him a few steps to realize it wasn't lanterns but a large fire. He moved as fast as he could through the trees, his heart thumping as he began to think of the source of the flames. Lady may be doing some ritual with a large bonfire, that was what he was hoping for. But he rarely got what he wanted or hoped for. Instead Sam arrived at the cabin and it was fully engulfed in flames.

The next instant the door blew out, making him dodge to the side. Ruby rushed out of the burning cabin, she took a few staggering steps before collapsing. "Sam, we have to run. We were ambushed," Ruby got to her feet and reached toward Sam to pull him.

"What are you doing here?" Sam asked in surprise.

"Trying to save Lady," Ruby said. "Wait, Sam, no!"

Sam was already running into the burning cabin before Ruby finished. The small cabin was made of dry wood and was going up in flames quickly. Sam found Lady on the dirt floor, the flames were nearing her but so far she wasn't burned. Without checking for signs of life he lifted her up and carried her out of the burning cabin.

Once safely out of the fire Sam laid her down and looked in horror at her bloody eyes. But when she weakly blinked he let out a shuddering breath of relief. "Hey, Lady, you are okay. You…well, don't look burned at all," Sam muttered. He put a hand on the side of Lady's face, "Lady? C'mon, you can't be shocked by a little house fire. Snap out of it, Lady. Lady!"

"That's not it, Sam," Ruby said.

"Ruby, what happened?" Sam looked up at her, nearly growling.

"Lilith's lackeys," Ruby said in a low voice. "They were following you, Sam."

Sam felt guilt crash down on him hard. As he gathered Lady up in his arms he tried to remember his flaw. Had he forgotten his gris-gris bag? Did he use the same alias twice? A credit card? How had demons followed him? He put Lady in the car and held her, the heavy fear of losing another member of his family was clouding his mind as he quickly drove into town. Lady could kick his ass when she fully came to, but until then she was going to a hospital.

XXXXX

Ruby kept her face even as she walked briskly through the hospital until she found the hospital room Lady was in. Internally Ruby snarled and wished she had just cut the witch's throat when she had the chance, but externally she played the role of a sympathetic friend to Sam. As sympathetic as a demon could get, at least. "How is she?"

Sam shrugged, "She's not in shock, no brain damage. Other than broken blood vessels in her eyes and perforated eardrums, both which will heal, she's not even hurt. Not even a burn."

Ruby gave the unresponsive Lady the slightest glare. This could be a great disaster, or an opportunity in the making. Ruby was nothing if not an opportunist. "Sam, we need to go."

Sam shook his head, "I can't leave her. She freaks out in hospitals, hardcore freak out. I have to be here…I should get her out of here. There is nothing they can do for her."

"Right, nothing they can do for her. Because what is wrong with her isn't medical," Ruby said. Sam looked at her intently. "There wasn't much left of the cabin, but from what I could tell Lady got off some powerful houdoo, but it backfired. She has a classic case of the lights are on, but nobody is home." Ruby lied smoothly, and continued. "All I know is when I got there it was just in time to chase off a demon, that means we need to get out of here."

Sam's jaw flexed angrily, "No. The demon might still be in the area…I'll kill it."

Ruby kept her face even, "It's on the run. If we hurry we can keep up with it, but we need to leave now."

Sam visibly battled between staying at Lady's side or running off to avenge her. After a few short moments he said, "Okay, let's go."

Ruby nodded once and turned her back to him, and then let her face break out in a victorious smile.

**August 3, 2008**

Bobby sat on a bench outside the hospital watching the cars and foot traffic silently. He hadn't been far when he got the call from the hospital, apparently Sam had left the nurses his name and phone number. Of course he went to see Lady as soon as he could, but he was just too late.

As he waited on the bench he let his mind wander down dark paths. He thought about how many times he had to be put through the pain of waiting to see if a friend, Lady in particular, was going to live or die, or resemble themselves again. He wasn't sure what was worse, Lady dying or her having soup for brains.

"Bobby!" Maxine huffed a breath as she hurried to him.

Bobby stood up slowly. He hadn't slept the past few days and his joints were stiff from long car rides and hard chairs. "Thanks for coming."

"Of course. I'm sorry, I should have…" Maxine continued as she tried to catch her breath.

"Don't apologize. Whatever happened, Lady put herself here," Bobby muttered gruffly. "Just have to find out how, and if we can fix it."

Maxine nodded in agreement.

Bobby took Maxine to Lady's hospital room, watched the young medicine woman look over Lady and hoped for an answer. Maxine looked at Lady's bloody eyes, a minor injury that would heal on its own. She looked into Lady's ears, again just mild injuries. She examined a few small burns, nothing serious. To the best of her ability Maxine examined Lady, but after half an hour Maxine just sighed and uttered, "Stupid bitch."

"What happened?" Bobby asked.

Maxine looked at Bobby apologetically, "I'm unsure how to explain it properly. The past year Lady has been through a lot. Physically, emotionally, mentally, and psychically. She's been brain dead, comatose…"

"I've been there, I know," Bobby said roughly.

Maxine nodded, "Sorry," she uttered quickly before continuing. "When she used that dream root earlier this year it caused a psychic unbalance, it bridged over memories of the Goddess into her own subconscious. Then she re-wired her brain to allow her to dream again. Then those hypnosis sessions with the other psychic." Maxine sighed and looked at Lady sadly, "I think she finally overdid it. I tried to warn her."

"So you are saying she pulled a psychic muscle?" Bobby asked.

Maxine shrugged, "That is one way to put it."

"Can it heal?" Bobby asked.

Maxine looked back at Lady, "I don't know. I can't see her mind. If we had a psychic who could read minds we could see if the cogs are still turning back there." Maxine looked at Bobby with wide brown eyes, "Can you get in touch with the psychic who did her hypnosis?"

Bobby nodded, "I sure can."

**August 4, 2008**

Bobby had never called Missouri unless it was Lady related. He knew the psychic was legit and even had a decent amount of knowledge, but he never bothered her. Mostly it was because Missouri had been John's contact, and that old grudge against John was hard to beat. But also since he gained Lady as a friend and surrogate daughter he had little use for Missouri. Lady knew more than the old psychic, and there was the comfort that Lady could not read minds.

"How has she been?" Missouri asked when she arrived at the hospital.

"Sleeps most of the time. When she's awake she…well…" Bobby searched for words to explain it.

"I see," Missouri said, frowning at his thoughts. "Well, let's take a look."

Missouri entered Lady's hospital room and came face-to-face with Maxine. For a few moments the two psychics just looked at each other before Maxine offered her hand. "It's nice to meet you," Maxine said stiffly.

They shook hands briefly before Missouri went to stand beside Lady.

After only a few moments Missouri let out a shuddering breath and walked away, "How awful," Missouri dabbed at the corners of her eyes.

Bobby felt his heart drop down to his knees. "What?"

"I can't see anything. It's just white," Missouri said. "I can't see anything past it, I don't know that there is anything past it. It's like she just…she just got wiped clean."

"But there has to be something we can do," Bobby said.

Missouri struggled with her tears for a few moments before hoarsely saying, "Nothing that I know of, Bobby. I'm…I'm so sorry."

**August 10, 2008**

Maxine walked into the hospital room and found Bobby sitting next to the window. For a moment she wasn't sure if the old hunter was awake or asleep, but either way he stirred at the sound of her footsteps. He looked up at her with tired eyes, "Thought you left."

"I am, just saying goodbye," Maxine said.

"Not like she understands it," Bobby said roughly.

"It's more for me than it is for her," Maxine said. "I wish I could stay but…"

"Your duty is to your family, not to mine. Just leave," Bobby barked.

"Lady is my family," Maxine said. "And you've become my friend."

Bobby snorted a laugh at that. Friend? All he had done was talk back and forth with her about setting up defenses in North Dakota.

"I'd stay if I could," Maxine continued. "Bobby, there is some danger out there. As much as I want to be here for Lady I can't ignore my responsibilities to my family and reservation. And she wouldn't want you to ignore yours." Maxine looked at the older man for a sign that he was listening or would say anything, but he just glared at Lady in her hospital bed. "Anyway, I already arranged to have the hospital bills sent to my Dad. He set her up with health insurance under the false name you gave her, and he'll take care of everything else. If you need anything just call."

**August 18, 2008**

Bobby wasn't sure what the proper etiquette was when a friend got their mind erased. But he decided he'd stay with Lady until the answer came to him. Missouri had given up on Lady after just minutes. Maxine had lasted a few extra days. He couldn't abandon Lady. Every thing said it was pointless to stay at the hospital, but he couldn't leave her alone.

So he watched over her. He watched as the whites of her eyes healed and returned to white. She started making babbling noises. And something fantastic happened…she screamed.

Bobby had just left Lady's room when the nurse came in to give her a bath. Normally he'd go out for lunch during this, but before he got down to the elevator he heard Lady's earth shattering scream. Of course he turned around and raced back. Lady was thrashing and fighting the nurse. Bobby grabbed her, restraining her with a hug and believing she was alright, that she was back. But she continued fighting even as he talked softly in an attempt to calm her. Shortly afterward she was pumped with sedatives.

Bobby hoped and prayed that when she woke again that she'd be fine. But when she woke up it was the same thing. It was a great disappointment that he almost couldn't stand. However Bobby wasn't about to ignore a very important question. What would a woman with a white-washed mind have to scream about?

Something was in there, somewhere. Bobby couldn't find it, but he knew people. He needed a psychic, but not Missouri if only because she gave him bad news last time.

**August 19, 2008**

"You should have called me sooner, Bobby," Pamela Barnes scolded him. "I'm just a few hours down the interstate, you know. I could have been here two weeks ago."

"Sorry, I just…"

"You just nothing," she huffed at him as she sat on the edge of Lady's hospital bed and held her hand. She closed her eyes and breathed slowly as she peered into her mind. "That other psychic was wrong. Lady hasn't been erased, she's in there."

"Great. Get her out of there," Bobby said.

Pamela frowned and grimaced, "Easier said than done." With a sigh Pamela released Lady's hand and stood up to face Bobby.

"Can it be done?" Bobby asked.

Pamela looked at him sympathetically, "That much I don't know. Lady was always difficult to read, she guarded her thoughts very well. Seeing into her mind whatever is there she doesn't want anyone to see it, I just keep getting this very strong feeling of danger and terror. I'm not sure what else we could try right now."

"I've tried everything. Psychics, dream root, talismans, everything. But nothing."

"I'm so sorry, Bobby. She was warned how dangerous slipping into those situations can be. But this doesn't have to mean she's gone forever."

Bobby gave her a skeptical look. "She's trapped in her own noggin, terrified. You can't shake her out of it. If you can't, who can?"

"I'll do what I can. I know a place where she can stay, she'll be looked after. It's not far from me, I can see her every day. And I will see her every day, doing everything I can for her. I promise, Bobby." Pamela put a hand on his shoulder as she listened to his internal struggle. "You aren't giving up on her, Bobby. You know that what she is going through you can't help her, you can't even get close to her. I know Lady, and her vicious pride, she wouldn't put up with you taking care of her. I know you are trying to find some other way…but you know that this is the best one."

"Where?" Bobby asked.

"It's a mental health facility," Pamela said softly.

Bobby snorted, "She wouldn't forgive me."

"Yes she would," Pamela said, making Bobby look at her. "Maybe I didn't know Lady very well, but the short time I knew her I learned quite a bit. You've been taking care of her for years, she thinks of you as a father. She might bitch but if we can get her to snap out of this she'll be too happy to hold it against you for long."

Bobby lost his strong mask and slumped into the hug Pamela was ready to give him. He nodded, accepting her solution for Lady.

**A/N** - _Hello friends! Ok, the time has come for another (extended) break from writing. So for all the readers you have two options. You can finish reading this chapter, decide Lady is gone for good and be done with it. Or you can make sure I'm on your author alert/story alert so when I continue you get notified and can continue reading. I might stick one more chapter onto this one, but then I plan on starting a new story to continue Lady's journy. I'm thinking 'Psychic Unnatural - The Reawakening'? Eh, title in progress._

_So, I hope it is obvious as to what put Lady out of commission. I'm not sure how clean my editing was so if it isn't clear please let me know. As always, I love hearing from you guys, anything and everything you have to say. And look forward to seeing everyone when the story picks back up again.  
_


	124. Hospital, September 2008

**September 18, 2008**

Sam walked slowly down the white hallway, looking into each hospital room as he passed them. It was an open ward of a mental hospital so the patients frequently wandered, and Lady was no exception. At the end of the hall he found her in her room sitting next to the window, looking straight at the doorway as if she had been waiting for a long time. Though her eyes wandered across the wall and to the window.

Sam smiled forcefully, "Hey, Lady."

She didn't say anything or even seem to recognize him. Her pale-blue eyes looked back at him blankly and followed him as he sat across from her. After a few moments she must have decided he was not of import and let her eyes wander away from him again.

"They cut your hair," Sam muttered.

Lady's eyes moved down to the floor and she brought her hand up to her mouth to suck on her fingertips. The past few weeks she had chewed her fingernails down to the quick. When she could no longer chew them she had taken to chewing and even eating her hair. To prevent her from making herself sick her hair had been cut short. Now she was back to her fingertips. Though Sam wished she wasn't in this predicament at all he thought those types of nervous ticks were a good sign. More and more things were triggering reactions in her, and he believed she was going to make it.

"Hi, Sam, I thought I saw you from down the hall," Nurse Louise said with a wide smile. "I brought her lunch."

Sam fought the urge to grimace. He didn't like that a few of the nurses recognized him, especially when he had only visited Lady twice before. Being recognized meant he was remembered, when all he really wanted was to fade into the background and blend in. But he'd sacrifice being anonymous in order to check on Lady.

"Here, I'll help her," Sam offered.

"Are you sure? She's really stubborn when it comes to food," Nurse Louise warned. "She's a very picky eater."

"I'm sure," Sam assured her.

"Okay. You call me if you need anything," Louise said, batting her eyelashes at him before turning to leave.

Sam almost had to laugh at that. The nurse thought Lady was a picky eater? Lady was closer to being a garbage disposal. The hospital food didn't look too bad, but Sam knew how to get Lady to eat anything.

With a quick look Sam determined they had enough privacy so he could remove the contraband from his jacket pocket. A bottle of ranch. Lady's eyes moved sluggishly, and there was the slightest twitch of her eyebrow at the sight of the ranch. Unable to help himself Sam smiled a bit. The past month and she had been progressing so well. Showing recognition, even being a bit ornery toward the nurses. She was still more like a two-legged puppy than a person, but at least she was learning.

"I lost Lilith," Sam said bitterly as he aided Lady in eating. Lady could feed herself, however half of it ended up being finger-painted on the wall if she didn't have a chaperone. "I've been tracking this new group of demons. I had to come check on you, make sure they weren't coming for you." Sam frowned as Lady stuck her finger in some ranch and proceeded to lick it off. What little focus she had was on the food, but Sam felt better when he talked. Always hoping to break through to her, see some new sign of recognition in her eyes. "Had to do a tune-up with the car. Dean's car," Sam continued, watching her intently but her focus was on the ranch. She covered her whole pinky in the dressing and noisily sucked it off before smacking and licking her lips happily.

Sam averted his eyes, taking a moment. Lady had been rather prideful and seeing her like this wasn't easy for him. But all of the sudden all he could think about was what would happen if Dean was around to see her. And it was painful to admit that it was for the best. Dean never dealt with failure or loss well, losing Lady very well could have ended him…if he wasn't already rotting in the ground.

Sam finished helping Lady with her lunch and decided it was time to leave. "Lady, I have to go but I'll try to come back before I leave town," Sam said. He watched her carefully and slowly reached out to her. Her hand touched his arm and slowly shuffled closer to him. He kept his touch light as he gave her a hug that she didn't return. He felt her hand on his belt and her back tightened, before Lady could change from docile to something aggravated he released her. Once more he stared into her face, begging for her eyes to light up and her mouth to open and emit a stream of curses right at him…but he only got to watch her eyes blankly wander and look away from him in disinterest. "Bye, Lady," he uttered, turning and leaving.

Lady sat next to her window and looked outside. She rocked back and forth, the beginning signs of restlessness, as she fingered the paperclip she had just taken off of Sam without him noticing. With small, almost unnoticeable movements, she began to sharpen the end of the paperclip against the iron bar on the window until it had a fine point. With the sharp point of the paperclip she began to scratch at the glass of the window. The whole time her blank eyes stared out at nothing.

**A/N** - _Hello! Just a tea_ser/_shorty. Look for 'Psychic Unnatural: Reawakening' before the end of the weekend._


End file.
